The Gift of the Spirit

Robert E. Hall
Tarrytown United Methodist Church

May 31, 2009

Text: Acts 2: 1-21

Maybe a pale blue would be more fitting for this day. Red is so fiery, so noticeable. A car dealer once advised us against buying a red station wagon. He said that on a smaller car red is fine, but you really get tired quickly of a big red car. Besides, people may think you are from the fire department! But the color of red fits the story: the color of blood, the color of fire. The color of life.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus tells the disciples: “I’ve taught you and now I will no longer be with you. The Paraclete (Advocate, Counselor, Spirit) will now teach and lead you.” Memories alone written in gospel accounts were not enough. There was (and is) a danger of the gospel becoming a deadly legalism, just words on a page.

As precious as the words of the Bible are to me, the Bible is a living document, always being received anew; and God meets us as we read, study, ponder and pray--- and guides and inspires us by means of the Story. The word becomes fresh. God is not only “back there,” but here and now----through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.

The Holy Spirit is not a free agent, creating excitement here and there. The Holy Spirit is the Triune God, decisively revealed in Jesus, active in and for us and  the whole world in all times and places.
The story in the book of Acts is the saga of moving from crucifixion to resurrection to the church being sent all over the known world with a message about God’s might acts. (It was an early church tradition that in the 50 days between Easter and Pentecost, Christians prayed in a standing position to symbolize the resurrection of Christ.)

But what can we say about the Spirit’s coming as given in Acts? It is the story of tongues as of fire, the whooshing sound of the wind and then the disciples each speaking, not in unknown tongues, but in the languages of the Jews of the many different nations. And each one of them telling the might acts of God! One Spirit, many manifestation and languages. We may say, “It never happened to me! Does this mean I don’t have the Spirit?” How does the Spirit of God work in our lives? Is excitement or enthusiasm itself a clear sign of the Holy Spirit? And, after all, this is a late first century story and we are much more skeptical of these kinds of experiences than they were.

When do we know that it is God’s spirit moving among us? When it looks like Jesus’ work as the New Testament bears witness to his work. When persons who have given up on themselves because of their failures hear and believe the Good News of God’s gift of forgiveness and newness of life.

And there are times when we are together in one place and we can feel the presence of Christ in an inspiring message, spoken or sung or dramatized or visualized. Or when someone feels led to take on a pressing issue or cause or great human suffering for the sake of the kingdom.

But the Spirit is also at work in the hard deliberations of the Trustees or the Finance Committee, as decisions are carefully crafted. The Spirit works not only through feelings but through reason. (As if we can separate the two within us!) Openness to the Spirit’s leading, new insights, new visions, new dreams of ministries to and with neighbors near and far: these are signals that the Spirit is at work.

John Wesley wrote about the Spirit’s presence. He had the belief that the reality of faith would be shown empirically in ways which one could know as surely as we know through our five senses. This view was modified over his lifetime because he himself was always doubting that he was truly in God’s good graces or that the Holy Spirit was alive in him. He wrote the following in response to one who was concerned because he or she had not had a Pentecost type experience:

“There is an irreconcilable variability in the operation of the Holy Spirit on the souls of [people]….Many find [the Spirit] rushing on them like a torrent, while they experience ‘the o’er whelming power of saving grace.’ But in many others [the Spirit] works in a very different way. ‘He deigns his influence to infuse, /Sweet, refreshing, as the silent dews. ….Let [the Spirit] take its own way. God is wiser than you; and will do all things well. Do not reason against God, but let the prayer of your heart be, ‘Mold as thou wilt thy passive clay.’” (quoted in The Joy of the Saints, Templegate publishers, 1988)

Given personality traits, life experiences, cultural backgrounds: all of these may do more to clarify for us now why there are such different ways of receiving and expressing the Spirit’s work in us. And there will be times when the stream of the Spirit (to change the metaphor) may dry up, or go underground. Our thoroughly secular and crass culture seems so often to be one dimensional----a babble of sounds, sights and amusements--- bereft of depth or sacredness. We are so often consumed by the cultures which we eagerly consume.When the creek runs dry, personally or corporately, we may be tempted to believe that we can simply shift our style, figure out a new way to market the gospel and make the river flow again, or at least simulate vitality.

But I would suggest a different approach, one that it witnessed in the Book of Acts. The church can continue to come together and pray and study and read our lives together; and break bread and remember and wait for God’s guidance and energy---- showers of blessing.

The Keechi Creek feeds into the Brazos River in north Palo Pinto County. It was our main place for recreation when it was flowing freely.  The stream would sometimes separate into little puddles yards apart. Occasionally the creek would go bone dry. (The old timers would tell me that the creek had gone underground.)What did we do when the creek dried up?  Only get together and wait and remember and plan for the days when it would flow again. So it is with us. Sometimes the Spirit is palpable. Sometimes the gospel-river seems dry. But God is faithful; the Spirit is not dependent on our perception of it. Sometimes it may indeed go underground.

The gift of Pentecost was the expansion of the gospel message to the wider world. To be sure, the first audience was Jewish. But everyone heard, each in his or her own language. And the Spirit moved the church always to new lands and cultures. The spirit-filled disciples had a passion to share the Good News “as the Spirit gave [them] the ability.” They were convinced that “what the church had been given to give the world [was] what the world needed more than any other thing.” (Will Willimon, source lost). The witness of the apostles is that the Spirit of God creates, animates, stimulates, propels and invigorates the Church.

The Church is like a sailing ship and the spirit is like the wind. When the sails are well trimmed, we move forward. The risen Lord is present in the community called Church through the Spirit. Karl Barth said it this way: “Jesus builds up Christianity in the world as his Body, as his own presence in ordinary life.” Simon Peter, in making explanation to the bewildered witnesses of Pentecost, quotes from the prophet Joel. “And all who call upon the Lord shall be saved.”

This is what they were boldly proclaiming, empowered as they were by the Holy Spirit that was not sprinkled on them, not imposed on them, but “poured out” on them.

Can you believe that the same Holy Spirit moves among us and in us and through us now?

The wide world now is a global village. What would it mean for us to speak and show the “mighty works of God” in “languages” which connect to the various people-groups which we encounter commonly? Young secular adults. Jaded cynics. Brutalized and violent children. Successful but empty professionals. Are we no called and empowered to communicate the gospel in ways that touch the hearts and free the minds of our neighbors?

This means that we are all evangelists! Witness-bearers! “Stewards of the mysteries!”

The Spirit is multi-lingual: God knows the language below speech: the languages of our hearts. The gospel transcends and transforms.

How will our message received? As in the first century, sometimes with bewilderment, scorn: (“They must be drunk!”), rejection, persecution? And sometimes with eager acceptance. And we cannot tell in advance which reception the gospel will get----or when persons will respond. We bear witness, not as a sign of our superior knowledge or our moral purity but because we are commanded to love our neighbors.

Truthfully, persons who have received the Holy Spirit cannot help it. As one has written, they are “swept along as though in a great river of obedience, praise and mighty works,” similar to the first disciples. (Richard Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament, page 135)

It is up to us to use our God-given creativity to channel our efforts in ways which speak to the needs of others, all of whom are already the subjects of God’s unbounded love.

There is nothing so winsome as the eloquence of an honest witness, the courage of a humble telling of how the Big Story of God’s mercy has intertwined with one’s life story. How?  We sing, dance, show, tell, paint, carve, touch, point, write----- as the Spirit gives us ability, in all the ways God has gifted us to express our faith, love and hope.