Come Holy Spirit

Homily Pentecost Year B 2012

We as Anglicans have reputation of being people of the book, wedded to traditional liturgy and language, restrained and very proper in our worship style.

Yet in the past century perhaps the fastest growing churches, inspired by the events described in today’s Gospel which marks the feast of Pentecost, have embraced a worship style the exact opposite. There are no prayerbooks. Not as much scripture. The music is loud and often owes more to rock and roll than traditional hymns and organ music.

The appeal is to the emotions. The spirit of God has come among us, and the response is ecstatic worship, clapping, loud singing, speaking in tongues, emotional sermons. Praising the Lord vigorously and emphatically.

Some of you probably have experienced the Pentecostal church worship which has at least some of these elements.

I’m not saying it isn’t a valid choice, for those who want to praise and worship God that way, I’m saying we can’t let Pentecostal style churches have the exclusive claim on the moving of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus offered the disciples a taste of heaven on earth when he promised then that while he might not be with them in bodily form, he would send the Holy Spirit, the comforter, to be with them.

The story from Acts of that first Pentecost is full of drama. Suddenly from heaven a mighty rushing wind comes down and fills the house where the disciples are gathered. Tongues of fire appear, and one rests on each of Jesus followers.

Filled with the Holy Spirit, the disciples spill out into the street, speaking different languages so that all in the city where so many tongues are spoken might understand them.

The bystanders think they are drunk. But Peter tells the crowd they are witnesses to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit which has been foretold in Hebrew Scripture. Jesus of Nazareth, a Jew, lived among them, died and was raised up by God to bring new life to the world.

This all happened 50 days after the Resurrection, hence the name Pentecost. It was a turning point which we often call the birthday of the church. The followers of Jesus had been nurtured until them by the appearances of the Risen Lord. But they were still fearful and unsure of what to do next.

After the Day of Pentecost they had been transformed. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, they moved boldly into the world to preach the Gospel.

The Holy Spirit is about an ecstatic experience of worship and praise among those first disciples. But it seems to me the key learning from Pentecost is seeing the Holy Spirit also as an advocate, who will be with us throughout our lives, consoling us when we are in sorrow, guiding us in truth.

This is a multi-dimensional picture of the working of the Holy Spirit which is particularly helping for those of us who are not part of the Pentecostal church tradition.

Author Diana Butler Bass has written a book called provocatively-- Christianity After Religion--which I would highly recommend.

She’s a church historian. And she says we are moving from an age of religion, where people defined their faith by a set of propositions to believe in-- to an age of spirit, where we see church as a community of ministry and mission
to the world, living the life of Jesus in public ways, to change the world around them in the way of Jesus. This is inspired by the Holy Spirit working among followers of Jesus.

Like the disciples we as followers of Jesus see and understand what God is doing in the world in our time to meet the world's need for healing and wholeness.

We see the world is hungry for a new form of community for people of all sorts in the world, based on love and forgiveness; a messiah more healing and saving than the secular gods of wealth and power; a way of life to follow that creates peace rather than division and domination.

The age of the spirit also requires that we move beyond traditional models of church so that all believers, not just clergy and church leaders can see for themselves God's deeds for the healing and saving of the world, and can talk about them and publicly live them out in ways that the world can hear and understand.

Ours is very much a lived faith. The spirit helps us in our weakness. It brings hope when all else fails. Even when we are hurting deeply and it is hard to find the words to pray, says Paul, the spirit “intercedes with sighs too deep for words.”

Next week we will celebrate Trinity Sunday and I recognize one of the most difficult parts of our Trinitarian theology is an understanding of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I think most of us understand God as creator of the world, the one God. That we share with our Jewish brothers and sisters.

But we also believe God sent his son Jesus to come among us, and the Holy Spirit—not as something magical or occult, but as a divine spirit which touches our hearts and minds.

We have to be open to the leading of the spirit in our lives. It doesn’t mean the path will be clear or that there won’t be bumps along the way, but that God is with us. God cares for each one of us and has sent the Holy Spirit to be our guide and comforter. Amongst the uncertainties of the world, that is very good news indeed.