Day of Pentecost – May 31, 2009
Ezekiel 37:1-14; Acts 2:1-11; John 15:26-27, 16:4b-15
St. Giles Church, Northbrook IL – The Rev. Cynthia J. Hallas
I’ve been thinking this week about what it means to be visited by the Holy Spirit, and to be enlivened, or re-energized, by that Spirit. Today’s gospel is a narrative of Jesus saying good-bye to his disciples prior to the crucifixion (we read in today in spite of the fact that we’re celebrating a post-resurrection event). He promised them that he would send them the Advocate, the Comforter, the HS, to sustain them when he could be with them no longer. Much more than they could ever have imagined on that night of the last supper would occur before that happened, but of course Jesus would make good on his promise to send the Holy Spirit!
Today we celebrate the arrival of that Spirit. Of course that doesn’t mean that the Holy Spirit made its first appearance on that Day of Pentecost. The Spirit (ruach, pneuma, spiritus, anima)
was present in creation, the breath of God moving on the waters of chaos out of which the creation was spoken into being. It has been with us ever since.
Ezekiel encountered the Holy Spirit, the breath of God, in a huge and obvious way. The prophet is on a God-guided tour through a valley of dry bones – bones that represent the whole house of Israel. Can these bones live? Can this exiled, estranged people ever be strong and faithful again? How should Ezekiel know? Only God can tell; and it will take the words of God spoken through this reluctant prophet to make it happen. Notice how this resurrection, this re-enlivening, happens from the inside out. The bones come together, the skeletons take shape, and gradually they’re given sinew and flesh and skin. (Can you imagine what Hollywood would do with a scene like this?)
But even with bone and sinew and flesh and skin, these beings aren’t living yet – they cannot live - because there’s no breath in them. They have no spirit; they are not animated. They’re sort of like “living dead” at this point. It isn’t until the breath, the Spirit, is summoned from the four winds and breathed into those not-quite-living beings that they become fully what they had been and always were meant to be. Not dead, but alive in the Spirit. The house of Israel had seen itself as lifeless and without hope. But God saw differently – God always sees differently.
Where there had been nothing but death and despair, suddenly there was new life, new relationship, and homecoming for God’s people. The Spirit made it happen.
The disciples gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate the Jewish feast of Pentecost were not operating on the same level of despair and hopelessness that their Hebrew ancestors had experienced – if anything, they should have been happily expectant, perhaps even a bit impatient. Christ’s resurrection from the dead had lifted the despair brought on by his crucifixion, and even though his ascension had forced a parting once again, this time there was the promise of the Holy Spirit, in the Savior’s own words “you will be clothed with power not many days from now”. That was the promise. But for now, they were in a sort a “holding pattern”. I find myself wondering (perhaps you do, as well) what they were up to during that in-between time. Prayer? Sharing of meals? Did they go back to work? Surely they must have been wondering what Jesus had meant when he talked about being “clothed with power”. What kind of power? How would it manifest itself? How would it change them – for it would surely change them - and would they be up to the task? Were they nervous, anxious; or were they supremely confident of this promise from Jesus? How strong was their faith at that point? We hear this story every year; do we ever wonder just what it was like to be living it, not only in the moment, but in the surrounding time as well?
Whether or not they were expecting an event on the scale of what actually happened, we will never know. The overpowering noise, the flame-like tongues alighting on people’s heads, the sudden and inexplicable ability to speak in these languages not their own – something had overtaken them; something had transformed them, re-made them, animated them, enlivened them in ways they would likely never have thought possible had they been left to their own devices to figure out. You may recall that Jesus had told his disciples at one point that he would not be able to do every thing necessary and that they would do greater things than even he had done. This is the beginning of those things. It took the Holy Spirit to enable that, to make it possible for them to begin the work that Jesus had left for them to do.
We know that the Holy Spirit goes where it will. But the power of that Spirit is also nothing if not adaptable. The breath of God that spoke creation into existence; that breathed life into an inanimate being formed of the dust of the earth; that raised up a field of dry bones and tore through that room full of disciples; that Spirit will always be what it needs to be and do what it needs to do to advance God’s purposes. Make no mistake: that Spirit is just as active in the Church today as it ever was at any time in human history.
I see it in our diocese; in the renewed activity, the corporate learning and fellowship that we do in what one person described as this “mega-church” that is really what the Diocese of Chicago is.
And more and more I see it in this parish, and I know that you do too. Nathaniel’s baptism today marks the fourth baptism we’ve had in less than a year, several to members of new families in our congregation, including the Chow family; it’s been a long time since that’s happened at St. Giles. And of course, any baptism, at any time, is a reason for rejoicing in the Church and giving thanks to God and this morning we welcome Nathaniel as a fellow traveler with us on this journey of faith. He’ll be baptized with water and then a cross will be signed on his forehead with oil of Chrism, which is the symbol of the Holy Spirit’s presence in baptism: “sealed with the Holy Spirit…and marked as Christ’s own forever.”
And there are so many other signs of the Spirit enlivening and animating this place. The community garden and the corresponding efforts at sustainability, at protecting and safeguarding God’s creation. The Hunger Project, now organized not just for St. Giles but as a growing interfaith effort to feed and reach out to those in need, building on over 25 years of our own unique ministry. Our regular weekly worship and fellowship; our hospitality in extending the use of our facilities to groups needing space for their activities; the enthusiasm generated at last month’s Vestry retreat. These are happening because the Holy Spirit has touched this congregation and has moved us to new ministries, new ways of seeing and being. Not every experience of the Holy Spirit has to be as dramatic as those of Ezekiel or the earliest disciples. They don’t need to be, and most of them aren’t. But the eternal Spirit is at work just the same.
It’s at work here, and it will be at work in Nathaniel’s life as he grows in body and in faith. So let’s celebrate that, and prepare to welcome Nathaniel into the body of Christ….