Sermon for Whitsunday, May 23, 2010
“ When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. ”
NO ELECTRIC COMPANY can stop you from getting your own solar panels, and in some locales your own wind-driven generators. Power need not come from a distant power plant, a hydro-electric dam or nuclear facility. There's power in this world right now enough to light up your home or cook that egg. But you need a power source.
I remember being at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles as a kid on a field trip and among the many amazing science exhibits being shown to us, including an earthquake generator and the wonderful planetarium show, a man stepped into a field of electricity that was about 50,000 volts, but just a wee bit of amperage. Had it been the other way round, he would have fried, but as it was he held up a fluorescent tube in his hands and it lit up eerily, no wires, no visible power source, and we wondered how it feels to be standing in the midst of the power that is enough to light a lamp.
On another outing, I was at the beach in L.A. on a night when a red tide was in, a full moon shone from behind scattered clouds, and the surf was up. Perfect conditions. As the moon's full beams dimmed behind a cloud, a wave began breaking and the magic began: first at the crest, and then across the entire wave a light from inside the water shone of its own accord, blue-green. It's called phosphorescence, and it's rare to observe, but the power comes from phosphorus in the water deposited by the tiny red plankton and energized by the light of the moon. Power without wires, lit from within. It's a beautiful sight.
For us the safest way to get electricity is to call PG&E and have them run wires to our home, if not already installed, from a transformer on a street pole to a circuit box that steps down the power in varying amperages to power up the stove, the furnace and air conditioner, and our lights and plugs. The meter measures our usage and we pay the monthly bill. Not very romantic, or beautiful, but it works just the same. People object to many forms of power generation, from wind farms to fossil fuel, but I find the same people jamming their wall plugs with computers, entertainment walls and coffee makers—necessities of life in Century 21. We're addicted to power and light. Hard to go back to a wood stove and candles.
It was a time for a quantum leap for spiritual awareness in this world. The same Being who came forth with God's first creative command, “Let there be light!” had lit with world with strange truths and claims of being God's Son, the foretold Anointed One of the Jewish people. His success in shifting people's attention from old righteousness to new life in Him had gained Him powerful enemies, and He was going to be killed. But He knew that all along. Now He prepared His followers for the next stage. “ If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” John 14 It was quite a promise, that God's Spirit would be given, not just for inspiration and an occasional word, but to live inside a people of faith. But Christ said plainly the Father and He would live in them, now in the Person of the Comforter, or Holy Spirit, who “shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”
That was a gift of light and power unknown in this world, but for a few exceptions and only for brief times. We called people so inspired in the past Prophets . Now all God's true believers would be prophets, with the Word of God living inside them. But centuries before, the prophets had anticipated it, like Ezekiel in distant Babylon: “ Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them .” Ezek 36:25-27 And Joel, “I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit. ” Joel 2:28-29
That day came, with a sound of wind and a bright glow upon the foreheads of the 120 praying together for the power Jesus promised from above. They were filled, and overflowed with joy and knowledge and understanding, and God's light and power. It gave them the gifts of the Spirit told long ago in Isaiah, and later enumerated by St. Paul, “ the word of wisdom; the word of knowledge; faith; gifts of healing; the working of miracles; prophecy; discerning of spirits; divers kinds of tongues; interpretation of tongues,” to name only the most remarkable. 1 Cor. 12 . These were not mere signs and wonders, but intelligent gifts that answered to circumstances, profoundly impressed people with God's love and concern for them specifically, His deep knowledge of their needs, and His ability to answer those needs perfectly and powerfully through His human agents. They were human agents, but the power that worked through them had to be God—no mere person could know or do such deeds, and they always gave credit to the Name of Jesus and the indwelling Spirit of God.
The Apostles didn't jealously shelter this power either, as St. Peter offered the same wonderful gift shortly after it was received to 3,000 witnesses who were baptized and received into the Church on its first day, Pentecost. Such a success can complicate church administration, and confound the preparations of a coffee hour, but who cares? If God pours out His Spirit, the messy blessing it brings can't be reined in by our concerns for order and sufficient seating and bagels. St. Paul was looking for the same excitement to happen in all the churches he planted, “ That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power.” Eph. 1:17-19
Yet it appears that we may be threatened by such wonderful power and light. The Holy Spirit still worries church structures when we get all things neatly arranged and channeled through dependable sources and hierarchies. Truly, charismatic leaders and teachings have in many times brought heresy and ruin to Christians seeking better and higher things in the faith, falling to charlatans and ill-trained fiery speakers and to flashy and convincing spiritual gifts. The devil has his own road show, and it's pretty good. 90-day wonders and self-styled spirit-filled evangelists have frequently, from the Church's first days, risen to divert the attention of God-seekers to themselves. Because their draw is often like the day of Pentecost, with foreign or angelic tongues, wild prophecies, and ecstatic healings, yet couched in the frothy theological confusion of homespun wisdom, slippery values, and moral failures galore: we distrust all spiritual outbursts and signs of power, evidences of miraculous light. So much the pity. We are commanded not to quench the Spirit, but we do.
The Holy Spirit does not do parlor tricks. He is a gentleman. He comes if truly asked in faith, as Jesus promised us: “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” Luke 11:9ff We need not fear the Holy Spirit. He may make demands on our lives, and challenge the lies we tell ourselves, for sure. He may light up dark areas of our experience we'd rather leave in the dim light of forgetfulness . He may challenge us to go out more, do things not completely comfortable for us, and be witnesses for Christ. He may ask us to provide service to others in remarkable ways that humble and deepen us. He may show us things about others we are required to tell them, even to the danger of losing friends. He might even have us pray audacious prayers, prayers for healings, prayers for salvation of very lost people, prayers for God to give us more of Himself, prayers for our country and our world to radically change for the better, prayers for our poor selves to walk more closely with Christ.
And what's wrong with that? The Spirit of God is every characteristic we know has residence in the Godhead. All power, all glory, all wisdom, all love, all miraculous abilities we associate with the Divine, all these in the Spirit also reside in all of us. Right inside us . And we tell Him to sit down and don't upset us. But like that energy field that lit the fluorescent bulb in the hand of my science guy, or the magic lightning inside a seaside wave, that power comes from above and lives in you right now. And that power is wild , that is, it doesn't come from a manmade convenient source, the power lines running through your own fuse box and safely into the light switch you can flip up or down at will. The Holy Spirit is wild, untamed, self-willed and all-powerful. All light is contained in Him and everything Jesus knew, He knows.
The Church is the safe place for us all to know this Spirit. We, together, form the Body of Christ, with various parts and portions able to balance each other out, a priest with training enough to keep the ball in bounds and sufficient parties gifted with spiritual discernment to know truth from the counterfeit. This is why the “church of just-me-and-Jesus” is not such a good idea. The Holy Spirit, or any false spirit, can be quite impressive when no one is around to be subject to or check our new ideas. But the Church resides under a full moon in a red tide, and all our waves ought to be lighting up blue green, so to speak. Are you ready to be lit from within? Are you afraid? Why?
The Holy Spirit will be given by God to whoever asks. That's Jesus' promise. Ask Him to be powerfully present in you, and give you His own light and power.
PFH+