Pentecost Sermon

Below is a copy of my sermon from Church of the Epiphany East Providence on Pentecost Sunday.

It is wonderful to be with you here this morning, particularly during your time of youth ministries awareness. Over the past six years I have become more and more involved in the Episcopal Church, on all levels from my parish to the national church. Throughout my ministry I am constantly asked why I chose to become involved in the Episcopal Church. Now it has taken me a while, but I have finally figured out what it was that attracted me to the Episcopal Church. My parish was the first place, besides my home, where I felt safe – where I felt at home. It was that comfort level that allowed me to easily immerse myself in anything and everything at Christ Church. Over the years I have figured out what it was that made my parish so comfortable for me, it was the sense of community that kept bringing me back. It was the fact that I knew that they were my family that made everything so easy. It is the idea of community that I would like to reflect on this morning.

According to Webster’s American College Dictionary the definition of community is, “a social, religious, occupational, or other group sharing common characteristics or interests and perceived or perceiving itself as distinct in some respect from the larger society within which it exists.” But what is community really all about? Community is about being there for each other through good times and bad. It is about helping one another grow to be better Christians and better human beings. And community is most importantly about love. Love for each other, love for the common good, and in our case love of Christ.

Being a part of a community is one of the most important parts of life. We as human beings are not solitary beings, we must, in order to survive, have contact with other people. Take for example a person’s years in high school. In order to survive the high school years, people join clubs and other such things. I know I would not have survived my four years of high school, if it were not for the band, campus ministry, model legislature, National Honor Society, and the golf team. These activities and various others were the communities that I was apart of within the Mount Saint Charles community.

Communities have also played an extremely important role in the life of the Church both past and present. Take a look at the Church today. For many years we have been arguing over who will stay in the communion, who will stay in the community. We have been fighting over whom we should allow in to share in His sacred meal. We must come to realize that if as parishes, dioceses, and as a national church we are to endure we must stay together. We must continue to live in Christ and serve Christ as a community.

We can find great inspiration for the idea of community life in a plethora of ways throughout history. Today we remember the day of Pentecost, and this is where I believe we can find the greatest inspiration. On the day of Pentecost Jesus’ disciples were scared, and with good reason. They were hiding in the upper room fearing for their lives. In this time of great confusion and pain the disciples stuck together. They remained a community. And what happened next? The Holy Spirit descended upon them and they were filled with it. They spoke with great tongues of fire, and went out to bring thousands of people into the Church. They stuck together, remained a community, and look what happened. A church was born. While sticking together may not result in another day of Pentecost, I guarantee great things will happen. We must remember that if this Church we love will continue to flourish and grow to spread Christ’s ministry we must stay together. May the day of Pentecost and the gifts of the Holy Spirit be a reminder for us day after day of what being a community is really all about. AMEN.