In
this season of Pentecost, where we think about the gift of the Holy Spirit
to the first disciples, we seem to think about the Holy Spirit's influence
upon our own lives.
When we think of the Holy Spirit, what images do we have in our minds? Scripture
records it using very colourful images, a dove, wind and fire. Strange isn't
it, that we have no problem in thinking about this aspect of God as being
without gender?
But while these images are vibrant, they give a sense of movement, the wind blows clearing away debris, fire burns and consumes, and the dove flies and settles where it chooses.
They remind us that the Holy Spirit is available to everyone wherever they are. My personal image of the Holy Spirit has for a long time been inspired by an old advert for British telecom - where Bob Hoskins was following people round encouraging them to make a phone call and cheer someone up - an invisible voice in their ears encouraging them to do the right thing.
We think about the Holy Spirit as being available to all people - God enters into the world in a new and different way, and sometimes it's easy to forget that God's part has already been done. We have a role to play, we have to be there to listen.
But how often do we listen to the other noises? In my own life, I believe that the spirit has used what I believed to be co-incidence to bring about change in my life - like I'm so busy listening to the noise and chatter of the world, that God has to catch me off guard in order to make a point. Only after the event, sometimes a long time after, do I finally get the message - if God wants something to happen then it will happen, sometimes in spite of our best efforts to ignore it.
We can introduce so much clutter into our lives and all we do is try to build a barrier between us and the Spirit's message: I'm feeling ill and sorry for myself, I've got a hard time at work, my relationship isn't working out. We lay all of these things and more out like a perimeter fence, almost defying God to break through.
The reality for us as Christians is that the one thing we should be doing when we have these crises is exactly the opposite - inviting God closer into our lives, knowing that these are exactly the sorts of situations where God wants to be there for us.
Pentecost is a wonderful season because it encourages us all to think again about the influence of the spirit in our own lives, about how much we communicate with God, about our own ministries in the world - and yes every Christian has a ministry. The love of God isn't something we just celebrate on Sundays: the way God wants us to live our lives is the calling that is placed on us all. Church is the special place where we celebrate all that is wonderful in our relationship with God. Imagine that relationship with God to be a marriage, then church is a special romantic meal where you take special time out to say what you feel for each other; but the day to day living with each other and communicating - that's what makes a relationship work.
Is the Holy Spirit alive and well within our church? I think it is. I feel it within my own life when I have the sense to let it; and I see it changing lives and bringing wholeness in others - reminding me that this is a place where people's lives are changed.
I like those images of the Holy Spirit, like the thought of it being a wind that can blow the cobwebs away from my life, a fire that can take all the rubbish I try to throw between me and God to get in the way and just burn it up, and a dove that reminds me of there being no limit to human achievement with God on side.
And the still small voice of calm, there to care and nurture for when I'm feeling small and vulnerable.
We need to keep the channels open on our side - have faith that they are always open on God's side, and do our best to keep our side open, maybe we need to keep our chimney's swept a bit more - to keep those channels open.
Maybe we need to practise our listening skills - God will use every trick in the book to get a message to us, we just have to walk through life with our senses alert to them.
Would you close your eyes for just a moment?
Focus on your breathing just for a few seconds, how your chest rises and falls, the sound of the air moving through your nose and mouth.
You can open your eyes now. When we stop focussing on it, very quickly we forget the sensation - and sometimes that's what our experience is like with the Holy Spirit, we can become aware of it's presence in our life for a short time when it makes itself aware.
But
the spirit is with us all the time - whether we think about it or not.
Whether we're happy or sad - the spirit is with us.
If you're spending time with your loved ones - the spirit is with you.
When you look at yourself in the mirror first thing in the morning - the spirit
is with you.
And when we've done all we can and have gone to bed - God is still up.
Amen
(Dan Joseph)
This
sermon was first preached in the Metropolitan Community Church of Manchester.
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