'For people of Northern climates, the story of Jesus
as experienced in the liturgical year
is mirrored so perfectly in the coming forth of light from darkness
over the six months from December to June
that it seems that Nature herself echoes the Gospel story
proclaimed in Scripture and hymn and sermon.'
The Day of Pentecost
June 5, 2022
The Rev. Maurice C. Frontz III
St Stephen Lutheran Church
It’s the bright, long and temperate Scandinavian summer
that is
so beautifully depicted in our Hymn of the Day –
written by Nikolai Grundtvig, a Danish pastor and hymn-writer.
For the
Nordic nations, that are for so much of the year
in the
grip of cold and darkness,
the
coming of summer must be a revelation.
We who
sing the hymn are about to be put into a world
of dawning
days, singing birds, flowing brooks,
fields
and trees bejeweled with emerald green.
In the
adaption of O Day Full of Grace in the Lutheran Book of Worship,
most of
the nature-language has been omitted
in favor
of a slightly more prosaic telling of the story of salvation.
But for the Danes, at least, the story of Pentecost can’t be told
without
the fields and the birds and the brooks.
For
people of Northern climates, the story of Jesus
as
experienced in the liturgical year
is
mirrored so perfectly in the coming forth of light from darkness
over the
six months from December to June
that it
seems that Nature herself echoes the Gospel story
proclaimed
in Scripture and hymn and sermon.
Christians
of the North, whether in America or in Europe,
tell the
story of Jesus’ birth into the world
at the
coldest, darkest time of the year.
They
tell the story of the death and resurrection of Jesus
when the
flowers, so long dormant, begin to sprout from the earth.
And
Pentecost, the part of the story
when
Jesus, having victoriously finished his work on earth,
sends
the Holy Spirit to the Church,
is told
at the time when winter seems a distant dream
and all
is teeming with life –
the sun
seems hardly to leave us alone.
The
frozen rivers have thawed and the shining waters flow to the sea.
The
birds sing, the crops grow, the flowers bloom,
and if
we pay attention,
if we look
carefully,
there is
a new gift to be found each day, each hour, each minute.
It seems as if we are back in the garden of Paradise.
This is the time we’ve been brought to –
the time
of life and growth, the time of gift,
of
singing birds and flowing brooks and light in abundance.
God
sends forth his Spirit, and renews the face of the earth.
and
Christians must always remember and rejoice
in what
time they inhabit.
Our
entire lives have been lived in the time of the Spirit.
Pentecost
is not just the time of the Church year we’re in,
but it’s
our spiritual reality.
It is
2022 Anno domini, the year of our Lord.
We are
not like those prophets who sat in exile
waiting
for God to redeem his people.
In Jesus
Christ God has acted once for all
to
defeat sin, death and the evil one.
He has
triumphed over the powers of darkness.
He has
given his Spirit to the Church.
We are children of light in a world full of light.
I’ve
moved the little family altar to the screened-in porch
to do
the prayer service webcasts,
and even
when I’m not live-streaming,
that’s
where I recite the daily prayer offices.
So it’s
two Wednesday mornings ago,
and the sun
is rising, the light slanting through the trees,
and the
birds are chirping (or cawing)
and
somewhere I’m sure there’s a brook babbling.
The
psalms and hymns and lessons are all about victory over evil
and
Jesus rising from the grave
and I’m
out there on my porch singing away
and I
remember it’s the day after 19 little kids and two teachers
were
shot to death in a small city in Texas.
And I’m
thinking,
How is
it possible to sing about joy and peace and love
on a day
like this in a world like this?
But, you
see, if we don’t sing at all times
about
what we believe to be true,
if we
decide to let the evil one
appoint
the psalms and lessons and prayers for each day,
expressions
of impotent rage or abject despair.
We’ll
have no message of comfort to give to those who grieve a child –
just our doubts and angers and hatreds.
We’ll
have nothing to say to those who ask questions
about
the presence of God in the world.
We’ll
have no word of challenge, or no word of hope,
to give
to those who are blind to God’s light.
And
we’ll lose even the faith and hope we have,
if we
don’t believe that the Spirit’s story is the true story,
and sing
the song of summer light
even in
the face of the darkness.
We
Christians cannot become so consumed with anger or despair
over the
latest injustice or violence or outrage
that we
forget our story,
our
summer-Spirit-story of light and life and growth in Christ.
It is
not night.
It is
day, unless we will not see it,
and if
we will not see the light, and walk in the light,
and
rejoice in the light,
we
cannot guide anyone else to the light should that fall to us.
Not next
week, but the next, the week after Trinity -
we’ll
break out the boring old green paraments to put on the altar
and I’ll
have to wear those boring old green vestments again
until
Reformation Day –
but are
they really boring after all?
No –
when we come to church and see the green
we will
be put in mind that the same Spirit
which
hovered over the waters at creation
to
produce a world capable of harboring life
now is
busily at work in the Church
to
produce in human beings
the good
and the beautiful fruits of righteousness.
O God,
send forth your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth,
the face
of the Church, the faith and hope and love of your holy ones
to live
the life of your Son until he is revealed.
1. WHYMN OF THE DAY O Day Full of Grace
Tune: DEN SIGNEDE DAG, Christopher E.F. Weyse, 1774-1842
Stanzas 3, 5: Settings for choir by J.M. Strobel
Text: Nikolai F.S. Grundtvig, 1783-1872, tr. Carl Døving
ALL:
O day full of grace, which we behold
Now gently to view ascending;
Thou over the earth thy reign unfold
Good cheer to all mortals lending
That children of light in every clime
May prove that the night is ending.
How blest was that gracious midnight hour
When God in our flesh was given;
Then flushéd the dawn with light and power,
That spread o’er the darkened heaven;
Then rose o’er the world that Sun divine
Which gloom from our hearts had driven.
Choir:
3.
Yea, were every tree endowed with speech,
And
every leaflet singing,
They
never with praise His worth could reach,
Though
earth with their praise were ringing.
Who
fully could praise the Light of life,
Who light to our souls is
bringing?
All:
4.
As
birds in the morning sing God's praise,
His
fatherly love we cherish,
For
giving to us this day of grace,
For
life that shall never perish.
His
Church He hath kept two thousand years
And hungering souls did
nourish.
Choir:
5. Now softly the light of Pentecost
Is
shining its beams around us,
God’s
blessings for us cannot be lost,
As
brooks in the fields surround us.
And
leave in their wake the woods and fields,
The bright summer green
astounds us.
All:
6.
With
joy we depart for our fatherland,
Where
God our Father is dwelling,
Where
ready for us His mansions stand,
Where
heaven with praise is swelling;
And
there we shall walk in endless light,
With blest ones His praise
forth telling.
