“I Believe in the Holy Spirit”

Pentecost Sunday 2007

Acts 1:1-21; John 14:8-17

              If there is one thing that we can say about Jesus it is that he always fulfills his promises.  Such is the case today as we celebrate the Day of Pentecost and the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus promised the Spirit to his disciples before he was crucified.  In the Gospel of John we read that he called the Spirit the “Advocate.”  “And I will ask the Father,” Jesus said, “and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.  This is the Spirit of truth.”  And again Jesus said, “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.”  And again, “When the Advocate comes, who I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf.”  On the Day of Pentecost the promised gift of the Spirit came.  “And suddenly from heaven there came the sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.  Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.”  Jesus kept his promise and because of that the world has never been the same again, as everyone who receives the Spirit of God comes to know God through God’s Son Jesus Christ and receives salvation through faith in him.  Filled with the Holy Spirit, Peter declared this good news with certainty and conviction in his Pentecost sermon,  “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

            For a world and society captivated spirits and interested in spirituality, it is not just any spirit that we are talking about, but it is the Holy Spirit, God’s Spirit, the Spirit of life and truth.  The Spirit of God was there when God created the heavens and the earth “moving over the face of the waters,” as Genesis says.  The Spirit of God was there when God “formed man from dust from the ground and breathed into him the breath of life.”  The Spirit of God was there when Jesus was baptized in the River Jordan by John, as “Jesus saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.”  The Holy Spirit is God himself, given so that Jesus might be present with us forever, revealing to us who God really is, convicting and forgiving us our sins, creating a community of faith called the church, changing and transforming us into the kind of people God wants us to be.  The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the risen Lord Jesus.  It is “the Lord and giver of life,” as we confess in the words of the Nicene Creed.  When we talk about spirituality in the church, we speak of a spirituality given to us by God, not some feeling or thought found within ourselves.  Our spirituality is all about the Holy Spirit.  It is what makes us Christians.

            One of my old seminary professors said that the Spirit is like a verb.  “Verbs,” he says, “never sit still, at least not for long.  They are action words, even quiet ones are always moving, acting, lively.  The Spirit is like a verb.”  The Holy Spirit is the power of God at work in the world.  To understand the Holy Spirit is to understand what the Spirit of God does.  And what does the Spirit do?  The Spirit CALLS, GATHERS, ENLIGHTENS, AND SANCTIFIES.

            To be called by the Spirit is to hear and respond to the Word of God.  The Gospel is the good news of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.  We first hear that Word when we are baptized.  It is then that we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and we are called “a Child of God.”  Through the Holy Spirit, Jesus says, “You are mine” and grants to us the promise of forgiveness of sins and eternal life. 

            As the Spirit calls us to faith, the Spirit gathers us together with other people.  We are not to be alone as we become part of a new and extended family, the family of God.  It is impossible to be a Christian on our own.  The Spirit has created a community called the church, a people gathered together to hear God’s Word and share in the sacraments.  In the gathered community, the Spirit says, “You are all mine.”

            Having been called to faith and gathered into a community, the Spirit enlightens us with God’s gifts.  Enlighten means “turning the lights on.”  It is that “ah-ha!” moment when we say, “I get it!”  As we hear God’s Word, faith is created and we come to know God and what God has done for us in Jesus Christ.  We realize who we are as sinful people and the grace God gives to us through the forgiveness of sins.  We accept that grace and receive the new life that the Spirit offers, a life best described as “Fruit of the Spirit” which is “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”  These gifts describe what a Christian is like, what a Christian is all about.  If you see these characteristics in a person, you know he or she is filled with the Spirit of God.

            There is still one more verb to describe the work of the Spirit: the Spirit sanctifies.  Like I tell the confirmation kids, sanctification is a churchy word that means “sacred” or “holy.”  It is the chief work of the Holy Spirit to make you and me holy.  By ourselves, we are not holy, because we are sinful people.  But through the Holy Spirit, our sins are forgiven and we are granted a new life.  This process of making us holy is a life-long process that doesn’t end until our lives on this earth come to an end and we join the communion of saints in heaven.  The Spirit is always working to make us what God intended us to be, God’s new people, the people of God.

            The place in which this process of sanctification occurs and where the Spirit does its work is in and through the church.  Certainly, we know that God is present everywhere and that the Spirit of God blows where it wills, but Jesus has promised that the Spirit would be present and at work in one specific place on earth, that being the church, and the Means of Grace, the Word and Sacraments.  Like it says above the door, “Surely the Lord is in this place.” 

            Martin Luther in his Large Catechism asks the question:  What do you mean by the words, “I believe in the Holy Spirit?”  You can answer “I believe that the Holy Spirit makes me holy, as his name implies.”  How does he do this?  By what means?  “Through the Christian Church, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.”  It took me a long time before I understood why those things were listed under the heading of the Third Article of the Creed, “I believe in the Holy Spirit.”  Each of these things that follows further describes where the Spirit dwells and what the Spirit does.

            The creed says, “I believe in the holy catholic church, the communion of saints.”  For many, holy is that last word they would use to describe the church.  According to Professor Nestingen, “The church has all the faults and problems of the people who belong to it.  It can be boring and routine.  It can be clubby, cliquey, and downright nasty at times.  The church has pretenders in it who think they are going to get to heaven by being more religious than others.  And it has plenty of people who say one thing on Sunday morning and do something far different during the week.  If it depended on people, on what we say and do, to make the church what it is, it would never be holy, Christian, or a communion of saints.”  The church is holy only because it is a creation of the Spirit.  The Bible says, “You are holy because I am holy.”

            The church is “catholic” or universal, because God calls and gathers people together from all around the world.  The unity of the church is found on our common confession that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior of the world.  As the Bible says, “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.”  When we speak about the church catholic, we mean the whole Christian church around the world.

            The way in which the Spirit makes us holy and calls us a saint is by our faith and trust in the gospel message, the forgiveness of sins and the promise of eternal life.  No where else are we told “You are forgiven” except for the church.  The Bible says, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  Christ’s word of forgiveness is the power of God unto salvation. We long to hear over and over again these words, “In the mercy of almighty God, Jesus Christ was given to die for us, and for his sake God forgives us all our sins.”  Jesus’ forgiveness sets us free from our old life of sin and creates a new life in us now as we live, and hope for everlasting life for when we die.  We now live by the Spirit knowing that our future life is secure in heaven.  As we say these words, “I believe in the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting,” there is nothing to fear, nothing to worry about.  We will be raised and live with the Lord forever.  The Bible tells us of this final promise, “Lo, I tell you a mystery!  We will not all die, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.  For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.”

            This, my friends, is who the Holy Spirit is and what the Holy Spirit does.  May you always live in the Spirit and find your source of life and truth.  Amen.