Year A

John 20:19-23

The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn

Real Power

In the 1930’s, an impressive group of men began to meet in Oxford, England. C.S. Lewis, J.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, Owen Barfield, and others, they called themselves the “Inklings.” They talked politics and religion, and read aloud what they were working on. Just imagine: a group of young men hearing Tolkien read the rough draft of The Lord of the Rings and Lewis trying out segments of The Screwtape Letters! The criterion for being in the Inklings was simply this: Do you care about truth? They didn’t have to agree on the answers. They just needed to be passionate about finding the truth.

The season of Easter has ended and the long season of Pentecost has arrived. Pentecost is the season associated with the Spirit of Truth, the work of the Holy Spirit, God’s Breath at work in God’s people in the life of the Church. The Gospel appointed for today is John’s Pentecost. For John this is the beginning of Pentecost.  On the evening of the resurrection, Jesus appears to his shattered, exhausted, and scared disciples. He brings the traditional Jewish greeting “Peace be with you” twice. It is as if the first resurrection act of Jesus is to surround the disciples with love and give them the resources of the Holy Spirit to enable them to be his hands and feet in the world.

This is the priority. Jesus breaths his Spirit, the Spirit of God, on the disciples and in the giving of himself through the Spirit to them, things began to happen to them. They are transformed from nervous wrecks to disciples that can bring to a hurting world forgiveness, hope and truth. What Christ gave them at Easter came to fullness at Pentecost. “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. All were filled with the Holy Spirit.”

God the Father poured out His Spirit to empower the church to advance Christ’s mission to the very ends of the earth. Empowered by the Holy Spirit disciples were able to preach God’s Word, and to be understood even in languages they did not know. Numerous awe-inspiring “wonders and signs,” miracles of healing, economic sharing, and community were inspired by the Holy Spirit. Guidance in major decisions, such as the commissioning of Barnabas to replace Judas, the commissioning of Paul to missionary travel and the decisions of the Jerusalem council was inspired by God’s breath.

The apostle Paul in his letters to the Churches developed an elaborate theology of the Holy Spirit, who in his letter to the Romans says the Spirit, “helps us in our weakness” and in his first letter to the Corinthians, the Spirit sends spiritual gifts to equip the church for its ministry, and empowers such mysterious worship and gifts such as speaking in tongues and interpreting the meaning of such speech, or receiving and speaking a divinely inspired word of prophecy or song. The early church seemed to have been remarkably open to a dynamic and fluid way of managing its affairs, based on its theology and experience of the Holy Spirit.

Where to go, what to do, how to worship, who should speak in worship, what should be said in worship, who should lead the community, how it should be led, how to relate to those different neighbors, even what to say when under threat, these and many other matters seem to be handled through the church’s reliance and direction of the Holy Spirit. With this reliance and direction of the Spirit came tremendous gains in furthering the mission of Christ.

Cultural patterns of all types were shattered, including the barrier between Gentile and Jew. Advances were made against sexism and the Holy Spirit moved people toward more radical economic sharing and away from selfishness. It wasn’t until later in Paul’s Pastoral Epistles, that we begin to see the fluid Spirit-driven church give way to a more hierarchical and structured communal life. The Holy Spirit’s role then for most of the church became more confined.

The extraordinary gifts given to the early church, seemed to have ceased. There was little emphasis placed on the role for the Holy Spirit in the church’s life. Structures were established for everything, including worship, teaching, leadership, and decision making. It even became rare in many of the churches to hear any mention of the Holy Spirit. Yet, through the years, as a whole the Christian Church has never been without a reliance on the God’s Spirit to lead it.

In the past thirty years or more, one of the fastest-growing movements within the global church has been the resurgence of the reliance on God’s Holy breath to empower and advance God’s kingdom of love, justice, mercy and truth. We have been challenged to find the Spirit within ourselves and to locate, claim, and utilize our authentic voices, gifts, and skills with which to love and serve.

The Spirit that swept through the house at Pentecost gifted not only the disciples but many more. That Spirit has been loosed into the world, and its creative and life-giving power is the gift of families and communities, of churches, and of nations. It is the gift given by God to each one of us to help us further God’s work and if we do not confine the Holy Spirit’s empowerment we too will find things begin to happen. Yet, the shame of it is that we all too often fail to realize what power is at our disposal.

We are given real power in the Holy Spirit to get the job done.  Even now as we wait in an uncertain future God’s Spirit never leaves us. Our gospel reminds us that on that Easter evening, the disciples were hiding out of fear. They did not know what to do next. The gospel says, “Jesus came and stood among them.” That is how we get it all together. When we realize that Jesus stands among us, we are graced with the power and the gift of the Holy Spirit. In his presence we receive that gift which is power to change and transform lives.

The question for each of us to ponder today and in the many weeks ahead in this season of Pentecost is: How will we respond to the gifts and powers given to us by the Spirit? Will we, much like the very early church allow ourselves to be open to the Spirit’s power and truth to guide our lives so that things begin to happen to spread the grace and love of Jesus Christ? I pray that this feast day and season of Pentecost is a time of renewal for us.

It is our life’s work to enable the freeing breath of God to empower us to think what God thinks, to feel what God feels, to want what God wants, and to do what God does. May we want to live in the power of the Spirit who sends us out, as the Father sent Jesus out to bring love, forgiveness, peace, and salvation to all. “When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”