What makes a Church? St. James continued to be a Church when the parochial school was closed. St. James discovered a few years ago that you don’t need pews and stained glass and a bell tower and a wonderful pipe organ to be a church. We’ve managed without the Holy Name Society, the Altar and Rosary Ladies, and, yes, even without bingo. But this last year, this last year has stretched the understanding of Church in ways we would never imagined possible. We are still Church even though we cannot gather as a community around the altar in prayer. We are still Church even without a choir and the congregation cannot lift our voices in song. We are still Church even without being able to offer hospitality and a genuine kiss of peace. So what, exactly, makes us Church? The answer is found in the word of Jesus for this Pentecost Sunday: “Receive the Holy Spirit.” What makes a church a church is the Holy Spirit. It’s not what we do that makes us Church, it’s what the Holy Spirit does in us that makes us a Church. Not the stained glass, not the choir, not even our attendance creates a Church. The Holy Spirit is the midwife that has brought St. James into life. We are a Holy Spirit church.
When you google “spirit-filled churches” St. James does not come up. In fact, no Catholic Church is listed as “spirit-filled.” That might be because people have the notion that to be spirit-filled involves speaking in tongues, lots of “praise the Lords” and getting happy feet. The description of the first Pentecost with the image of a strong, driving wind and tongues of fire might create the impression that dramatic and remarkable manifestations will characterize the presence of the Spirit. However, a closer look at the Scripture give a different set of criteria for what constitutes being Spirit-filled.
In the Gospel of John, for example, immediately after blowing forth that spirit-filled breath Jesus said: Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them. The initial characteristic, therefore, we are given when the Spirit brings the Church to birth is the power to forgive. This is not as odd a starting point as it seems at first. When you think about it, an inability to forgive keeps one locked in the past. All those hurts and wounds that have happened to me in my life — and all those mistakes and faults which I have done since forgiving oneself is also part of forgiveness — continue to haunt me if they remain unforgiven. Once forgiveness is extended and received the past is done and you can move into the future. A Spirit-filled church is, therefore, a church with a future, a church not defined by its faults and failings but one that is open to the new things that God has in store for us.
St. Paul describes another characteristic of a Pentecost-born Church: unity. “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves are free persons. We were all given to drink of the one Spirit.” St. James justly prides itself on our diversity. Look at all those flags which demonstrate the many nations where we come from. However, diversity is not enough – it must be paired with unity. A box of crayons is diverse – those many colors lying side by side. But to make something beautiful the crayons must interact, must work together with the orange and purple and red and yellow all going into making the picture of a sunset. We become a spirit-filled church once we come to know and appreciate the many gifts of the people that have been woven into the tapestry of life here at St. James.
The most important characteristic of a spirit-filled church – at least is seems most important since all three readings for Pentecost from the Acts of the Apostles, the first epistle to the Corinthians and the Gospel of John mention it – the most important characteristic of a spirit-filled Church is that the members of that Church are sent. Jesus puts it in the Gospel: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” The first thing that the disciples of Jesus did after the descent of the Holy Spirit that Pentecost morning was to share the message. St. Paul tells us that the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit. In being sent we truly show ourselves to be followers of Jesus who was sent by God to bring the whole world into the divine embrace. In other words, the Church does not exist for itself but for the mission. I do not come to Church so that I can get to heaven. We come to Church so that we all, and all the other alls, can get to heaven. It is instructive that in the plan of God Jesus was not sent into Cappadocia, Phrygia and Pamphylia. Jesus was sent to his homies, as a member of the Chosen People, God’s own people, the children of Abraham. Most often we too are sent not somewhere else but into the providence of our everyday life to bring a message of hope and healing to a hurting world. We are sent to our families to bring the forgiveness and unity that are characteristic of the Holy Spirit. We are sent into our work places, schools, gyms, stores to be a presence that brings the peace that Jesus has promised to us. We are sent into the community and neighborhood because we know that without justice there can be no peace, no forgiveness, no unity. And, as at that first Pentecost, God equips us who are sent with the ability to speak in the language that people need to hear. To those who are hurting, we speak the language of compassion. To those who are grieving, we speak the language of consolation. To those who are confused, we speak the language of enlightenment. To those who are lost, we speak the language of love. What makes a church a Church? What makes St. James a Church? The Holy Spirit with the strong driving wind of hope and the tongues of the fire of God’s love.
