by the Rev. Carole Horton-Howe
Please note that the following sermon text was provided prior to the audio recording. The two versions may differ substantially.
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”
After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
—John 20:19-23
It’s Pentecost! Today we continue talking about the Holy Spirit and hear about the Spirit’s call to Jesus’ followers, startling them and then energizing them to do the work of being the church in the world.
The good news of Easter that we leave behind today was not just about assurance that God had conquered death. It was always also a about mission. Jesus’ resurrection implicated the disciples and us in building the King of God on earth. It draws us into the realm of God’s love for the world and empowers us by the Spirit to love each other as God loves the world.
Bishop Mary Glasspool once told me something important about the Holy Spirit in the context of ministry. Remember, she said, that the Holy Spirit is always at work – always moving, stirring us up, always revealing opportunities for us to participate in God’s dream of creating. The job of ministry, she said, is to go into a place and figure out what the Holy Spirit is already doing there. So your job is to discern what the Holy Spirit is doing. And then figure out what you can do to help the Holy Spirit along.
Her advice isn’t just for clergy and not just for tasks we think of as “ministry,” it’s for all of us all the time.
It’s about living our lives expecting and looking for how the Holy Spirit is moving in the world.
This is where this particular gospel is so important: we are reminded that we do not stand alone in our attempts to follow Jesus. We, too, are given the Holy Spirit that transformed the disciples from a motley collection of followers into an energized and committed troop of missionaries that transformed the world.
Jesus links the coming of the Holy Spirit to forgiveness of sins. Of all the things Jesus could have talked about in this most powerful moment, why forgiveness?
Remember who he’s talking to—his closest friends who have witnessed the trauma of his death. So in telling them to forgive, he wants them to make space in the hearts for the spirit to work in them and through them. Jesus knows the hard emotional work that is ahead of them. How can they do this hard work of building up the kingdom of God on earth with hearts full of pain, blocked with thoughts of anger, anxiety and revenge?
Jesus on the cross asked God to forgive those responsible for his murder. Now Jesus wants his disciples to let go, to make space in their hearts to receive the Holy Spirit and let her guide them. Be strong, be fearless. Be unencumbered to build God’s Kingdom in the World. Allow God to be the forgiver of sins – both our sins and those of others. Our responsibility is not to judge but to let them go into the realm of God. So that we can focus on the work that we have to do.
What did they experience? John’s description of the coming of the Holy Spirit is limited. It’s actually Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians that describes what the experience for us.
Remember that Paul was a contemporary of the disciples, that he spent time with them after his conversion. It’s easy to imagine that he heard from those who were in the room when Jesus appeared and heard them describe the experience of the coming of the Holy Spirit. Paul says:
“To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.”
Paul goes on to talk about gifts of wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, performing miracles, prophecy.
The experience of the disciples and their sharing that experience is important for us. Theologians can talk endlessly about God, postulate various ideas about God’s role in the universe. There is just as much conversation about interpreting Jesus’ his words and actions trying to understand as best we can what they meant. These heartfelt attempts are all fine.
But I believe the Holy Spirit is different – the Holy Spirit is personal and intimate for each of us. We are given gifts as Paul said “individually just as the Spirit chooses.”
I think we know if we’re doing that, I think we can discern the presence of the Holy Spirit if we see the Fruits of the Holy Spirit that Paul talks about later. He describes the qualities we experience as the Holy Spirit is working in and through us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Holy Spirit works in us in big, spectacular ways that bring on those Ah-Ha! moments. And also in quiet ways, that rescue us, comfort us, nudging us along.
Whenever I’m a little short on Joy, as happens sometimes these days, I remember the day this photo was taken. It was my ordination day. I’m surrounded by so many of you on the steps of St. John’s cathedral. During the ordination service, I clearly heard the Holy Spirit speaking to me that day as I lay prostrate on the floor. “You have done everything that was asked of you,” she said. “Your fears, your anxieties about the future – leave them on the floor. I’ll sweep them away. Make space in your heart for me. Get up.” And I have this photo to remind me of the joy generated by the Spirit that day. I keep in it my office at home and look at it everyday.
Saint Matthias Group Photo at Rev. Carole’s Ordination - Photo by Bob Howe
Rev. Carole’s Ordination Service - Photo by Bob Howe
If we take this call to follow Jesus seriously it quickly becomes clear that we as mere humans are not capable of doing so on our own. The powers of sin arrayed against us are too great. We need the Holy Spirit and we need each other.
The events going on around our country that have unfold in the last few days that led to the death of one man and the response of thousands to it are disturbing. The reasons for it are complex and deeply rooted in generations of behavior that clearly never had even a passing acquaintance with God’s dream for the world, with the teachings of Jesus or the fruits of the Holy Spirit.
As followers of Jesus Christ, our call today is to figure out what the Holy Spirit is stirring up in our lives, and to live out that call in lives saturated with those qualities of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control so that they may pass through us to others. Make space for the Holy Spirit. And get up. This is our Holy work. Amen.