Spirit of Life, Spirit of Love
Pentecost Scripture Readings
This Pentecost morning, we have a choice. We could concentrate our attention on the Pentecost story as told by Luke in the Acts of the Apostles—our first reading—or we could look to the more mystical interpretation of the gift of the Holy Spirit as told by John—our gospel reading. Since it’s not possible to reconstruct accurately the experience of the Apostles when they were first overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, I’ve chosen to focus rather on the meaning of this event as seen through John’s eyes.
By this time, we ought to be aware that, for John, the Resurrection, the Ascension into glory, and the gift of the Holy Spirit are all described as happening on one day: Easter Sunday. In another sense, we might say that John saw these not as three separate events, but as three aspects of the same event, spread out over the course of the day from early morning until evening time. What John describes for us is nothing less than an explosion at the heart of reality.
Here is Jesus—the same Jesus who was nailed to a cross and pierced by a lance—now freed from the confines of space and time. What sort of freedom could we expect to experience if we were to become able to travel unrestrictedly wherever we desired and, additionally, to travel to whenever we chose? That describes what we know of the Resurrection. From that standpoint in God’s reality, Jesus chose to come to his faithful disciples as they were hidden away, cowering in fear and isolation. What did he bring to them? Simply, peace.
This peace was no ordinary שָׁלוֹם (shalom), the familiar traditional Semitic greeting, “Hi, how are ya?” Nor was it a peace like the Treaty of Versailles, which put an end to armed hostilities (temporarily). The peace that Jesus proclaimed was a kind of proclamation of reunification. The resurrected Jesus returned to his disciples who had betrayed and abandoned him with his wounds: a graphic reminder of what they had done. His announcement of peace to them was a proclamation and actualization of atonement—the restoration to wholeness of the fragments of shattered relationships.
Then, he repeated his proclamation a second time, but now he effected a new and radical type of reunification. “As the Father has sent me,” he said. The Father’s sending of his eternal Word into the world was the revelation of his glory, and thus we have what we call the Ascension. The Father sends the Son who is the image of the Father and the Son reveals that image to the world in the language of creation, life, and love. That’s the glory of the Father visible in the Son. So, Jesus’s gift of peace to his disciples is an extension of his Ascension—his glory—to them. They participate in the glory of the Son as the Son participates in the glory of the Father. “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” The mission of the Apostles is now to be the glory of the Father in the Son made manifest to the world.
That bestowal of peace, the revelation of the glory of the Father through the Son, transforms the Apostles’ relationship to the world. “Receive the Holy Spirit.” He breathes on them with the breath—the aspiration—of God. It’s the same breath of the Spirit of God that breathed on the waters of chaos to bring forth creation. Yet, this breath is not, strictly speaking, a new creation. Rather, it’s the fulfillment of creation, bringing all the chaos that still remains into oneness with the Creator. The Holy Spirit, after all, is the very life force of God. The Spirit is divine creative power, life and consciousness, and the power of unbridled, unconditional love. The Holy Spirit is not a noun like creation, life, or love. The Spirit is a verb. The Spirit is creating, living, and loving. That’s the Spirit that’s given to us, the Church, so that we might reveal the power of creating, living, and loving to our chaotic, lifeless, and love-starved world.
So far, we can see that the peace Jesus bestowed on his disciples and on his Church was given to restore the relationship of oneness between God and humankind and humankind and creation. Where do sin and forgiveness enter into the picture? Why does he say, “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them.”? Sin is a particularly virulent form of chaos. There’s plenty of chaos still left in God’s creation. It hasn’t all been eradicated. There’s still chaos in the structure of the universe, in galaxies, and in the stars. There’s chaos in our own planet, buffeted by solar winds, groaning with tectonic shifts, shaken by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, seething with tsunamis, floods, and windstorms, and wracked with populations sickened and dying of famine and disease.
These things are bad, but sin is far worse because sin it’s deliberate, intentional chaos. It’s a type of chaos born of destruction rather than creation, death rather than life, selfish indifference rather than love. So, if there is ever to be peace, if creation and life and love are ever to replace chaos, there must be forgiveness. That’s what this Solemnity of Pentecost is all about. That’s where the deepest at-one-ness happens. Without it, there is no unity, there is no peace.
I hope you’re acutely aware of the role the Holy Spirit plays in our liturgy. Yes, we pray in the name of the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Yet our liturgical prayer, from beginning to end is addressed to our heavenly Father in the name of Christ Jesus, the Son. However, at the apex of our liturgical prayer, we call upon the Father to grace us with the gift of his Holy Spirit. As I hold my hands outstretched over our gifts in the prayer we call the epiclesis, meaning “the calling forth,” we ask for the power of the Spirit, the power of creating, of giving life, and of loving, to transform our gifts and to transform us into the image of the glory of the Father. Then, before we enter fully into our union with Christ and one another, we do as Jesus did and share a sign of his peace and unity with one another. That’s the communion we pray for, that’s the communion we’re given, and that’s the communion we share.
“As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” “Receive the Holy Spirit.” “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them.” And, above all, “Peace be with you.”
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