IF WE ALL HAD THE LORD’S SPIRIT
A sermon by George R. Pasley
Acts 2: 1-21; Numbers 11:24-30
We don’t talk very often, nor for very long, about the Holy Spirit in the Presbyterian Church.
In fact, if we stick to the lectionary, we may not be given too many chances to talk about it, and when we do, we can quite easily focus on something else in the passage.
Red is the color of the Spirit, remembering the story in Acts that associated the Spirit with fire. But officially, we have red vestments in the church just one day a year.
So I want to focus on the Holy Spirit for a few weeks, starting today, the Day of Pentecost, the day when Acts tells us that the Holy Spirit was given to all of the Lord’s people.
First let me define the Holy Spirit as one persona of God, a member of the Trinity. Therefore in every way the Holy Spirit IS God.
Just like God the Father is God creating, and just as God the Son is God become man to save us, God the Holy Spirit is God IN us, living in our hearts, to sustain us in our life of faith.
What do the bible passages we read today say about the Spirit?
Each one says that the Holy Spirit came from God, a gift from God to the people of God. That gift is every bit as wonderful and priceless as the gift we received at Christmas and which was completed on the Day of Resurrection, but it is not a gift just for ourselves. It is a gift in us that is given for the benefit of others. Those who received the Spirit in the time of Moses began to prophesy- a gift that is shared publicly- and those who received the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost began to tell of God’s mighty deeds. That is, they shared.
Now in each case, those who received the gift of the Spirit began to do things they would not have been able- or perhaps willing- to do otherwise. That’s how we know it was God in them, and not some sort of theological trick photography.
But for Moses there was bad news. The first who received a share of the Spirit prophesied once, and then quit. I’m not sure why, and though I could guess, it would be only a guess and not necessarily an informed guess.
But I know this much- things happen when the Spirit is moving that do not happen otherwise and generally those things that happen are BETTER things.
In fact, one of the things that happened in Moses’ day was an overflow. The Spirit splashed around a bit, and landed on two elders who were not standing patiently in line waiting for something to happen. I’m not sure why they didn’t go to church that day, but I think maybe it was because they were serving breakfast at a homeless shelter. Wherever they were and whatever they were doing, the Spirit found them. They didn’t go looking for it!
What’s more, it seems that in the case of these two elders, their activity in the Spirit was more than once, for Joshua begged Moses to make them stop. It happened and it was reported and it was still happening, unlike the other 68.
Some were bothered by this. After all, they weren’t standing in line and they were not behaving in the way that everybody knows good Presbyterians ought to behave!
But there is something every important about this particular event: God’s activity will overflow and abound anywhere and everywhere.
Now, we have high-tide lines that tell you where the ocean will go, and scientists can even predict the storm surge at high tide on bad weather days. But it is not that way with the Holy Spirit. We cannot set boundary lines for it, nor can we predict where it will settle nor what it will prompt us to do. But we can look forward to it eagerly. So take a cue from Moses and from Peter: God’s haphazard and uncontrolled way of doing business is a wonderful thing! Moses would not stop them, and Peter stood up to explain them.
In fact, Moses expressed a deep desire to see the things that Peter saw on the Day of Pentecost- God’s Spirit given freely and wildly to all of God’s people.
Here’s one more fact: Pastors still wish the same wish as Moses, that the Spirit would rest on every member and visitor in their congregations.
But here’s a confession: we would control that Spirit. We would ask it to make people stand up and volunteer to be Sunday School Superintendent; to come in on Monday morning and vacuum the sanctuary; to host Bible studies in their homes; to start letter writing campaigns and urge governments and assemblies to do something about the genocide in Darfur and the apartheid occupation of Palestine.
To be true, all of those things would be signs of the Spirit’s work, but the Spirit will not be controlled by pastors anymore than it was controlled by Joshua. But we must say this: the true sign of the Spirit’s presence was neither prophesy nor speaking in foreign languages. Instead, the first true sign of the Spirit was enthusiasm for the might acts of God, an enthusiasm that could not be contained.
Now, we like the Pentecost story but it can be a little worrisome and a little tiring when it leaps from the page. I have a friend, Don Sears, and when he would guest preach for me he would leap around the chancel so much that it wore my congregation out just watching him!
Sometimes we people in the church wear each other out, so many and strange are our ideas. Doing things the Presbyterian way, decently and in order, gives us more time to drop some of those ideas and more time to relax (as long as we don’t spend all that extra time in meetings!)
But God is something like Sammy, the paper hanger. Do you know his song?
When Sammy put the paper on the wall
He spilled a lot of paste upon us all.
He papered up the hall
He papered up the stairs
He even put paper on Grandma’s chair!
So let’s celebrate God’s lack of discrimination, and shout hurrah for the fact that God gives the Sprit to every one of us.
When we shout Hurrah, take note: the Spirit has found you also. So what is the Spirit prompting you to do?
Let each one of us begin by looking to the mighty acts of God, and deciding if there is something in all those marvelous deeds that ought to overflow through us in an enthusiasm that cannot be contained.
In fact, we needn’t look very far at all. There is a communion table right here, with the body of Christ broken for us, the blood of Christ shed for us.
If you dare, let some of that splash on you, and know that you are loved.
In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen.
