Sermon Response to Scripture proclaimed for the Day of Pentecost John 15:26-27,16:4b-15; Acts 2:1-21; Romans 8:22-27 At Zion Episcopal Church by The Reverend Sarah E. Saxe on May 20, 2018 Hearing and Heeding the Voice of the Spirit God has no gender in the way that animals have a gender. God is neither a he nor a she but rather is both he and she. But the English language does not permit us to refer to a living being as it. Therefore we must make a choice to refer to God as he or she. Perhaps that s why the Hebrew word for God is a plural noun. Likewise the Holy Spirit whom we particularly celebrate on this day has no animal gender. In Hebrew the Holy Spirit is a feminine noun. In Greek a neuter noun. Therefore, I feel compelled or perhaps I should say Spirit-led to refer to the Holy Spirit as she. I pray that this will not be a stumbling block to you. Three years ago on this Day of Pentecost, I talked about ruach and pneuma - the Hebrew and Greek words for the Spirit. I mentioned that most Hebrew words have more than one meaning, many meanings in fact. And these meanings aren t distinct from one another but rather are layered one over the other, overlapping but not covering the other meanings. The spirit of God means breath, wind and spirit. Not breath or wind or spirit but breath and wind and spirit. Now the New Testament was written in Greek. And it seems that the Greeks understood the layered meaning of the Hebrew ruach when they chose pneuma which means Spirit, wind, breath, and inner life. Just as ruach and pneuma have many, layered meanings so too it seems the Spirit s presence and activity on earth is diverse and layered. What does the Holy Spirit do? According to today s Gospel Lesson, the Advocate or Spirit of truth testifies on Jesus behalf. The Spirit proves the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgement. The Spirit guides you into all the truth and declares to you the things that are to come. According to the Lesson from Paul s letter to the Romans, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, perhaps helps us to pray for we don t know how to pray as we ought and intercedes for us.
And according to the Lesson from the Acts of the Apostles, the Holy Spirit gives us abilities we don t have such as being able to speak foreign languages that we never learned. And the Spirit enables people to prophesy, to see visions and to dream dreams. Those are just some of the things the Holy Spirit does for there are plenty of other instances in the New Testament describing the activities and abilities of the Spirit. How does the Holy Spirit do it? It may appear to be an external activity like in today s Lesson from Acts. But even then God relies on us to do something. After all, what good was the Holy Spirit s activity if the disciples didn t use their sudden ability? So the Holy Spirit works outside of us but also works within us an inner life. And how did the apostles receive the Holy Spirit? In Jerusalem on that Pentecost long ago? Not according to the Gospel of John. In today s Gospel Lesson, we hear Jesus make a promise. Five chapters later Jesus breathes on them and says to them Receive the Holy Spirit. (John 20.22). Jesus breathed on them emphysaow the only occurrence of this Greek word in the New Testament. So the promise of John 15, which we heard today, Jesus himself delivers in John 20. After his resurrection and before his ascension and before the events recorded in Acts, he makes good on his promise. In the first chapter of Acts Jesus makes a similar promise. Acts One doesn t acknowledge or deny that Jesus breathed the Spirit into them on that day in the upper room before his Ascension into Heaven. So does the account need to be one or the other? Could it be both? Could it be that Jesus breathed into them and then announced that they would be baptized in this Spirit? The account we heard today from Acts is referencing a Jewish holiday the Festival of Weeks which occurs on the fiftieth day after Passover. The Greek word pentecost means fiftieth, so Jews from all over the ancient world had assembled in Jerusalem for the Festival of Weeks (Deuteronomy 16.9; Leviticus 23.16; Exodus 23:16; Numbers 28.26; called the first fruits of the wheat harvest in Exodus 34.22; Septuagint: Tobit 2.12 and 2 Maccabees 12.32; Leviticus 25.10)
So I wonder if God chose to show the Holy Spirit s power on that Jewish Pentecost so that the apostles might testify of their experience to the crowd, each hearing his own language. I wonder if God s timing was in coincidence with the fiftieth day after Easter the Pentecost of Jesus resurrection. And on this fiftieth day, the Holy Spirit s power appeared as tongues of fire. The Greek word for tongue glossa is the same word used for the word language. And the Spirit doesn t appear as tongues of fire languages of fire - anywhere else in the Bible. So are these tongues of fire situation specific - a specific empowering with a specific gift for a specific moment? That makes more sense to me considering that Jesus had already breathed the Holy Spirit into them in John 20. But if Jesus needed to breathe the Holy Spirit into them, how do we get the Holy Spirit? For that matter, are we not baptized with the Holy Spirit unless tongues of fire lick our shoulders? According to Acts (8.15-18) the apostles would pray for an individual that he or she might receive the Holy Spirit and then lay hands on the person, and they received the Holy Spirit. At your baptism, you were baptized both with water and the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands (usually a thumb on your forehead). So almost everyone here has the Holy Spirit within you. The Spirit is in our midst and within each of us. But how do we call upon her power? How do we activate this in-dwelling power of God? Well, first of all, where the Gospel is proclaimed and the Sacraments are administered in the gathered assembly on Sunday, there the Holy Spirit of God is active and alive and brings life and renewal to the Spirit within us. But what about the other 6 days of the week? The Gospel of Luke states, How much more will God give His Holy spirit to those who ask Him? How do you call upon this power? Just ask. Perhaps when you rise each morning. Perhaps during stressful times. Perhaps when you are facing a difficult decision.
Just ask. Prior to every Cursillo meeting we pray: Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And you shall renew the face of the earth. O, God, who by the light of the Holy spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy God s consolations, through Christ Our Lord, Amen. This prayer calls upon the power of the Holy Spirit to work in the world and in us. For the work mostly gets done through us by guiding us in the direction of God s will. How do we sense this guidance? For me the Holy Spirit is like a kind of voice. A voice that is both within me and outside of me. A voice that is silent yet I can clearly hear it. A voice that is gentle yet persistent and even demanding at times. A voice that comforts me, assures me of God s love and presence, and guides me. It s also a voice that points to things outside of me, helping me to recognize God s activity in and through other people and events as well as urging me to act according to God s will. Perhaps some of you are wondering how you can hear this voice too. After you pray for the Holy Spirit, be silent and listen, not with your ears or your mind, but with your heart. You have to be quiet in order to hear. You must listen in order to decipher the message. And the more you do it, the easier it is to hear the voice and feel a tug in one direction or another until you are always tuned in to the Holy Spirit s frequency. So I wonder for those of you who don t think you ve heard it I wonder if you have but just didn t recognize it. After all some may call it intuition; but I call it the voice of the Holy Spirit. Some may call it compulsion; but I call it the tug of the Holy Spirit. Some may call it coincidence; but I call it the activity Holy Spirit.
How does one get to this way of thinking? By a shift in attitude. Simply moving away from labelling the voice as intuition or the event as coincidence and instead recognizing that God through the Holy Spirit, is at work everywhere. That Jesus through the Holy Spirit is present everywhere. If such an attitude becomes your way of living, it s easier to hear and see this awesome power at work. But as you heard from me last Sunday, it s not always easy to heed the Holy Spirit s guidance, for we might have our own ideas, our own priorities, our own agenda. And I think it is there that we might stumble. For we can call on the Holy Spirit until the cows come home, but if we don t heed her voice, if we don t do what God through the Holy Spirit is guiding us to do, then what s the use of calling upon her? And how will God s work get done in the world? So like listening, the more you heed the guiding voice, the easier it is to do. Because frankly, if you re tuned in to the frequency, you ll know that it s God talking! And who if they had a personal experience with the living Christ via the Holy Spirit, could say no? I don t think we need tongues of fire that force something from us. I think we just need to carve out some silence each day. To recognize that coincidences and compulsions and intuitive moments are of God. We just need to gather for the Word and Sacraments each Sunday. We just need to pray each day for the Holy Spirit to empower us. And then we must be willing to set aside our own ideas and priorities and agendas and just do what Jesus through the Holy Spirit is inviting us to do. Maybe the Spirit of God is whispering to you right now. Maybe she is tugging at your heart right now on this Pentecost morning.