Brief synopsis of the readings: Our first reading comes from Acts. This book begins with Jesus’ final instructions to his followers at which point he ascended into heaven promising to return. We begin today directly after that when Jesus’ followers were together. They experienced a strong wind, followed by tongues of fire which split into 12 parts and each part came to burn over an apostle. Filled with the Holy Spirit they began to speak in different tongues. Devout Jews from every nation witnessed this and noticed that they were hearing them each in his own language. They marveled that while the apostles were all Galileans, they spoke in different languages and this caused the crowd to be in awe of God. John’s Gospel happens earlier and foreshadows this event. Here Jesus appears before the apostles and breathes on them. Jesus tells them that they will receive the Holy Spirit and this will give them the power to forgive sins.

The events that begin the book of Acts can seem almost overwhelming to us, particularly when we see them against the reality that Pentecost is often regarded as opening day of the Christian church. But the apostles must have felt some bewilderment as they probably weren’t expecting Jesus to leave. After all, he promised that he would be killed and would rise from the dead. What more need be done? After all, the Messiah came and conquered death so all that’s left is salvation.

But that’s not what happened. Instead he left with the promise that we would be given the gifts of the Holy Spirit and we would take it from there. And if you’re a little rusty about what those gifts are, let me save you a trip to Siri: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of God. These gifts are, in a sense, the blueprints for the building of the kingdom. God had no intention of giving us the kingdom but instead trusted us to leave us the tools and allow us to build it ourselves.

So it’s fair to ask: how are we doing? Well, I think we’re doing better than we think. It’s always been a little fashionable to believe things are going badly, and I think it’s gotten much worse in the last few decades. We can find countless reasons (and my money is on social media and the 24 hour news cycle) but I think we can easily be blinded to the progress we’re making. I can’t tell you how weary I get when I hear again and again that things are going so badly that God will have to end this evil and doomed world. It reminds me of the Dr. Seuss book The Cat In The Hat. In this children’s book we find two children who are alone on a rainy day with nothing to do, until an animated cat shows up and creates both fun and havoc. The children realize the house is now a mess and their mother is due home any minute. But the cat saves the day by rolling into the house with a contraption that picks up the mess and leaves the house as clean as ever, ensuing the childrens’ mother will not be angry. But in our story God will come back, see in his anger that we have lived for ourselves, and there will be (literally) hell to pay. And what’s more, God will regret his belief that we would ever use these gifts to make a better world.

On the other hand. At the time of Jesus we took for granted that slavery was acceptable, that women were property and that war was how powerful men got more powerful. These weren’t moral dilemmas, they were just reality. But over time, in fits, starts, and sometimes U turns, we’ve used these gifts to look anew at our world, at the meaning of justice, and each other. We’re far from done, and Jesus has not returned, but I think we should give ourselves a break and recognize what we’ve gotten right.

Now to put this in context, God has always led us on the path to righteousness, going all the way back to Genesis. The first books of the Bible are replete with rules about how we are to live in God’s love and treat each other. As a matter of fact there were rules on how we were to treat aliens and slaves, and even the humane treatment of animals. But those were really just rules that anyone can follow. The treasure of the Holy Spirit lies in the fact that these rules are not written simply on tablets that we read, but also on our hearts. We do the right thing not just because we’re told to but also because we choose to live in a righteous world.

Because of the gifts of the Holy Spirit we’ve looked at slaves and recognized that nobody has the right to grow rich on the institutional poverty of others. We’ve also recognized that they did nothing to deserve slavery. Abraham Lincoln came to oppose slavery because he recognized that while he could work hard and innovate and improve his life, a slave could not. No matter how hard a slave worked or how smart he was, he was always going to be a slave and so were his children. Lincoln also realized that slaves did nothing to deserve their lot in life, they were just born in unfortunate circumstances.

We struggle a great deal these days with the issue of immigration and refugees. But again, these are people who did nothing to create the strife they find themselves in. They lost out in what some of us call the “birth lottery.” We do no justice to either God our each other when we try to claim that immigrants and refugees deserve their lot. We may not understand how the birth lottery works but the Holy Spirit gives us clear directions in what we are to do about it.

The apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit in our first reading. Today we have the choice not only to be filled ourselves but to fill our world with the Holy Spirit. Let’s treat each other like we believe that.