St. Paul Lutheran Church, Minden, Nebraska
Sunday sermon – Sunday, Day of Pentecost, May 31, ’09
“Monday, Monday, Need it, Need it, Spirit, Spirit”
Text: John 16:5-7
Here are some names! The Beach Boys! The Everly Brothers. The Carpenters! The Lettermen! The Fifth Dimension!
What these names all have in common, what some of you might recognize right away is that these were all musical groups with lots of hit songs back in the 50s & 60s.
There was even a group called The Mamas and the Papas which strange as it may sound – back in 1966 - was the first mixed gender group (males & females) to have a song reach the top of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. It was the groups’ one and only No. 1 hit song. Anyone remember it? Once I say it, some of you will recall it right away because it was a song with a catchy melody, a song with a very repetitious set of lyrics. “Monday, Monday”
“Monday, Monday, can’t trust that day. Monday Monday, sometimes it just turns out that way. Oh Monday morning, you gave me no warning of what was to be. Oh Monday Monday, how could you leave and not take me
“Every other day, every other day, Every other day of the week is fine! But whenever Monday comes, but whenever Monday comes, You can find me cryin’ all the time.”
I dare say maybe some of you, myself included, have had Mondays like that. Mondays that turned out to be difficult Mondays – difficult Mondays because of things unpredictable, things discouraging; things that didn’t turn out the way we wanted them to. Or we have Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays when things are more of a challenge, more demanding, things are harder to accomplish than we imagined them to be. Oh, Monday Monday!
Vacation Bible School for three Minden churches begins tomorrow. How ready, how busy, how scary, how challenging, how much fun, how much work, how fulfilling & satisfying will 5 mornings of VBS be this coming week? Will there be any crying, any dying?
The month of June begins tomorrow. How full, how challenging, how stressful, how different is June going to be for people? Some of you may be working at new jobs; some of you will be traveling, chauffeur-ing kids around, camping out, chores to do, changes to make, volunteering, not volunteering, moving on, not wanting to move on!
How many of us are glad when Mondays come and Mondays are done and hopefully Mondays don’t leave us crying or wondering what’s going on or what’s to come. But still, inevitably it happens. Monday Monday, sighing, crying, dying, no end to trying to do the best we can.
So where does church, where does Christianity, where does the teaching & preaching & the promised presence of our risen & ascended Lord Jesus fit into all of this?
The answer to that is why the church is dressed in red today! The church is dressed in red not for the blood of Christ, but red for joy in Christ, red for celebrating new life in Christ, red for God fulfilling Jesus’ promise to His disciples to send the Comforter, the Helper, the Holy Spirit.
Today, this Pentecost Sunday, the song of Christ’s one holy Christian church on earth is “Sunday, Sunday!”
Holy Spirit SUNDAY! The holy, Christian Church’s birthday is this SUNDAY! There’s “the sound of a mighty rushing wind & little tongues of fire”. There is amazing speaking by Jesus’ Spirit-filled disciples and a wonderful, powerful hearing of the Gospel by many in many languages!
Add it all together – wind + fire + Holy Spirit filling + disciples of Jesus speaking + crowd of devout people from every nation under heaven hearing “the mighty works of God” -- and what it all adds up to, according to Luke’s account of that first Pentecost in Jerusalem 50 days following Jesus’ resurrection makes this Pentecost Sunday a Sunday Sunday, a very “up & up” SUNDAY: up and overflowing!
Not “up & up & nothing but ups” as Lucy fiercely demands in the Peanuts Comic strip on the cover of this Sunday’s bulletin.
And not “up & up, glory, hallelujah, shout A-men” as in a person-al, Pentecostal, teary-eyed, emotional, arm-lifting high” which is what some very “charismatic” Christians like to push for.
But Pentecost Sunday is an “up & up” Sunday Sunday to give thanks and praise to God and celebrate God’s gifts of salvation, life and forgiveness which are all entirely up to the saving grace and action of God!
And then Pentecost is also for us to be inspired, to be energized to live daily Monday through Sunday for the glory of God, which is entirely up to believers filled with, energized by God’s Holy Spirit!
What Pentecost and the whole history of Pentecost means is God up to something new.
Someone has put it this way: When the Holy Spirit is poured out & present among believers in Jesus Christ, discouraged folks cheer up; dishonest folks ‘fess up, sour folks sweeten up, tight folks loosen up, gossiping folks shut up, angry folks make up, sleeping folks wake up, lukewarm folks fire up! But most of all, most of all Jesus Christ the Savior of the world is lifted up!” Sunday Sunday, every Sunday: whenever and wherever the Holy Spirit is poured out on believers life is up & up with the Lord Jesus - up & overflowing!”
Pentecost is God up to something new, God’s Holy Spirit descending freely to blow where it will; God’s Holy Spirit enabling disciples, empowering disciples, equipping ordinary people like us to live, to speak, to be lifted up, stirred up, freed up, geared up as God’s workmanship in Christ beyond our own humanly imposed boundaries and limitations caused by sin.
This is the problem sin causes for us. We by nature tune out God. We by nature are out of tune with God. By ourselves, left to our own will-power, left to our own resignation, self-discipline, good intentions, we cannot on our own change or overcome the devil, the world, or our own sinful flesh. When it comes to walking with God, talking with God, speaking up for God, living in joyful communion with God, we by nature are not into any of this.
This Scriptures teach us. By nature we are blind to the light of God’s grace. By nature we are ignorant of the true nature of God’s selfless, unconditional, life-redeeming love. By nature we are rebel-lious & go against God’s will and God’s purposes for us.
In a familiar, contemporary hymn that we like to sing God is quoted as saying, “I, The Lord of snow and rain, I have borne my people’s pain” I have wept for love of them. They turn away!”
It’s true! Never is a day a good day, never a God-pleasing day - when we think our religion, our Christianity, our trusting in God and in Jesus is up to us. It’s not.
But here’s THE GOOD NEWS. The salvation we need, the strength we need, the Spirit we need, the faith we need to talk with God, walk with God, do the will of God, is God’s to give. Monday Monday! Sun-day Sunday! We need it, need it! Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit!
When we say it again this Pentecost Sunday, remember it, believe it. The words of Martin Luther’s explanation to the meaning of the 3rd Article declare that our religion, our Christianity, our trusting in God and in the good news of our salvation & eternal life with God in Jesus Christ is not up to us – that . .
We cannot by our own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ or come to Him but the Holy Spirit has called us by the Gospel, enlightened us with His gifts, sanctified and kept us in the one true faith, even as the Holy Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth & keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.
This is the Good News of Pentecost for every discouraged - shy - timid – sour - grumpy - distraught - disillusioned believer in Jesus who wants to be changed, wants to be different, wants to be what God wants us to be in the name of His Son.
In John 16:13-15, Jesus says to his disciples and to us a little over 2000 years later:
When the Spirit of truth comes, wherever & wherever the Comforter, Helper, Holy Spirit comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. And Jesus continues . .
The Holy Spirit will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
Monday Monday, Sunday Sunday, the Holy Spirit will take what is Jesus’ and give it to you & me. The work of the Holy Spirit is Biblical; truthful. The work of the Holy Spirit is historical, look-ing back, helping us to remember what Jesus said & did. The work of the Spirit is a bit emotional, God’s Holy Spirit touching our hearts, stirring up feelings in us even as Jesus’ heart was touched & his feelings stirred up. But most of all, most of all Monday through Sunday the work of the Holy Spirit is practical -- that which is in the Father and is revealed in the Son is applied by the Spirit.
That means as divine revelation from God the Father comes to us through the Son and is applied by the Spirit, we are confronted, called, changed, challenged by Jesus’ love, by Jesus’ words, by Jesus’ promises which the Spirit brings home to us and by which the Holy Spirit bring us to faith, brings us into fellowship with other Christians, even brings us out of ourselves to the point where we too can speak boldly, speak truthfully, speak warmly of the mighty works of God in Christ.
May it happen this coming week in VBS.
May it happen for all of us this coming month of June and all the days & months & years God continues to give us in this life.
