PENTECOST C 2007

Today is the feast of Pentecost.  Over the last few days I have been thinking about how incredibly mysterious life is. The other day on the radio I heard a bit about a man who was blind and he had a rare condition that they were able to correct with surgery and he was able to see. One of the first things he saw was a colorful carpet, and just  seeing the colors blew him away,  and he could not figure out how anyone could be bored, sitting in a Doctors office, with all those colors to look at!  Because we are so used to living, we often don’t realize how amazing life really is! 

Life  is an amazing phenomena. What is it?  Why are we here?  What are we doing?  What is this all about?  I can remember clearly struggling with these questions when I was in college. As I looked to the future,  I couldn’t see any purpose for striving to succeed and to work and to live a so called normal life. It all seemed pretty pointless. But something happened to me when I was twenty two and it all changed. And as I reflect back upon it,  the only way that I can make any sense of that experience is to say that somehow, in some way,  the Spirit of God entered my life. So this morning I would like to reflect for a few moments on the Spirit,  that force and power that we read about coming down upon the followers of Jesus on that first Pentecost day.

The first mention of the Spirit is in the second verse of the Bible. My Bible translates this verse this way:

Gen 1:2 (NRSV) the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. 

In other translations,  the word wind is translated spirit of God. In both the Hebrew,  which is the language of the OT, and in the Greek,  the language of the NT, the word for spirit can be translated as either wind, or spirit, and often times breath. So in this first mention of the Spirit,  we learn that one of the amazing powers of the Spirit is creation. Theologians say that the universes, or the world,  was created from nothing. This is the incredible mystery of creation. The earth and all that is was not formed out of that which already existed, but it was spoken into existence. Of course, this is impossible for us to comprehend,  but this is what Christians have always believed.

Down through the ages,  artists and poets and musicians have always been aware of what I will call creative energy,  or the force, or wind of creativity. Poets would often speak of themselves as an instrument that the wind, or spirit would blow upon, and then they would create poems. One of the amazing characteristics of humanity is this power to create – music, literature, art, machines, buildings, etc.

This gift comes from God.  We read this in the second chapter of the Bible.

Gen 2:7 (NRSV) then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. 

First the Spirit moves in the creation of matter, and then the Spirit enters the creation by being breathed into the very being of this creature we call Adam,  or Man. That which was simply dust becomes something very qualitatively different. Now this dust is a “living being.”  Something of the very nature of God,  “being- ness”,  we might say,  is given to this new creature. In a real sense,  all of humanity is divine. We all possess that amazing something of the very essence of God--- it was breathed into us,  and we call this the Spirit. Of course animals have breath,  but this account in Genesis makes if very clear that human beings possess not only breath,  but the very breath of God.

So now,  entered into the stage of history, is this very amazing creature. We don’t have time to explore the pages of the Bible,  but the scriptures make it very clear that all of the amazing gifts of this creature,  such as our artistic sense, our creativity, our wisdom, our mental abilities, our sense of justice, our sense of the divine, our freedom to make decisions,  in essence, all that we are,  flows from the presence of this divine Spirit.

But as we know very well, something happened to this creature,  and this is explained in Genesis chapter 3. Human beings decided that they did not need God,  and chose to go their own way. So now,  this incredible, amazing, creative and powerful being began to use its power for evil, and all of history is full of this sad story. Along with creating music and art and loving,  we create bombs and steal and cheat and hurt and make ourselves the center of the universe. Like Adam and Eve,  we decide that God’s ways are not good enough, and that we know better, and then we reap the results. We changed the garden into a place of walls and fear and loneliness. We created gated communities of the soul!

But God was not done with these amazing creatures,  Adam and Eve. And so the Spirit of God comes again into the world,  totally unexpected,  and in a way impossible to comprehend. This is the way the friend of Jesus, John put it:

John 1:14 (NRSV) And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son,£ full of grace and truth. 

This Word,  which is God,  which created all things,  who possess in Himself the very life force of all that is,  comes into the world in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. In a real sense,  we can call His coming a rescue effort,  or maybe even a restoration effort. Because of God’s great love for these amazing creatures who had gone so far astray,  God came Himself to save us and restore us to our original state. And so we have the story of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus,  all of which only make sense if we believe in our desperate need for salvation and restoration.

But because we are so enmeshed in this world, and the fallen nature of our being and of those around us,  it is hard for us to see or understand that we have a problem. The Bible often says that people are spiritually blind. We can be  like a small tribe living in a jungle,  never going more than a mile or so from where we live. We have never seen mountains, snow, the ocean, cars, TVs. Computers and on and on. Sinful human beings often cannot see anything beyond their present reality. This is why we read this teaching of Jesus in John.

John 3:3 - 8 (NRSV) 3Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.”£  4Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?”  5Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.  6What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.£  7Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You£ must be born from above.’£  8The wind£ blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” 

Because of our fallen nature,  Jesus teaches us that we again need an infusion of that same Spirit which was breathed into us at creation. Without the presence of the Spirit of God we cannot even see beyond our own jungle. All we see is what is around us, and therefore we base our lives on a limited perception of reality. In our gospel lesson this morning we read how Jesus “breathed on them” and said “receive the Holy Spirit.”

Before Jesus left this world,  he promises his followers that He will be with them in a new way, through the presence of His Spirit. This is who Luke puts it:

Acts 1:4 - 5 (NRSV) While staying£ with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. “This,” he said, “is what you have heard from me;  5for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with£ the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

And so on this Pentecost Sunday we read of the Spirit of God coming again to the human race,  the very same Spirit that has been with them all along.  But through their openness of heart,  and readiness to receive,  the Spirit of God comes again into their hearts to continue the process of salvation and restoration of the human race.

At the beginning of this message I asked those ultimate questions of existence – why are we here? What is it all about? Well, of course I can’t answer those questions specifically for anyone of you, but I can answer it in general.

Our reason for existence is related to the God who created us.  We only find our reason and purpose in relation to our creator.

The way I understand it,  the spirit in us yearns and longs to be united with the Spirit that created us,  like a child wanting to be united with their mother or father. But instead of seeking God,   we often think that our desires and yearning can be satisfied by other things,  and so we seek pleasure and money and health and security – all OK things, but things which will never satisfy the depths of our soul, and they will never help us live out the reason for our existence. We were not created simply to take up space for a few moments of eternity,  hopefully have a good time, and then die. We were created in the image of God to reflect the very nature and glory of God. In Jesus’ words we were created to “bear fruit”. Jesus says we get this fruit by keeping his commandments and abiding in Him and in His love. Those who don’t bear fruit, Jesus says, are like branches that wither and die and are then gathered and thrown into the fire to be burned. 

My practical application to all of us this morning is that:

 we realize that we are mysterious and amazing creatures who only fulfill our destiny when we allow the Spirit of God to fill us up, again and again,  leading us and guiding us and making us into the human beings that we were created to be.

The longings in your soul for peace, for joy, for happiness, for pleasure, for retirement from the day to day grind, for contentment… will never be satisfied apart from the coming of the Spirit of God daily into your lives. Of course we find temporary satisfaction in these things, but they can never bring us the deep, lasting, eternal peace that we long for. This is because without the regular presence of the Spirit of God in our lives,  we are always incomplete.

As you go from this place, think about those early disciples waiting in the upper room for the  Spirit to come. Think about Jesus breathing on the disciples in that upper room. Think about Jesus telling Nicodemus that he must be born of the Spirit. Think about the presence of the Spirit of God existing right now in your very being. You are alive because the Spirit is dwelling in you. And then, on a regular basis, open up your heart and soul to the living power and presence of the Spirit of God. Ask for the Spirit. Pray for the Spirit. Seek the Spirit… in essence.. open up your life to the presence of God. The promise of Jesus over and over again is that if we do this, God will come and dwell with us in new and real ways.

We cannot be Christians, nor live the Christian life, without actively seeking the presence of the living God on a regular basis. So it is my challenge to all of you,  if you desire to be a Christian, that you make room in your life for that which can give you new life,  the Holy Spirit of God. AMEN!