Episcopal Church of the Incarnation
The Feast of Pentecost (Year B)
Acts 2.1-21 Psalm 104.25-35, 37 Romans 8.22-27 John 15.26-27; 16.4b-15
Alleluia. Christ is risen.
The Lord is risen indeed.
Alleluia.
1) “Come, Holy Ghost, our souls
inspire.” These words are found in the Hymnal
at 503 and 504, and are a paraphrase from the ancient prayer Veni
Creator Spiritus, “come, creator Spirit”.
a) The words of the hymn also
involve a play on words, for in referring to the Holy Ghost–the Holy Spirit–we
pray that we may be “inspired,” in other words, spirit-filled.
i) And so I want to assume for
the purposes of this sermon that this prayer is answered.
(1) That the Holy Spirit does
come, does fill and inspire us.
ii) Making that assumption,
then, a question arises: What does a
Spirit-filled church look and act like?
2) Notice that I didn’t ask
what a person looks like and acts like who is filled with the Holy Spirit.
a) Our lesson from Acts
describes the Pentecost event, in which those present speak in many languages.
b) In 1 Corinthians 12
i) Paul makes it clear that
every person given a gift of the Spirit is given this gift “for the common
good.”
(1) OK. So we have a first glimpse at an answer: A Spirit-filled church is filled with people
who use their gifts in ministry, who use their gifts to build up the common
Body of the Church.
(a) In other words, in a
Spirit-filled church unity is not an issue, and divisiveness and factionalism are
themselves signs of the absence of the Spirit.
(i) Indeed, maybe even of the
presence of spirits rather than the Holy Spirit.
3) But let’s get a little more
practical. Let’s look at the gifts
enumerated by
a) Utterance of wisdom: Well, we can hope and pray that in prayer,
preaching and teaching, some wisdom will be present; that we will gain some
new, small insight into God and His call to us.
b) Utterance of knowledge: We’re reminded in the Catechism that
God has made each one of us to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him.
i) And we can pray that in the
Holy Eucharist we might come to know God just a little bit better.
c) Faith: Ah!
Now here we have evidence we can see, for would any one of us be here
today were it not for the faith we have that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and
the Life?
d) Healing: We pray for healing. Some of us have seen such prayers answered,
and the gift of faith allows us to keep praying.
e) The working of
miracles: Most of us probably think that
we have never witnessed a miracle, because we think of a miracle as something
sudden and awe-inspiring.
i) But, cannot a miracle be
something gradual, like the turning of a heart from evil to good?
(1) Like all conversion
experiences, in which a person realizes that his ego is not what matters, and
says to God, “Use me.”
f) Prophecy: We tend to think of prophecy as the
foretelling of the future, but to be a prophet means no more and no less than
to speak for God.
i) And don’t we do that in
prayer, in preaching and teaching, and in witnessing to each other about God’s
love for us?
g) The discernment of
spirits: Hmm. This is a little tougher. But every time we look into someone’s heart
and ask something like “Are you OK?” or “Do you need help?,” aren’t we acting
just a little bit to discern their spirit?
h) Tongues and the
interpretation of tongues: Well, here
you’ll get an argument.
i) Some people claim to speak
in tongues, but you’ll have a pretty hard time finding anyone who can reliably
claim to interpret ecstatic speech, and to reliably say what is being uttered.
(1) And there is a strong
argument to be made that such tongues were a feature of being led by the Spirit
in apostolic times–the first explosion of the Church into the world–but not
since.
4) OK. So we’ve looked at the gifts, but that still
doesn’t really tell us what a Spirit-filled church looks like, only what
Spirit-filled people might look like.
a) What does a church family
look like? More particularly, how can we
discern if our prayer is answered, and the Spirit does come to us?
b) Well, if you go back through
the list of gifts we just looked at, one thing that strikes you is that most of
what we are looking for is not dramatic and immediate.
i) And even if something is
dramatic, that does not mean that holiness is dramatic and immediate.
(1) Let’s look at St. Paul
again.
(a) His conversion on the road
to Damascus was certainly dramatic.
(b) Elsewhere in Acts he relates
how on that road he met the risen Jesus Himself.
(c) In Galatians he relates how
following his conversion he was instructed in the faith by Jesus Himself.
(i) And yet this same Paul in
Romans bemoans:
“I can will what is right,
but I cannot do it. For I do not do the
good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.”
5) The bottom line? Our prayer that the Spirit come is fulfilled
when as individuals and as a church family we stay focused on the fact that we
are on a pilgrimage; that we are going somewhere, and we seek to be led
there.
a) We seek for wisdom and knowledge,
to follow to our goal in heaven.
b) We walk by faith, trusting
in healing, trusting in miracles, trusting in prophecy.
c) We seek to discern the
spirits of all who travel with us, and all who we reach out to join us in
pilgrimage, and pray that by whatever language or tongue we may better lead
them and by led by them.
d) But notice that all these
gifts involve small but ongoing steps.
i) Little steps that are taken
habitually, through faith.
(1) Little habits. Habits of prayer, of the study of Scripture,
of frequent recourse to the Holy Eucharist.
(a) In other words, a
Spirit-filled church is filled with people who focus on all the little things
that build up the common Body of the Church
(b) Who stick to those small
habits by which and in which we are instructed and led.
(c) Habits which allow each of
us in some ministry to impart to others some part of the gift which the Spirit
has given us.
6) A Spirit-filled church
sticks to the Way, knowing that in this will be found all Truth, leading to the
Life everlasting.
a) Taking one small step on
that Way, day-by-day, together, walking in faith.
Alleluia. Christ is risen.
The Lord is
risen indeed. Alleluia.