University Presbyterian Church - Chapel Hill, NC

University Presbyterian Church

The Reverend Dr. Anna Pinckney Straight

May 27, 2007

“The Spirit-Filled Life”

John 14: 8-17[1]

Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves.

Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.

”If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.

Acts 2: 1 – 21

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”

But 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. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: ‘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. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

And on Pentecost they gathered together in one place, waiting to figure out what was next.   Jesus had promised them, something was next.  God would continue to be with them in a new way. [2]

The Holy Spirit.  The Spirit of Truth.  The Teacher.  The Advocate.  All of these things.

Not a secondary or subservient member of the Trinity, but an equal partner with God the Father & Mother and God the Son.

The believers are there, for Pentecost, 50 days after Passover, the Festival of Weeks, a festival when faithful people traveled from all over to gather in Jerusalem. And the Spirit comes.  It’s what Jesus had told them would happen, but if the example of the gospels continues into Acts, the believers gathered in that place were likely more than a little surprised. 

But just as Jesus said, it did happen.  In a huge way.  Not to some of them, all of them.  Not to individuals, but to the group.  The community.  Something like 120 believers that were gathered in that place. At once it happened.  The Holy Spirit arrived.

Like a violent wind.  Like tongues of flame, speaking in tongues.

Well, not really.  Not speaking in tongues, but speaking in other languages.  The languages understood by people there. 

“Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?”

One commentary reports, “The language of the spirit is not communicated with perfect or heavenly diction, free from the marks of human identity; it is the language of particular human groups, spoken in their idiom.  God works in collaboration with real people-  people who are filled with the Spirit to work on God’s behalf in their own world.”[3]

It is a significant story in the life of the church.  Some say the most significant story for the life of the church.  When the believers stop acting like the three stooges, immature followers who just don’t get it, and become grown up apostles.  From students to teachers themselves. 

It happens, not accidentally according to many scholars, fifty days after Passover, just as the giving of the Torah happened, fifty days later, in the first testament. 

And it’s natural, understandable, expected even, for us to be drawn to the action of this passage.

The Holy Spirit’s arrival and all that happens after that.

It’s intended to be our focus.

It’s where the action is, and we like to be a people of action.

After all, faith without works is dead, is it not?[4]

We are a people of action.

Poet Ann Weems writes, “We're good at planning! Give us a task force and a project and we're off and running! No trouble at all!...  And how we love a parade! In a frenzy of celebration we gladly focus on Jesus and … shout praise... It’s all so good!”[5]

Give us a parade.  Something to plan.  Work to do. 

We are a doing people. 

But here’s the thing.   For any doing that we do to be faithful doing, we must start with listening.

Listening.

In this text for today, this text that we read almost every Pentecost.  Today, I believe we are being called to take particular notice of what happens before all of the excitement.  What happens before the wind and flames and proclamation.  

What were the believers doing before they Holy Spirit arrived?  It didn’t strike them as they were walking down the street, cleaning their houses, fixing their tools, doing their work, attending to their normal every day business, it came as they were all gathered together, waiting, maybe actively praying, to see what would happen.

I have no doubt that the Holy Spirit can accomplish the glorious impossibles, but it can only work with the parts of our lives we are willing to turn over,  the times in our lives when we are willing to listen and receive the directions and passion for where God wants and needs us to be.

As Wendell Berry, a favorite in many pulpits and particularly this one, writes,

“Best of any song

Is birdsong

in the quiet, but first

you must have the quiet”[6]

Being faithful children of God isn’t just about the things we do, it is about how we do our best to discern the will of God.

How we listen.

How we pray, study, and work together to discern God’s will.

There is no magical formula for listening, discerning God’s will.  It is faithful listening.  Study of God’s word.  Worshipping with other Children of God.  Claiming the time.  To listen.

The words of Baptist preacher Gordon Atkinson: “Listening is good. Listening pries open the secret places in our hearts where we guard our vulnerability from the dangers of the world. Listening brings layers of sound; it allows you to journey far away and then return.[7]

When we listen.

If we want to step out in the Holy Spirit, to be agents of change in the world, live lives modeling greater love and justice than is possible within our own human capacities, we start by listening.  Individually and communally.   Having times and moments when there is nothing, nothing else going on.  No background chatter.  No other responsibilities.   More than a pause at a stoplight, real time to do nothing else but listen.

From one of the prayers written by Walter Brueggemann:

Our lives are occupied territory... occupied by a cacophony of voices, and the din undoes us. In the daytime we have no time to listen, beset as we are by anxiety and goals and assignments and work, and in the night the voices are so confusing we can hardly sort out what could possibly be your voice from the voice of our mothers and fathers and our best friends and our pet projects, because they all sound so much like You…  We are listeners, but we do not listen well….  So we bid you….  Speak in ways that we can hear out beyond ourselves.  It is your speech that carries us to where we have never been, and it is your speech to us that is our only hope.  So give us ears. Amen."[8]

What is the Spirit Filled life?  The one that listens and then acts based not on individual desires or wants, but the best possible discernment based on faithful scholarship, study, worship, and prayer.

And. There is great joy in knowing that just as there were those who waited, listening, for the Holy Spirit almost 2000 years ago, so there are those who listen for the Holy Spirit today, and allow that Spirit to inspire and guide them to be radical agents for God’s love in the world.

Habitat for Humanity, as it began the celebration for the 1,000^th house built in the Gulf Coast since hurricanes Katrina and Rita, they made sure that the 1001^st was already underway.   Listening for the Holy Spirit.

Christian peacemaking teams that continue to travel into Iraq, Africa, Colombia, and many, many places that are not safe, because there are some things more important than playing it safe.  Listening for the Holy Spirit.

An intentional community in Pennsylvania who would set up a memorial fund for the children of the one who took away their own children.   Listening for the Holy Spirit.

Someone who is willing to share their meal, not because they have more than enough but because there is someone who is hungry.  Listening for the Holy Spirit.

Church groups willing to travel to Haiti.  Make sandwiches.  Welcome anyone and everyone. “God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh.”  All flesh.  Not some flesh or this or that flesh, all flesh.  Listening for the Holy Spirit.

Anyone who takes seriously the command to gather together in faithful community, held together by Baptism and a covenant.  Listening for the Holy Spirit.

It all starts with listening.   Listening for the Holy Spirit.

The miracle of the first Pentecost, I believe, isn’t the arrival of the Holy Spirit, it is that there were 100 and more believers who were willing to put everything else aside to listen and wait, and when they heard the Holy Spirit arrive like a rushing wind, were able to follow it and proclaim the message of God’s good news in a way that was understood in the minds and hearts of real people, including themselves.

The question for today isn’t how we are you embodying the Holy Spirit, it is, how are you listening?

Listen to me!

It is the cry of one spouse to another, working to maintain and uplift the covenant between them.

Listen to me!

The hopeful words of a parent to a child, doing their best to guide and nurture.

Listen to me!

It is also the plea of the God who created us, redeemed us, and loves us still. 

Saying “Love me with all of your heart, mind, soul, and strength.  And love your neighbors.  I’ve sent the Holy Spirit to show you the way, listen!  Listen to me.  I love you.”

Amen and Amen.