The Feast of the Spirit

A Sermon preached on June 9 2019, the Day of Pentecost, at St. Augustine’s, Wiesbaden

Acts 2: 1 – 21, Romans 8: 14 – 17, John 14: 8 – 17

Today is often called the birthday of the Church. But it is also the special feast day of the Holy Spirit! For a long time, the Holy Spirit was the stepchild of the Trinity. The concept of God the creator was already well-established and so initially much of the theological discourse, and sadly often outright conflict, focused on the person of Jesus Christ. If you want to know more about those Christological controversies, ask a member of the home group, they’ve been studying them for a while! 

The branch of Christian theology concerned with the Holy Spirit, called Pneumatology, was a later development. Almost every Sunday we say the Nicene Creed, actually it’s not – it’s the Creed of Nicene-Constantinople. The original Nicene Creed was adopted in 325 at the First Council of Nicaea and at that time, the text ended with the words "We believe in the Holy Spirit." That was it, no further explanation or definition. It didn’t last long. Theologians soon saw a market opportunity and so by 381 at a Council in Constantinople the paragraph we know today had been added:

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father.
Who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified.
Who has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

This section is not just about the Holy Spirit. The last few lines are about the Church – which is not to say that the Spirit is not allowed to be present in church – I very much hope she is! But they focus on the characteristics of the church, on how we become members, through Baptism, and on what we call the last things: resurrection and the life of the world to come.

The first part is about the Holy Spirit. It tells us that the Holy Spirit is also to be worshipped as Lord, adored and glorified with the Father and the Son. It tells us that the Holy Spirit is the giver of life. The Hebrew word for Spirit, Ruach, also means breath or wind. God breaths life into the first human. Jesus breaths on the disciples to give them new life. The spirit works within us as the giver of life. That is – I think – not just something we receive. We are also called to be life givers, with the power of the Spirit. Jesus refers to the Spirit of Truth (John 14:17) and it was this truth that spoke through the prophets, speaking truth to power, identifying sin and evil, showing the right path. I see these two effects of the Spirit – life giving and truth telling – at work today both in those who will not stop reminding us that by our own inaction we are letting people die in the Mediterranean, as well as in the Fridays for Future and Extinction Rebellion movements that tell us that we have to act now if we want to avert environmental collapse and climate breakdown. 

Finally, we hear where the Spirit comes from – from the Father. Yes, that’s the original phrasing. The Western Church tacked on “and the Son” about 700 years later and this has been a bone of contention ever since. Most mainstream churches, ours included, have in fact promised to change the Nicene Creed when their prayer books are next revised and to take out the filioque. We now agree that the addition was not only divisive, but incorrect or at least unnecessary. Just look at today’s Gospel for example: Jesus says, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.” (John 14:16)

The Spirit is of course difficult to pin down – thank God! That’s why we have so many different images. Last week, in the Creed the YAE attendants wrote for us, we heard the Holy Spirit described variously as a bird, as a rushing wind, as a flame. Another image that Jesus used was water: streams of living water. The Holy Spirit is what changes and challenges us and brings us out of our comfort zone – as happened to the followers of Jesus on that first Pentecost who were suddenly empowered to speak about God and about Jesus to all people, they were driven into mission so to speak. The Holy Spirit is not safe and so her presence is announced by a storm, wind and fire. 

Last and not least it is the Holy Spirit who constantly connects us with God. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, felt his "heart strangely warmed” at a church meeting of all places.  That was the Spirit at work in his heart, giving him the assurance of his salvation. Paul (Romans 8:16-17) tells us that it is through the Spirit that we are “children of God,” which is the ultimate connection, and also “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.”

What will the Holy Spirit move us to do as individuals and as a community? I don’t know, that is the very nature of the Spirit of God.  When the day of Pentecost came the disciples had no idea what was about to happen. All I know is that it will be exciting, quite possibly difficult, but without doubt rewarding, as we not only do the works that Christ did, but, as he promises “greater works than these” (John 14:12) in his name, for the Father, and with the power of the Holy Spirit. 

 Amen.