“When you send out your Spirit they are created: and you renew the face of the earth”.  

Psalm 104:31

One of the most important moments of my life took place in a small Anglican Church in Christchurch when I was 24 years of age. It happened on a Sunday morning, not dissimilar to today, except the Bishop was present; he had come for a service of confirmation.

I remember that day quite well. After the sermon, I was invited to come forward to the front and to kneel. Then the Bishop laid his hands on my head and he prayed: 

Creator Spirit, strengthen Damon with your gifts of grace, 

to love and serve as a disciple of Christ.

Those words sent a shiver down my spine. I had been baptised at the age of 3 months, and I had received the gift of the Holy Spirit, as we all do at our baptism; and I had made various commitments and decisions during my teenage years, which had influenced the direction my life had taken; but this was something special, for in the midst of a community that had become my spiritual home, I was choosing to commit myself to the Christian life. 

I believe God’s Spirit was with me on that day, in the love of friends and in the prayer of the Bishop, as I have continued to know and feel God’s presence in my life ever since. 

Now I share this with you, not because my experience was unique, but because I think we too often misunderstand what is meant by the Holy Spirit. Yes, we may know the Spirit is the 3^rd person of the Trinity of God, and we may have affirmed on numerous occasions ‘We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life’. But I think if we are honest many of us shy away from those who speak too enthusiastically about being filled with God’s Spirit. 

But, for me, it is all about being in touch with the very source of life.

In the Scriptures we find many references to the Spirit of God. For example, in the Old Testament, the ruach or Spirit of God is present at the very beginning of creation, hovering over the surface of the waters; and this same Spirit is also said to have come and rested on certain individuals, people like Joseph and Joshua and Samson, giving them the strength to lead and to serve; and the Spirit was a driving force behind the prophets. ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me’ wrote Isaiah, “he has sent me to bring God news to the humble, to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captive and release to those in prison.”

And so the Spirit is not a product of early Christian thought. Christians were not the first to experience God’s Spirit; but they did believe the Spirit continued to act in Jesus and the life of the church. In the New Testament, Luke tells us the Spirit descended upon Jesus at his baptism, led him out into the wilderness for forty days and forty nights, and inspired him to declare the words of Isaiah had come true. And Luke goes on to say, as we heard today, how on the Day of Pentecost, one of the foremost Jewish festivals, “tongues like flames of fire” rested upon the disciples in Jerusalem, and “they were filled with the Holy Spirit”. 

Jesus’ resurrection brought about God’s new creation; this is the message of the Gospels. But the work is not complete, as we know from our own experiences; there is still much to be done, and it is God’s Spirit working in us that keeps this message alive in our day.

I sometimes hear it said ‘if only the Holy Spirit would move like it did at Pentecost.’ 

I grew up during the charismatic movement of the 70’s and 80’s. And a lot of good came from this era, it brought life and energy and joy to a church caught in a downward cycle of death and decay. But it was too often focused on the spectacular, on signs and wonders.

And faith is much more down to earth than that for me; and I imagine it is the same for some of you. I believe the work of God’s Spirit never ceases in our world and in our lives. We don’t need to pray for divine intervention; we need only to open our eyes, the eyes of our inner being, to see the Holy Spirit present and active within and all around us. 

I think this is what St Paul meant when he wrote: 

“We do not even know how we ought to pray but through our inarticulate groans the Spirit himself is pleading for us, and God who searches our inmost being knows what the Spirit means, because he pleads for God’s people in God’s own way.” 

So where do I, where do you, see the Spirit at work today? 

Well, as I have suggested, I see it all around. 

I see it in the lives of individuals who visit the sick and the house bound.

I see it in the growth of our children’s ministry, and in the joy and hope this brings to us all. 

I see it in the determination of this Diocese to renew its life, to reshape its structures and to engage afresh with our communities with the good news. 

I see it on a national level with the covenant signed last weekend between Anglicans and Methodists of this land, a commitment to walking and working together.

I see it globally in our Anglican Communion as our church responds to the ecological crisis facing our world, partnering others in the renewal of our planet.

And I see it in places where truth and justice and compassion are allowed to flourish.

In other words, the work of the Holy Spirit did not end on the Day of Pentecost; it can be seen and felt and experienced whenever we open ourselves to the promises and the hope of God. Sean McDonagh I think gets it right when he says, ‘From the Spirit comes the great urge to heal what is broken, reunite what is separated and recreate the face of the earth.’

So may we know as Christians that we have received the Holy Spirit; and in the strength of that knowledge, may we be part of God’s new creation, aligning our lives to the purposes of God in our world; and may the Bishop’s prayer for me, be our prayer today. 

Creator Spirit, strengthen us all with your gifts of grace, 

to love and serve as disciples of Christ. Amen.

A sermon preached at St Alban’s Anglican Church, Eastbourne on Sunday 31 May 2009, by the Ven Damon Plimmer

Posted in Sermons |