A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois on Sunday, May 27, 2012.
“COME HOLY GHOST”
(Homily texts: Acts 2: 1 – 21 & Romans 8: 22 - 27)
When Deacon David Peters is ordained to the Sacred Order of Priests on Sunday, June 17th, it’s very possible that we will sing this hymn (# 503 in the 1982 Hymnal):
Come Holy Ghost, our souls inspire, and lighten with celestial fire.
Thou the anointing Spirit art, who dost thy sevenfold gifts impart.
Thy blessed unction from above is comfort, life and fire of love.
Enable with perpetual light the dullness of our blinded sight.
Keep far our foes, give peace at home: where thou art guide, no ill can come.
Teach us to know the Father, Son, and thee, of both, to be but One.
That through the ages all along, this may be our endless song:
Praise to thy eternal merit, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
At important junctures in our Christian life, we call on the Holy Spirit to come, to provide the light of God, the wisdom of God, the power of God, to enable us to live the life to which we have been called by virtue of having gone through the waters of baptism. For in baptism, we were buried with Christ in a death like His, to be raised to a new life in a resurrection like His (see Romans 6: 3 – 9, where St. Paul explains the meaning of baptism).
We name the Holy Spirit often as we worship. When a homily is about to begin, the preacher will often say something like “In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.” The Gloria Patri also names the Holy Spirit as being one of the parts of the Holy Trinity….”Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit…”
But though we spend a fair amount of time considering the nature of the Father, and the nature of the Son, oftentimes it seems as though the Holy Spirit doesn’t get the same amount of consideration.
Today’s reading from the Book of the Acts of the Apostles asks us to consider the work and the importance of the Holy Spirit. So let’s take a closer look at what happened when the body of believers was gathered together that day in Jerusalem on the great feast of Pentecost. For it is there that we gain a new understanding of the Spirit’s power and work.
The first thing we might notice is that when the group[1]was gathered together, the Holy Spirit’s arrival was marked with signs of power. Three are specifically mentioned: the rush of a mighty wind, something “like tongues of fire” rested on each one present, and each one present received the ability to speak in a language they had not previously known.
These three manifestations of the Spirit’s presence are worth examining:
1. The rush of a mighty wind: In Greek, the word for spirit is pneuma. It is the same root word which gives us the word “pneumatic” or “pneumonia”in English. It means “breath” or“wind”. One way we express the Spirit’s indwelling is with the word “inspiration”, which literally means “to breathe into”.
2. Tongues of fire: John the Baptist had said that Jesus would come, and would baptize with “the Holy Spirit, and with fire” (see Luke 3: 16). Fire has the ability to refine and purify. God’s presence was signified by fire at the burning bush (see Exodus 3: 1 – 6). God’s presence at Mount Sinai was also marked with the presence of fire (see Exodus 19: 18). Fire also has the power to cause things to happen. In this case, the presence of fire enables the group to speak in languages they would not have otherwise known.
3. Speaking in other tongues: In the New Testament, there are two forms of speaking in tongues.[2] One is ecstatic spiritual speech. This form of speaking in tongues was a particular problem in the Corinthian Church, for many there were using the ability to engage in ecstatic speech as a form of spiritual arrogance. But here, in Acts, the form of speech involved is in the form of being able to communicate the good news of God to foreigners. So this form of speech has as its purpose missionary activity, spreading the good news to others.
But what does the Pentecost event have to do with you and me? What is the importance of the coming of the Holy Spirit?
One observation comes from the demonstration of the power of the Spirit, and the audience which witnessed that demonstration of power. Perhaps I should be more specific: Luke tells us in the text before us today that those who witnessed the Pentecost event where “devout Jews from every nation under heaven.” As power is poured out on the believers, the far reaches of the world witness that power. The truth of God is proclaimed to people far and wide. The missionary activity of the Church, which is charged by the Lord Jesus Christ to be His witnesses “in Jerusalem, in Judea, Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1: 8) is mapped out by the Pentecost event.
Another observation is that the Spirit’s creative power enables each one to speak in a foreign language. Recall with me that one of the Spirit’s abilities is to create. At the beginning of creation, Genesis tells us that the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters (see Genesis 1: 2). The gospel accounts also tell us that the Blessed Virgin Mary became pregnant with Jesus as the result of the creative power of the Spirit. Here in Acts, the Spirit’s creative power enables people to have gifts they would not have had otherwise.
Yet another observation is that the Spirit’s power descended on each one present. If we look back into the Old Testament, we can see that the Spirit’s power was available only to select persons…many of them were the ancient prophets. But the ordinary person wasn’t thought to have the Spirit of God’s enlightening and empowering presence. All that changes with the Pentecost event: Every believer has access to the Holy Spirit’s gifts and abilities.
When we were baptized, we were anointed with holy oil, and the words “You are sealed by the Holy Spirit in baptism, and marked as Christ’s own for ever,” were spoken over us.
At baptism, the gift of the Holy Spirit is given, and the new Christian receives the power to discern Christ’s truth and Christ’s presence as their life unfolds. (This ability to discern is one reason why baptism is necessary in order to receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist, for, as St. Paul admonishes us, each one who receives the Sacrament of the Eucharist must discern the Body and Blood of the Lord[3].)
The Spirit’s power and His enlightening presence manifests itself in different ways, depending on the individual’s own gifts, with which the Spirit works to carry out God’s plan of spreading the good news of God in Christ. St. Paul makes this differentiation quite clear as he writes in I Corinthians chapter twelve.
But the truth is that the Spirit is given to each one, and no one is left out….the tongues of fire rested upon each one present, we read in Acts.
Since the Spirit is available to each believer, it is our job to recognize that the Spirit’s power is available to us, to claim that power and to cooperate with it. St. Paul makes that clear as he writes in Romans 8: 26 – 27, saying “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intecedes for us with sighs too deep for words. And he who searches the hearts of men knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”
One final comment is in order about the role of the Spirit and the importance of the Spirit’s work: Many times we believers concentrate on what we know about God, about the Bible, and about the Christian faith. What we Christians know is critically important. But what we know is not enough to allow us to be effective Christians. The Spirit’s power, inspiration and purifying influence allows us to grow into the full stature of Christ, and to be effective witnesses for Him. These properties of the Holy Spirit allow us to come into a fuller understanding of what God would have us know, in order to be able to proclaim the truth of God to the world around us.
“Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire, and lighten with celestial fire.”
AMEN.
[1] It isn’t clear from the text if the group that Luke – the author of Acts – refers to is the original disciples, or a larger group of 120 (mentioned in chapter one, verse 15).
[2] The technical term for speaking in tongues comes to us from the Greek, and it is glossalalia.
[3] See I Corinthians 11: 29.
