Readings: Acts 2:1-11; Psalm 33; John 20:19-23
June 4, 2006
The Rev. Mary Blessing
St. Jude the Apostle Episcopal Church, Cupertino,
CA
Today is Pentecost Sunday: that wonderful celebration of the presence of the Holy Spirit!
Today we will do three things:
Now, before you tune me out, telling yourself you have NO IDEA what the HOLY SPIRIT is, let’s pause a moment and reflect on a time when you had a clear, profound awareness of TRUTH—a time when you suddenly understood something in a new and different way. Perhaps you have had an “epiphany”, even just the tiniest glimpse, when the “light-bulb” went off in your head. [PAUSE] Can you remember that feeling? The “ah ha” that followed your new insight? That, I believe, is the power of the Holy Spirit working in your life. Notice it, rejoice in it, and give credit where it is due—God is the source of that insight, that “truth”, that new understanding. Even if you thought at the time it was your intelligence, or the wisdom of a friend, or a book you read, that led you to this insight, I believe that brief moment of awareness had its source in the Creator of the universe. I believe your ability to receive that insight was the work of the Holy Spirit.
Now, imagine a whole group “ah ha” experience, maybe 120 people, disciples of Jesus Christ, gathered together in prayer, waiting for the much anticipated promise that they would be “baptized with the Holy Spirit”. And, suddenly, it happens! All at once, “en masse”, these gathered believers “get it”—the Holy Spirit is FOR THEM! The Holy Spirit is the power of God’s immediate presence in THEIR lives. The HOLY SPIRIT is intended for ALL PERSONS of ALL NATIONS for ALL TIME!! This is the new awareness Jesus longed to give his followers, but when he was alive, or present in his resurrected form, the believers could not “get it.” Jesus had to leave for ALL to experience the Holy Spirit within themselves and in the community gathered.
People of the Judeo-Christian tradition believe God’s Spirit has been around since the beginning. At the time of creation, God’s Spirit breathed life into the world; the Spirit led Moses through the desert; the Spirit informed prophets; the Spirit guided Kings and rulers—but much of the understanding of the function of the Spirit in the Old Testament is in terms of “individual gift” of the Spirit; only a select few received this Spirit.
The Pentecost experience in the Book of Acts reveals something new: a powerful, new experience of God’s Holy Presence FOR ALL who are open to receiving it. It is not as if God’s Holy Spirit wasn’t already there—it was—but something new and different occurred that awakened these believers, stirring their hearts, activating their minds, and loosening their tongues to be able to preach Jesus’ gospel in a way that ALL PERSONS, from ALL NATIONS can hear in their own language this amazing GOOD NEWS. Suddenly God’s Holy Spirit is for everyone, not just for priests and prophets—the Holy Spirit is for ALL HUMANITY. It always was, yet humanity failed to see it. Because of the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ, God opened the door of experience to reveal the presence of the Holy Spirit for all.
The Holy Spirit is a gift offered to all humanity, but not all humanity wishes to engage in activating this Spirit within their lives. All are invited to participate in sanctification, in “becoming holy”, yet not everyone wants to be a responsible participant—not even all those who profess to be a Christian. Sanctification is both a gift and a goal. (Owen Thomas, p. 220)
When we baptize using the ritualistic washing in the context of the faithful gathered, we specifically invite the Holy Spirit to be present in the life of the baptized. Parents, godparents and the community make promises to raise the child in the awareness of this presence of the Holy Spirit. It is here, in the relationships of people who love and nurture the child that the child first experiences the Holy Spirit and is given language to express that experience. The sacrament of baptism is an outward and visible sign of the inward and invisible grace of God’s Holy Spirit within, but the baptized person must in turn respond responsibly in participation with the Holy Spirit—we are not suddenly free to be in complete union with the Holy Spirit. We still have our lives to live, filled with every day challenges, choices and setbacks of an incomplete world. The Holy Spirit is a gift, but if we do not act in response to this gift, it lies dormant within us.
Sometimes we get a glimpse of holiness, even as we live in the midst of what often seems a dark and unholy world. In his book, Living on the Border of the Holy, William Countryman describes what he calls the “priesthood of humanity.” By “priest” he does not mean just those ordained by the institutional church. “Priest” is anyone who has the ability to notice that we all live in the presence of the Holy—and are willing to aid others in catching glimpses of the Holy. Priesthood is not just for a chosen few; we all have the potential to participate in recognizing the Holy, for the Holy is the TRUTH that underlies and upholds us in our everyday world. At the center of all our lives is TRUTH. And, we need each other to do this interpreting. Yes, some are to be “ordained” priests with specific duties of service in the church context, but all persons are to be “priests” in the sense of participating in the interpretation of truth for their own lives and the lives of others. It is this process of seeking and interpreting truth that leads us to open our hearts , minds and bodies to the awareness of the power of the Holy Spirit in our midst.
Recently I had the joy of experiencing such TRUTH, not in my role as an ordained priest of the church, but in an every day sort of way, in the “priesthood of humanity.” Two years ago my aging mother was on her way home to rural West Virginia to a family reunion when she fell and broke her leg. Doctors had to perform emergency surgery; things were touch and go, she thought she might never be able to travel again. But she survived and healed and finally last month we were able to try this journey again. Due to her limited mobility and the rustic nature of hills and roads, we were not sure my mom could physically make it to her cabin, but we were determined to try. Finally, after a couple of days of logistical set-backs, we found ourselves sitting in the sunny, wooded area near the river in front of her cabin. Just the two of us, quietly soaking in the warm sun, listening to water rushing over rocks, and the chirping of birds in the background, watching butterflies gracefully dancing in the breeze. Suddenly, a moment passed between us, my mother and me, and we knew God’s Holy Spirit was present—completely, fully present, filling us with LOVE. A reconciling love, grounded deeply in TRUTH. The border of the Holy was opened to us. Maybe it was only a glimpse, but God was present. The Holy Spirit “rested upon us.”
When Owen Souza is baptized today, we will make a promise to “do all in our power to support him in his life in Christ”. But to really do so, we must first promise to seek the HOLY in our own lives, to notice that God’s Holy Spirit is present to US at all times. And, then each of us, in our role as “priest”—as one who seeks and interprets the presence of the Holy-- can use the power of the Holy Spirit to give us insight, to fill us with TRUTH, so that we might accurately help in the interpretation of that TRUTH for Owen—or for another child, or for an elderly parent, or for a friend, or a co-worker, or any person who comes before us.
Together, we can seek the HOLY for all humanity, opening hearts to receive God’s Holy Spirit.
AMEN.
| Updated 6/4/2006 |
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