PEOPLE'S CHURCH OF DOVER

John 20:19-23                                                                                RECEIVE THE SPIRIT

Pentecost Sermon May 31, 2009:  People's United Church of Christ, Dover, DE:  The Rev. Dan Griggs

 

            When we hear the word "Pentecost" there are certain images that come to mind—a preacher holding a microphone, sweating as he or she moves around the chancel of a large church full of people standing, waving their arms, maybe dancing; a large gospel choir grooving to an up-beat gospel song.  These are television images of Pentecostal church services.  If I were to interrupt the program and ask you if you have the Holy Spirit, you would probably say, "No."  Pentecostalism is the fastest growing form of Christianity in the world today—most of its growth is in Latin America and Africa; and some of the churches there have ten thousand members.  That sounds impressive until you look more closely and see the individual in that congregation.  Penn State professor Philip Jenkins suggests that she or he has just joined this church; last year they joined another church across town; and next year they'll likely move on to find another church where the power will touch their life more directly.[1]

            Is this what Jesus gave the church when he breathed on the apostles and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit"?  And if so, do you have the Holy Spirit?  When I baptize a person, immediately after the baptism I lay my hand on his head and pray for the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Weren't you baptized?  Well, most of us would be embarrassed to be involved in a third-world Pentecostal megachurch.  It would probably be too loud, go on for too long, feature music we're not familiar with, and we don't quite trust the idea of faith-healing—at least not the way they do it. 

            But the question stands:  Do you have the Holy Spirit?  Do you? 

 

            This Pentecostal movement is about a hundred years old.  It started in a church on Azusa Street in Los Angeles—not on Pentecost Day in Jerusalem.  That story is told in the Book of Acts,[2] and there the endowment of the Holy Spirit made it possible for the apostles to preach in languages they had not studied—but real languages:  Persian, Elamite, Coptic, Berber, Latin, Arabic; and since there are more languages listed than there were apostles, I think it was a miracle of the ear more than of the mouth. 

            So what is this "gift of the Holy Spirit," and what does it do for you?  In that passage I read from the Gospel of John, when Jesus breathed on the apostles and gave them the Spirit, Jesus immediately says, "Whoever you forgive on earth is forgiven"—the Gospel of John links the Spirit with forgiveness, not with miracles.  And John has a lot to say about the Holy Spirit.  It reports in Jesus' discourse in the Upper Room that he said several things about the Spirit:[3] 

 

 

This is the "still-speaking" God!  Jesus doesn't claim to have taught the apostles everything, and as each generation of Christians has lived and sought God's will for the issues of their day, the Holy Spirit has been active in guiding the church's understanding.  That's how they decided on the twenty-seven books to include in the New Testament—they studied, they debated, they prayed, and they listened for the voice of the Spirit.  When the Congregationalists in New England heard about the uprising of the prisoners on the slave-ship Amistad, what do you think persuaded them to take a chance, come up with the money to hire former President John Quincy Adams, and take the case for their freedom all the way to the Supreme Court?  Not good business sense!  Not social influence!  The Spirit was at work.  "He will guide you into all the truth."  What a powerful promise!  So I ask the question again:  Do you have the Holy Spirit?

            Here are two things the Bible says the Holy Spirit does:  the Spirit (shall I say "she"?) is the guide to forgiveness, and she is still speaking.  What else? 

            There's a beautiful passage in the eighth chapter of Paul's letter to the Romans, where he says that when our prayers feel weak and dull, the Holy Spirit "intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words" and gives our prayers wings.[4]  That means that your prayers don't have to be perfect:  you just have to try—maybe sometimes your prayers are tears, or a catch in your throat for joy.  The hungry homeless woman is invited in, she sits down at the table, someone places before her a plate of good food; and her heart is filled with inexpressible gratitude—a prayer from a groaning stomach.  And I ask my question again:  Do you have the Holy Spirit?  And you're beginning to think, "Well, maybe I DO!"  If it isn't about unbelievable things like miracles, but rather about something I've already experienced and didn't have a name for it—well, there it is! 

            Paul tells us something else about the Holy Spirit.  He uses the word often translated "pledge" or "guarantee," but the word was used during Paul's time to mean something like an engagement ring.  Listen:[5]

 

"First installment" of what?  Eternal life!  Then later in the same letter Paul wrote:[6]

 

 

A "guarantee" of what?  Paul's student who wrote Ephesians said this:[7]

 

 

The activity of the Holy Spirit in your life is a sign, a promise from God that you are accepted, even when you feel unacceptable.[8]  So having the Holy Spirit must not feel like anything:  it's proven by what we call "providence."  Have you had a providential moment? 

            One more thing.  Paul wrote a letter to the churches in Galatia, where they had confused an obedient heart with a set of rules.  What Paul told them was basically this:  that Christian ethics is not rooted in rules—not even rules that God made:  Christian ethics is rooted in the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  And what does the Spirit guide us toward?  He lists all the trouble that living out of your ego can cause—fornication, strife, quarrels, envy, hanging out getting into trouble; and then he wrote:[9]

 

 

            So here we are on Pentecost Sunday with all those television images of emotional displays to confuse us about what it is Jesus had in mind when he breathed on the apostles and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit."  But we have known the joy of divine providence in our lives.  We have experienced a promise of something better in God's grace.  We have known forgiveness and maybe even learned how to forgive others too.  We have been through life's silly seasons when our prayers felt like they just rolled off the edge of the pillow and fell on the floor, and yet we came to see God's blessing anyway—as if somebody else had been praying for me.  We have witnessed time and again the church, faced with some issue we've never faced before, but finding the proper response because "God is still speaking."  Even in your private devotional life, where do you think those "insights" that come along   come from?  "God IS still speaking." 

            And dare I ask my question again?  Do you have the Holy Spirit?  No, I don't have the Holy Spirit:  the Holy Spirit's got me.  And that's even better. 

 

            My brother's younger son, Mike, lives in Houston.  I've told you about Mike before—he went through four marriages while he was working in Country and Western Music, played in the band at Gilley's Club, managed Gilley's record production enterprise, hit bottom.  Here's part of Mike's story I've never told you.  Back when he was about nine years old, his parents were separated, life had to be hard—the Baptist Church he and his family attended sometimes had a revival.  One summer day Mike came to visit and announced that he had "gotten saved."  At nine years old we wondered "saved from what"?  But his brother and sister had "gotten saved," too.  His elation, his emotional high from the experience lasted for several weeks and slowly faded.  Life was hard.  He finished high school, tried to get into a music career, went through more trouble than anybody should have, ended up in another Baptist Church looking for something.  What he found was a Latino-American woman named Diana, who was an airline flight attendant.  After they married they discovered that they couldn't have children, so they adopted two Mexican brothers—babies.  They started attending church regularly, and the boys grew, and the marriage was strong.  He got a job as an executive search agent—a "head-hunter."  But he had this gift—his music.  He couldn't go back to the alcohol-soaked mechanical bull.  Instead he volunteered to serve as the music director of his church.  His new lifestyle cleaned up his language, straightened out his bank book, gave him the opportunity to be a good father, a good husband, a good man.  Long about wife three he had changed his name from Mike Griggs to Steven Michael (just dropped the "Griggs"), and he's living in Houston with his family; and this morning he will be on the chancel of his church leading the music ministry.  I'd say there's plenty of evidence that the Holy Spirit's got Mike.  (I still call him Mike.) 

            And what about you?  It's Pentecost, the day we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit; but I'm not talking about wild experiences and emotional highs.  I'm talking about a "good life" that's really "good."  Do you have the Holy Spirit?  No, the Holy Spirit's got you.

AMEN