The Holy Spirit in Many Languages

This was written a few weeks ago after Pentecost (May 23) but didn't post, so here it is now:

This last Sunday I preached mainly on the passage from Acts 2:1-21.  In fact I switched up the order of the readings and read this reading last.  The gospel lesson was John 14:8-17 ,25-27 in which Jesus promises the Holy Spirit, and the Act reading is the the Holy Spirit coming to the disciples so we just read the readings in chronological order.

One of the highlights of Pentecost is using many different languages to celebrate how the Spirit gave the disciples to speak in other languages.  I have seen this done in many different ways at different congregations but I LOVE how we did it at Bethlehem this year.  During the Acts reading, after the list of cities/countries, I added additional countries and languages.  People in the congregation, who speak languages other than English, volunteered to read John 3:16 in those languages, so during the reading of Acts we had French, Russian, Spanish, German, Akkadian, Polish, Swedish, Sumerian, Ukrainian, and Japanese.  Some of these were spoken fluently, some more broken but they were done beautifully.  After each person had read John 3:16 individually, I then read Acts 2:11b "in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power" and all 10 languages, plus English were spoken together.    It was wonderful!

Below is my final written version of my sermon.  I did make a few additions that I thought brought the sermon together much better and members of the congregation added their own experiences of the Holy Spirit which I think made the sermon even better, but I have not added those, sorry sometime you just have to be there.  Enjoy!  (oh and pictures of the church will be up tomorrow, I still have to take a few)

We don’t talk about the Spirit a whole lot. The Spirit is kind of an add-on in some ways. In the church year we really only talk about the Holy Spirit on two days, today on Pentecost and next week on Holy Trinity, and even then the Spirit has to share the spotlight with God the Father and God the Son.

In the Apostle’s Creed we say a full sentence about believing in God the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. Then we have a long statement about Jesus Christ, God’s only son our Lord, which goes on to tell about his conception, birth, his death, his resurrection and his ascension. And then we get one brief statement five words: I believe in the Holy Spirit. No explanation about what or who the spirit is, no description about what the Spirit does. Yes the creed continues, but not about the Spirit. We continue with the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. But those things really aren’t about the Spirit, yes they only exist because of the Spirit, there would be the church if it wasn’t for the Holy Spirit, but the creed doesn’t really explain the Spirit for those who do not know what it is.

So what is the Holy Spirit?

Well I don’t think we can explain the Holy Spirit to anyone instead it is something that must be experienced. So if the Holy Spirit must be experienced, then how do we know when we have experienced the Spirit? Well even that is difficult.

Often people will immediately credit the Holy Spirit acting when things happened the why they wanted it to happen. Last August at the ELCA Churchwide Assembly, representatives of pastors and lay leaders from across the nation gathered for the biannual meeting of the greater church. But it was a contentious meeting, voting occurred on whether to allow people who are openly gay and in committed relationships to be pastors. Before each discussion, before each vote, those gathered prayed, they prayed that the Holy Spirit would be there, leading them, guiding them in their decision.

Well the vote was taken and the people who agreed with the decision immediately credited the Holy Spirit, often with tears in their eyes and signs of joy on their faces. And those who did not agree with the vote? Well since then they have fought it, many have left the church, many have complained, many have felt abandoned by the church that they love. And very few of them have credit the Holy Spirit or admitted that the Holy Spirit was there, in that conference center as people gathered, prayed, discerned and voted

And this happens all the time. We pray for the Spirit to guide us. When we are guided where we want to go, to great heights in our lives, we honor and celebrate the Holy Spirit, but when we are guided the way we do not want to go we fight, we rebel, we turn and go our own way. We don’t always see the Holy Spirit for what it is. We feel like we are being punished when we don’t get the job we interviewed for, or our relationship ends, or our health prognosis is not what we hoped for. We don’t see that the Spirit is moving, that the job was actually a dead end, and something that would make us unhappy, or the relationship was abusive or that another relationship is coming that will be even better than the one that ended, or through our health concerns we are able to open up to loved ones in a way that never would have happened in good health. But the Holy Spirit is not a timeline. It is not a plan for how things should happen. Having the Holy Spirit in us, experiencing the Holy Spirit, being guided by the Spirit, does not mean that we will not experience hardships and things will always go our way. Instead being led by the Holy Spirit means that we are able to grow through those hardships and realize that things will always go God’s way.

And the Holy Spirit is with us whether we realize it or not. The Holy Spirit is with us if we deny its existence or embrace it openly. And by embracing the Spirit, by praying for the Spirit to guide us, by praying that the Holy Spirit, in the words of the prayer of the day, kindle in us the fire of God’s love, empowering our lives for service and our tongues of praise, we become children of God. It is by allowing the Holy Spirit to work through us that we are able to bear witness to God and Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.

So what is the Holy Spirit?

The Holy Spirit is God. God that has been promised to us, God that is living in us, God that is a gift from God to us, a gift that has been promised and already received.

What does experiencing the Holy Spirit feel like?

Experiencing the Holy Spirit can be mundane, just a part of everyday life. Experiencing the Holy Spirit can be frustrating when the Holy Spirit comes in ways that we do not want. And experiencing the Holy Spirit can be overwhelming. Overwhelming with joy, overwhelming with happiness, overwhelming with love, and even overwhelming with fear. Experiencing the Holy Spirit can make us seem drunk at only 9 o’clock in the morning such as it was for the disciples. Experiencing the Holy Spirit can make us do impossible things. Experiencing the Holy Spirit can make the impossible become possible. Experiencing the Holy Spirit can bring tears to our eyes.

So maybe this is why the Holy Spirit only gets a brief statement in the Apostle’s Creed, it is so difficult to explain, but easy to experience as long as you acknowledge that it is the Spirit that you are experiencing. All we really need to know is that we are children of God who are led by the Holy Spirit. And for that we need to say is “I believe in the Holy Spirit” and allow the Spirit to lead us.