Today, we come to celebrate the great feast of Pentecost.

It is, in a sense, the end of the great feast that make up the Paschal mystery.

First being the passion and death and resurrection of the Lord, second being the Lord’s ascension in heaven, and the third being Pentecost for the soul of the spirit and all of these which take place over a 50 day period, all of them have a purpose.

And the purpose is to help us to grow in our understanding and appreciation of what we did at the very beginning. We reminded ourselves of the gift of our baptism, but ultimately the sacrament of baptism is what grows from the Lord’s Passion, Death, Resurrection, the Lord’s Ascension and ultimately Pentecost.

Or in a sense, those three events define what is the meaning of our baptism. From our baptism, we are washed with the water that flowed from this side of Christ on the cross,

we are given the gift of the spirit brought in to the oneness of Jesus’s life, as Jesus, our taste of that life.

The Father and the Holy Spirit takes in the Trinity, the ascension, Jesus goes to restore or to be restored in his glory at the right hand of the Father, but he goes now bringing us with him.

Sense, realization that we live in the eternal presence of God. And all of that is possible.

Because we have been given the gift of the spirit, we have been brought by the spirit into a life of Jesus.

Who is both human and divine – And who brings us with him into the presence of the Father.

And so when you see this event that is recorded for us in scripture today as we come to this celebration of Pentecost, two things.

First, you look at that scene that John records.

And it’s an interesting scene because it’s a scene of transition.

They go from hiding behind locked doors.

Filled with fear. To a new discovery, freedom.

Freedom comes from Jesus breathing on them and saying, receive the Holy Spirit.

They are brought to new light. And that new life is manifested in that reading from the acts of the apostles as they go out.

No longer in fear, but now in freedom,

they are empowered to go out and they’re empowered to go out in such a way that they actually are in the process of beginning a new creation.

All of these disparate people.

are brought together. In the word of God.

Preaching. So beautifully, all of these different, they all heard in their own language.

The word of God, they were, in a sense, being made new.

Either spirit which flowed now from the apostles.

As they went out. And so Paul, in that second reading picks that up and he writes for the Romans and he says, you know, that process doesn’t ever end.

That process continues. Because the spirit continues to go forth from you.

You have been brought to life in the spirit. By your words and by your actions, you are showing what it means to live. As a child of God.

You are showing. What is the face of God’s creation?

And so Paul says God has given each of you gifts.

But they are like the body, they’re all gifts of the one reality, the one reality being the risen Lord.

Being the church. At one reality that uses all of these disparate gifts.

But one purpose. And purpose. Take the word of God alive and active in the world.

God, the spreading of God’s word. Can continue the process of building the Kingdom of God. The new creation. So as we come to Pentecost Sunday, we often refer to it as the birthday of the church.

All of us that are older remember that was the term that was used way back, it’s not used as frequently.

But it really is true, this is the birthday of the church, because in a sense, you see you see a vision of the church.

In the action of the spirit. Working the apostles.

Churchi is the Unity. This is the coming together.

All God’s people in the Oneness of Jesus’s life.

And so as we reflect then on this piece and in a sense, we realize that the Easter celebration isn’t over.

The Easter celebration continues. It continues through us who have been blessed with the spirit go forth.

Making the word of God visible. In action.

And in the world, we used to explain the action.

We pray that as we go forward into what we will call Ordinary Time, we realize that it’s really not ordinary time.

It’s the time of God. It’s the time of God working through us.

Continuing to build the kingdom of God, continuing to draw us together.

That unity ultimately becomes the basis for true peace.

Built upon true justice.