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The Day of Pentecost
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Scripture citation(s): Romans 8:22-27; John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15
A Sermon by
The Rev. Canon Carl Turner
on
Romans 8:22-27; John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15
✛
Life in the Spirit — a Sign of the Quickening of the Church
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Last week I spent several days at Nashotah House Theological Seminary in Wisconsin where, like Father Mead and Father Andrew before him, I am a Trustee. On Wednesday the Alumni came back; one young priest and his wife were chatting with me and they told me that they were expecting the first baby. And then this young man almost jumped up off his seat as he grinned from ear to ear and said : “And yesterday we had the quickening!” I marvelled at the use of a term that I have never heard used at all in the United Kingdom over the past 50 years, and used in such a natural and beautiful way to share an intimate moment about the life of their unborn child suddenly making itself very known to the world. The quickening.
After the Ascension when Jesus was taken away from his friends they didn’t just hang around wondering what to do, they gathered in prayer. Today we celebrate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles and, we presume from the Book of Acts, also on Mary and the women whom, as Luke tells us, gathered with the Apostles in an upper room in prayer from the Ascension of Jesus until the Day of Pentecost
Now, the presence of Mary is significant for me; as the mother of Jesus she had cooperated with God in an intimate and yet powerful way, enabling the incarnation to happen. When Mary asked the angel how this could be since she was a Virgin, the angel told her that the Holy Spirit would overshadow her. Mary’s presence in the upper room reminds me that there was soon to be another overshadowing and that this would also result in a birth –the birth of those who would truly become the brothers and sisters of Jesus – the bodily representation of Christ on earth – his body, the Church. In our Epistle reading today St Paul writes “We know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.” that is, “We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now.” (NRSV)
Indeed, many people describe the feast of Pentecost as the birthday of the Church. Whether this is the birth or whether this is the anniversary of its quickening, something wonderful happened in the upper room as the Holy Spirit overshadowed all the faithful and empowered them to witness to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The people were amazed when they heard the apostles speaking in many languages. In utter contrast to the story of the Tower of Babel, all heard distinctly the message of salvation and in their own native languages just as, at the offertory today, you will hear the choir, as it were, speaking and singing in tongues and, yet, distinctly hearing the prayer for spiritual gifts “Come Holy Ghost’ sung in unison in the midst of diversity.
Thus, we recall that the Church is given spiritual gifts; the Holy Spirit is not the Ghost of a dead Jesus – he is God – a distinct person of the Trinity – and the presence and power of God that animates us and bestows on each of us spiritual gifts that can build up the Body of Christ and help change the world. There are many spiritual gifts and Paul lists a number of them several times in his letters: Tongues; interpretation of tongues; prophecy; discernment; words of wisdom; words of knowledge; faith; miraculous powers; healing. These are powerful gifts, my friends, some to be used individually and some within the Church community but all to the glory of God and the advancement of his Kingdom. Many of you have these gifts but they are not to be confused with the fruits of the Spirit. Often in the church community, when we talk about the gifts of the Spirit some remember Paul’s description of living a Christian life filled with the Holy Spirit: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self- control.” (Galatians 5:22). These are the outward manifestation of a life centred on God but they are not spiritual gifts – they give the church its character but the charisms or gifts distributed by the Holy Spirit are what produces a community that exhibits that fruitfulness – when the Church is truly living out its vocation as the Body of Christ and centred on its mission in the world.
The Gifts of the Spirit are very specific and given to individuals according to need or necessity – one member may have a particular gift whilst another, a completely different gift. Many of us have gifts of the Spirit that are dormant – the gifts are to be used when needed. Many Christians do not even know that they have a gift! Paul says that we should pray for spiritual gifts and reminds us that we should pray for the higher gifts – the ones that will truly build up the Body of Christ:
“Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” (1 Corinthians 12: 4-7)
My friends, we live in an age when much organised religion, including some parts of the Christian Church, can seem irrelevant and moribund. A Church that opens itself truly to the promptings of the Spirit can be an agent of change in a broken and wounded world. Jesus said, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.” (John 16:13)
Let me end with words spoken many years ago by the late Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, Ignatius IV, when he was Archbishop of Latakia in Syria, and he addressed the Assembly of the World Council of Churches at Uppsala in 1968:
Without the Holy Spirit
God is far away.
Christ stays in the past,
The Gospel is simply an organization,
Authority is a matter of propaganda,
The Liturgy is no more than an evolution,
Christian loving, a slave mentality.
But in the Holy Spirit
The cosmos is resurrected and grows with the
birth pangs of the kingdom.
The Risen Christ is there,
The Gospel is the power of life,
The Church shows forth the life of the Trinity,
Authority is a liberating science,
Mission is a Pentecost,
The Liturgy is both renewal and anticipation,
Human action is deified.
Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of thy faithful people and kindle in them the fire of thy love.
