There is more to come
Pentecost: 11th May, 2008
Fr John Davis, Vicar of St Peter's, Eastern Hill
Two observations in St John's gospel I find very helpful to have sitting in the background as I reflect on the significance of this great festival, which we are commemorating today. Pentecost: 50 days after the resurrection, the celebration and the honouring of God Holy Spirit.
The first observation is this: In Jn 16 Jesus is speaking words of comfort to his disciples, preparing them for the time when he would not be with them.
"I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you..." (Jn 16:12.) There is actually more to come, the Lord says, and it will come by means of the Spirit at work within the community of faith. The second observation is also significant. The very last verse of John's gospel reminds us there is so much more about this Jesus than what we have or can imagine; "But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written". (Jn 21:25.) For the moment then to use Paul's phrase we see, as through as glass darkly. There is more to come.
To listen to some Christians you would think that the task at hand was a very clear one. God has acted. The Scriptures are written. The rules are set. Therefore, discern this, learn this and live this. It will be exactly the same task in this generation as in any other. The faith once received is to be transmitted to the new generation and there will be no surprises.
Is it worth contemplating a little on what the Church as a Holy Spirit free zone might be like? In that regard I immediately remember what Paul was told on a visit to Ephesus: '...we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit' (Acts 19:2.) Paul then got on with some major teaching and some extraordinary things were accomplished in that city. An understanding of God without the person and action of the Holy Spirit was not the Christian way. A living out of the ongoing individual and corporate relationship with the crucified, risen and ascended Lord without the Spirit did not make sense of the Lord's final teachings, especially in John's gospel. An understanding of God without the action and the experience that this day of Pentecost celebrates could possibly encourage the development of a community of faith that saw its task as essentially one of getting back to a purer past: simply how it was at the beginning. There could be developed some fundamental ways of describing the essentials of the belief structure and they would need to be articulated and affirmed. But there is a real danger here of a religion simply of the head and not at all of the heart. The concern for truth might find itself battling against the living out of compassion. There would be little room here for any unfolding of understanding, any development of doctrine, any change, any surprises of a good sort, any new gifts or insights, maybe any new life.
Perhaps one of the most striking examples in the Scriptures of major change endorsed by the use of the language of the Holy Spirit, guiding the Church in quite different and unexpected directions, is to be found in Acts10 and 11. There Peter against all his training and better judgment, finds himself breaking every rule in the book, in what he said and did with the household of the Gentile, Cornelius. He stayed with them, he ate with them, he baptised them. God was after all not showing any partiality. The old and established patterns had to go. This was the beginning of the wider mission of Christianity to the rest of the world. It was a seismic shift of policy and direction. But as with so much else in the book of Acts, the language of legitimation and endorsement used, is the language of the Spirit.
If you are Peter or Paul, or part of the Council of Elders in Jerusalem, you might be able to get away with this and have it accepted. Individual declarations along these lines are more problematic and of course open to abuse. I remember well a man presenting himself at my front door with the statement 'The Holy Spirit has told me that I should use your shower'. My immediate response was 'Well that is quite remarkable because the Holy Spirit has just told me the exact opposite!' Now that is a bit flippant but you know what I mean. Some process and context of discernment is always going to be required when someone says 'The Holy Spirit has told me that...' From time to time this happens.
Appropriate and helpful discernment is also fortunately one of the gifts of the Spirit given corporately to the community of faith. If there is not agreement on these processes, we can find ourselves in trouble. We are in such a time now, internationally. How appropriate it is then to be attempting afresh to grapple with the implications for us and for our Church, the teaching about God and Church that this great festival involves and implies.
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.
The accounts in Acts and in John's gospel both agree that something very remarkable happened to that first group of followers. Jn 20:22 has it happening on Easter Day. Luke's version spreads it out. Luke has all those signs and wonders we have just heard retold. The end result is still the same: shaken and uncertain is changed to sense of purpose, inner peace, conviction, new priorities, new hope. Others quickly joined 'the teaching and fellowship, the breaking of bread and the prayers'. There follows in Acts a stirring description of a community sharing and receiving all that was needed, of praiseful, glad and generous hearts. That we are told was the very beginning of the Church. It is a wonderful vision of what might be.
Fifty days after the Passover festival, in the Jewish cycle of temple observance comes a thanksgiving for the gifts: a thanksgiving for the harvest of bountiful provision from God. In the Christian cycle Pentecost is also a celebration of gifts and of thanks for them but it has quite a different emphasis. The fruits of the Easter triumph and promise are received in a most remarkable way.
The Church looking back and making sense of the tumbled events of this early period therefore places a very special emphasis here and on the events that this festival day celebrates. Pentecost, Whitsunday — the biggest Christian festival after Christmas and Easter. Something was born here, no less than at Christmas. A different and outreaching manner of living within a community of faith is sealed in this outpouring. Gifts are indeed given and received. God the Spirit is the source of this empowering. God the Spirit is the source of these gifts. God who had worked so wonderfully in Jesus Christ is here experienced as Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, for the community of those who believe. This is worth a celebration. This is worth the experience.
The Lord be with you.
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