Month: May 2021

DAY OF PENTECOST
The Day of Pentecost: Whitsunday
Year B
May 23, 2021 

Collect:

Almighty God, on this day you opened the way of eternal life to every race and nation by the promised gift of your Holy Spirit: Shed abroad this gift throughout the world by preaching of the Gospel, that it may reach the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, on God, for ever and ever. Amen

First Reading: Acts 2:1-21
Psalm 104:025-35,37
Second Reading: Romans 8:22-27
Gospel: John 15:26-27,16:4b-15
And they were filled with the Holy Spirit:

Our readings today on the Day of Pentecost, are recorded in the Book of Acts, people gathered in Jerusalem from all corners of the Roman Empire. They were coming from all economic interest, diverse cultures, and languages and different religious traditions. 

It didn’t matter to God, His grace was given freely to all who heard the message preached by St. Peter, and thousands converted to Christ.    

Acts 2:1-21
The early Christians had no buildings, no airplanes, no automobiles, no tv, radio or social media. Yet they turned their world upside down for Jesus the Christ. 

They started the spiritual revolution that shook the very foundation of the Roman Empire.
They faced opposition and overwhelming odds, they stayed courageous, bold and full of faith. 
They lived their lives daily for Christ, no matter what others thought. They gladly suffered persecution and even death for their faith in Christ.

Our Gospel for today: John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15

Jesus said to his disciples, “When the Advocate comes, who I will send to you from the Father, the Spirt of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf.

To comfort his disciples, Jesus goes on to say to his disciples:
But now I am going to him who sent me. Sorrow has filled your hearts. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.

When the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

God the Holy Spirit is equal with the Son and with the Father in every respect. Although the doctrine of the Trinity is difficult for us to understand, the Bible teaches that He is co-equal with God the Father and God the Son.

The bible also teaches that the Holy Spirit is a Person. He is never to be referred to as “it”. He is not an impersonal power or force, nor is He just a divine influence or agent. He is a mighty Person, the Holy Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit virtually has unlimited authority or influence and He has the power to be everywhere at the same time. 

Ephesians 1:13 says:
Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit. 

Last Sunday in the Gospel of John 17:1-6, Jesus prayed to God and spoke these words. 

“He looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed. “I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.”

This is Jesus final prayer. He prayed for himself and he prayed for his disciples. “Father, the hour has come.” For Jesus to manifest his eternal glory.    

Conclusion: 
We have all been given the Power of the Holy Spirit. All of Gods people, all countries, Everyone! Just as the disciples bold and fearless witness at Pentecost led to the conversion of more than 3,000 people, so too are we called to bear witness of God’s love for the world today. His love is freely given to all of humanity.

The Fire, represents the “Holy Spirit” transforming our inner life.

The Wind, represents the “Holy Spirit” transforming the relationship among humans in their communities.

And the Languages, represents the “Holy Spirit” transforming the relationships between humans. 

The Holy Spirit compels us to seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbor as ourselves. One way we do this is by reaching out to the unloved, the hard to love and the rejected in our mist and loving them…. just as our Heavenly Father’s love for us, who are called by His name.

God places a seal on us when we received Christ. And that seal, is a person the Holy Spirit. By the Spirit’s presence God gives us security and establishes His ownership over us.

Jesus promised his disciples that he would send the Holy Spirit… whose fruits are love, joy, peace, long-suffering kindness, goodness, faith, meekness and self-control.

These fruits are the qualities of Jesus that the Holy Spirit develops in our lives as we grow in our faith.

The Holy Spirit transforms us the believer into the image of Christ and we share in the mission of the church and the teachings of Christ.

Good news:
Take it from someone who has been visited by the Holy Spirit several times in my life and I believe the Holy Spirit is alive and well today. He continues to pour out on people of every language at Pentecost and draw people of every culture, language and ethnicity into the family we call the church.

Today we celebrate the fruits, the gifts of the Holy Spirit that has been given to us and to all of God’s people. My prayer is, that we use this Day of Pentecost as an opportunity to open ourselves up to what God wants not what we might personally prefer.  

Leave today, renewed and transformed into the image of Christ.

Amen
The Rev. Lola Culbreath

Year B
Firth Sunday of Easter
May 2, 2021

First Reading: Act 8:26-40
Psalm 22:24-30
Second Reading: 1 John 4:7-21
Gospel: John 15:1-8

You Are My Fruit

In the 1970’s I had bought a house in Arizona. A doctor I worked with at the hospital was born and raised in Greece, he had given me some grapevines that he brought or ordered from Greece.

I had a big backyard and my father came over to help me with, putting post in the ground and we strung wire between the post. I didn’t know anything about grapevines or how to take care of them, I did know the basics of watering them, and then every day, as they started to turn greener and vines begin to grow, I would make sure the vines were lifted up off the ground and carefully, I would guide them to the wire. 

It was as if I was saying, here you go! Here is where you start and you now have to learn by your nature, that you (the vine) follow the wire and keep yourself up, so… your fruit is lifted off the ground. 

I had to most delicious black grapes that we and the birds enjoyed.

Gospel John; 15:1-8

Jesus said to his disciples, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower.”

In the Gospel of John, Jesus is the great “I am” statements. The seventh and final statement is “The True Vine.”

John wants us to know that “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God” and (I’AM) Is and expression of divinity and oneness with God.

As Jesus spoke of Himself by saying, “I am the true vine,” The vine is used throughout the scriptures to represent Israel, the people of God, God’s people of Israel appear as the vine in  (Ps.80-8)

“You have brought a vine out of Egypt; you cast out the nations and planted it.”

The people of Israel knew all about vines and vineyards, they knew how to prune the vines and to cut off the old branches to have new growth, how to care for the vineyard and to dig up the plants…. that did not produce fruit. 

If the grape vines produced good fruit, then they would enjoy the fruits of their labor.

“Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, either can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches.”

What does this mean for us today? “I am the true vine? “He is trying to help us understand the value of being connected to Him by faith. A deep and growing relationship with Him will result in peace in all circumstances, hope in trials, strength in adversity, and joy… that cannot be taken from you.

A branch needs the vine continuously, Only the vine brings the sap to nourish, strengthen, and keep branches alive.

We are the branch that is connected to Jesus, it is a continuous branch, and we depend on his word for strength and love.

“Jesus says, those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.

You and others might think that if I don’t do as directed, I will be cut off and burned, but pruning is not a punishment for a Christian; it is a reward. God is the vinedresser who prunes the life of everyone who abides in Christ and bears the fruit of Christ.

Spiritual pruning, enhances spiritual growth by removing whatever inhibits spiritual growth.

Conclusion:

What fruit does God want us to bear? The most notable of his teachings on fruit-bearing is from the teaching of the Apostle Paul who lists the fruit of the spirit, found in Galatians 5:22-23. 

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, Joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

Those virtues show themselves in our words and actions. The real fruit comes only from branches connected to Jesus, branches that receive their strength and nourishment from the Ture Vine. 

Jesus says, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine.  And…neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.”

We are the fruit of his vine and God works on us everyday in our lives to trim away the old branches on us and to give strength to the other branches so that they (we) are fed with his love, to grow in strength to bare more fruit.

We are not the first of the fruit that God created and we are not the last of the fruit on the vine. We all share this world together bound by the branch and the vine of Gods love for us.    

The Good News:

In my personal story of planting and growing grapevines, I knew the basic of watering and feeding the vines, Jesus knows what we need and he feeds us by his Word and with spiritual food in the sacraments. 

As we begin to grow as Christians and His disciples, just as I helped lift my vines up off the ground and carefully guided them to the wire, so their natural abilities would help them follow the wire. 

Jesus lifts us up when we fall and gently guides us to the wire of his love and he nourishes us every day. 

God has attached all of us with the vine of his love through Jesus Christ, his blood runs through the vine and feeds us with all the qualities of goodness, that we have been given by God’s grace to exercise our faith and help us with becoming fruitful Christians, we can follow the seven virtues that St. Paul spoke of: 

The fruit of the Spirit is love, Joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance.

Amen
Rev. Lola Culbreath