When we say “That was a spirited worship service” we mean that the joint was jumping. When we say, “She got the spirit” that means she was leaping around and dancing and having a good time. When we say, “That preacher had the spirit today” we mean he did some shouting. When we say “that choir was spirit-filled” we mean they were loud, dynamic, entertaining, exciting. We have come to associate having the Spirit with bold and boisterous behavior. But did you notice that the scripture describes the presence of the Spirit in markedly different terms. For example, in the gospel of St. John Jesus says, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Does he then say, “From now on I want to see you hopping, I want you to become rambunctious, I want you to become more noticeable.” No, what Jesus says after giving the Holy Spirit is: “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven, whose sins you retain are retained.” For Jesus, therefore, the presence of the Spirit is not characterized by noise, it is characterized by forgiveness. If you want to know if someone is spirit-filled don’t look to see how energetic they are, see how forgiving they are. Frequently forgiveness is the most quiet of activities – a one on one, face to face encounter filled more with tears than with cheers. The fire which symbolized the presence of the Holy Spirit on the first Pentecost is not always a blazing inferno. Sometimes it is a white-hot branding iron purging the soul of all the ungodly and venomous poisons which destroy human relationships. So perhaps this Sunday we should look to the Bible to get a picture of what the Spirit-filled people are really like.
When you look at the story of Pentecost as told in the Acts of the Apostles, it seems that the “large crowd” recognized the presence of the Holy Spirit in the apostles and the rest of the 120 followers of Jesus because they “could hear them speaking in our own tongues of the mighty acts of God.” They felt the gift of the Holy Spirit because someone found a way to communicate about what really mattered. St. Luke names fifteen different countries with presumably as many different languages that were present to hear the message. Because of the Spirit, the crowd was able to understand the good news in a way that made sense to them. If we are to be a Pentecost-people, a spirit-filled community, we too must make the effort to speak a word about Jesus that people can really hear. Sometimes that might be in the language of good deeds. Sometimes that might be in the language of welcoming. Sometimes that might be in the language of cultural sensitivity. The Spirit requires that we do more than simply repeat the catechism that we were taught. If we have the Spirit we are willing to do the work of bringing Jesus to others where they are at, instead of demanding that they come to where we are at.
A second characteristic of the presence of the Holy Spirit refers to what St. Paul in the epistle to the Corinthians calls “gifts.” “There are different spiritual gifts but the same Spirit.” The Bible lists seven gifts of the Spirit: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, fear of the Lord. Again, notice that there is nothing necessarily clamorous about any of that list of the gifts of the Spirit. The elder who sits quietly and shares the wisdom accumulated over the years is spirit-filled. The mentor who works with an individual to convey understanding to the next generation is spirit-filled. The youth group who takes counsel with one another about how to live a gospel life against some of the prevailing values of their peers is spirit-filled. What marks the presence of the Spirit is a willingness to use the gifts that one has received for the common good. “To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit.” For St. Paul the Spirit is present not in noise but in service. Are we using the gifts we have received for the building up of the body of Christ, for the improvement of our neighborhoods, for the health of our families, serve those who are in need? That is what determines whether we are a Spirit-filled community. The most gifted people in the world are not spirit-filled unless they are using those gifts in a way that makes a difference in the lives of others. “If I can help somebody by how I live, my living shall not be in vain” and I will truly be a spirit-filled person.
The epistle to the Corinthians goes on to describe another characteristic of the presence of the Spirit: unity. St. Paul emphasizes that our differences must not threaten our oneness. Because there is only one Spirit, one Lord, one God there can only be one body. “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free.” For the Spirit to be present we don’t need hollering as much as we need harmony. We don’t need clamor as much as we need cooperation. We don’t need whooping as much as we need wholeness. We don’t need people to get down as much as we need them to get together. The infallible sign of the presence of the spirit is our love for one another. All the rest is of no benefit if that isn’t present. Yes, we do things differently. We look at things differently. We think about things differently. But those differences all come from the one God and we must do the work of discovering that what unites us is much more important than anything that divides us. It is no accident that when the Holy Spirit came that first Pentecost Sunday “they were all in one place together,” as the book of Acts puts it. If Andrew had been jealous of John because he was the beloved disciple, if James had been angry at Peter for having denied the Lord, if Philip had been upset with Thomas for having doubted, if Matthew had shunned Mary Magdalene because of her background the Spirit could not have come. Because they accepted each other, because they forgave each other, because they respected each other their unity and oneness could attract the Holy Spirit. To be a spirit-filled person we must be together as one people.
There was an article in a magazine recently about research into the composition of the atmosphere, the air we breathe. They discovered that the oxygen is so long-lasting, and so well mixed, that with every breath we are taking in a molecule or two of air that Jesus breathed. Since in the Bible the word for Breath and the word for Spirit are identical perhaps the scientific fact and the quirk of language provides some perspective on this feast of Pentecost. We have the opportunity today to breathe in the Spirit of Jesus: to be forgiving, sharing, serving, united people. That’s how we will manifest the sweet, sweet Spirit that God is so anxious to bestow.