We have held a couple of study sessions recently (via Zoom) on understanding Anglicanism which have generated a lot of interest. David gave a brief review of the history of Anglicanism and talked about three different traditions within Anglicanism: Evangelical, which particularly emphasizes Scripture, Anglo-Catholic, which particularly emphasizes the church and the sacraments, and Liberal, which emphasizes the need to be open to the contemporary world. A couple of people have since asked me: what about the Charismatic tradition? We didn't talk specifically about the Charismatic tradition as it's usually considered a sub-set of Evangelicalism, but Charismatic churches tend to emphasise the gifts of the Spirit and stress a spontaneous, free style of worship. Some of us may be very familiar with this tradition and others of us may have had little experience of this style of church or feel it is not for us. But it is very important that we do not simply equate the Spirit with a particular style of worship. Today, as we celebrate Pentecost, it's good to remind ourselves that the Holy Spirit is essential to the life of every Christian, and every Christian community.
'We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life' we say in the Creed every Sunday. The Spirit is the giver of life; without the Spirit we are dead. The Spirit is not an impersonal force or power, the Spirit is the gift of God's very self within us and among us. And the Spirit is the source of the life and flourishing of any church of whatever tradition.
As I said earlier, the Evangelical tradition emphasizes Scripture. But without the Spirit we cannot understand the message of the Bible; the words remain like dead words on a page unless the Spirit enables us to truly understand them and take them to heart. The Anglo-Catholic tradition emphasizes the church, the tradition and the sacraments. However, there is no life in the tradition or the sacraments without the Spirit. The Liberal tradition emphasizes openness to the world, but we need the Spirit to read the signs of the times, to discern where and how God is at work, and how to understand the contemporary world in the light of Christ.
So let us think more about the Holy Spirit this morning. One writer famously called the Spirit 'the go-between God.' (John V Taylor). The Spirit goes between us and God, and between each another, and draws us into a deeper relationship with God and one another.
Firstly, let's think about our relationship with God. In our gospel reading, Jesus tells his disciples that it is to their advantage that he goes away because then the Advocate, the Spirit of truth will come. He will guide them into all the truth. This is not a new truth, independent of all that Jesus has taught them; rather, the Spirit will enable them to understand and experience all that Jesus has said and done in a much deeper way. 'He will take what is mine and declare it to you', Jesus says. The Spirit will be God's presence with them in a deeply personal way. He will be in you and among you, Jesus says earlier in John's gospel. (John 14:17).
The Spirit enables God to communicate with us and us to communicate with God. I spoke earlier about reading the Bible; it is the Spirit that makes the words come alive to us, so that they speak to our hearts and God communicates with us. We may all have had the experience when a phrase or passage of Scripture suddenly strikes us and penetrates our hearts and minds in a fresh way; this is the work of the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit also helps us to communicate with God in prayer. It is the Spirit who causes us to cry 'Abba, Father', when we pray. We often may feel we don't know what to pray, our prayers feel weak and feeble, but we are promised that the 'Spirit helps us in our weakness' and 'intercedes for us in sighs too deep for words' as we heard in our reading from Romans. (Romans 8: 26). We may not know how to pray, but the Spirit prays within us. It is not a matter of me praying here and God listening over there at a huge distance. God is all around me and within me when I pray. God is on both sides of the conversation through his Spirit. He is the 'go-between God.' In the Spirit, God himself both prays in us and receives and answers those prayers.
Prayer is not so much what we do but what God does in us; we need to clear the space within us to allow the Spirit to work. Again, we may have had times when we've sensed that our prayer, whether in words or in silence, whether for ourselves, for those close to us, or for the suffering of the world, was 'given' to us; it didn't originate simply from our own mind or heart. Of course, at other times, our prayers may seem weak, confused or uncertain, but we need to trust that the Spirit is at work in us when we pray even when we may not feel it.
The gift of the Spirit within us does not mean that everything is always joyful and perfect. Paul speaks of the groaning of creation and that we, 'who have the first fruits of the Spirit', also 'groan inwardly' as we wait in hope for the completion of God's purposes and the restoration of all creation. The Spirit is 'the first fruits', the beginning of the harvest and the promise that the full harvest will come in due time. The Spirit is the pledge of what is to come. In our present experience of life, we know only too well that we are flawed and imperfect, that the world is full of pain and suffering, and we long for things to be put right. Our groans express both present pain and future longing. Though, as one writer puts it, perhaps 'some Christians grin too much and groan too little.' (John Stott). The Spirit can prompt us to exuberant, joyful praise, but that longing, that groaning, is also the work of the Spirit.
We are called, with the Spirit, to feel the pain of the world, to work for the healing of the world, and to look forward with eagerness and patience to the fulfilment of all things. We live in the 'now and not yet', the 'in between times': Christ has died, Christ is Risen, and we have received the gift of his Spirit, but we do not yet see the completion of God's purposes and the new heavens and the new earth.
The Spirit makes the past alive to us; as we celebrate the Eucharist, as we remember Jesus' last supper with this friends, his death and resurrection, we are not simply recalling something that happened a long time ago; Jesus is alive and present with us and feeds and nourishes us now. But the Spirit also prompts in us a longing for the future; we experience both a foretaste of joy and a painful groaning as we look to the glorious fulfilment of all God's purposes. In the meantime, 'the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the perennially present God'. (R.P.C. Hanson); God is nearer to us now than we are to ourselves.
I have said a lot about the Spirit as the 'go-between God' in our relationship with God, but what about our relationships with one another? The experience of the Spirit may be intensely personal but it is never private. When the Holy Spirit comes upon the disciples on that first Pentecost, they are 'all together in one place.' (Acts 2: 1). Each one of them is filled with the Spirit, but it is also a corporate experience. The Spirit deepens and strengthens their relationships with one another. We read in the following chapters of Acts of the joyful community of the early Christians, as they pray, worship, and learn together, and as they share their possessions and care for those in need. (Acts 2: 43-47). The Holy Spirit is the 'go-between God' not only between us and God, but also between each other. Whenever we say the grace we remind ourselves of this: 'May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship (koinonia) of the Holy Spirit be with us all.' Koinonia in Greek means 'fellowship' 'participation' 'communion'. The 'fellowship' or 'participation' or 'sharing in' of the Holy Spirit is that deep spiritual bond between us. God does not only call us into a relationship with him, but also into a deeper mutual relationship with one another. It is God himself, in the Spirit, which helps to bring that about.
In our recent discussions about the different traditions within Anglicanism, one person made the comment that she had experienced all the three traditions at St Ursula's at different times, but that, whatever the current style of the service or tradition was, the one thing that stood out for her was the fellowship of the people, and that this was of crucial importance. That is true. Whether we think of ourselves as Evangelical, Anglo-Catholic, or Liberal, we must be people of the Spirit, who are drawn into an ever deeper relationship with God and with one another.
This is not, of course, something to keep to ourselves. When the Holy Spirit came on the disciples at Pentecost, they were filled with a new joy in God, a new relationship with one another, and a new desire to communicate the works of God to the people around them. In the Spirit we are called, as individuals and as a community, to proclaim God's love in Christ through word and deed.
'We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life.' We need the Spirit; we need to be continually filled with the Spirit. As David or I pray in the Eucharistic prayer, week by week: 'send the Holy Spirit on your people.' May we all grow deeper in the life of the Spirit, day by day.
Helen Marshall