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Pentecost brings the Holy Spirit to the grass roots Pentecost : Sunday 15th May 2005 Acts 2.1-21 | 1 Corinthians 12, 3b-13 | John 20.19-23 An elderly farmer in Florida decided to go down to his pond one evening and look it over, as he hadn't been there for a while. He grabbed a large bucket to bring back some fruit while he was down there.
As he neared the
pond, he heard voices shouting and laughing with glee. As he
One of the women shouted to him, "We're not coming out until you leave!" The old man frowned and leaned on the fence, "I’ve got better things to do than waste my time watching you ladies swimming around naked in my pond..." Holding the bucket up he said, "I'm just here to feed the alligator..." The Power that makes anything possible... Pentecost was, in one sense, a “coming out” event...! It was the day we remember about 120 frightened disciples being transformed from hiding behind closed doors to telling their faith abroad and watching as the tiny community began to grow very rapidly and the Church was born.
Easter Day saw the celebration of
Christ rising from the dead, God’s triumph over death, sin, corruption... Living out the Resurrection for ourselves
Today then the final part of the Easter experience - the sending of the Holy Spirit, the birthday of the Church, the inauguration of a new way of God dealing with human beings. It’s about how the effects of the resurrection are “earthed” in the lives of us disciples. The Holy Spirit is not an optional extra for really serious disciples, or a reward for holiness and long service: it is the Holy Spirit who is the power of God moving in each of us from before our baptism to after our death... The Holy Spirit is the way we experience God. And it is important to stress that although we may share a common baptism, are united round the Lord’s table each week at mass - each of us will have a slightly different experience of God because God made us as individuals and God treats us as individuals. Seen from two angles
But in John’s gospel in a post resurrection appearance Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit on his disciples - the experience is gentle, a natural part of the on going mission of the disciples, and is closely linked with forgiveness of sins and the way in which the apostles should carry on the work of Christ. We were thinking in the Confirmation class recently about our stories of coming to faith and how some people have dramatic stories with specific events to look back too; others have slow gradual, perhaps less dramatic encounters where friendship grows and develops... we looked at the Road to Damascus and the Road to Emmaus, and we noted - as we note here - that God meets people and gifts them in different ways. An experience custom-built to each individual... People have very different experiences of the Holy Spirit - or of how God works in our lives. For some it will be big and brash and exciting - like Luke’s Pentecost; some experience a quiet warming - like John’s breath of Jesus.
And famous Christians have talked variously about their experiences: John Wesley talked about his heart being “strangely warmed” - others talk about very dramatic experiences. Neither experience is the “right” or the only way - and woe betide us if we expect everybody’s experience of God to be exactly like ours! It’s not uncommon to talk about the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the individual and the life of the Church - and there is a link between the two as we come together as the Church with our individual experiences... Putting us in touch with God As individuals we experience God today by the working of the Holy Spirit. Jesus reveals God’s identity, and the Holy Spirit makes human relationships with God possible. The Holy Spirit enables us to touch God in the humanity of Jesus! It is the Holy Spirit who empowers and dynamises believers. The Spirit brings gifts, boldness, casts out fear, enables and empowers communication and evangelisation (Acts 1.6-8), brings unity, leads disciples into truth, makes Jesus real to believers and helps keep us faithful to living the Christian Way. The fruit of the Holy Spirit brings out the characteristics of Jesus in the life of the believer.
Traditionally Pentecost was seen as the Birthday of the Church, and the Holy Spirit has a role in the formation of Church - the Christian Community: right from the start - through entry into that community by baptism (by water and the Spirit), in continued fellowship within it - as worship (in Spirit and truth, e.g. helping us to pray), and for the hope of glory. We also experience the Holy Spirit in unity - in our common baptism when we join the Church we join Christ - we are united with him, and therefore we inherit a huge numbers of brothers and sisters! How to experience the Holy Spirit There would be no Church if it wasn’t for the Holy Spirit! And the Church is one of the prime vehicles for us experiencing the Holy Spirit. We can experience the Holy Spirit in the Church in 6 main areas:
So today, this birthday of the
Church day, is a joyful day for praising God for his great gift in the
sending of the Holy Spirit to earth the reality of God the Creator and God
the Redeemer into each of our lives, to complete the dynamic of overflowing
love as God reaches out to his creation to fill all things and help us live
life as he intended, to become the people he made us and to live life to the
full!
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Liturgically today marks the end
of the Easter Season... I know it seems a little unbalanced in terms of
time, but we were thinking last week about how Easter is a festival in three
parts: it starts with the Resurrection, and the other two parts of the
Easter story are the Ascension, and Pentecost.
So
liturgically, tomorrow we enter into what is called “Ordinary Time” - and
Ordinary Time gives us the opportunity to reflect how we - empowered by the
Holy Spirit - will live out the resurrection in our day to day lives. And
there’s nothing “ordinary” about that!
And so we note that in the
readings we have two very different experiences of the coming of the Holy
Spirit. For Luke the account in Acts is the usual one we refer to when we
think of Pentecost: dramatic; wind; tongues of fire; speaking in strange
languages and a huge work of evangelisation...
For some that will be the Lucan
expression of what are unusual and exciting events or experiences which
change our lives; for others it will be the Johnanine experience through the
Church of forgiveness, of ongoing mission and ministry exercised in the
power of the Holy Spirit.
Just as his description suggests,
the Holy Spirit is about making us holy, set a aside, or consecrated to God
for our role as God-bearers in the world. And that’s where the experience of
the Holy Spirit in the Church comes in.
The Scriptures - Paul
talked about “God breathed scripture” (2 Tim 3.16), so it makes sense to ask
the one who wrote it what it means!, as we seek to become the next chapter
ourselves...
In Prayer - We say: “In the
power of the Spirit and in union with Christ let us pray to the Father...”
St Paul talks about the Spirit helping to articulate our prayers, and indeed
praying for us (Rom 8.26-27). So we ask the Holy Spirit to guide us as we
pray, to enliven our prayer, to breath the breath of God into our petitions
and praise, our adoration and confession..