“Ruach: The Holy Spirt”
"Holy Communion Celebrated"
Scripture Lesson: John 14: 15-21, 25-27
Sermon Transcript for September 7, 2008
By Pastor Andy Kinsey
Prayer of Preparation
O God, may your Holy Spirit guide us into the truth of your Word that we may know more fully and serve more faithfully your Son our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
The Message
We believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth!
We believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord!
We believe in the Holy Spirit!
Over the last two weeks, we have been sharing in our messages about the Holy Trinity. Pastor Bob began our series on God the Father, or Abba- Daddy, our Creator and Maker. And last week we shared about God the Son, about Jesus Christ our Savior and Friend. Jesus is God’s eternal Word in the flesh (the very Incarnation of God).
Over the last two weeks, in speaking of the Trinity, we have been speaking of God in three persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – the God who, in majesty and splendor, created this world, and the God who, in humility and love, came to us in human flesh to save this world. God in three persons, blessed Trinity!
And so, as Christians, when we speak of the Trinity we speak of the God who has given us the Son in the power of the Spirit. The God we worship is not simply the God who creates us and saves us, but also the One who comes to us and works in us by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.
Now, before moving on, let me say that, as a preacher, it is usually at this point that, after mentioning the Holy Spirit, I often lose listeners! It is all right to talk about God as Father and Creator, and it is all right to talk about God as Son and Savior and Friend. But when I begin to share about the Holy Spirit, I have noticed how a sort of glassy film begins to spread over the eyes! Holy Spirit? What do you mean?
Suddenly, with a little fear and trepidation, we may have flashbacks of either sawdust tents or weeklong revivals; suddenly, if our memories are serving us well, we may remember confirmation class as we listen once again to what many in the church have referred to as “the forgotten person of the Trinity.” Keep God in the heavens! Keep Jesus in Galilee! But Holy Spirit?! You are not going to do or say something crazy, are you, pastor?
Now, I hope I am wrong. Of all people, United Methodists are surely not afraid of the third person of the Trinity! When the Spirit says sing, we of all people will surely be able to obey the Spirit of the Lord! Amen! I hope that is the case!
And yet, sadly, as I have come to see over the years, there seems to be a kind of fear about the Holy Spirit! Out of fear, or out of ignorance, or both, there seems to be confusion about the Spirit of the Lord.
The Trinity: Ignorance or Confusion?
After all, don’t we sing, “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost!”? What’s a ghost doing in church? That’s the old English for you! Ghost, spirit!
But it’s not simply ghosts that may scare us! Dorothy Sayers, the famous author, once told the story of a man who had just converted to Christianity. When the man saw the symbol of the Holy Spirit descending as a dove, he said to the missionary who had shared the gospel with him: “God the honorable Father, good! God the honorable Son, very good! But God the honorable bird, I don’t understand!”
It is easy to do. A few weeks ago we sang a song in worship with the
Greek word “Paraclete” in it. Paraclete in Greek means “Comforter,”
or
“Counselor,” or “Advocate.” In the passage from John’s
Gospel we read, Jesus says, “But the Counselor, the paraclete, will teach
you all I have said” (14:26). A paraclete, then, is literally one who
helps us or comes along side us to instruct or teach or guide us.
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Not to my surprise after the service someone asked me what a paraclete was,
if we were really singing about a “parakeet”? Parakeet, paraclete?
Another bird!
Reminds me of the story I heard about a preacher who thought he would dramatize Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples in Jerusalem, creating the church following Jesus’ death. The preacher hired a small boy to hide in the sanctuary balcony during the worship service. The preacher gave the little boy instructions. When the preacher shouted, “And down came the Spirit,” the little boy was to let loose a small pigeon over the heads of the congregation! Needless to say, the plan went woefully awry! Three times, during the sermon, the preacher shouted, “And down came the Spirit!” And three times nothing happened! Finally, there came a small voice from the balcony, “The cat ate the bird. Shall I throw down the cat?”
Be thankful you don’t have a balcony at Grace Church!
It reminds me of another story I heard about an Anglican priest in England. It appears that on a particular summer evening a sparrow had gotten loose in the rafters of the small country chapel, disrupting the service. Frustrated, the priest went home and got his rifle and came back and shot the bird. Borrowing from a familiar hymn, the members of the church wrote the following to commemorate the occasion:
All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small;
All things wise and beautiful,
Our pastor shoots them all!
No wonder there is confusion about the Holy Spirit when we speak of doves, and pigeons, and sparrows, and tongues of fire, and mighty winds blowing, and the breath of God. No wonder there is confusion when speak of the Holy Spirit as the Holy Ghost! How shall we understand?
Let me ask you: When I say Holy Spirit what comes to your mind? Or,
if I ask you, “How is the Holy Spirit working in your life?” how
would you respond? When we say “We believe in the Holy Spirit,”
what are we saying?
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We Believe in the Holy Spirit!
Answer? When we say “We believe in the Holy Spirit,” what are saying but that we believe God’s own Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, is the same Spirit…
Who created this world, and who breathed life into Adam and Eve,
who the prophet Joel foretold would be poured out on all flesh,
who the prophet Ezekiel prophesied would breathe new life into the
valley of dry bones,
who baptized and anointed Jesus and worked through Jesus to heal
and forgive,
who was breathed on the disciples in the Upper Room,
who created the church at Pentecost,
who has guided the church and the saints for centuries in mission and
service –
When we say we believe in the Holy Spirit, we are saying that THAT same Spirit
is now breathing and acting IN you! Not simply acting in the past, but acting
here, now, IN you, IN me, IN us, IN the world, IN the church, IN the bread and
IN the cup! IN the waters of baptism, IN the Word proclaimed and sung!
The Spirit that hovered over the waters at creation in Genesis and showed John the great vision of the new heaven and new earth in Revelation is the same Spirit who now gives us life – freeing us and cleansing us, helping us to understand God’s Word and to enjoy the benefits of Christ’s atoning work on the cross, sealing our hearts with the love of the kingdom.
That Spirit!
Not the “new age spirit”! And not the “world spirit”! And not school spirit, or the spirit of the Olympic Games, or the spirit of mother earth! No! The Holy Spirit! As the Hebrew puts it, we are talking of the very Ruach of God, the very breath of God!
Again and again, throughout the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit comes as energy and power, as dove and peace, as wind and fire, as thunder and
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lightening, as still small voice, but the Holy Spirit also comes as breath,
as God’s breath. God breathes, and there is life!
In our passage, Jesus prepares the disciples for his death by sharing: “My peace, I leave with you.” And later, following his death, Jesus stands before them and breathes on them again his peace.
But not only peace but also truth: not only does the Holy Spirit comfort us but the Holy Spirit also guides us into the truth of the Gospel. One of the key roles of the Holy Spirit is to make known what Jesus taught and to reveal who Jesus is.
I believe that it is very similar to a parent who takes his or her child by the hand and leads them into the presence of someone special: the Holy Spirit leads us into the presence of Christ and into the truth of God’s Word. That’s what the Holy Spirit does!
When we come into a relationship with Christ, we come into a relationship guided and lead by the Spirit, converted to the Son by the Spirit.
There is no such-thing as self-made Christians! Did you know that? There is no such thing as self-created Christians. Christians are those persons who are “Spirit-made,” “God-breathed,” “born from above,” having received the Spirit at baptism and are now manifesting in their lives the fruits and gifts of the Spirit!
We didn’t make or create the church of Jesus Christ! This is not a self-made enterprise. No! The church of Jesus Christ, created by God’s own Spirit, made us!
We didn’t make Holy Communion. Holy Communion makes us!
Therefore, if we truly believe in the Holy Spirit, then we believe in the power of the Spirit to create and make us – to give and form in us the very character of Christ, the very fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22-23), the very gifts that enrich our lives as believers (like teaching, healing, leading, administering, counseling).
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Therefore, if we truly believe in the Holy Spirit, we also believe that
there must be “evidence of the Spirit” in our lives.
The world should be able to look at us as God’s people, as Christ’s church, and see in us the evidence, the fruit and the gifts, of the Spirit. The world should be able to see in us the very qualities, the very marks, of Christ’s own life.
I believe that’s what a Spirit-filled person is, a Spirit-filled congregation is!
A Spirit-filled congregation is where the very love and peace of Christ has come to dwell, where the very breath of God has come to help us and live in us – where the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, and where the prisoner is freed, where we who are broken are healed and where we who come from different backgrounds are made one, and where we who come to this place receive not simply a loaf and a cup at the Table, but where we receive the very body and blood of Christ, made real by the presence and power of the Spirit, of the Holy Spirit – the same Spirit who lives and reigns with the Father through the Son, and who now lives in you and me, and who we pray will come and fill us with Christ’s love!
It’s the prayer we as Christians have been praying for centuries.
It’s the prayer we now prayer in earnest: Come, Holy Spirit, come! Amen!
E-mail Comments to: Pastor Andy Kinsey