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“Is
The Holy Spirit Really
Holy?” Sermon Delivered
By Rev. Dick Stetler – June 4, 2017 Centenary United
Methodist Church
Acts 2:1-21, I Corinthians 12:4-13
Pentecost Since this Sunday is Pentecost, we are going to explore the
various meanings we give to the
Holy Spirit. Many of us have
remarkable imaginations. We
also have a tendency to use labels even though they are capable of
causing us to see incorrectly.
The Holy Spirit may be one of those labels.
God's creativity need not be labeled as
sacred or
holy.
Such a designation moves God's activity into the realm of
religion. The field of
religion could screen God
from the thinking of people who simply cannot believe anything that
cannot be documented scientifically. The naming and worship of a deity goes back some 200,000 plus
years. Early people gave labels to their deities based on what each god
appeared to do. Early mythologies have God being the Sun, the Moon,
Fire, Wind and powerful storms. Even
the oceans were the dwelling places for gods.
For the Greeks, it was
Poseidon and for the Romans it was An ancient Egyptian Funeral Text was called
The Book of the Dead. The
text is filled with theology that is very similar to our own. Osiris was
the cornerstone for Egyptian
theology much like Jesus became the source of Christianity.
Osiris was a divine being
who also became a man. In the opening paragraph in the chapter entitled,
The Opening of the Mouth, we
find these words from Osiris: I have
the power to be born a second time. I am the source and the creator
of all the gods. The intriguing aspect
of this quote from a 3,000-year old Egyptian text
is the idea that understanding God comes from
speculation from people like us.
In the Book of Hebrews, we find
these words, "Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. Do not
allow all kinds of strange teachings to lead you astray."
(Hebrews 13:8f) People have always been the source of defining
God. God has never provided humanity with any definitions.
The Biblical references to God were given many names by various
authors, e.g., Yahweh, Elohim, El Shaddai, Jehovah and Adonai to name a
few. Readers of the Bible would
never know this unless they were reading the various texts in Hebrew or
Greek. Besides the names given to God, God's nature also dramatically
changed through the centuries. Our Creator had nothing to do with those
changes. God's mysterious energy
changed as writers increased their knowledge.
After his baptismal experience,
Jesus' description of God as his
loving Father completely set aside the war-god named Yahweh. When the College of
Cardinals decided that Jesus was an incarnation of our Creator, they
did exactly what the early Egyptians had done with Osiris.
Jesus was declared as being fully human and fully divine.
The College of Cardinals
then divided God into three distinct manifestations -- the
Father, the Son and the
Holy Spirit.
God was labeled
The Holy Trinity.
As we depart from this brief historic sketch of the
evolution of God, let us turn
our attention to Pentecost. Pentecost has etched itself into our belief
system as the birthday of the
Christian Church because a group of believers experienced an event
that has created confusion among Christians.
The experience that was recorded by the Greek physician in his
Books of Luke and Acts goes as follows: Suddenly there was
a noise from the sky which
sounded like a strong wind blowing and it filled the whole house
where they had gathered.
Then they saw what looked
like tongues of fire which spread out and touched each person there.
They were all filled with
The Holy Spirit and began to talk in other languages, as
the Spirit enabled them to
speak. Since this experience has never been duplicated historically, its meaning has left a lot of unanswered questions. Divisions have occurred between Christians who feel blessed by receiving the gift of speaking in foreign languages and those that are still waiting for a similar experience to happen to them. Long
before Luke wrote about this experience, the Apostle Paul provided his
readers with a much clearer understanding of
Spirit.
He wrote: "There
are different kinds of spiritual expressions, but the same
Spirit created all of the
variations." (I Corinthians 12:4) Erika read for us a list of these
variations. All of us could
easily supply our own definitions for how our unique spiritual energy
has helped to shape our lives. This
energy does not come from a Being that is outside of ourselves.
Spirit arises from within us.
Spirit remains unavailable to countless people
until it is recognized and nurtured. We can assume that those who supplied Luke with his information
were speaking metaphorically. One does not accurately describe a
spiritual experience by saying, "It
sounded like a strong wind blowing" or "it
looked like tongues of fire."
Either people experienced strong winds and fire brands flying
through the air or they did not.
These words were metaphors that people used to describe a very
different experience. Most of us use metaphors to describe our experiences. For
example, "Being in My doctor is a Jewish internist who told me during my last visit
that she is not a religious
person. In spite of her
self-definition, my doctor radiates a contagious
spirit that reveals how she
has mastered her inner world. There is nothing
sacred about how she presents
herself. She is authentic,
sincere and transparent in her thinking, but I would not describe her
responses to me as holy. No one defines their heart as
holy or their liver and
kidneys as being sacred.
These are vital parts of our body.
Each one of them has a distinct function in maintaining our
health.
The
mystical side of our nature can easily go unrecognized for years.
This is another vital
part of us. It is the
source of our imagination, our intuition, our curiosity and our
eagerness to be successful in how we live. This source is not
sacred or
holy.
These qualities are what nourish the
spirit by which we intend to
live. This is what my doctor presents to her clients. While in the States the last two weeks, I made an appointment
with a hearing specialist. A number of you may have noticed that I
frequently have had difficulty hearing correctly during our time of Joys
and Concerns. After experiencing numerous tests, I learned that my
hearing is severely impaired. This possibility has seldom entered my
mind. My new hearing aids
have increased my awareness of so much that I have been missing.
What does my hearing loss have
to do with The Holy Spirit? Jesus once said, "The
Helper, the Holy Spirit,
whom God will send in my name will make you aware of everything that I
have taught you. (John 14:26) Think about this. What form of
The Holy Spirit are we
looking for? Our recognition of God's presence can come to us in as many
points of entry as there are people.
Our awakening can come as it came to Jesus at his baptismal
experience. It can come from inspired authors, the Internet, the love
and encouragement from a dear friend and new discoveries due to our
hearing being restored. Just
as our reality is always an individual's interpretation of what we
experience, so is our recognition of the many forms of God's presence
that have been present for most of our lives.
All the tools for understanding God's presence
come through our unique mystical nature. Awakening God's presence within us restores our confidence. Our
impulsiveness fades, our self-absorption gives way to generosity and
sharing. Our need to be
defensive and our habit of being offended begin to disappear.
Our mastery of life continues to increase.
Why is this?
The answer is that we have
learned a different way to live. During the last two weeks, we learned that the Chairman of the
Trustees of one of my former churches was in On our way home from the hospital on Friday, we encountered the
stop and go traffic of our Memorial Day's three-day weekend.
It was a
nightmare.
There is nothing better to bring out the impatience in people
than crowded traffic patterns with drivers doing insane things to get a
few cars ahead of everyone. However, for those of us who
know a better way
to travel, we can get where
we want to go peacefully. Because
Lois and I knew the real estate, we encountered very little traffic when
we chose to leave the chaos caused by thousands of drivers. We drove
through tranquil agricultural land owned by the We can understand how a group of people thousands of years ago
could describe an experience using descriptive words like
rushing winds, tongues of fire
and speaking a new language. Sometimes
a dramatic change in our lives can be described as a
burning bush experience
(Exodus 3:2) or being struck down
by light. (Acts 9:3f). Such an experience can also guide us to use language that may
initially be strange for us; we find ourselves expressing words filled
with patience, compassion, kindness, tolerance, forgiveness and
generosity. We learn that when we give verbal form to such qualities within
us, we are comforted by knowing where they came from. With the daily
recognition of God's presence within us, we can often bypass the chaos
and confusion that others have chosen to experience. We understand the
meaning of "Those who must be first will be last."
(Matthew 20:16) Those who know or have learned
a better way to master their
attitudes have discovered the joy of having a remarkable adventure every
day of their lives. Every day can be the celebration of Pentecost for us
when our awakened spirits allow us to reveal our true identities. We can call this experience
holy if we wish, but living
from our spiritual energy is more of a natural extension of who God
created us to be. The
magic and
mystery to live this way is a
matter of a choice. We have
found a better way and have said "yes" to living a new and exciting
adventure motivated by healing attitudes.
Our spirits have come alive. This understanding is worth
celebrating.
CONGREGATIONAL PRAYER Ever-faithful God, our lives are often
inspired to new heights of awareness because of everyday experiences.
A new baby teaches us the role that we play in creation.
We sense how forgiveness heals relationships.
We learn that love is giving and not getting.
We learn that, with you, we are able to climb every mountain and
ford every stream.
When we
remember that authentic power comes from a place we cannot see, we
remain humble. Teach us, loving God, that we do not need tongues of
fire, rushing winds or burning bushes to be reminded that we are
vehicles of your presence.
Let us live so that your presence in us will show up in all our
relationships.
Amen. PASTORAL PRAYER Once again, we are greeted with a new
Sabbath morning to renew and refresh our spirits with the bathing of our
senses with your presence.
We are so grateful for what your gift to us of spirit has enabled us to
become.
This gift allows us
to understand life with wholesome attitudes. This gift inspires us to
take the high road.
This
gift lifts us above the struggles of the physical world and allows us to
dream about the qualities of life that have not yet arrived in the minds
and hearts of all people. Continue to lead us, O God, to develop
the qualities that would make us more understanding of each other, more
patient in our listening skills, more caring with our use of words, more
eager to establish new friendships, and more open to those whose values
are different from our own.
Help us to learn that each person has their own song to sing and their
own story to tell.
Inspire
us to be accepting of our differences knowing that you surround each of
us as we remain students of this world. When we have the opportunity to sow
seeds of peace, may we not hesitate. When we are faced with people whose
lives are troubled, help us to seize that moment to be a friend. Allow
your spirit within us to surface in our understanding of our role in
this life.
Help us to
remain a healing presence rather than someone who tries to remedy what
we think is a problem-filled life of another.
Help each of us to remember that we have to master rowing our own
boat, a feat that often takes an entire life to accomplish. We pray
these thoughts through the spirit of Jesus, who taught us to say when we
pray . . . |