Perpetual Pentecost?

As a new Christian I asked the question ‘Why did Jesus have to ascend into heaven?' It seemed to me that just when the world could have had a powerful and just leader, God scooped Jesus up out of our reach and into the heavens forever! Surely the nations would have listened to a potentate such as him on the throne of Israel? The risen Christ living in the flesh and ruling among us forever could have spelled the end of want and war, or so I reasoned. Even the followers and disciples of Jesus had an expectation that he was to be established as Israel's king [Acts 1:6]. Instead Jesus told them that he was going away and that they were to wait until they were clothed with power from on high in order to be his witnesses [Acts 1:7]. Promising that he would not leave them orphaned, he would send another like himself who would be with them forever: the Holy Spirit [John 14:18-21, 26, 28].

My thoughts back in those earlier years were too earthbound! Today I wonder at how the Lord God Almighty chose to stoop down and become human. This stooping is not unlike an imaginary human person who becomes a microscopic amoeba in order that they might share their life with other amoebae! But would it be right to expect such a person to be imprisoned in this form, against their true nature, as an amoeba forever? I think not! And this is one of the reasons why Jesus had to ascend. That is to take up the divine power and glory that he had with his Father before the universe was created [John 17:5].

We may recall that poignant moment in our gospel reading when Jesus breathes on his disciples saying ‘receive the Holy Spirit' [John 20:22]. He imparts the same life-giving Spirit with which he was anointed and by whose power he has been raised from the dead. God, at the beginning of the creation narrative in Genesis, breathes the breath of life into Adam [Genesis 2:7]. And now God, in the likeness of Adam, breathes anew the Spirit of grace into the nostrils of sinful humanity. But this Spirit is much more than a phenomenon or a nebulous concept. The Spirit is both God himself to us and in us!

When we grasp that the true nature of God is Spirit we then understand that God permeates all things. He infuses them with his presence, indwells our bodies and our thoughts, our pasts, our presents and our futures. The Spirit conveys God in such a way that any tactile human relationship is but a mere shadow when compared with the deep intimacy of the Spirit's indwelling. Although we may be without Jesus in the flesh, in the Spirit we have someone just as profound. This life giving Spirit of Jesus and his Father lives within us, more intimate than our own heartbeat, closer to us than our own breath!

Marvellous as the indwelling might be, the Spirit is much more than a timid and silent witness! In our New Testament reading we heard that the Spirit came at Pentecost like ‘the rush of a violent wind' [Acts 2:2] as ‘tongues, as of fire, appeared among [the disciples]' [Acts 2:3]. Yet in the gospel reading, in marked contrast, Jesus gently breathes the Spirit upon his disciples where in Acts the Spirit explodes onto the scene like a tornado. The disciples did indeed receive the promised power from on high that ignited the age of the Church and empowered her ministry. We only need to read about the signs and miracles in the rest of the book of Acts to know that the Holy Spirit came to be with the Church for the long-haul and not just for a fleeting visit! In the Bible, wherever the Spirit of God is so too is the manifestation of his power!

But has the mighty rushing wind of the Spirit diminished over the centuries to become a weak and pitiful wheeze? Not at all! Why should created time dilute the potency of the Creator's presence and power in the world? Just because a sceptical ‘Joe public' may not see many stunning miracles of God's Spirit does not mean that they are not happening. The great Welsh revival of 1904 saw God's wonderworking power convert over one hundred thousand people to Christ, accompanied by many bona fide miracles.

And across the Atlantic, the outpouring of the Spirit in Los Angeles, at the Azusa Street Mission in 1906 was to act as a catalyst for the worldwide surge of Pentecostalism which continues to grow today!

I travelled around England in the late nineties with Melvin Banks, an Assemblies of God evangelist, who has a profound healing gift. I saw many sights and signs that convinced me that the Holy Spirit's batteries have not run down. People were healed and forgiven, delivered from evil, set free from past hurts and addictions as the Spirit blew wherever he willed. And yet God's Spirit and his love often come ‘as soft and gentle as a sigh' and not always in powerful life-shaking gusts. We only need take a look back at the contrast between our New Testament and gospel readings to evidence this.

Probably all of us here today believe that the Holy Spirit can and does act in our lives. He speaks to us both personably and gently, through the moods and the whispers of thought and circumstance and he, of course, operates through the sacraments. But does the Holy Spirit still bestow the miraculous spiritual gifts described in the Bible upon today's Church? Furthermore is Pentecost just an event in ancient history or is it still happening? In our gospel reading we heard that the Holy Spirit is a speaking and revealing Spirit. He takes from what is God's and makes it known to us [John 16:13-15]. He is the Spirit of prophecy who reveals all the fullness of God's kingdom, who convicts us of sin and who sanctifies our hearts. He is the Spirit of power who performs signs and wonders so that God's love and glory may be made known to all people and nations. It would be difficult to believe that the Spirit's unction was exclusively for the apostolic era while all around us we see the need for the wind of the Spirit to blow afresh today?

Jack Deere in his book ‘Surprised by the Power of the Spirit' says that the reason why many Christians do not believe that outpourings of God's Spirit happen today is because they have not experienced them. This reliance on experience in order to believe is akin to thoroughly soaking the wick of the lamp of faith with water before even attempting to light it! The faith that God requires of us is simply to believe that he can do what our experience would have us doubt. I agree with Jack Deere that perhaps the main reason why the Church has not seen consistent outpourings of God's power is simply because she has forgotten to invite God to the party! The power of Pentecost always appears to be unleashed when Christians pray boldly and unashamedly to see God about his business. That is, loosing people from bondage, ushering them into his kingdom, forgiving them, healing them, making them whole and revealing himself to the world. The Holy Spirit cannot resist such prayers of invitation! He will seek any opportunity to glorify the Father in the Son when we ask passionately and with sincerity.