Father Gary’s Sermon

Inspired from Acts 2:1-11

Proclaimed on May 15, 2005

In her book, Eighth Day of Creation: Gifts and Creativity, Elizabeth O’Connor tells a story she once heard. The story is about an alleged incident in the life of the great Renaissance artist--Michelangelo. One blistering, summer day in Rome, Michelangelo was pushing a huge piece of rock down a street to his studio. A curious neighbor, perched lazily on the porch of his house sipping a cool drink, was taken by the sight of this now old man laboring behind such an ugly piece of stone. “Hey, mister,” he shouted, “why are you breaking your back on that worthless piece of rock?” Michelangelo stopped, wiped his brow, then looked up at the man and said, “Because there is an angel in that rock that wants to come out!”

Whether this story is true or not, it does illustrate an important point in our scripture readings for today. Since the beginning of history, humankind has made many attempts to communicate with the Almighty. Most of these attempts were not out of love for God, so much as attempts to manipulate God for our causes. Scriptures, on the other hand, give evidence that God has also made attempts to communicate with we who are human, attempts born out of God’s love for us, attempts to win us to God’s cause. God’s cause, we are informed, is to create a kingdom where humanity in close friendship with God can achieve its greatest potential. This great potential is in all of us, hidden away from our sight much like that angel in Michelangelo’s rock. But the Hebrew Scriptures are full of stories where God’s Spirit came upon individuals releasing that angel buried deeply within, thereby accomplishing great things.

There are many other stories, stories where God released the angel buried within individuals in order promote the good of the community. These include: Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David and the list goes on. In these persons the angel within was released by power from on High, in order to perform great deeds for the enrichment of all in God’s family.

Today’s Scripture, however, records something new and radical--the Spirit of God falling on an entire community because of a representative individual! This individual was Jesus a man who showed us directly the angel that resides in each of our beings. In him all of humanity could look directly into the very eyes of God. The community of God which had been given God’s special rules for living, but had failed to keep them, could now see first hand what God had planned for us from the beginning--a people whose angel within had been released!

This new vision became a human reality on that Day of Pentecost so long ago. On this day humanity was empowered from on High not only to keep the special rules of God, but to do mighty things. They spoke in languages unknown to themselves, they healed diseases, and they revealed the character of their loving God. The Spirit within them was not given to fulfill their selfish causes, the Spirit was given to glorify the Risen Lord Jesus. With Christ’s ascension into heaven, our human nature became a part of God’s Divine Self. On the Day of Pentecost, however, the Holy Spirit descended into our nature and God became a part of us. Now within every member of God’s family God’s Spirit descends like Michelangelo’s hammer and chisel on the rock, releasing the angel that wants to come out!

This is a reality for all of us in the Church today. For in our baptisms and confirmations God’s Spirit descends upon us like Michelangelo’s hammer and chisel on the rock, releasing the angel that wants to come out. But, we may complain, we are unable to do those mighty acts told to us in the scriptures today. This may indeed be true in our experience, but there are many others living today whose personal stories are like those in the Scriptures. Why are their experiences different from those experiences that we may have in the Church? Part of it is because we have not been told of this reality and we miss these great benefits.

Others of us, on the other hand, have become distracted. We are like the small boy in a little town some fifty years ago. The news had come that the President of the United States was going to stop and visit on a passing train. As you might imagine the whole town entered into an intense state of preparation. On the day the president arrived, the town was festooned with red, white, and blue bunting, the High School band was on hand, as well as every man, woman, child, and dog for miles around. The popcorn wagon was also there, and the small boy had a big appetite for popcorn. When he arrived at the train depot he made a beeline for the popcorn wagon. The rest you can imagine for yourselves. The boy got so interested in that popcorn wagon that when the president had come and gone the little boy had never seen him. Sometimes we miss the blessings of God, not because they do not exist, nor because God wants to withhold them. We miss these blessings because, like the little boy and the popcorn wagon, we have become so distracted.

The Good News for us is this: the Day of Pentecost is as true today as it was for those people in the Scriptures. God’s Spirit still descends upon the Church like Michelangelo’s hammer and chisel on the rock, releasing the angel that wants to come out! It is just a matter of our being properly informed, as well as our properly adjusting what is most important in our lives. God releases the “angel” within each of us not for our own private and selfish causes, but for the betterment and enrichment of God’s Holy Family. When our desire is to be vessels of Christ’s glory, then God’s Spirit descends upon us like Michelangelo’s hammer and chisel on the rock, releasing the angel that wants to come out! This is God’s promise. This is our hope. This is our reality.