ALL SAINTS MARGARET STREET

PENTECOST 2006
EVENSONG & BENEDICTION

Fr Alan Moses

If we are going to read a book, watch a movie or TV programme, listen to a sermon, and grasp the plot or understand what it means, it is usually a good idea to begin at the beginning, to be there when it starts, rather than half way through.

This evening’s second reading begins half way through St. Peter’s Pentecost sermon. We heard the first part of it at Mass today after Luke’s account of the extraordinary events of the first Pentecost. Peter’s sermon to the crowd who have witnessed these strange goings on seeks to explain that has happened, to set it in the wider context of God’s dealings with his people over the centuries. Peter links what has happened with the Jesus and with the Hebrew scriptures.

In the passage read at Mass, in response to cynical onlookers who think the apostles have had rather too much episcopal sherry, he quotes the prophet Joel:

“In the last days it will be , God declares ,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men dream dreams.
Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
in those days I will pour out my Spirit,
and they shall prophesy.”


Like Peter, to understand what this all means we have to look at the Old Testament background, at the development of understanding of the Spirit of God.

To begin at the beginning of the Old Testament’s theology of the Spirit, we have to start, not with the relatively late Genesis 1.2 which by something a historical accident appears at the beginning of the Bible, and which speaks of the Spirit of God sweeping over the countering the primeval chaos waters, but with the deeper roots of Hebrew religion.

In some of the oldest identifiable traditions of the Old Testament, the Spirit of God is spoken of in the context of the activity of groups or schools of prophets given to ecstatic behaviour. The inspiration of these prophets by the Spirit seems to have been discredited later on by abuses, so the later prophets are not spoken of as being inspired by the Spirit.

The Spirit’s activity is not restricted simply to prophecy. Saul’s experience of the Spirit resulted, at first in his prophesying, but the real reason for the gifts of the Spirit related to his kingship. In the early Hebrew theology, the king is the one anointed by the Spirit. This anointing makes the king is God’s instrument to bring blessings on his people.

Other texts considerable widen the role of the Spirit further. The Spirit is said to endow artists and craftsmen with the skill to construct the tabernacle. We might think in the light of our plans to restore this building of the inspiration of the Spirit in the design and construction and decoration of this church.

In the Wisdom tradition, the Spirit is said to endow human beings with understanding. We might think of the Collect for Pentecost which prays that the Spirit will give us a “right judgement in all things” - not just narrowly religious things but everyday ones, small and great.

These works of the Spirit may not be as profound as what the later prophets of the Exile and the Return see as the link between the Spirit and the ethical and spiritual renewal of Israel. But they are important in opening up the activity of the Spirit to the wider realm of human existence. It is not just the ecstatic prophet who has the Spirit, or even the king, but also the ordinary man or woman who fears God.

The theology of the Spirit finds its highest expression in the Old Testament as the agent of ethical and spiritual renewal we heard in tonight’s reading from Ezekiel written during the time of the Exile:

“I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries, and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh/ I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances.”

The Holy Spirit is the instrument of God’s purpose in creation and history. The Lord’s servant in 2nd Isaiah is that of the bearer of the Spirit who will bring justice and righteousness to the earth.

This new confidence, this new faith, in the Spirit as the principle of renewal and new hope, which characterises so much Hebrew thought during the era of the Exile, is one of the great watersheds in the development of the theology of the Spirit.

1. Here the theology of the Spirit is related to the deepest sources of human ethical and spiritual life, not only in Israel but in humanity.

2. The Old Testament’s theology of the Spirit moves in the direction of the ultimate hopes of later biblical Judaism. As in Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones, the theme of ruach as the life principle that comes from God, and the theme of ultimate renewal are fused in the prophet’s hopes for the future of Israel, risen from the grave and restored to the land. A new relationship between Israel and the Spirit is spoken of, bringing with it a new heart and a new obedience to God’s laws and commandments (Ezekiel 36.24ff)

In 2nd Isaiah a similar vision of the future is developed in connection with the Servant:

“Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my spirit upon him;
he will bring forth justice to the nations.”

Ezekiel’s vision is expanded, so that the activity of God through the Spirit is seen as offering promise to the whole of the earth. The Servant, who represents at the literal level the people that went into exile, sold into slavery because of its sins, also represents at a deeper level Israel’s hope for deliverance. This is one of the richest of the biblical ideas of the Spirit, for here we find the image of the Christ -anointed, suffering, liberating, and exalted.

Rather than the Spirit being withdrawn from the world, the world being unworthy of the Spirit’s presence, what is promised is a universal gift - open to all who will receive it. The principle of life and energy in God, the instrument of his purpose in creation and history, and the agent of ethical renewal become the present possession of all those who call upon the name of the Lord.

If we are honest, I suspect most of us would side with those whoon the first Pentecost thought the apostles drunk. Ecstasy is not really part of our tradition. It is not something we feel comfortable with. There are good reasons for such caution. Martin Luther said some of his extremist followers had “swallowed the Holy Ghost, feathers and all.” Charismatic enthusiasm is open to abuse. What begins as spontaneity often ends as conformity as everyone feels pressured into conforming to the latest supposed manifestation of the Holy Spirit. There often seems to be a wilful rejection of the intellect - a refusal to pray for a right judgement in all things and to recognise it as a gift of the Spirit.

But those of us who come from more restrained, even buttoned-up traditions, need to do more than simply spot other peoples’ shortcomings and distortions. We need to recognise the reality of spiritual experience in many people whom our ordered and careful liturgy has often failed to touch because when it becomes legalistic it can stifle real spiritual experience. The theology and practice of the western Church has frequently played down the role of the Holy Spirit - making the Third Person of the Trinity into little more than a sort of guarantee of ecclesiastical correctness and pedigree or a high octane fuel supply which the Church’s ministers can turn on or off, rather than the divine Spirit which blows where it wills.

It is perhaps because we have lost the capacity to recognise the work of the Spirit across that range of areas we see in the Old Testament, beyond the narrowly “spiritual”, that we find it so difficult to cope with the more extravagant manifestations. The charismatic Christian, who has not noticed the work of the Spirit in liturgy, preaching, sacrament, fellowship, prayer, works of charity and administration, can only see the Spirit in the ecstatic. The traditional Christian is often so frightened of the ecstatic because the Spirit has been tamed and domesticated, confined in all aspects of our Church life.

Ours is an age when the spiritual has become fashionable. Spiritualities are legion. Yet many of those interested in spirituality would never think that the Church is the place they might go looking for it. They do not see Christians as spiritual people; people whose hearts and minds have been so transformed that their lives reflect something of God. Too often, they see us as merely dull; conformists who are no better than they are, or perhaps even worse; escapists hiding from reality. We do not look much like people who dream dreams and see visions.

The Holy Spirit is both the Spirit of Order, of Holy Order, the one who brings order out of chaos, helping us to discern what is truly of God and what is not, and the Spirit which blows where it wills - beyond our control, often preceding the Church, challenging us to do new things, move into uncharted territory; enabling us to dream dreams and see visions.