Year B

John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15

The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn

Witnessing Spirit Style

Today, the day of Pentecost, is often called “the birthday of the church.” What a way to start a church! It’s certainly not the typical format for new church development. Where is the planning committee, the fund-raising, the arm twisting, and the faithful few who volunteer to get the whole thing off the ground? No, it’s not typical in our way of doing things but it is for God.  After the ascension of Jesus back to God, on this day, 50 days after the resurrection, the Holy Spirit came to empower the disciples and “devout Jews from every nation” who were assembled in Jerusalem, to begin the mission and ministry of Jesus into the world.

The Spirit gave the disciples the ability to speak to those who had gathered so they could hear the gospel message about God’s deeds of power, in their own “native language,” all to enable those who believe in Jesus as the Messiah, to witness to the Christ “to the ends of the earth” through the Spirit of God. They are ridiculed by some; and heard by others. We know the road ahead for the disciples will be difficult. They will face ridicule, persecution, and death at the hands of those who do not believe. Yet, they believe and continue to proclaim God through the Holy Spirit.

But what is the Spirit of God? How do we know it, and if we even have it? These are all good questions because there are many kinds of spirits in the world and lots of Spiritualities. For instance, meetings of different sorts may be “spirited” and if we can sense the “spirit of a meeting” we may be in the spirit in the room, and that spirit may be something which oppresses or delights us. But the texts for today make clear that if our meeting, our coming together for worship, is really a meeting in the presence of the one true God, then the Spirit of that assembly, will be the Spirit of God.

The Spirit is God present, seeing to it that the words and actions of Jesus Christ are alive in our midst through the generations as powerful words and actions, judging and forgiving, sending, and giving life. The Spirit is all that belongs to Jesus the Christ, alive here and declared to us to enable the church to go into the world to bear witness to the love of God in Christ. In Luke’s book of Acts, the church is charged to proclaim to all the nations everything that has happened in Jesus that the Gospel of Luke declares to us. And the outpouring of the Spirit enables the church to do just that, giving power that the words about Jesus Christ might be heard to everyone, and be life-giving everywhere.

The Holy Spirit is God as the force and presence of the Acts story. The other readings today, celebrate what this Spirit does, poured out from God, bearing life-giving witness to Christ, all to gather us into the very life of the Trinity. This life-giving Spirit is what Jesus promises the disciples that night at the last supper, in the gospel text today, which occurs before Pentecost.  Jesus prays and promises to send them the Spirit of truth, the Advocate, to strengthen them for the trial and collision this mission they are being sent to do will create for them. Without the Spirit, the disciples are not able to stand with Jesus when the world condemns and crucifies him, even Peter denies that he belongs to Christ. However, the Spirit is not given to them to comfort them but rather to thrust them out into the world to bear witness. The Holy Spirit doesn’t override the disciple’s free will but actually sets it in motion, so that they are able to testify to Christ in spite of the world’s resistance and hatred to the truth.

The truth for them is that without the Spirit, the Advocate, they could only betray, deny and abandon Christ, through fear of the world’s hate. Precisely because we believe in Jesus Christ and abide in the love of God, the world will hate us because we no longer love what the world loves, and no longer belong to the world. But the Spirit of truth Jesus says will guide, strengthen and speak through us to the world of the love of God through Christ. The disciples then and today are to show or witness to that love of God by loving one another. The late Cecil Northcutt, Congregational Minister Journalist and Biographer, in one of his books tells of a group of young people from many nations who were discussing how they might witness to Christ in our day.

Some spoke of television, some spoke of radio, some spoke of distributing literature, and still others of holding mass meetings. Then a girl from Africa spoke: “When we want to take Christianity to one of our villages, we don’t send them books. We take a Christian family and send them to live in the village. They make the village Christian by living there.” This is the way missionaries, and every one of us, are to witness to Jesus. Through the witness of our lives of the love for one another and for God, with the help of the Spirit, we show this inclusive love that helps us to see others as part of God’s family, as the Spirit revealed and led disciples on Pentecost.

There is a wonderful story in Jim Wallis’ books titled, Who Speaks for God.  Jim an advocate for Jesus tells about a reporter who was covering the conflict in Sarajevo. This reporter sees a little girl shot by a sniper. He rushed to a man who was holding the child and helped them both into his car.  As the reporter raced to the hospital, the man in the back seat said, “Hurry, my friend, my child is still alive.” A little later he said, “Hurry, my friend, my child is still breathing.” Still later he said, “Hurry, my friend, my child is still warm.”

Finally, he said, “Hurry, Oh God, my child is getting cold.” When they got to the hospital, sadly the little girl had died. The man who had been holding the child then said to the reporter, “This is a terrible task for me. I must go and tell her father that his child is dead. He will be heartbroken.” The reporter was puzzled and responded, “I thought she was your child.” The man looked at him and said, “No, but aren’t they all our children?”

They are all our children….”and each heard them speaking in the native language of each…Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt and parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs-in their own language we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” Can we do it? Can we demonstrate our faith authentically enough and speak God’s words to attract people to Christ? Maybe, maybe not, if we are left to our own devices but Jesus tells us today there is a power available to help us move beyond ourselves and our own interests. That power is the advocate, the Holy Spirit, who comes to our side to help.

Every one of us baptized Christians has the Holy Spirit living inside of us and what we cannot accomplish alone can be accomplished because we have a helper to give us what we need to love God and love people. The depth of God requires more time and more hard work. So the Holy Spirit will “guide us into all truth.” There are many kinds of Spirits and spiritualities in our world. By God’s mercy may the Spirit of all our Sunday meetings and lives be of that life-giving Advocate proclaimed in all the texts today. The Church is born: The Holy Spirit is among us.