Sermon preached on Pentecost Sunday – 28th May 2023 (Year A):ACTS 2:1-21, 1 CORINTHIANS 12:3b-13, JOHN 7:37-39
Deacon Chris Saccali – St Paul’s Athens
I speak in the name of the Living God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
We start where we left off two weeks ago talking about the Holy Spirit, ascension has intervened we have been praying the great novena – the nine days between Ascension and Pentecost reflecting on the initiative of Thy kingdom Come. Here what Pope Francis had to say on 15th May in his daily missive, journey with the Pope.
‘ The Holy Spirit wants to stay with us : he is not a passing guest who comes to pay us a courtesy visit. He is a companion for life , a stable presence. He is Spirit and presence. He is spirit and desires to dwell in our spirits. He is patient and stays with us when we fall.He remains because he truly loves us , he does not pretend to love us, and then leave us alone when things get difficult.No. he is faithful.He is transparent., he is authentic.’
My only quibble with this inspiring text is the pronoun HE used to describe the Holy Spirit. To aghio pneum, a, a neuter noun in Greek, but it is often thought of as feminine. Think of the worship song the Enemy of Apathy whose first line goes,’ She sits like a bird brooding on the waters….’ Referring to the Spirit long before the existence of the world. The Old and New testament are full of references to the Holy Spirit as a consistent presence from Creation to new creation.
You can decide for yourself how to best describe the Spirit of the three person Trinity, along with all the descriptions we heard two weeks ago such as Advocate, Comforter and Paraclete. And we may need to consider how our leanings and feelings change throughout our age, stage of life and circumstances.
I love the chant Veni, Spiritus, Sanctus the Latin version and the Taize chant Veni, Sancte, Spiritus the word Creator is often used too in these chants . It was especially symbolic during my ordination when I was lying spread-eagled here (on a rug) before Bishop David laid his hands on me. It was also chanted at the Coronation of King Charles recently when the Holy Spirit was invoked. The Archbishop of Canterbury referred to the Spirit in his sermon: ‘The Holy Spirit calls us to love in action….each of us is called to serve…many of us show such love.’ Reflecting God’s love of us.
Our epistle reading today relates of all the gifts of the outpouring of that love in service. Make no mistake each of us is endowed with the spirit and with gifts. Sometimes we cannot recognize our own gifts and need others to point them out to us. That is what church is a building up and encouragement of each other’s gifts. I am sure there were plenty in evidence yesterday at the bazaar. Today we are remembering a former member of St Paul’s, Michael Gunton, his life and his gifts as a teacher and follower of Christ.
Such lives of the faithful now and departed make it clear what the gift of the Holy Spirit to the church is for. It is not designed to fill us with religious feelings, or give us unshakeable certainty or to impress others with our power or to form us into The Church, though it may have all those effects too. The gift is given principally to allow the disciples and us, to do what Jesus instructed us to on the first chapter of Acts, which is to be his witnesses to Jerusalem, to Judea and to all the ends of the earth.
The temptation is to see the gift of the Spirit as something for insiders, to be jealously guarded and enjoyed. But, instead, it is clear that the Spirit and God’s outpouring of love is for all people. It is with that longing that Peter preaches. A longing that all should share in the forgiveness and new life that God has given us freely.
It is interesting how the lectionary readings are paired up today and that in our Gospel reading the Spirit is described as assuaging a thirst, another kind of longing which is deeply spiritual and at the centre of our being.
What must have been going through the apostles’ minds and hearts as they were assembled during the festival of weeks, the celebration of the barley harvest, an agricultural feast? Certainly, the flames and tongues and accompanying rush of noise and air – reminiscent of ruah the Hebrew word for the breath of God- was unexpected and drove them straight out on their way to fulfill their commission.
I sat waiting at a nearby beach recently listening for a roar and watching the skies for glimpses of colour. No, not for the Holy Spirit that is given to us and within us at Baptism but the distinctive roar of engines of the Red Arrows, the Royal Aircraft Acrobatic Team from UK who come annually on their spring training session to Tanagra airbase. They practice over the Euboean Gulf creating breathtaking aerial displays and releasing red, white and blue trails behind them. An amazing sight. They did the fly past for the Coronation even in murky weather. And it was pretty misty the other day when we caught a glimpse of them beyond Oropos, but unmistakable as unmissable as the flash and rush of the Holy Spirit that creative force. The breath in everyone one of us – the breath of God.
I end with the poem Pentecost is everyday by Stewart Henderson:
I share and share and share again
sometimes in a new language
which , if you are so open
will take you behind the sky
and award you cartwheels across the sun
I give and give and give again
not restricted by the Church calendar
or concocted ritual
I have no need of anniversaries
for I have always been
I speak and speak and speak again
with the sting of purity
that can only be Me
causing joyous earthquakes in the mourning soul of man
I am and am and am again. AMEN
No Comments