Saint Margaret’s
Anglican Church
Budapest, Hungary
Acts 2:1-21; Psalm 104:25-35, 37; Romans 8:22-
27; John 15:26-27 & 16:4b-15
Devout Anglicans will know that today’s
festival day, Pentecost, was known for
centuries in the British Isles and elsewhere as
Whitsun or Whitsunday. I suppose there is
nothing to prevent us calling it Whitsunday even now, though Pentecost has become
the far more common term, probably because it is favoured by the majority of other
Christians worldwide, the Roman Catholics and Lutherans, for instance. Why the day
was ever called Whitsunday in the first place remains a matter of some conjecture.
Most scholars think it harkens back to the liturgical colour of the day in earlier
centuries, namely, white, making the day in effect White Sunday, if you will.
Could be. Consider that, while Baptisms in the earliest centuries of Christianity were
reserved for the Vigil of Easter or Easter Day itself, Pentecost gradually came to be
preferred in Northern Europe, and especially in Britian, probably because the weather
would be more clement and predictable fifty days after Easter; and the little ones
presented for Baptism would be less likely to catch their death of pneumonia on the
very day of their Christening. And since white is definitely the colour for Baptisms, it
is plausible that for this reason the Day of Pentecost became Whitsunday. We do not
have any Baptisms scheduled for today here at Saint Margaret’s; and so, I am wearing
liturgically correct red vestments. Yet, somehow Red Sunday does not have the ring
to it of Whitsunday.
Now, a minority of scholars going back to the Middle Ages disagree with this origin
story for the name Whitsunday; claiming instead that the whit of the word is a Middle
English variant of the word wisdom. We still use the word wit or wits in a similar
sense today, generally referring to either the ability to express oneself cleverly or
quickly or both, especially if you have your wits about you. Not to mention that
dozens if not hundreds of books have Wit and Wisdom baked into their titles,
everything from the Wit and Wisdom of Queen Elizabeth to the Wit and Wisdom of
Paddington Bear. Correct or not, I favour this etymology for the word Whitsunday.
Perhaps we should call it instead Wisdom Sunday. For, in a very real sense it is Divine
Wisdom we are celebrating.
After all, wisdom itself is one of the most ancient of attributes ascribed to God or
specifically to the Spirit of God. Indeed, Holy Wisdom remains as common a name forchurch buildings in the Orthodox world as is, say, Christ Church among Anglicans.
Think of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, or Istanbul, if you prefer; arguably the most
important Christian temple or church for over a thousand years. Come to think of it,
the Church of Divine Wisdom would well be an apt name or metaphor for the Church
universal itself. For, not only is wisdom something to be said about God; wisdom, like
Love, is what God is, God personified; the Spirit of God in which we share even in our
most foolish of moments, of which alas humankind always has a surplus.
So, divine Wisdom is the Divine Self; “the Spirit of truth,” of which our Lord speaks in
our account this day from the Gospel of John, “the Spirit of truth who comes from the
Father,
” the Spirit which our Lord also sends to us. In the divinely ordered scheme of
things, in the plan of salvation, in divine Wisdom, Christ has taken our flesh upon
himself and so affirmed our humanity. In the Incarnation, God is made flesh; and in
Pentecost we are made Spirit and given a share in the Spirit of Divine Wisdom; if we
embrace the truth of it. In Pentecost, the Incarnation comes full circle, and Christ now
lives on in the world through us and through the Spirit which is in us. This is the true
meaning of Whitsunday; it seems to me. The giving of the Spirit at Pentecost
completes the mystery of the Incarnation and brings us fulfillment not only in our
humanity but in our sharing in the Divine.
Given the “whole estate of Christ’s Church and the world” as we find it today, a
sharing in the Divine, a sharing in Wisdom, is surely what we sorely need. I can think
of few times in history, ancient of contemporary, more in need of the Spirit of truth
than our world today, a world filled with all-too-human perversity and evil, a time of
upheaval and folly on a massive scale all across the globe. Rather than the sevenfold
gifts of the Spirit, gifts of fortitude, knowledge, fear of the Lord, piety, counsel,
understanding, and wisdom itself, we encounter everywhere mendacity, corruption in
high places and low, distrust, avarice, stupidity masquerading as cleverness, violence,
and cynicism. Come, Holy Spirit, indeed.
And yet… And yet, in spite of all that, we foolish Christians, as susceptible as anyone
to foolhardiness and folly, celebrate this day the Wisdom of God; celebrate this day
the hope which is a part of wisdom and spirit as Paul reminds us in our second
Reading today from his Letter to the Romans.
“In hope we were saved.” Pentecost
allows us still to live Christ in the world today, in spite of the chaos and despair
around us.
Perhaps the best proof of this reality, if proof is the right word, is the fact that we are
here today celebrating the Spirit of Truth and Wisdom, along with generations of
other Christians, on this 103,000th, give or take, Sunday after Pentecost. In the Spirit,
Christ lives on in and through us; but only if we let him; only if we live the Divine
Wisdom and Truth of this remarkable day. No fake news for us; only the Good News
of the Gospel. For, if the Pentecost of centuries ago marked the beginning or birth of
the Church, as we so often say it did, Pentecost today must mark and celebrate theSpirit of Christ alive and at work in our world still today, on this newest of Pentecost
Days, this Whit or White Sunday. This Wisdom Sunday. So Come, Holy Spirit, we pray,
Come Holy Spirt, fill the hearts of your faithful people;
and kindle in them once again the fire of your love.
Amen.
The Rev. Canon Dr. Frank Hegedűs
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