Pentecost - Today's Youth

Acts 2:1-21; John 14:8-17

I often feel like sermons on this section of the Gospel of John bury the lead. We focus on seeing Jesus as sent by the Father, we focus on prayer and if we ask anything in Jesus’ name, he will do it. We focus on Jesus’ words to keep the commandments out of love for Jesus, and that God abides with us and is with us. But we don’t spend a lot of time on what I think is a very profound statement of Jesus, one that, if we took it seriously, might very well change the church and the world.

“Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.”

Greater works than these... greater works than Jesus! This is really astounding, don’t you think? Jesus healed people, Jesus welcomed strangers, Jesus took God’s love for the world so seriously that he stood up to the power of the world and died for it. Jesus was raised from the dead. And we who believe are going to do greater works than he? That’s a bold claim that Jesus is making. If it weren’t Jesus saying it, we might be tempted to either laugh or just shrug it off.

Except that we are a bit desperate these days for people to do great things. We need God’s Spirit to be flowing through people like in the days of the early church, like on the Day of Pentecost. We are thirsting for the Spirit to be poured out on all flesh. We need people who can dream dreams––people who can show us how to stop climate change and heal the earth and the environment and restore it to life, as it was in the beginning. We need people who can prophesy, which means speak to God’s justice––people who can show us how to develop fair economic systems that reward hard work but don’t build empires on the backs of the workers. We need people who can inspire us collectively to do with less so others can have more. We need another day of Pentecost, when God’s Spirit brought together people of all different languages and diversity, helping them to connect with each other through Christ, even though they didn’t share a culture or language. We need people who can lead us out of our prejudices and hatreds, to show us how to make equality and inclusion a reality. We are desperately in need of people who can do greater works than Jesus!

After Jesus proclaims that those who believe in him will do greater works than he, he mentions several times that the Holy Spirit will come to the disciples, bringing them the gifts of God and inspiring them to create the world God would have us live in. And, indeed, we see that God uses the disciples to actually do works greater than Jesus. On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit rushes upon the people––as a violent wind mind you, not some nice gentle breeze––and thousands of people are touched by Peter’s words and devote themselves to following God through Christ. The entire book of Acts chronicles all of the ways in which the disciples do far greater works than Jesus––they go to countries he had never been, they also raise the dead, they heal the sick, they confront the Empire. They proclaim God’s love for all, and some of them even die for it.

This active presence of the Holy Spirit in the world, this holy inspiring of people to do greater works than Jesus doesn’t end in Acts, though. Today, as you know, is not just Pentecost Sunday, but it’s also Confirmation Sunday. Now, when these six young people in front of us were baptized, the pastor prayed for God to “sustain them with the gift of the Holy Spirit: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord, the spirit of joy in your presence.” And the parents and godparents or sponsors promised to “live with them among God’s faithful people, bring them to the word of God and the holy supper, teach them the Lord’s Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments, place in their hands the holy scriptures, and nurture them in faith and prayer, so that they might learn to trust God, proclaim Christ through word and deed, care for others and the world God made, and work for justice and peace.” And the congregation promised to help. In other words, on the six different days that these individuals were baptized, God sent the Holy Spirit into them to inspire them to do works even greater than Jesus. God did the same for every young person in the world who was ever baptized. 

And today is the day when these six stand up and affirm that yes, they were baptized, yes they approve of that decision being made for them before they could assent, and yes they will continue to live as baptized children of God. In fact, they will be asked if they “intend to continue in the covenant God made with [them] in holy baptism: [which is] to live among God’s faithful people, to hear the word of God and share in the Lord’s supper, to proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word and deed, to serve all people, following the example of Jesus, and to strive for justice and peace in all the earth.” To do greater works than Jesus.

Now I have checked with them, and double-checked, and triple-checked, and unless there are any last minute changes of heart, they are all going to say yes to this. Can you imagine? Saying yes to such a thing? To serving all people, to striving for justice and peace in all the earth? I know this is what we need in the world, but wow, this is a big commitment. They are being asked if they really intend to follow the example of Jesus and to live their lives doing even greater works than he.

But here’s the thing. Each one of them is going to say that they do intend to do this, with God’s help and guidance. This is the most important thing. They are not being asked to lead us on their own. They are not being asked to strive for justice and peace on their own. They are being asked to do it with the power of God working in them, with the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, filling them at every step. And in fact, I know that God already is.

Some of you have heard me say this before, but in case you haven’t, I will say it again. The young people of today, and these young people in particular, are already doing God’s work in the world. They are passionate about climate change, about LGBTQ rights, about racial justice, about economic equality. As we heard in the reading from Acts, which itself quotes from the Old Testament prophet Joel, they are the sons and daughters who prophesy, and the young people who shall see visions. They are the ones on whom the Holy Spirit has been poured out as they participate in student walkouts, in protests, in indigenous reconciliation (I bet each young person here can tell you what treaty land we’re on), as they are actively engaged in standing up against bullies, as they argue about politics, as they refuse to be bystanders. These young people, along with millions of young people around the world, are the ones whom God is drenching with the Holy Spirit. They might not be doing it in traditional church ways, or even within churches at all. They might not be claiming their work in the name of Jesus, or even claiming to be Christians at all. But God is at work in them, the Holy Spirit is blowing on them with a rushing wind and moving them to create a world the way God intends it to be, a world of justice and peace.

Together, the young people of the world, along with these six, are doing greater works than Jesus. And so today, even as we celebrate this day of Pentecost and this day of Confirmation, we give thanks and praise God for the gift of the Holy Spirit in our midst. God is at work, yesterday, today, and tomorrow, here and everywhere, blessing us and empowering us to carry out the work of Jesus, in all its various forms. We are so blessed to witness it in the lives of young people everywhere, and especially in these six today. Thanks be to God. Amen.