23^rd June 2011

Rev Dr Max Champion at St John's UCA Mt Waverley Pentecost Sunday 12 June 2011

Lessons -- Psalm 104:24-34; 1 Corinthians 12:1-13; John 20:19-23

'We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life.' (Nicene Creed)

With these words, the Church has declared her faith since the early days of the Christian era. Today, however, it is not immediately clear what it means to believe in the Spirit. Unlike 'Father' and 'Son', the 'Spirit'
does not seem to be very personal or relational. Spirit language is somewhat vague, intangible and elusive -- suggesting a kind of ghost-like essence wafting around the place. It seems to be irrelevant to 'secular'
folk, who are interested in the 'real world' that they can see and touch.
But it appeals to 'spiritual' folk who long for a sense of mystery beyond the world.

We seem to be left with two choices: between being 'secular' ('worldly') or 'spiritual' ('unworldly'). However, thinking like this is to misunderstand what it means to 'believe in the Holy Spirit'. In Scripture and the creeds the 'holiness' of the 'Spirit' does not mean being 'unworldly' but being truly 'worldly'! The Holy Spirit is the spirit of life -- the spirit of God / Lord that humanises us by placing us more fully in the midst of the secular world.

Unfortunately, the unity of Spirit and life has been shattered. Instead of seeing all of life as the expression of God's Spirit, we now experience a fatal division that is at the heart of the crisis of Christian faith in the modern world. We think in terms of two spheres: the spiritual and the secular. Many say, 'I'm not religious;' others say, 'I'm into spirituality.' Spiritual folk are committed to supernatural, other-worldly things; secular folk are more interested in natural, worldly things.

The disastrous split between 'Spirit' and the world is evident today in the widespread belief that Christianity is irrelevant to science, education, business, ethics and politics. Belief in the 'Spirit' is fine if it does not impinge on public issues. Christianity is regarded as a purely private matter!

We can begin to recover the unity of 'Spirit' and 'life' if we listen to what Scripture and the creeds say about the Holy Spirit. In the Bible the Spirit creates true life and new life:

* At creation the world is given purpose and shape: light is separated from darkness, order amidst chaos, man and woman are designed to create life and be stewards of the earth (Genesis 1:26). The Spirit 'brings creatures into being and renews the face of the earth' (Psalm 104:30).

* When things go awry in Israel's history the Spirit rests on prophetic leaders to judge inexcusable behaviour and revitalise the community.

* In the Gospels the Spirit confirms Jesus' divine mission to the lost and sustains him in the midst of the severest temptations (Mark 1:10; Matthew
4: 1ff). The Spirit is also the means by which Jesus' earthly ministry will be conveyed to future generations.

* The Church 'receives the Holy Spirit' from Jesus to empower her proclamation of the life-giving grace and peace that has come in him (John 20:22). And she is to order her life so that every member plays their part in building up the Body of Christ in faith, hope and love (1 Corinthians 12:1ff).

The Spirit thus encourages our life-affirming relationships and discourages life-denying behaviour that dishonours God and mistreats other people and the earth.

Yet the Spirit is not easily recognised. The Hebrew 'ruach' is 'a power invisible to the eyes which nevertheless causes things to move, an invisible yet obvious life force. When used of God it affirms God's invisibility and presence in the world.' (A Schmemann, Celebration of
Faith, p109.)

This does not mean that the Spirit is an impersonal life force. The Spirit is personal. It is the power that unites the Father and Son in a bond of deepest intimacy and draws people together so that they see each other, the world and God in a completely different light. Thus the creeds affirm the Holy Spirit as the One who draws us into the circle of the divine love that we may have life in all its fullness. As the Russian Orthodox theologian Schemann puts it, 'The Spirit is the breath of God within the world, the one through whom we "touch other worlds". He is the radiance of divine beauty and goodness, the one who reveals all in the world as a way
to God.' (p110)

In summary then we can say that the Holy Spirit is the gift of God's love in creating the world, calling us into life and bestowing on us the love of Christ that enables us to share in the life of God. The Spirit is God communicating God's love to the world by calling us into relationship with God and others and establishing the Church as the 'communion of saints'
(Apostles Creed) -- a new community drawn together to affirm that 'Jesus
is Lord of all the earth' (1 Corinthians 12:3).

It is not the task of the Holy Spirit to make the Christian community 'religious' or 'unworldly' but to call it to bear witness to what God has done and is doing in and 'for the world'. The Church is separated 'from the world' for the sole purpose of being a sign of God's love 'for the world' -- to remind the world and herself that the whole of life should be
open to and shaped by the presence of God.

The life-affirming work of the Spirit is magnificently expressed in The Go-
Between God (John V Taylor):

'The Holy Spirit is the invisible third party who stands between me and the other person, making us mutually aware. Supremely and primarily he opens my eyes to Christ. But he also opens my eyes to the brother / sister in Christ, or the neighbour, or the point of need, or the heart-breaking brutality and the equally heart-breaking beauty of the world. He is the giver of that vision without which the people perish. We so commonly speak about him as the source of power, but in fact he enables us not by making us supernaturally strong but by opening our eyes.

'The Holy Spirit is that power which opens eyes that are closed, hearts that are unaware and minds that shrink from too much reality. If one is open to God, one is also open to the beauty of the world, the truth of ideas, and the pain of disappointment and deformity. If one is closed up against being hurt, or blind towards one's neighbour, one is inevitably shut off from God also. One cannot choose to be open in one direction and closed in another. Vision and vulnerability go together. Insensitivity also is an all rounder. If for one reason or another we refuse really to see another person, we become incapable of sensing the presence of God.'
(p19)

What could be more necessary today than to be the community of the 'Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life'? The 'spirit of our age' is largely
self- indulgent and self-righteous. 'Militant secularists' like Richard Dawkins thumb their noses at Christianity. 'New age spiritualists', like those attending this weekend's Mind-Body-Spirit exhibition, look within themselves in a vain attempt to 'love themselves'. The Spirit of Life is confronted by a Spirit of death, where the elderly and the unborn are often ignored, refugees and people from other ethnic backgrounds are often abused, sexual relations are often trivialised and the Christian faith is often mocked.

What could be more important than to preach, teach and celebrate the 'Spirit of Life' who disrupts our egocentric plans and renews the earth?
What could be more relevant than to test the spirits of our age against the Spirit of goodness and mercy of God embodied in Christ? What could be more important than to protest the dehumanisation of life?

And what could be more vital to the health of our society than for the Christian community to be faithful in embodying, albeit imperfectly, the sign of hope for our broken and strife-torn world that God has given in Jesus Christ?

It is our responsibility therefore to exercise the diverse gifts of the Spirit in our life-together as members of the Church (1 Corinthians 12:1ff); to build up the Body of Christ by worshipping together to glorify 'the Lord the giver of Life'. In the Sacrament of Holy Communion we are given a means of grace in which to participate in God's life-affirming love for the world. That is why we invoke the presence of the Holy Spirit before the bread is broken and the cup raised -- to acknowledge that what has happened in Christ's life, death and resurrection is a present reality and the future hope for the humanisation of the world.

So may our life-together, our hearing of God's word and our participation in the Sacrament of Holy Communion make us bold to say, 'Come, Holy Spirit, renew the whole creation!'