Sermon, The Ven. Pat Zifcak, June 1, 2025

Did anyone celebrate Ascension Day on Thursday?  There was a time when we might all have said “yes!”  Ascension, the 6th Thursday between Easter and Pentecost, the time when Jesus returns to be enthroned beside his Father in heaven, the time when the sovereign reign of God begins.  Jesus has done all he can to prepare his disciples for their work of bringing the Gospel to the world-the entire world.  Their message is one of hope for the poor, the captive, the sick, the oppressed.  The question everyone is asking is “when?”  When will the reign of God begin? When will the captive be set free?  and their answer must be “only God knows”. 

We are here this morning between Ascension behind us and Pentecost ahead.  Jesus is leaving, the Holy Spirit is coming but, not yet.  Do we hold on to what was or let go, look forward, and believe?   

And, here, in the midst of the question are Paul and Silas!  This is one of those amazing bible stories we hear as children and cannot forget.  Words and deeds:  The tools of conversion.  A young girl possessed, an apostle with the power to free her, men for whom money is king, and a court ready to act for the will of the people.  Familiar?  Not just then but now.   

Paul and Silas, missionaries bringing the word of God to those who haven’t heard it.  Arrested, jailed, and yet, doing God’s work under divine protection.  An earthquake!  Divine rescue!  Conversion by words and deeds.  A life saved by prayers to God and belief in the Lord Jesus. 

“Come, Lord Jesus”.  Perhaps the earliest Christian prayer.  This prayer is for all of us who say we cannot pray, we don’t know how.  This prayer travels well on trains, in cars, on school buses, on bike paths, on foot.  How many times in a day do you imagine you could repeat this prayer?  What comfort might it bring you from the stress of time, commitments, worry, tests.  This prayer only asks, it does not promise, it does not bargain, it does not tell a tale, it abides in silence.  This little prayer is a faith story.  Couldn’t you imagine it on Paul’s heart, on Silas’ lips?  And God rescued them with an earthquake!  How might God answer us?   

We know Jesus prayed.  He taught us, “when you pray, say “Our father...”  He prayed for his  disciples.  Shouldn’t we assume Jesus prays for us?  And to whom does he pray?  What does he pray?  We have an answer to that in the Gospel this morning.  Jesus prays for his disciples and for their mission that all may be one.  Unity is Jesus’ prayer for the world.  “...I am coming soon.  Our response, “Come, Lord Jesus!”   

We can trace a pattern of faith.  God to Christ, Christ to the disciples, the disciples to the world, the world to the Church-unity at every step.  Let the world believe; let the world be one.  Sadly, we are not.  Confusion and division disrupt every effort at unity.  We, the church, know that Jesus’ high priestly prayer that all may be one as he and the Father are one, has gone unanswered.   

“I am coming soon.  Come, Lord Jesus”.  The Holy Spirit, the Advocate, is on her way!  Jesus has not left us comfortless; he has not abandoned us.  He has returned to God so that the Spirit of God, present in creation, the breath of God that restored us, the still small voice of God, heard even in the whirlwind, the abundance of God that makes love possible, the power of God to draw the whole world together-that God will descend upon us like a dove,  calling us together with one voice, one heart, one prayer:  that we all may be one.   

The Day of Pentecost is the birthday of the church and it is so much more than that.  When you celebrate your birthday and make a wish as you blow out candles on a lovely birthday cake, is your wish to stay the same as you have been?  I hope not!  if not each of us on our birthdays, then why the church on hers?  We are the witness to and the bearer of God’s Spirit.  We believe that what is is not what will be.  We know, too, that Jesus’ prayer for unity will not be attained only by our human endeavors.  We know there is more to come.  God’s Spirit is always at work in and through us.  Where do we find her?  How do we know her?  In the church gathered to share the word and sacraments-the gifts of God for the people of God.  It is at the table as we look into each other’s eyes that we know with the greatest certainty that we are one in the Spirit.   

If Pentecost holds any meaning for us, then we must trust the Spirit to send us where we are needed, knowing that whatever we say and do will be enough if it is offered in Christ’s name.  Relying on God’s Holy Spirit, our Advocate, let us go out into the world that needs us, carrying Christ’s love into all the broken places.  If the world is ever to be one, that work will begin with us.