Pentecost Sunday

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“O come Creator Spirit come; and make within our souls Thy home; Supply Thy grace and heavenly aid; to fill the hearts which Thou hast made. Thy Light to every sense impart; pour forth Thy love in every heart…”¹  

It was a beautiful morning when JESUS, led by the Holy Spirit, traveled back with His disciples to Galilee in the north. They left Judea in the south, taking the quickest route to His desired location via Samaria. Arriving in the Samaritan town of Sychar, JESUS sent His disciples to the market to fetch food for the day. Then, Jesus sat down at a well, the well of Jacob the Patriarch, and waited. JESUS waited for a woman whom GOD the Holy Spirit wanted Him to meet – a woman that GOD the Father wanted to know. — ‘O come Creator Spirit, supply Thy grace and heavenly aid; to fill the hearts which Thou hast made. Thy Light to every sense impart; pour forth Thy love in every heart.’ 

JESUS did many things that perplexed His disciples. Coming to Samaria would have been one of them. For, to a devout Jew at that time in Israel’s history, to even have the wind blow on you from Samaria, some thought, would have made one unclean. And here, JESUS was alone, talking with a woman, (another custom-buster), even a Samaritan woman! And the Scriptures tell us upon their arrival from the market, “[The disciples] marveled that [JESUS] was talking with a woman, but no one said, ‘What do you seek?’ or, ‘Why are you talking with her?’” — Why was JESUS talking with this woman and risking a cultural and religious scandal? — Our LORD was talking with this Samaritan woman because GOD desires to pour forth His love into every heart, that desires to know Him and serve Him in spirit and truth. — ‘O come Creator Spirit, Thy Light to every sense impart; pour forth Thy love in every heart.’   

Though some might see it differently, I believe this woman had a deep spiritual hunger for GOD, and for whatever reason, life had dealt her a hand of unfortunate marriages. And after five of them, she had given up on marriage altogether, yet not on companionship. Thus, she had succumbed to living with a man – how else was she to make it through that male-dominant society, right? — The LORD JESUS acknowledged that she had had five husbands, and He knew how to distinguish between a legitimate, covenantal relationship of the Law, and one that was not legitimate. Yet, the LORD did not excuse her choice to be in a relationship outside the Law. Thus, upon pointing this out to the woman, she, a GOD-lover, immediately began to question the LORD JESUS about how to atone for her sins, particularly her sin of cohabitation with a man, who was not her husband.  

This woman had a strong case, for she was told by the JEWS that the only place to seek GOD’s forgiveness was through a blood sacrifice on Mt. Jerusalem, and by the Samaritans, (who had a form of YAHWEH worship in their temple on Mt. Gerizim), that her sacrifice needed to be made at their shrine. She said to the LORD JESUS: “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship” (St. John 4.20). — The woman rightly stated the fact that she, a woman, and a Samaritan, would never be allowed into Jerusalem to the Jewish Temple to make an offering of blood to GOD for substitutional atonement for her sin. — What was she to do? 

Then JESUS said to her, “the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. GOD is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship Him in spirit and truth” (St. John 4.21-24).   

Lest we forget, JESUS was a prophet, and He knew that in that generation, forty years hence, upon the treading of the Gentiles, (that is the Roman armies), both the Temple in Jerusalem and the Temple in Gerizim, would no longer exist. The times of the Gentiles would be ushered in, and the times, seasons, and rituals of the Jews and Samaritans would be ushered out. The age of Mosaic covenantal worship would be cut-off, and the Messianic covenantal age of worship would be ushered in. — In Samaria that day, at Jacob’s well no less, JESUS showed Himself to be a Light to lighten this Gentile woman. The LORD revealed to her that a day would come when there would no longer be a need for a shrine, ceremonies, or rituals commemorating substitutionary, animal sacrifices to commune with GOD. Instead, the only requirement would be the honesty of the heart and the desire to focus the soul’s full love in adoration toward GOD. — JESUS was saying, GOD’s covenantal people would no longer need to trust in the blood of bulls and lambs, but solely in the blood of the Only-Begotten Son – the Lamb of GOD. — As the author of Hebrews says in the ninth chapter: “For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect the conscience of those who draw near [to GOD through ritual sacrifices]… [for JESUS] does away with the first in order to establish the second. And by His will [revealed in the New Covenant], we have been sanctified through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ, once for all” (Hebrews 10.1, 9-10).   

The purpose of JESUS’ ministry to the Samaritan woman that day was to reveal GOD’s grace to those who have faith, but also to show that GOD is looking for worshippers who desire to worship Him in spirit and truth. With the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross finished, once for all, GOD now only desires the sincerity and pureness of our hearts in worship of Him, (mind, soul, and body), without our efforts of personal righteousness and mutual dependence upon lofty architectures of religious constructs that include bloody sacrifices of bulls, lambs, and goats. — And if we give Him this, in spirit and truth, inviting GOD to dwell within us, then He will meet and abide with us, quenching our insatiable spiritual hunger and thirst with His forgiveness. — ‘O come Creator Spirit; Thy Light to every sense impart; pour forth Thy love in every heart.’ 

JESUS’ promise to the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well in St. John 4, would also be echoed to His disciples in St. John 14, our Gospel Lesson for today, yet with a different vernacular, but identical meaning. There, JESUS said, “‘Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.’ … ‘If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him’” (St. John 14.21 & 23). The requirement has not changed since Samaria and the woman at the well. It is still spirit: ‘If anyone loves me, he will keep my word.’ And the requirement is still truth: ‘Whoever has and keeps my commandments loves me.’ And if these things are kept in order and practice, JESUS says, ‘My Father and I will love him and make our dwelling with him.’ In other words, ‘The hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father, but the hour is coming and is now here, when you, a true worshipper of GOD, will worship the Father by gaining Christ’s commandments and keeping them, from the heart. For GOD the Father seeketh such to worship Him. 

JESUS’ promise to the woman at the well in Samaria, and to the disciples in the Upper Room, that the structures of legalistic ritualism and ethnic elitism, would be done away with the ushering in of Messianic, covenantal worship, came to pass when the Church was filled with the Holy Spirit like a mighty rushing wind, on the Day of Pentecost, the feast we celebrate today. — Pentecost Sunday, fifty days after our LORD conquered sin and death by His Cross and Resurrection, was that hour that JESUS prophesied to the woman at Jacob’s well. Pentecost Sunday is that Day in which JESUS said was to come, when temples and shrines of human constructive will, would no longer play a role in GOD’s redemptive history. From that day forward, GOD’s redemptive history would be played out on the altars of human hearts of the faithful remnant people that worship Him through obedience to Christ JESUS, in spirit and truth in the life of Holy Mother Church.  

On that first Pentecost Sunday, the Church became the dwelling place of GOD instead of the Temple, either on Mt. Jerusalem or Mt. Gerizim. And from that Day forward, all true worshippers, wholly devoted to worshipping GOD in spirit and truth, now find themselves indwelt by the Holy Presence of Christ through His Holy Spirit, bearing the beautiful fruits of the land of the Kingdom of GOD – the fruit of the commandments of Christ – mercy, love, and truth. — ‘O come Creator Spirit; Thy Light to every sense impart; pour forth Thy love in every heart.’   

Pentecost Sunday, when the Holy Spirit came to dwell in the hearts of the remnant of believers that trusted in Christ, came on a certain Day, at a certain point in history, ten days after JESUS ascended into Heaven to sit upon the Right Hand of GOD in glory. That was then; what about now? — Now, the Holy Spirit is ever-building up the Church and brandishing His seven-fold gifts in the hearts and lives of GOD’s people. For, we are reminded that it was on that first Pentecost Sunday, and every Pentecost Sunday since, that all who call upon the Name of the LORD, desiring with all their hearts, minds, and souls to obey His commandments, will be saved. For the hour has come, and is now here, when the true worshippers of GOD will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people dear church, to worship Him. — If we are those people, dear St. Mark the Evangelist, let us this Pentecost Sunday, cry out in spirit and truth, that blessed anthem of Holy Mother Church for hope of the coming of The Spirit of Truth.  

‘O come Creator Spirit come; and make within our souls Thy home; Supply Thy grace and heavenly aid; to fill the hearts which Thou hast made. Thy Light to every sense impart; pour forth Thy love in every heart…Come Holy Spirit, come!’ In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen. 

1 Book of Common Praise, “O come Creator Spirit come”, (Newport Beach: Anglican House Media Ministry Inc., 2017), 165.