The Transformation of the Ordinary

Preaching for Pentecost

The Transformation of the Ordinary (Acts 2: 1-21 and John 15: 26-27, 16: 4b-15)

Come, Holy Spirit, as we gather in Your name. Fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in us the fire of Your love. Amen

In our two readings today—from the Book of Acts and from the Gospel of John—we get two very different accounts of the work of the Holy Spirit. In Acts the Spirit is a Communicator. She’s all about enabling communication between humans both in terms of language gifts and in terms of boldness to communicate. Peter uses a passage from the prophet Joel to describe what’s taking place here which is all about communication from God to humans – prophesy, visions, dreams, portents. I have to confess that this is version of the Holy Spirit I was most interested in when I was younger and in a charismatic church. I longed for these dramatic moves of the Spirit that we see in Acts. This, I thought, was what it meant to know the Holy Spirit.

But the way Jesus talks about the Holy Spirit in the Gospel of John is quite different. Yes, the Spirit is still about communication, after all She will cause believers to testify about God, but in John’s account She does a lot more than this and in much less dramatic ways. Rowan Williams reminds us that if we reduce the role of the Holy Spirit to communication only then we end up with an impoverished idea of both the Holy Spirit and of Christian life. She is more than the megaphone of God the Father.

So I invite us to consider this evening the idea that Pentecost might actually be the exception and not the rule when thinking about the work of the Spirit. Luke presents Her as one involved in extraordinary experiences—we see this throughout the book of Acts—but John offers us something quite different. Here we find a more straightforwardly personal language – She is the Advocate, Paraclete, Comforter. And She has her own agency, not simply depicted as a force wielded by God the Father or Jesus. But She is not associated here with extraordinary events or dramatic scenes.

What does it mean to know the Holy Spirit? What does it mean to be full of Her presence? What difference does She make?  

Forgiveness

In the readings from John, the Spirit is one who causes people to testify, but she does much more than that. She is not associated with the extraordinary but rather with forgiveness of sins.

John reminds us that when the Spirit comes She will “prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgement: about sin because they do not believe in me;” (16. 8-9). Why is not believing in Jesus seen as the root of sin? It is because the “me” that is to be believed in is one who embodies truth and love of God. Sin happens when this really becomes clear but then is rejected: when there is genuine, illuminating encounter with Jesus but one turns away. Sin is not about honest doubt or about those who have never had a convincing encounter with God.

In John’s account of the resurrection appearances of Jesus, we find a different Pentecost. Not 50 days later but immediately after the resurrection. Again, the disciples are gathered together but here Jesus appears among them and breathes on them saying “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” (20.23) Here the breathing in of life is inseparable from words of peace, sending, receiving, and forgiveness. The moment at which the Spirit is breathed upon the disciples is also the first moment in John’s Gospel that the word ‘forgiveness’ is used. It is no coincidence that the Spirit makes her appearance at the same time as forgiveness.

To be in intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit is to be one who knows they have received forgiveness and also one who offers forgiveness. Not because you have any power to do so but because She does. After all, this forgiveness is set in the context of the completeness of God’s forgiveness and mercy and the completion of the work of Christ.

This Spirit enabled practice of forgiveness is a sign of our becoming more like Jesus. It is a sign of our ongoing formation.

Formation

The Spirit is associated with the character of the Christian life. The witness of the Spirit is the formation of this ‘Son-like’ life in us. The sign of the Spirit is the existence of Christlikeness in the world.

The main thrust of the reading from John 16 is one of radical encouragement. Jesus promises that the Advocate and Encourager, the Spirit of Truth, will be sent to the believers and will inspire a new relationship with Jesus, lead people into more truth, and give fresh confidence, grounded in the Father’s love.

How does this happen? Through incorporation into an ever deeper relationship with God through prayer. The Spirit includes us in the praying of God to God. She prays in us to God with sighs too deep for words. John of the Cross writes in the Spiritual Canticle:

The Holy Spirit raises the soul most sublimely with His divine breath…that she [the soul] may breathe in God the same breath of love that the Father breathes in the Son and the Son in the Father.

She is no redundant third in the Trinity, no afterthought, no cooing ‘feminine’ extra to an established male household of Father and Son. Rather She is primary in our encounter with God.

Leaving uncluttered space for the Spirit is necessary for participating in this breathing in of divine breath that will draw us into deeper relationship with God. It is in prayer that we are caught up into the ceaseless divine dialogue within the Trinity and are therefore transformed, becoming co-heirs with Christ.

Freedom

Finally, the work of the Holy Spirit can be associated with freedom. Freedom from the imperfect and distanced relationship between God and humans. Just before this passage, Jesus makes it clear that the disciples are no longer servants of God but rather friends of God – they are freed from servitude into friendship. But there is a broader freedom in the Holy Spirit. Our reading this evening says that when the Spirit comes She will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgement. The Spirit exposes the reality of a world gone wrong. This is an ongoing activity with no timescale given. All who are moved by the Spirit of truth are participants in it, challenged daily to Christlike living. She has all the freedom of God and blows where She chooses and so the Spirit works in surprising ways, through surprising people and events, drawing on unexpected sources. We must be alert to the moving of the Spirit in liberative acts. I reflect here on the Spirit as one who is a Protester, a Whistleblower, an Activist breaking open the world gone wrong to the liberative power of God.

Conclusion

Forgiveness, formation, and freedom. As well as communicating, the Spirit works to enable these practices in us. But I want to finish by reminding us that the Holy Spirit only really makes sense when She is paired with bodies – individual bodies, communal bodies, sacramental bodies. Characteristically, the Holy Spirit rests not just on any body but on the “body of Christ”. She doesn’t float free of bodies but befriends and accompanies them, coming to rest on holy places, holy people, and holy things. The Spirit hovers over the waters of creation, over Mary’s womb, over the Jordan, over the font, resting on the body of Christ in the world, in the womb, in the river, and in the church. We might encounter Her in dramatic moments, but we are much more likely to know Her in ever-present accompaniment that challenges us, forms us, and draws us closer to God. Not so much in the extraordinary but in the transformation of the ordinary.