Pentecost

I don’t know if you have heard of Archbishop Anthony Bloom. He died a few years ago, but for many years he was the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church in Britain. He was a holy man and a great Christian writer – known especially his writing on prayer and the spiritual life. I once had the opportunity of not only meeting him but also entertaining him to coffee when he came to college to give a series of talks on prayer and the life of the spirit. In one of his books Bloom recalls an occasion when he was discussing Christianity with a learned Japanese writer who did not share the faith which Bloom lived out so eloquently. The Writer told the Archbishop: ‘I think I understand about the Father and the Son, but I can never understand the significance of the honourable bird.’ He was referring of course to the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Holy Trinity. When he referred to the honourable bird was he thinking about the dove often used as a symbol of the Holy Spirit? Or maybe his Geek or his hearing were not so good mistaking  a  Greek word for the Spirit  which is Paraclete – thinking the Spirit was a Parakeet. However a bird in flight with all the freedom of the air is a good symbol for the Holy Spirit.

In Celtic Christianity the Holy Spirit is referred to as the Wild Goose. Anyhow, that Japanese writer was not alone in finding the Holy Spirit difficult to comprehend. The Holy Spirit is often referred to as the neglected third person of the Holy Trinity eluding the attention of scholars and preachers like a bird in flight resists capture. Maybe we are a little afraid of the Holy Spirit - because it cannot be captured or caged - the honourable bird is still in flight.

As Jesus once said of the Spirit ‘the wind blows wherever it wills you hear the sound if it but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going’. But you do know when the Holy Spirit has been around. Gentle - yet strong. Peaceable - yet powerful. Disturbing - yet comforting. Indeed you cannot pin down the Holy Spirit. Nor should we try to. For it is by the Holy Spirit that God is with us and at work in the world. The Holy Spirit is God with us and at work in the Church. The Holy Spirit is God with us and at work in our lives. And since God is the God whose very nature and whose very being is love so the Holy Spirit is above all the Holy Spirit of love.

The Holy Spirit is the love of God present and active in the world, in the church and in our lives. Because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of love so all the work and activity of the spirit   is for human flourishing bringing joy and peace and unity to God’s world and to our lives. The love of God brings life and light and vitality to the Church. The Holy Spirit makes the love of God real for each one of us in our lives and in our experience. Let’s take a look at those three aspects of the working of the Holy Spirit in the world in the church and in our lives.

The presence and work of the Holy Spirit is as wide and diverse as the whole of creation and as wide and diverse as the whole of humanity. If you remember the very first verse of the bible we are told the Spirit of God hovered over the watery chaos and the creation began.

I remember Christmas day forty years ago when the first of the Apollo spacecraft got to the moon (they didn’t land) and there was that amazing picture of the earth from the moon and one of the crew read from Genesis 1. ‘The Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters...’ The Holy Spirit is the creator spirit God’s creating hand. And then in the second chapter of Genesis where we are given another look at creation by another author we see how God breathes his spirit into Adam and gives him life. The spirit is given to everybody because Adam represents the whole of humanity. There is something of God in everyone. Everyone is capable of relating to God as father. We are spiritual as well as physical. We have dreams of eternity. In fact we are not fully human unless we acknowledge that spiritual side of nature – unless we acknowledge the presence of God his Spirit in each of us. All that is good in human life - above all love, but also self offering, peacemaking and true community. These are the signs of the presence of God through his spirit living within human life and within human lives – giving us the potential for great nobility and the greatest acts of love and kindness.

But the sprit is also the spirit of creation and of creativity. When we look at a great work of art or when we hear great music or when we read great literature. When we are moved to our very being or lifted out of ourselves we then often  use the language of inspiration. We say whoever created this was inspired. We are then using the very language the Bible uses of the Holy Spirit. God breathed his spirit over the chaos and all the beauty of creation began – in other words he inspired it with his breath or his spirit. That same spirit is the inspiration behind music and art and literature and community and friendship and a thousand other good and creative aspects of life that enrich us and our world are created. Through the Spirit we share in Gods creating work. J. S. Bach sought the inspiration of the Spirit of God before he wrote his great music. Every autograph score that we have of all his works contains his prayer for the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The work of the Spirit is as wide as creation and as wide as humanity. Truly God is at work in his world by his Spirit.

Today The Feast of Pentecost is called the Birthday of the Church. God breathed his spirit on the twelve Apostles and the Church was born. It was the Holy Spirit which changed those twelve frightened and timid men into courageous and zealous and convincing witnesses to Jesus and his Gospel. And even today 2,000 years on that same Holy Spirit empowers God’s people and gives to us the words and the ways to tell the same story but in different ways in each generation as he reveals the truth and the relevance of the Gospel for each generation.

The story of the early years of the Church is found in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles. Some people refer to that book as the acts of the Holy Spirit in the apostles. But actually you could describe all that has been good and fruitful in the history of the Church as the Acts of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church. The Acts of the Holy Spirit in the lives of Christian people all down the ages from Pentecost until now. It is the Holy Spirit that empowers the Church for mission and witness and service. Without the presence of the spirit the Church would have failed long ago. It is the very life of Jesus Christ at the heart of the Church which gives the Church her life and her vitality – and he is present through the Holy Spirit, leading us as he promised into all truth. The Spirit of Pentecost is still working in the life of the Church.

Last but not least. The Holy Spirit makes his dwelling within us in our hearts and lives. In our reading from the letter to the Romans from that wonderful chapter 8 which is really the chapter of the indwelling Spirit. In the extract read this morning  Paul points to perhaps the most fundamental work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The Spirit of the father given to us and living in our hearts makes us children of God. Paul says that it is because we have the Spirit of God within us that we can call God Abba Father. Note the use of that word ‘Abba’ for God. It was the word that Jesus used to address God his father.It denotes a  close and intimate relationship of mutual love and trust. Like dad or daddy without the childish connotations of the word. Through the Holy Sprit we too may call God Abba father as Jesus did for we share  in our measure the same spirit which he had to the full. It is through the gift of the Holy Spirit that we know God in our lives and in our experience. It is by the Holy Spirit that we don’t just know about him but that we know him. As Jesus said ‘The Spirit leads us into all truth – the truth that is  that truth that is really, really worth knowing, that God is the loving father of each one of us.

We began by thinking about the Honourable Bird who cannot be caged. One Christian writer described the work of the Holy Spirit in this way:  

One day is very much like another in the search for God.  But from time to time there is a sudden, unexpected shining forth of God.  You suddenly realise that God is everywhere, in everything, and everyone and that he is in you. The God within me reveals his presence perhaps only fleetingly and the rest of my days are changed permanently. Something happens that I did not merit, and that I cannot explain or communicate, but it is more real than words could ever capture or explain. For to do so would be to have some hold on God, who cannot be captured in a phrase or a formula. It is a gift.  It is grace.  The grace of the Holy Spirit the honourable bird who cannot be caged.

The Spirit blows where he will. Amen.