Saying Hello to the Spirit
May 26, 1996
A parishioner came up to see me after last Sunday’s sermon and said, “That was interesting, equating The Ascension with saying good-bye; but Jesus also said that he would send his spirit.” My reply was, “Come next week.” And so to satisfy my friend, this sermon has the title, “Saying Hello to the Spirit.”
This is why it is so appropriate to have a Baptism on this Sunday, for baptism is that Sacrament where we believe that the Holy Spirit settles on people. And so we’re fortunate today to have young Jack. If we didn’t have him, we would have had to go to central casting and rent a baby.
– Pentecost in England was always called Whitsunday or white Sunday. It was the day that most of the parish baptisms took place. We in the United States have managed through the years to completely confuse the issue. We have taken a public act and made it into a private affair. We have remade something glorious that is intimately connected to the Eucharist and turned it into a family gathering that is connected to a party in someone’s home. We have made this powerful celebration of the Spirit into a lifetime inoculation from Dr. God, where we only have to come back on an occasional wedding or funeral or on Christmas for a booster shot.
Yes, we urge, cajole, declare that Baptism is a total community event, a public celebration, a part of the heavenly banquet, tied to the Eucharist, and yet we have people say – but lets do it privately. I sometimes wonder when concern for people becomes capitulation of values; when does accommodating people’s agendas become a prostitution of the faith?
But let’s not get maudlin, for today we have it like it is supposed to be. Here is the way that Pentecost was traditionally supposed to be celebrated.
Young Jack will not remember this day. He will not recall the proceedings of a few moments ago, unless he is even more precocious than his parents believe. He will not recall that this morning he was invited to share in God’s priesthood.
If there is any memory of this morning, any affirmation of these promises, any knowledge of the Holy Spirit descending, that memory will have to come from us. There are a lot of things that we impose upon innocent children, and infant baptism may be one. We act for them, hoping that we are doing the right thing. But without taking away from what the Child has received, we have to admit that baptism says as much about us, self-conscious adults, as it ever does with uncomprehending children.
Here is the real danger of public baptism. We might be reminded of our own baptism. Baptism says to us that we are no longer genteel spectators of a quaint custom. You are not even witnesses who might testify to what has taken place. You are the evidence of the Christian faith. The data that young Jack will look at as he grows up and decides what was done to him was worthwhile or not.
What I am reminding all of us here is that Jack will be introduced to his Christian faith by looking at our lives. You and I will become for him the Christian faith.
So let’s take a look at what he can expect from us. What can he expect from people of the spirit, from those who share with him the priesthood of God?
I have chosen an incident in the book of Acts to illustrate what life in the Spirit means. It is found in the third chapter. And it concerns Peter and John. We find them on their way to the temple, and they pass by a lame person who is looking for a handout. Unfortunately, this beggar chose the wrong person to make a touch. Peter and John have no spare change for charity. And yet, they do have something. They have the spirit. So they stop and say a curious thing: “Look at us.” In other words, they want to personalize the relationship. They are not part of the faceless crowd who hurries by. I sometimes wonder what would happen if we did that to the people we pass on the street. “Look at us,” Peter says, “and we will become more than one of the masses, and you will be more than a beggar.”
The next thing Peter does is he declares: “Silver and gold have I none, but I give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ, get up and walk.” And something truly amazing happens. The lame beggar stands up and walks, and goes to church praising God.
According to Harnack, a New Testament scholar, this is the real Pentecost story. Pentecost didn’t happen, he claims, when a bunch of people had an ecstatic experience_ He even questions whether that really took place. Pentecost happened when a person exercised his/her shared priesthood and reached out to another person in Jesus’ name.
Can you imagine what it would have been like to be in Peter’s shoes? Would you have stopped? Would you have believed that you could actually be God’s instrument for healing?
I have a confession to make. I often think of Peter’s words when I go into a hospital room. “Silver and gold, have I none, but in the name of Jesus Christ, get up and walk.” But then my cynical self takes over, and I say, “You are expecting miracles, which may be all right for Peter, but not for Roger.” Possibly, Pentecost doesn’t happen in our lives because we don’t expect lame people to rise up and walk?
Yesterday, I met with the Vestry, and we spent the day deliberating about the campaign of saying, “Yes to the Future.” As you might imagine, we were feeling the enormity of the goal. People were saying, “We don’t have many angels” (people who will give a million or even a hundred thousand). In other words, we were saying to ourselves, “Silver and gold have 1 none, or at least not much . . .” I kept wondering who was going to say, “In the name of Jesus Christ, get up and walk.” Who was going to say to the parish, “Stop being a cripple, feel the spirit, rise up, get moving . . .
At the end of the baptism, we said to Jack, “We receive you into the household of God, confess the faith, proclaim the Resurrection, and share with us in Christ’s priesthood.” The priesthood is one of reaching out and performing miracles in his name. It remains to be seen if we can walk the walk, as well as talk the talk.
Someone once said that whenever a baby is bout, God says “Yes” once again to the future. And whenever a Christian is baptized, each of us can say “Yes” once again to God. That’s what this day is all about. Saying Yes to the Spirit, saying Hello to the Spirit, or asking that God’s spirit melt us, mold us, fill us, and use us.
Amen