"Don't Make Me Come Down There!"

Homily for Pentecost, Year A
Several years ago, there was a billboard campaign called God Speaks – perhaps you remember it. All across the county, solid black billboards along the highways had large white words on them, quotes supposedly signed by God, with no other pictures, or logos, or even fine print saying who had put up the billboards. They said things like, “Need Directions?” and “What part of Thou Shalt Not Didn’t You Understand?” and “Loved the wedding, invite me to the marriage.” These billboards certainly made you think, and were a creative way to bring faith right into the middle of our world. One of the billboards read: “Don’t make me come down there! - God” Think about that one … apparently, the thought is that we’re on the verge of being such bad people, of messing things up or getting out of line, that pretty soon, if we’re not careful, God is going to have to step out of heaven and come down to earth, and if that happens, you’d better watch out! It sounds like a parent shouting downstairs to their kids who are making a little too much noise. And if God did indeed come down here … well, we wouldn’t want to think of what he would do.

But wait a minute, there’s something wrong with this picture. God did come down here to earth – he sent his only Son to be born as a man, to live among us, to suffer like us, and to die like us. God came down to earth not to punish us, but because he loves us, because he wants to offer us the gift of forgiveness and show us how to get to heaven. “Don’t make me come down there!” the billboard threatens. But God already has, and his coming down here is the most glorious thing that has ever happened. I, for one, am glad that God loves us so much that he walked among us. But that's not the end of the story.

Today we celebrate Pentecost. The cycle of Christian history has come full circle for us in just the last few months. At Christmas, we celebrated the birth of God as man – God coming down from heaven. During Holy Week, we remembered Christ’s passion and death, and on Easter we celebrated his resurrection. And now, fifty days later, we remember what Jesus told his disciples – that even after he ascended into heaven, they would not be left alone – the Holy Spirit would come to them and remain with them always. From that first Pentecost, the Holy Spirit has been given to the Church continually – we have a Spirit of love and truth, a Spirit of peace and joy, a Spirit that fills us with the presence of God and gives us what we need to become more like Christ. The glory of Pentecost is that God did not just come down to earth once, live here for a few years, and then leave – he promised to stay with us always, to live always among us through his Spirit. God is here – in each person who has been baptized in his name, in each act of love that we show to one another – God is very much here on this earth. And even when we stray away from Him, the Spirit brings us back by offering grace and forgiveness and unconditional love. “Don’t make me come down there!” the billboards say. But on Pentecost, we rejoice that God has come down here, in His only Son, and through His Holy Spirit, and God will never leave us to walk the adventure of life alone.