Towards 'communities of understanding'.
Pentecost: 8th June, 2003
Fr John Davis, Vicar of St Peter's, Eastern Hill
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth....
(Jn 16:13)
...in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power.
(Acts 2:11)
Which one of us can forget Pentecost last year in this place, when this pulpit was graced by the presence of the bearded sparkling passion of the one who is now the Archbishop of Canterbury? Which one of us went away from that mass without some renewed fire in the belly, some new sense of what might just be possible in a life which is prepared to engage the issues of faith? Do we remember the edge of challenge in what Archbishop Williams put before us?
He challenged us to do some fresh and 'hard thinking' about the Holy Spirit. Here is just some of what he said:
Clearly, if we read St John's gospel rightly, the Spirit is shared and the Spirit becomes the lifeblood of community when our experience of Spirit is brought to the Cross. The Holy Spirit which simply made each one of us individually able to do great things might be spectacular and impressive, but it would not be the holy Spirit of Jesus Christ, nor would it be the Spirit which binds us together in a community, where we can understand each other's language by the miraculous grace of God and belong with one another so deeply that we feel each other's wounds and each other's joys. It's as if the surface of our achievement, our specialness, our spectacular performance has to be broken before the Spirit can really become the Spirit of communion.
And so one of the paradoxes of our faith is that we experience the Holy Spirit most deeply not in moments, in examples, of great and spectacular achievement, but in and through moments of loss, of being out of our depth, yes even of failure. ...[T]he Holy Spirit is what happens in the moments of extremity...[T]hese are the moments when the Spirit is breathed in, in a way which we won't experience or know, otherwise.
(Pentecost sermon, 2002)
Now this is a long way from red balloons and singing happy birthday to the Church. This is also not that individualistic sense of comfortably great giftedness that we also sometimes see in some of those who are so certain that they have been saved and have received the Spirit. This is something surprising and fresh, meeting us at our points of greatest vulnerablity, well outside the comfort zone, well beyond the routine well-trodden path. This is God powerfully at work in us. This is not us graciously allowing the idea of God just a small and neatly fenced portion of a life. In summary, this is dangerous territory. Wonderfully dangerous territory.
Consider then just one aspect of the events described in Acts of that first Pentecost, that first experience of the Spirit of God in this way. This is the very opposite of the Old Testament experience in that image of confusion and disarray, as described in the story of the Tower of Babel. Here are people of so many languages and cultures and life experiences finding a new unity of purpose and hope. They wonderfully hear in their own tongues, in words and ways that they can immediately understand, just what God is on about. Rowan Williams spoke of the Pentecost experience as being bound 'together in a community where we can understand each other's language'. We are not talking grammar and vocab here. And we are probably not talking about taking as given a lot of the institutions and structures that have previously held sway, or previously been the focus of authority and meaning. These are changing times. But God is still most powerfully at work.
Consider the implications of this idea of 'communities of understanding'. Consider this idea in the context of our common enough figure of speech, where we might say that someone 'speaks our language'. That is both compliment and praise. Communication, deep communication is possible. A very large number of people today are searching hard for this very quality. They might not immediately find it in family or marriage partner, work place, interest group or institution. There are times when we can immediately and intuitively recognise, either the bond or the breach. We can see where work must be done, or we can rejoice in what is already and sometimes surprisingly shared. But 'communities of understanding' is a rich idea, whether we are speaking of a community of two or on a world scale.
And as soon as we ask, well what qualities then might characterise such communities, we have one answer in those much valued 'fruits of the Spirit' that Paul describes in Galatians 5 and which are at the heart of today's epistle. These stand in stark contrast to what he calls the 'works of the flesh'. Here he includes enmities, strife, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions and envy, as well as overindulgence in drink or sex. This is anything but a description of 'communities of understanding', We know well enough how any or all of the above might tear apart and destroy. We can see it evidenced on the news each evening. We can see it in the Church, in politics, in public life and in private life. We can see it locally; we can see it around the world. To a greater or lesser extent, we can all put our hands up to at least some of Paul's negative list. This is to our shame. We live with such contradictions, even as we reach and hope for that which we know is the better way. 'Communities of understanding' might well be characterised then by any or all of those qualities that Paul highlights: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. But insofar as they do characterise who and what we are, this is indeed gift and grace.
In the cycle of the Church year, we celebrate today something we are told changed completely the lives and understanding of that first group of followers of Jesus. The Jesus that they had followed had died on the cross. That earthly Jesus was no longer with them to teach and to guide and to inspire. But that was not the end. After the resurrection they were indeed 'not left comfortless'. God was with them, in them in a way almost beyond expression, but utterly real. This is event, gift, grace, all in one.
So how might this 'event, gift, grace' be for us? This is something that is actually able to be experienced, that lands right in the midst of all that is so wrong and distorted. This continuing Pentecost experience comes into a world and a Christian community that, despite so many glimpses that are good and inspiring, still falls so far short of the promise. It comes too right into the hearts of individuals like each one of us – mixtures, as we are, of hopes and fears and doubts and loves – and calls us into community. Pentecost celebrates the gift of God's Spirit, the continuing experiences of God's presence and power and guidance and renewing strength, promised and poured out in every generation from that first Pentecost until now. Sometimes obvious, sometimes hidden, sometimes rejected, sometimes embraced. Each year at this time we are called to celebrate this gift. At all times we are called to live this gift, together.
That is where the challenge remains. That is where the need remains. That is where this fresh hope is leading us.
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth....
(Jn 16:13)
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