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Sermon - World Youth Day - 9th July 2008
Procession to St Alban’s Epping from Our Lady Help of Christians Church. 9 th July 2008 6pm.
Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13
The Holy Spirit can't be pinned down to a single name or image. The Spirit is like the wind, blowing where he chooses whence he comes and wither he goes no one knows. The Spirit is God communicating God’s self, love over-flowing. The Spirit is the fountain's spray and bubble, a spring of living water in the hearts of the faithful.
At the first Pentecost, the Spirit of God has descended upon the disciples, changing them. They became no longer simply observers of what God had done in and among them in Jesus Christ. Nor were they simply passive recipients of a promise of eternal life. A change had taken place. Jesus had promised that in returning to the Father, after his death and resurrection, he would send another advocate, another counsellor, another helper. He had been the first advocate, counsellor and helper, God incarnate so that we might see who God is for us and what God is prepared to do for us. When we see Jesus, we see the Father. This new advocate, whom the Father has sent in Jesus' name, is not another Messiah, not another redeemer, not another revelation of God. This advocate is the present tense of God, God's Spirit en-fleshed in those who welcome him. Jesus has returned to the Father, but now sends the Spirit of God to all who belong to him, to be for them advocate, counsellor and helper. Now the power of God is sent to all who call upon God in Jesus' name and look at the change it brings.
Until Pentecost, those gathered around Jesus were simply followers, students of a master rabbi, learners. However, at the descent of the Spirit, they are energized and transformed. The disciples became apostles, people sent forth into the world with a commission. Each disciple was sent out to bear witness to Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, the redeemer of the world, the one in whose name there is not only forgiveness of sins, but also, power for new life. God's Spirit descended upon them. The disciples became the bearers of God's Spirit themselves, people filled with and driven by God's Spirit.
The word spirit in Greek is pneuma, from which the English word "pneumatics" is derived. At Pentecost God poured out his Spirit, not just on one or two prophets, but upon his covenant people, all of them, women and men, boys and girls. The theology of the Spirit talks about human life being changed and driven by the wind of God, the Spirit of God, the power of God, God in the present tense.
Because of Pentecost we Christians are no longer a people who look only to the past as though it all happened back then and there. The Spirit sends us forth into the world to bear Christ to others, to be Christ in situations of lovelessness, conflict or need. As the reading says we as Spirit filled Christians are given a variety of gifts by the Spirit to carry out God’s reconciling work in the world.
It is not enough to know this stuff about God and Jesus. The coming of the Spirit makes the point that from now on you and I are to do something about it. We embody it! To receive the Spirit, is not so much to be enlightened, or to sit in a room and talk about "spiritual things”. To receive the Spirit is to bear God into the world, to do God's work, to speak God's word, to keep Jesus' commandments.
The fourteenth century, St. Teresa of Avila, reminds us that we are God's spirit filled messengers.
"God has no hands but our hands to do his work today; God has no feet but our feet to lead others in his way; God has no voice but our voice to tell others how he died; and, God has no help but our help to lead them to his side."
How then are you and I to keep Jesus' commandments to go into all the world and make disciples of all people, to forgive as we have been given and to love one another as God loves us? We do that by living out of the power of God's Spirit in our lives. We learn to love even the loveless because we call on the Spirit of God to empower us to love. We are able to forgive one another, not because it is our nature to do so, but because it is God's nature to do so and call upon God's Spirit to be the driving force in our lives. We learn to share our resources and do so joyfully, not because that is a natural response to abundance because it is not. We learn to share our resources because it is God's nature and Spirit to share, to give others what they need for life. As we call upon God's Spirit to drive our lives we begin to recognize that this life is not our own, these talents are not our own, these resources are not our own, not even our time is our own. It all belongs to God’s Spirit who has come upon our lives. If we open ourselves to the Spirit, then the Spirit will drive us and we will find ourselves able to keep Jesus' commandments and know that we are God's children.
This sermon constructed using www.mapc.com/html/07_sermons/ and other sources.