In all things, both great and small…

June 8, 2025

Scriptures: Genesis 11:1-9, Acts 2:1-21, John 14:8-17 (25-27)

Today is the day set aside in our church calendar to lift up and celebrate Pentecost…that most amazing story found in the account of the Acts of the Apostles when the Holy Spirit descended upon the large body of Jewish pilgrims gathered in Jerusalem, appearing as tongues of fire hovering over each person’s head and accompanied by the disciples being empowered to speak in multiple native languages of all those gathered, as they proclaimed the Good News of our faith. Peter quotes the Prophet Joel in saying that the moment was in many ways the fulfillment of the scriptural accounts promising the coming ‘Day of Our Lord’.

Often referred to as the ‘birth of the church’, Pentecost is and remains a day of celebration throughout Christianity. Our Gospel lesson for today also finds Jesus speaking of the Holy Spirit, and in my estimation, making even greater and more stunning statements about what a Christian’s life will be like going forward from that moment. Today’s reading from John picks up immediately following the Last Supper while the disciples are still in the upper room with Jesus, just prior to going out to the Garden of Gethsemane where he later will be arrested and taken away. In those closing chapters of John’s gospel Jesus is trying to sum up the last three years of his teachings, trying to ensure that his disciples are prepared to carry forth the mission of the church after his resurrection and ascension. As such, what he shares with them is direct and to the point. He does not mince words in telling them who he is, who they are, and what he expects of them.

‘After three years of traveling along beside me and observing all that you have seen, still you do not know who I am?’, he asks Philip. ‘Believe me when I say, that I am in the Father and the Father is in me’, Jesus continues, urging his followers to finally and fully trust that indeed he is the Messiah.

And as I read through that account in John, I began to wonder how many of us could be asked the same question. How many of us actually see the fullness of God in our understanding of and belief in Jesus? After a lifetime of being raised in the faith, how do we understand who God is? How is it that we see God?

I know that for many years I saw God as a stern and foreboding figure. One who to some degree was scary in his all-knowing and all-powerfulness. One who was just waiting for the day when I would stand before him in judgement hoping that the good in my life would outweigh that which was not. And it was a while before I came into the awareness of what today’s scripture was in fact telling us. Namely, if we really want to see the Father, if we want to see and to begin to know the mind of our God…then we need to study the words and actions of Jesus as revealed all throughout the gospel accounts. In other words, we too need to come to truly believe what Jesus was sharing with his disciples that day. And not just the fact that he was fully God in their presence, but all the other things he told them as well.

In particular, in keeping with our Pentecost theme for today, Jesus also spoke of the gift of the Holy Spirit, whom he said he would send to the believers. A ‘comforter’ so to speak, whom he said would dwell within each one of the believers, and who would lead them into all truth. All of which sounds wonderful, until he shares the next part of our reading. Namely when he says that those of us who do believe in him, and who know or have seen the great works of God performed through Jesus, will in fact be able to do the same, and in fact even greater things than that which he did while ministering on earth. Which is, I am sure, where many people draw a line.

But I think that is because we may tend to focus solely on the biggest of the ‘big things’ Jesus did in his ministry…the healings, the feeding of many thousands with a few pieces of bread and a few fish, the raising of Lazarus from the dead, and even the act of forgiving those who had recently nailed him up on a cross. And I am pretty sure that to a person, most of us feel that those things…those kinds of things, are not really within our own toolkit…not whatsoever!

But by the same token, I wonder if part of the problem is that the gospel accounts are trying to tell an amazing story and to do so by selecting and recounting those events which were most likely to inspire awe and question in a new believer’s heart and mind. For in truth, three years of ministry, three years of walking daily alongside of this wonder working man, three years of experience crammed into a few chapters of a book…are not in fact three years worth of a personal daily diary, which I am sure would have been much much more lengthy, and filled with all the little things, all the daily little ‘God-moments’ which we too are so privileged to share among ourselves. I think every day with Jesus had to have been filled with little moments of wonder and surprise, with the occasional ‘bar-burner’ of a miracle.

We talk often of all the blessings we have received as a congregation, of the many many times when a need was somehow met just at the moment of need, or how often we would find out later on that in fact the Holy Spirit was present and working right beside us all along!

And aside from focusing in solely on the ‘big miracles’ we hear or see Jesus performing in the gospels, I think we are also guilty of assigning a particular value to a work of God in our midst. In that, I am quite sure we often undervalue the work of the Holy Spirit in the moment because we either may not notice it, or may think it insignificant…or heaven forbid, decide it is just another fortunate coincidence!

Personally, I believe that faith is much like a muscle, in that the more we use it, the stronger it becomes. And so, with time, who knows, one day we may actually be asked by the Spirit to be a part of something others would see as ‘amazing’ or ‘unbelievable’. But truly, a simple willingness to do the many little tasks put before us by the Spirit, is just as holy, and just as critical in the unfolding plans of our God. 

So, where are we on this day of Pentecost? Will we too be visited by tongues of fire or utterances of languages foreign to us but native to someone else? Probably not, but maybe. But more likely I think, this is a good day to reflect on and to give thanks for all that the Holy Spirit has been doing right beside us and through all of us for quite some time now…and surely will continue to do going forward.

Years ago I wrote a song titled ‘Unconditional Love’. The song had four verses as well as a chorus and spoke to the relationship we each are called and welcomed into by the Holy Spirit.

The chorus reads: Do you know the Lord, have you been to Calvary, do you know he climbed that hill today, for me, for you, to show us how to love one another, teach us how to care…

But it is the fourth verse that speaks to the point I am trying to make here today, and the real reason to celebrate the amazing truth that we are called to serve just as we are, and with whatever it is that happens to be in our own particular toolkit. That fourth verse of the song reads: Don’t change for my sake, just love each other, a smile here, a hand there, some time to listen, it’s the little things you do, that make all the difference, if you let my love brighten your day…

So on this day when we remember the goodness of our God as seen fully revealed in the words and works of our Lord Jesus, and when we gratefully remember the promised gift of the Spirit of God’s love…come, celebrate with me the blessings that are constantly showered upon us here…and continue to join with me in doing all those little things that show we care, and that give witness to the presence of the Spirit in this place….

…in all things

…and in all ways

…both great and small.

…amen