Pentecost – 2023
John 20:19-23
Marian Free
In the name of God who comes to us are we are and reveals Godself as we require. Amen.
If, when you heard this morning’s gospel, you had a sense of déjà vu, you would not have been mistaken. The gospel for the second Sunday of Easter was John 20:19-31 and today we have heard again the first five verses. It seems unnecessary to have the same reading twice in two months, but for the purpose of the lectionary writers, there are at least two different messages in this part of John’s gospel. The first is that of Jesus’ resurrection appearance and, in particular, the absence of Thomas on that occasion. Today, on Pentecost Sunday, our focus is on the gospel account of Jesus’ breathing the Holy Spirit on to his disciples.
Every Sunday we have four readings, one of which is always a gospel reading. It is only in John’s gospel that we have an account of the giving of Holy Spirit, so each year, no matter what readings make up our Easter fare, we include a reading from John on the day of Pentecost.
Luke’s dramatic account of the coming of the Holy Spirit is recorded in Acts, not in the gospel. In his account, the one with which we are most familiar, the Holy Spirit appears with a rushing wind and tongues of fire. Because this event occurred on the Day of Pentecost (which we celebrate today) It is easy to think that the Holy Spirit can only be known or experienced in a powerful and emotionally charged way. It is also tempting to believe, because of the sudden and dramatic appearance of the Spirit that, prior to that Pentecost, the Holy Spirit did not exist .
This is simply not true. The Holy Spirit has played a role from the beginning of time and is evident before Pentecost in all the gospel accounts. To give just a few examples: Matthew tells us that Mary was with child through the Holy Spirit. In a quote from the Old Testament Mark informs us that David was inspired by the Holy Spirit. According to Luke an angel informed Zechariah that John the Baptist would be filled with the Holy Spirit and Mary is promised that she will conceive by the Holy Spirit. Luke also tells us that when Elizabeth greeted Mary that she was filled with the Holy Spirit, that Zechariah too was filled with the Holy Spirit and that the Holy Spirit rested on Simeon.
As might be expected the place of the Spirit is different in John’s gospel. According to this author, Jesus and the Holy Spirit cannot co-exist with his disciples. In his farewell speech, Jesus assures the disciples that they will not be left alone and that he will send them the Holy Spirit – Advocate, Comforter and Teacher. Then, when he appears to them on the day of resurrection Jesus breathes on the disciples and says: “Receive the Holy Spirit” – a more intimate and less melodramatic, event than that described by Luke in Acts.
Of course, the Gospels and Acts were written a substantial time after the actual events and the accounts are no doubt coloured by the experiences of the believers in the decades after the first Pentecost. That said, it is quite clear that the Holy Spirit was a significant and dynamic presence in the early church as recorded in the letters of Paul. In Romans Paul assures believers that: “God’s love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit that has been given to us (5:5)” and 1 Corinthians describes our bodies as “a temple of the Holy Spirit” (6:19). In Paul’s communities the Spirit empowered believers to lead, to teach, to prophecy (as well as to speak in tongues and work miracles, 1 Cor 12) and it is to Paul that we owe the insight that the fruits of the Spirit – those characteristics which will be evidence of the presence of the Spirit within us – are“love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (5:22-23).
These varied reports of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the first believers are not intended to confuse or tease us. The different accounts serve an important purpose for those of us who live centuries later. They reveal that there was not one way to receive, to know or to experience the Holy Spirit. Some believers felt a quiet assurance of the Holy Spirit in their lives and others encountered the Spirit through an ecstatic and life-altering event. Some were moved to speak in tongues, some empowered to work miracles, some to share the gospel and some to lead their communities and many no doubt continued to live their lives – lives now enriched and emboldened by the Holy Spirit.
The differing accounts and the differing experiences of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament free us from the misconception that there is only one way to know and only one way to experience the Holy Spirit. We do not (as some people insist) have to speak in tongues to demonstrate the presence of the Spirit within us. If we do not have the power to heal or prophesy, we do not need to feel less than adequate. The Spirit might unsettle us in wind and fire, or gently uphold us as a breath of air. The Spirit might draw from us gifts that we could not have imagined or build on strengths that we already knew that we had. Our experiences of the Holy Spirit will be at least as diverse as those recorded in the New Testament because it is not a matter of one-size-fits-all, but more a matter of God giving to each as each has need, or God empowering us to fulfill the role that God has in mind for us.
You might have had your own ecstatic Pentecost experience, or you might have known the gentle presence of the resurrected Jesus. It does not matter how you know or experience the Spirit, only that you know the Spirit and that you trust the Spirit to empower you and to lead you in the paths that God has established for you.
Swallowsrest 