by Rev. Dr John Evans
At Pentecost we remember the gift of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the Church. The Spirit came as a “rush of a violent wind” and “tongues as of fire” appeared among them. The presence of the Spirit of God among the disciples and others was palpable – you could hear it, see it, feel it.
What does the coming of the Holy Spirit mean today for the Church of All Nations?
It is interesting how we view the Holy Spirit in the church. I am on an Assembly Committee that has the rather quixotic task of reviewing the Constitution of the Uniting Church. You may be surprised to learn that we are still operating on our Interim Constitution passed at the first assembly to get us all up and running in 1977. In clause 4 of the constitution we have a statement as to the purposes of the church. This is just like any constitution of a club or society where it states its purpose is to promote stamp collecting, or caving or singing Gregorian chants or whatever.
So clause 4 begins: “the purposes of the Church are to provide for the worship of God, to proclaim the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, to promote Christian fellowship,” and so it goes on that vein . . . “to meet human need through charitable and other services” . . . and then, “to do such other things as may be required in obedience to the Holy Spirit.” Now your standard constitution will have a clause where the organization states its objects, such as promoting stamp collecting or whatever and then that organisation may do whatever other things necessary to fulfil these objects, or consistent with these objects, or some other statement that will cover activities, which we might not yet thought of, but it would be useful to perform.
I think it is rather sad, we have relegated to the Holy Spirit to this topping-up task within our own constitution. I am sure the drafters meant well – and they are possibly saying that all the foregoing purposes of the Church are in obedience to the Holy Spirit – or really to the Trinity, Father Son and Holy Spirit, but from a theological point of view, as opposed to a legal point of view, I think they have misunderstood the Holy Spirit.
What I want to suggest to you today is the Holy Spirit does have specific roles within the our understanding of God, and is not just the spiritual afterthought once we have got through our understanding of what God the Father may do, or what Christ the Son may do for us. The Holy Spirit will always have that open-ended, exciting – where the spirit leads – sense about its life and work; but also I believe it is clear that the Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit is present with us to do specific things. It is not just the divine dogsbody which mops up around after the Father and the Son.
From scripture the clearest sense of this is in the teaching of Jesus to his disciples in what are known as the farewell discourses as recorded by the Evangelist John. Over recent weeks in worship we have had snippets of this teaching. Jesus is in the upper room before his betrayal and death. His disciples are worried – they are not comprehending what has been happening and it would seem are fearful for the future. Jesus reminds them he will be betrayed and killed. Last week in our reading, Jesus prayed for them.
Amidst all this teaching, reminding the disciples about the law of love – to love one another as Jesus has loved us – he promises that he will send “another advocate” – the paraclete – an advocate or comforter. The word itself – parakletos is an odd one, and so we often just anglicise the Greek and hope we pick up the meaning. It certainly carries with it a forensic notion of a person, like a lawyer, in court, pleading before the bar of God: a heavenly advocate. Such imagery may give rise to more questions than answers, and at the end of the day may not be helpful. However, it does at least mean that someone will be standing with you in your life – you will not be alone – the paraclete, the Holy Spirit will be a comforter and helper in that sense. Such would have been good news for the disciples in that upper room – and it is good news for us. However, Jesus then takes this understanding of the paraclete and gives the Holy Spirit some specific tasks.
This work of the Holy Spirit will be in and through the disciples – Jesus’ followers; those who believe in him. Basically this helper or supporter will be the Spirit of Truth – will re-present, represent Jesus to them. The Holy Spirit will bring before them Jesus and his teaching and his life.
The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name will teach you everything, and will remind you of all that I have said to you. (Jn 14:26)
The Holy Spirit will help us to discern the mind of Christ, the will of God as we go through life . . . our behaviour our ethics are to be determined not through the meticulous analysis of words, books and laws . . . but by the power of the Holy Spirit who will guide us into the Truth as we ponder, reflect on and struggle with who Jesus is for us in a particular circumstance or trouble.
At one level, you may say this looks like we are writing out the Bible in our understanding of how we are to approach life and our understanding of God – and certainly that has been a feature of some the more extreme “spirit filled” groups within the history of the Church. Paul actually had to deal with a bit of that back in Corinth – our other reading for today. There are those whose authority is claimed to come directly from the Spirit of God – and not from the tradition of the Church or even from scripture. There is great tension within the Church today over the place of scripture and its role; its inerrancy and literal truthfulness. One of those points of tension concerns this question of the role of the Spirit. Not surprisingly, I find great merit in the formulation of the Basis of Union of our own church on this when it says
When the Church preaches Jesus Christ, her message is controlled by the biblical witness. The Word of God on whom our salvation depends is to be heard and known from Scripture appropriated in the worshipping and witnessing life of the Church.
The Bible is important, very important, critical – it helps us understand about this Jesus of Nazareth – his teaching, how he lived and what happened to him. Today, however, we also need through that understanding and belief in Jesus – the guidance of the Holy Spirit to make sense of Jesus’ teaching today; and how we might apply it.
There are other works and task of the Holy Spirit – however, it is this focus on promoting the Gospel, of who Jesus is for us, being made known is what I wish to just ponder on for us here at CAN.
What was the great miracle which happened that first Pentecost?
It was not that the disciples spoke in tongues – ecstatic utterances – although something miraculous was happening no doubt; but Acts 2, the story of the first Pentecost of the Christian era was simply that people from all over the known world – all nations if you like, heard the Gospel in their own tongue. . . . Were not these Galileans – presumably uneducated and just Aramaic-speaking Christians . . . now able to communicate with all nations?
Dramatically, the Holy Spirit fulfills that task of making Jesus known right at the outset of the Church – just as Jesus promised the Spirit would do. Here is now the counterpoint to the world being fractured – like say we see in the story of the Tower of Babel – broken up into its different languages and cultural groups – the whole world, right at the outset of the life the church hears the gospel of Jesus – the power of God. This is the work of the Holy Spirit.
What a challenge today to a Church which proclaims to be the Church of All Nations.
In recent weeks we have been reminded of the origin of our name and the ministry that this church has had to the many, many migrant groups who have come to this suburb. Each Sunday here would have been like a mini Pentecost – people from all over the known world – worshipping God and hearing the Gospel in their own tongue.
We don’t do it today – and we may wish to ponder why?
- It took terrific organization and the weight of all that just ground people down.
- Our community changed – more religiously diverse migrants arrived.
- Significantly, migrant ethnic groups – once the trailblazing had been done, chose to hear the gospel in their own language, in their own place. And over time this congregation has supported this way, by having different ethnic groups here, using our facilities.
However, the question remains what is the Holy Spirit saying to us – in 2008 – about being the Church of All Nations?
Perhaps the focus has now shifted – it is not so much the fact of language diversity behind (or is it in front of us?) on the Estate; but that this suburb is now home to 10-15,000 overseas students. Again, students from all quarters of this earth. Is this where the Holy Spirit is taking us? How do we express the gospel in this context?
However, we read our situation – we have been assured of the presence of the Holy Spirit in all that we do. The Spirit is both a challenge and comfort to us. And we need to be open to its leading.
