Red is Busting out All Over: The Spirit of the Living God is Upon Us Pentecost, Year B: Acts 2:1-11 June 8, 2003 Elizabeth H. Wheatley Church of the Resurrection, Starkville, Mississippi Blessed be the Spirit of God! In case you hadn't noticed…Bubbles - tiny bubbles and bubbles of all sizes - are in the air, the Gladiolas are blooming and RED is busting out all over. All signs and symbols point us to the awesome and uplifting experience of Pentecost: The Spirit of the Living God is upon us! Typically, as members of a mainline denomination, as Episcopalians, we do not make frequent references to the Holy Spirit being upon us nor do we speak with ease about the Holy Spirit moving in our lives. Sure, we tack the Holy Spirit onto the ends of our prayers, but we say it almost as an afterthought "and the Holy Spirit." There is so much ambiguity surrounding our understanding of the Holy Spirit, that we - rational, heady, wordy people - are quicker to get bogged down in debates over the Holy Spirit than to allow any unfounded Spirit-filled language or action to gush forth. I feel sure that God weeps over the Holy Spirit debates and divisions that have been erupting in the Christian community, and all of the human community, for as long as faith communities have existed. Just within Christianity, the deliberations over Creedal formulations led to a great number of exclusions and marginalizations. Following on the heels of those debates, the East and West - Orthodox Churches and Western Christianity -- remain divided over the "filioque" clause in the Nicene Creed, the clause that describes from whence the Holy Spirit comes? The Protestant Reformation and subsequent schisms in Protestant Churches have been charged by disagreements over who has the right to discern when, how and where the Holy Spirit moves? And, today, we see huge fissures and fears in the Christian community surrounding the word "Pentecostal." And, yet, today and every year 50 days after Easter, we celebrate Pentecost. So, I think it is important for us to do a little digging to help us recognize and remember that we are "Pentecostal" at our roots. That is to say, in the primordial sacrament of Baptism and in the Baptismal Covenant, Spirit-language is abundant, and we see an undergirding belief in and about God as Holy Spirit. In the language of our forebearers -- God as ruach, God as pneuma, God as spiritus - God as breath, wind and spirit moved over the waters in the beginning of creation and continues to move through us as a source of new life. In a little while we will all be invited to join with Claire Elisabeth and her parents and godparents to reaffirm our Baptismal Covenant. We will answer questions about our beliefs and make vows about how we will strive to live out our lives as Christians, with God's help. The third question of those about our beliefs is "Do you believe in the Holy Spirit?" Our answer: "I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting." In that brief, but concise, response, we re-affirm our belief in the wealth of God's gifts which are poured upon us through the gift of the Holy Spirit. Although it is likely that we tend to repeat the creed by rote memory, we would do well to listen to the list that follows our statement "I believe in the Holy Spirit." It is intended to embody, to clarify, to give legs to our belief. To begin, we state that through the Holy Spirit, the Church with a capital "C" (not only the Episcopal Church, but each and every expression of the Christian faith and community - the "ecclesia", all who gather in the name of Christ regardless of church organization, baptismal practices of immersion or sprinkling, liturgical order, or even language - the capital "C" Church) is made "holy" and "catholic." To call the Church "holy" is to say the Church and all its members are set apart, that is set apart from the world. But not set apart, as in to separate, but set apart for a particular purpose, with a particular task, and that task is to remain in the world to do God's work and to be God's presence. The Holy Spirit makes the Church "holy" - set apart - but in the midst of - serving as Christ's hands and heart in the world. Next we come to the word "catholic" with a small "c" which points not to Roman Catholic or even Anglo-Catholic expressions of Christianity but to the universality of the Church, that is the Church as "catholic" is meant to be all-inclusive, to be for everyone. Elizabeth Geitz, author of Gender and the Nicene Creed, says, "For the church to be truly catholic it must be for all; everyone must be able to participate in each aspect of the life of the church. This includes men and women; African-Americans, Euro-Americans, Native Americans, Asians, and Latinos; young and old, gay and straight, rich and poor." The movement of Holy Spirit is to stretch out the arms of the Church to embrace all - everyone - the universe. Just in that first four-word clause - "the holy catholic Church" - we state our belief in the "Pentecostal" nature of the Church. As with the first Christian Pentecost, as we heard in the reading from Acts when the Holy Spirit rested on the diversity of people from various countries and speaking assorted languages and tongues, God through the Holy Spirit continues to speak and move as a unifying and restorative presence resting on us - the Church - urging us and empowering us to be God's ALL-inclusive, ALL-embracing presence in the world. The question: Are we - this gathered community - striving to live into what it means for us to be "holy" - set apart but remaining present -- and "catholic" - all-inclusive in our membership? Do we resist or have we allowed the Spirit of the living God to rest upon us? As we move with a broad stroke through the remainder of the creedal clauses about what we mean when we say "I believe in the Holy Spirit," we will find the theme of unification and restoration of life throughout: "I believe in 'the communion of saints'" says that we look to the Holy Spirit to unify us not only with those who are living in the here and now, but with all those who went before us. The movement of the Holy Spirit reunites us with the many people of many ages, many cultures and languages who walked - struggling and dancing along the way - through the journey of faith and into eternal life. To say "I believe in 'the forgiveness of sins'" is to say that we look to the Holy Spirit to be a source of transformation in the midst of pain, sorrow, and human failure. We look to the Holy Spirit, not solely to our own prideful and broken selves, for humility - the humility to admit when we have failed one another, when we have wronged another person or committed an act of injustice. AND we rely on the Holy Spirit for strength - the strength to persist in hope and love when such acts evil and injustice have been committed against us. We believe that Holy Spirit will work in us and with us to restore and reconcile us to one another and to God - not because we "deserve" it, but because it is what God desires and has desired from the beginning of creation. The movement of God as Holy Spirit leads us to forgiveness, reconciliation and restoration. Finally, we say, "I believe in 'the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting'" thereby saying that we believe God as Holy Spirit honors not only life in some sort of spiritual sense but also values life in the body - fleshy, earthy, tangible existence. And God honors life so much that God will restore us fully in the life everlasting. We look to the Holy Spirit - the wind, the breath of God - even after death, after life as we know it has ended, to be the continued source of life - new life - fullness of life. Again, in all of these ways - "the holy catholic Church," "the communion of saints," "the forgiveness of sins," and "the resurrection of the body and life everlasting" - God as Holy Spirit is the source of restoration, the source of unification, the source of re-Union with one another, with the created world, and with God. But still the question remains: Do we as a body of Christians, followers of Christ, believe what we say we believe? Do we strive to live out our lives as those filled with the Holy Spirit - "Spirit-filled" or "Pentecostal" as we may be loathe to say? Do we allow ourselves to be bathed, amazed, and motivated by the Spirit of the Living God resting upon us and empowering us to listen for the voice of God in the voices of those around us - those in our midst and those who are not with us either by exclusion or by choice? …to listen for the voice of God in our very breath - the Spirit of God dwelling in us? …to listen for the voice of God in the rush of the violent wind? It is Pentecost afterall. Bubbles are in the air, Gladiolas are blooming and Red is busting out all over. Listen to what the Holy Spirit, the breath of God, the wind may be saying to you and to us on this Holy and Awesome Pentecost. Listen… Wind, gentle wind, wind of our breathing, our life, our hope, renewing, refreshing, sighing in our stress, moaning in our pain, still in our dying. O wind, wind, you breathed upon the clay and there was life, you danced down to the forehead of a Galilean and there was hope, you shook the foundations of community and there was Pentecost. Wind of nothingness and awe, wind of knowing and unknowing, wind of bearing and begetting, wind of secrets and mystery, O wise, wise wind, whisper to us your grace. (From poem by William Loader, full text attached.) The Spirit of the Living God is upon us! Experience…. Feel…. Listen… Blessed be the Spirit of God.   Full text of poem "Wind,wind - a reflection on the Spirit" by the Rev. William Loader: Wind, wind, you come from nothingness and go to nothingness, and when you are still, there is nothing we see, nothing we hear, and you surround us in our not seeing and not knowing. Wild, wild wind, you whip the seas, whirling great water spouts and fountains, crashing the foamed edges of the shore, sweeping the unsuspecting fisherman from the slippery rocks, terrifying force, uncontrollable, beyond our power. O wind, piercing wind, driving the blizzard, the sleet, the rain, trampling earth with wild tempests and tantrums that uproot trees, unroof houses and wreak devastation in your path. Wind, wind, wondrous wind, hovering at the birth of creation, whisking secretly among the wonders of new life, bearing the seed, lifting high the heads of mighty trees, swirling among the grasses, celebrating life. Wind, wind, we know your ways, we trace your web on the map of highs and lows, today's weather, tomorrow's predictions, depressions and sea breezes, we harness your power, our weather cocks point to you, a cross shows where you have been and we do not know. O wind, O silent wind, where do you go? Do you go away and play, in outback gorges or bare mountains of the desert, stirring small clouds of red dust among the bushes, kissing the rippled smile of the billabong, running down the slopes, exulting at the rock face, passing by the mountain with none to see and none to know your trail. Wind, gentle wind, wind of our breathing, our life, our hope, renewing, refreshing, sighing in our stress, moaning in our pain, still in our dying. O wind, wind, you breathed upon the clay and there was life, you danced down to the forehead of a Galilean and there was hope, you shook the foundations of community and there was Pentecost. Wind of nothingness and awe, wind of knowing and unknowing, wind of bearing and begetting, wind of secrets and mystery, O wise, wise wind, whisper to us your grace.