On the Holy Spirit Moving In and Through Us

And how ignorance of the Holy Spirit prevents His power being received

[Note: the audio recording above will vary in places from the prepared text below.]

The heart of the meaning and significance of Pentecost is the Coming of the Holy Ghost publicly. And through His coming, the Holy Trinity is likewise revealed publicly as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit: known as One God in Three Persons, worshiped and adored. The Day of Pentecost, therefore, is the Day in which the Church always exists: a Day that chronologically speaking is nearly two thousand years long, and counting.

I want to share again how I concluded the sermon last Sunday for the great feast of Pentecost. I said: “The life of a Christian is a continual initiation into the reality of Pentecost which is the Church. The Day of Pentecost is the Day in which we live and move and have our being within the Holy Spirit, and become able to receive His power. The Holy Spirit constitutes the Church as the Body of Christ, and thereby bears witness to and makes known through the opening of Scriptures and breaking of bread Jesus Christ the Crucified and Resurrected One; so that the Father can be revealed through Christ and only mediated through Christ. And so to receive the power of the Holy Spirit – as sheep inspired by the Upper Room Saints, and through communion with them growing in holy fear by their guidance which is the beginning of wisdom, embracing the religion revealed on Pentecost as the means by which we yearn for the spiritual milk of the Word – to receive the power of the Holy Spirit happens as we allow our hearts to dwell always in the Upper Room.”

Dwelling in the Upper Room (that is, continuing in Upper Room religion in all its dimensions) is how the power of the Holy Spirit was received on the Day of Pentecost, and that His power was known is easily seen: because three thousands souls chose to be baptized on that day, chose to lift up their hearts to Jesus Christ, chose to make Him the center of their lives (day in and day out). And the waves of the staggering spiritual energy revealed on Pentecost through the Holy Spirit to those dwelling in the Upper Room continue to this day, to this here local chapter of the Upper Room Church of Jesus Christ, the Church of Saint Paul in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. The power given to the apostles was what they needed to fulfill the command of Jesus given at His Ascension, to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” 

And that power pervades this parish! Every new soul baptized here, every person who returns to worship after a period in the wilderness, every Christian who worships in this church irregularly and regularly, every Christian whose participation in the Liturgy here throws them into prayer, throws them into fear, throws them into a deeper sense of Christ’s presence; every person who understands him or her self as a new creation of Jesus Christ – every such one testifies to the power of the Holy Spirit in this holy house. 

Hence the Eastertide focus in my preaching of “How do we receive the power of the Holy Spirit?” The Holy Spirit constitutes the Church in all places; the Holy Spirit constitutes the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church of Jesus Christ in this place, New Smyrna Beach, Florida. Any hope a parish church has for growth of any kind rests on constantly and regularly remembering that fact: the Holy Spirit gives the growth – Him, and nothing else. The question “How do we receive the power of the Holy Spirit?” must therefore be a constant inquiry we pose and reflect upon. For it is in receiving Him and His power that a parish church grows, according to the will of God (whether growth spiritually, growth numerically, growth financially, growth spatially). Growth in Mission happens by the Holy Spirit.

The Eastertide inquiry leads to another important. We hear it from Saint Paul and his teaching today. He says, “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are holding to your faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?” We must remember that usually Paul’s letters are to Christian communities (to a parish) rather than to a specific individual. And he means this in the most direct sense: Are you holding to your faith, yes or no? Do you realize that Jesus Christ is in you, yes or no? Paul wants us to have such reflective examination, and it leads us from the question “How do we receive the power of the Holy Spirit?” to the question “What keeps us from receiving the power of the Holy Spirit?” Are there walls or impediments that we put up that (consciously or unconsciously) keep the power of the Holy Spirit away?

The first thing to say about what keeps Christians (in general) from receiving the power of the Holy Spirit we can say quite plainly is ignorance: that is, ignorance about what in the first place the Holy Spirit actually does, and how He works His power through creatures. And if there is blame to assign for this, it would fall squarely on the Priests of the Church, who may not do a very good job of teaching about the Holy Spirit. Priest must teach about the Holy Spirit: for what we do not know, we do not know!

What then must we know about the Holy Spirit, to prevent the impediment of ignorance from keep His power from our parish? In fact the teaching begins in Genesis, in the first verses of the first book. And that is this: the Holy Spirit moves. Just as in Genesis, in which creation results from the movement of the Holy Spirit, so does our participation in the power of the Holy Spirit result from His moving in our heart, moving in our mind, and moving through our words, and through our deeds. Because the Holy Spirit moves through us, we are able to read Scripture Christologically (as always concerned with Christ, especially in the Old Testament and the Psalms). Because the Holy Spirit moves through, we are able to recognize Christ in the Breaking of Bread, and recognize the consecration and transformation of bread and wine into the most blessed and most precious Body and Blood of Jesus. Because the Holy Spirit moves through us, we can recognize Christ in each other, and in all persons (even in your Priest). Because the Holy Spirit moves through us, we can partake of holy fellowship in the company of heavenly Saints who are so full of grace and heavenly benediction that they mediate the Holy Spirit to all members of Christ’s Body.

My dear brothers and sisters, let us not be ignorant of what the Holy Spirit does, and what He seeks to work in us. Ignorance of Him is perhaps the primary reason why His power is not received. And so let us not be ignorant of the Holy Spirit, but educated and therefore thrown into wonder and awe. In the Wisdom of the Holy Spirit were we created, and by the Providence of the Holy Spirit are we governed. Knowing this, treasuring this, anchoring our identity in this, may the mercy of the Lord be poured into our hearts; the blessing of God Almighty: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost be upon us; and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost be not only upon, but also working through us. Amen.