Sermon on the Holy Spirit--May 23, 2010

23 May 2010

Pentecost

Of all the things we might say about Pentecost, I havechosen to say something about four: Something about its connections, somethingabout tongues, and something about effects, and finally, the Holy Spiritprayer. 

 First—connections. Pentecost is connected to three differentevents that occur in the Bible or in history. The first of the Tower of Babel.That is why we chose that passage for our first reading—the point is that theHoly Spirit reversed the Tower of Babel. As  the Tower of Babeldivided humankind by their different languages, so Holy Spirit on Pentecostfound a common language to unite humankind.

 The second is the giving of the law on Mt. Sinai.Traditionally, the giving of the law took place 7 weeks after Passover.  (Hebrew: shavuot, pronounce schvoo-it)It was called the Festival of Weeks. Since it usually occurred at the time ofthe barley harvest, it was also called the feast of first fruits. As God gavethe Hebrews the law on Mt. Sinai 50 days after Passover, so God gives us heHoly Spirit 50 days after Easter. Since it was one of the great festivals,people from many nations came to Jerusalem for it.

 Finally, there is a connection to the Great Schism(pronounce scism, or skism) between the Eastern and Western Churches, which isusually dated in 1054. One of the several quarrels between East and West wasover the nature of the holy spirit. The original creed said that the HolySpirit descended from God, but Rome added the words “and the Son” (In LatinFiloque). That was followed by a series of excommunications, producing a splitthat has not yet healed.

 Then there is the matter of tongues. The account in actsmakes it clear that some sort of miracle took place. The disciples proclaimedthe gospel to Jews from many nations who were in town for the Festival. Eachheard the gospel. But What kind of a miracle was it—a miracle of the tongue, ora miracle of the ears. Did the disciples speak in a kind of gibberish and eachperson heard his own language—a miracle of the ear? Or did the disciples speakin different languages—a miracle of the tongue? The Pentecostal  churches think it was a miracle of theear (called glossalia)  which iswhy they association the speaking ecstatically  in their churches with the manifestation of the Holy Spirit.The mainline churches think it was a miracle of the tongue, which is why we donot practice  You can read today’spassage from Acts and see what you think. There is a good discussion of it on asite called Bible.org.

 Third, there is the matter of the effects. These are listsof desirable human qualities that are specifically associated with Holy Spirit.They are different from the virtues I memorized as a Boy Scout (thrifty, brave,clean, and reverent. They are different from the classical virtues of prudence,justice, fortitude and temperance. have a hand-out prepared that I have included with your bulletin. Theeffects of the Holy Spirit are variously called “gifts” or “fruits.” So far asI can tell, it is not important to distinguish  between a gift and a fruit. What IS important is that theseare things the Holy Spirit bestows. Unlike the Boy Scout virtues or theclassical virtues, you can pray for them, but you cannot achieve by will-poweror discipline. I have given you four lists. I commend them all to your studyand I have given you Bible citations, but I will only talk about the first listbecause that list has been commented on by Thomas Aquinas himself. They are:

Wisdom (With the gift of wisdom, wesee God at work in our lives and in the world. We see everything in the list ofGod’s mercy and power),

counsel (the willingness to askwhat is right),

knowledge (the ability to acquirethe information we need to  judgeright and wrong),

understanding (the ability to graspthe truth in the welter of information),

fortitude (the ability to followthe truth once you have grasped it),

piety (willingness to worship andto serve),

fear of the Lord (the desire not tooffend God and trust in his power).

 If you want more guidance on the gifts, you google “gifts ofthe spirit.” 

Finally, there is the Holy Spirit prayer. I have not beenable to find out the origin of this prayer, but I assume it is ancient. I firstlearned it at Cursillo. I want to teach it to you, but first I want toreenact  a little bit of the firstPentecost by having the prayer said in four different languages. . . .

Finally here it is in English, on your handout.  Amen