"Filled with the Spirit" - Pentecost Sunday - Acts 2
A Sermon by Alex Evans, Pastor
Second Presbyterian Church, Richmond, VA
Acts 2 – Pentecost – May 31, 2020
“Filled with the Spirit”
What are the voices that you listen to?
That feels like a very important question in these days of the pandemic. There are so many voices coming at us. Some days, some nights, I sense these voices playing constantly in my head. There is scientific data to digest. There is the 24-hour news cycle – with lots of unrest and rioting in these days in response to George Floyd’s death. There is social media – posts, tweets, podcasts, and more, about everything. So much information, and mis-information, and we have to be careful not to be overwhelmed.
But I want to press this a bit further. What are the voices that you listen to, and really, what are the forces, the powers, that shape your life?
You have no doubt seen images of people who have a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other, with each seeking to influence them. Or, maybe you have heard of the native American parable about how we each have two wolves inside us. One wolf is loving, kind, patient, helpful, full of self-control. The other wolf is angry, envious, greedy, hurtful, mean, quick to rage out of control. “Which wolf wins inside of us?” the young boy asks his grandfather. And the wise grandfather replies, “The one you feed.”
I know there are voices in my own head that tempt me to give into hatred, especially when racial injustice leads to another tragic video and horrible death of a black man on the street. There are voices in my head that lead me to give in to disgust, or even indifference, as the political turmoil spins out of control. There are other voices in my head that sometimes encourage pride, or selfishness, or greed, or other negative traits.
Then, maybe, many of us hear those voices that go back to wounded seasons in our lives – that might still shape us – “you are not good enough,” or “you get what you deserve,” or “you are too fat, too slow, too old, too weak, too young,” or . . . . “you should try this,” or . . . . “you should just get over that.”
Voices.
Today is PENTECOST. Today we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit into life, into the church, into the world. The colors are red. The celebration of the Holy Spirit – the coming of the Spirit - intends to be bold and bright and strong.
We are shaped by the voices that we listen to. We are powered and empowered by the messages that fill our minds and hearts. If we are not careful, many of us, though seeking to be faithful and Christ-like, maintain Spirit-deficient lives. You have, I am sure, some sense of feeling sleep-deprived, or nutrient-deprived, or lately, socially-deprived. Those states can be very problematic. We lose our equilibrium, our sense of focus. If we are not careful, our spiritual lives can become a bit anemic. We try to live on our own strength, by our own wisdom. But it does not get us very far, or line us up very well with what God intends for our lives. (See A. Hamilton, Creed, p.88)
Yet – God gives the Spirit – to melt us, mold us, fill us, use us – for faithfulness and life following Jesus.
Listen to the story of PENTECOST and the disciples - from Acts 2:
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.3Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. . . . . (and the question came): “What does this mean? Are these people filled with new wine?” (the passage continues)
14But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. 15Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. 16No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: 17‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. 18Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit.
This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
The word SPIRIT shows up about 500 times in the Bible. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word usually translated “spirit” is ruach. In the New Testament, the Greek word is pneuma. The words – ruach and pneuma - have multiple meanings including breath, air, wind, and of course, SPIRIT. Whenever the words ruach and pneuma appear in the Scriptures, the translators have to decide – based on the context - which word to use: is it wind, air, breath, or spirit? And if it is “spirit,” should it be capitalized – for God’s Spirit, Holy Spirit?
In the opening words of Genesis – which is about WHO made the whole world – it says a ruach from God swept over the face of the waters. Is it wind from God, spirit from God, breath from God?
I think the point is clear – in the beginning – God was present, God was at work, God was making things happen through God’s Spirit! And God remains at work, keeps making things happen – that is what the Bible is about: God! God at work, God giving life, God nurturing God’s people toward God’s purposes!
And then on Pentecost – we see it again – and in very vivid and powerful ways. The Spirit – blows in like a violent wind - covers life, touches hearts, changes people, empowers people. Bold – beautiful – pointing toward new ways.
Whenever we speak about the Holy Spirit of God, we are always speaking of God’s active work in our lives. We are thinking about God’s way of leading, guiding, forming and shaping us. When we talk about the Holy Spirit, we are reflecting on God’s power and presence to comfort and encourage us and to make us the people God wants us to be. The Spirit is the voice of God, the power of God, whispering, wooing, beckoning us. And in listening to this voice, and being shaped by this power, we find that we become most fully and faithfully human – all that God intends us to be. (See A. Hamilton, Creed, p. 82)
One of my professors, Dr. Shirley Guthrie, once spoke of the Holy Spirit in a way that made a deep impression on me. He said that anywhere you see goodness prevailing over evil, anywhere you see light chasing away the darkness, anywhere you see healing emerging, hope prevailing, anywhere you see love instead of hatred, justice instead of injustice, faith instead of fear, collaboration instead of competition, care instead of callousness – THAT is the Spirit of God at work. The Holy Spirit is everywhere the giver and renewer of life. The Spirit of God is present, always at work, to move us, move the community, move the world, closer to God’s justice and joy, healing and wholeness, unity and peace.
So, our job – our calling – our lives as Spirit-filled people – is to be aligned, always and forever, with those powerful and important purposes of God.
Great preacher and mentor, William Sloan Coffin, once wrote that “the world has tried in two ways to get rid of Jesus: first, by crucifying him, and second, by worshipping him.” Jesus does not ask us to worship him. He said, “follow me.” Faith is a matter of being faithful, living as a servant, a disciple of Jesus. It is not believing without proof; it is having our lives aligned with Jesus life. (See Coffin, Letters to a young Doubter, p. 97) It is committing as much as you can, to as much of God that you can believe in (p. 40). Committing means acting, doing, going, giving. Committing means allowing the Spirit of God to melt us, mold us, fill us, use us – and then striving to follow Jesus in the ways of love and justice, healing and care, peace and hope.
You know, it is so easy to become numb, bitter, jaded. It is increasingly easy to roll our eyes at the world, to check out because we feel we cannot do anything about the major issues – COVID-19, racial injustices, police brutality, the constant Tweets from the White House, the growing disparity between the “have’s” and the “have not’s.” We can easily feel overwhelmed and . . . . discouraged.
But all the talk of the Holy Spirit, the celebration of Pentecost, the arrival of the Spirit – the rush of the wind from heaven, the transformation – all of that – intends to remind us to wake up to the Spirit, to the Spirit’s presence and power, to be shaped and moved in the Spirit’s work, to align our lives with God.
Rachel Held Evans speaks about it this way: We, as Christians, as Spirit-filled people, live in an unfinished story, a story that began with the ruach of “God hovering over the primordial waters at the beginning of time and which took a dramatic turn when Jesus came and lived among us. We share our story with Jesus – and Mary Magdalene and the apostle Paul. We share it with St Augustine and Julian of Norwich,” Desmond Tutu and Pope Francis. We share it with all those who have gone before us – Moses Hoge, and Martin Luther King, Al Winn and Mary Nelson Myers, and so many others who inspired us and inspire us.
All of our stories – each of our stories - are subplots of a grander narrative, every moment charged with significance, as we each “contribute our own riffs, soliloquies, and plot twists to the larger epic, the Holy Spirit coaxing us along” always toward God’s greater purposes, promises, and plans.
What we do in the Lord – in the Spirit-filled life – is never in vain. We are accomplishing something that will become in time part of God’s new world, new creation. Every act of love, gratitude, and kindness, every work of art or music or beauty inspired by the love of God – every minute spent tutoring a needy child, every act of care and nurture for another, every expression of comfort and support, for one’s fellow human beings and for the earth, every prayer, every Spirit-filled teaching that spreads God’s love, builds up the church, the community - all of this will find its way into God’s new creation – the redemption of the world. (see R. Evans, Inspired, p. 217f)
The Holy Spirit is always linking us – our lives, our faithfulness, our journey – with the biggest story we can imagine – the coming of God’s reign! The redemption of the whole world.
The Holy Spirit intends to always be at work – with us, around us, through us, often in spite of us. Bold, beautiful, breaking boundaries, focusing us on God’s biggest plans for joy . . . and justice. How much does our world need that!?
So, what ARE the voices and powers that intend to be shaping us? It is not meant to be those loud messages from the news cycle, not those noisy tweets, not the tapes that keep playing from some wounded season. The voices and powers that intend to shape our lives intend to be those messages from the Holy Spirit that connect us to the work of Jesus and the redemption of the world:
- you belong to God – live like it;
- once you were lost, now you are found – do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with God.
- The Holy Spirit surrounds us, so we live in a way that shows that.
- God comes to help and heal – our lives are to be about helping and healing.
- God cares about the less fortunate – our lives are to be about the less fortunate. The Holy Spirit blows in to show us that way.
In story after story, God is about feeding and building up – this is what our life is to be about. In every story, Jesus points us to the selfless, generous, joyful reign of God. The Holy Spirit comes to empower us in that way. We open our hearts – we worship and pray – we align our lives in faithful community – we read Scripture – we look for ways to spread God’s love and light. The Spirit shapes us!
Here is another way to think about this – we are all just humble, weak human beings, a stumbling bag of bones and skin that get weaker and more saggy all the time. And YET, and yet, the divine, infinite, eternal, creative forces of the universe – God – has breathed life into us. God blows over us, under us, around us – even in our troubled, broken, racist, doubting, struggling way. And God’s Spirit – the Holy Spirit – intends to melt us, mold us, fill us, use us – so we can be strengthened, empowered to bring a little more light to the world, a little more justice to society, a little more hope to the mess, a little more of God’s great plans to the here and now.
People like you and me can – when we love each other and work together, when we give our hearts and give our lives – by God’s great and Holy Spirit, work with God in the healing and repairing and restoring of this world (see R. Bell, What is the Bible, p. 287). May it be so. Alleluia. Amen
Prayer of Commitment – Holy God, to turn from you is to fall; to turn to you is to rise; to be filled with your Spirit, to be shaped by your Spirit following Jesus, that is to abide forever. We seek that way. Amen
Alex Evans, Pastor, Second Presbyterian Church, Richmond, VA preached this sermon for Sunday Worship on Pentecost, May 31, 2020. This is a rough manuscript.