January 7, 2007
Rev.Linda Fernandes-Bailey
Empowered by The Spirit
I don’t know if the Holy Spirit has ever descended upon you like a dove…..But it happened to me once….WELL SORT OF. I was asked to preach on Pentecost Sunday at my church in Waterbury. This was long before I was ever ordained. But I was pacing around in my usual pre-preaching frenzy(which hasn’t changed a bit since ordination) but I was thinking I don’t have anything to say about the Holy Spirit…why did I agree to do this…I’ll never get this sermon done…I really don’t have anything at all to say… about anything….I’m blank….completely blank! Well, I went outside for something or other and low and behold there in my very driveway appears a WHITE bird…it looked like a dove….maybe it was a pigeon...I don’t know. It never actually descended upon me but it was in my drive-way and all I know is that I had NEVER seen a WHITE bird in my driveway and I haven’t seen once since the day I was asked to preach on Pentecost Sunday. Well low and behold the sermon was preached. Maybe you’re skeptical but I am convinced I was Spirit led!
The people had been listening to John the Baptist preaching. They were hoping that he might be the Messiah. But he tells them his baptism is with water but the One coming after him is more powerful than he…He will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire! After John has paved the way Jesus shows up for baptism. Now, imagine that you are there. Jesus is just one of the many people who show up….one of the many baptized. At first nothing particular seems to be special about him at all. Then Jesus begins to pray….He begins to pray and that is when the Holy Spirit shows up. (an interesting thought in case you didn’t think prayer was important!) The Holy Spirit descends upon him in bodily form like a dove. Is it a dove or just like a dove? What do you see? What does this Holy Spirit look and feel like to you? Suddenly the skies break open and a voice comes from heaven “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased” Imagine you are a person in this crowd of baptized people and a voice from heaven is heard…Are you frightened? Excited? What does the voice of God sound like? Is it soft or loud…deep or high? How do the people around you respond? How do you think Jesus felt? Was he surprised or scared…did he know this was coming? What did Jesus feel when the Holy Spirit descend upon him? I mean one minute everyone is showing up to get baptized and suddenly when Jesus prays the Holy Spirit shows up and everything changes! Who do you think Jesus is now? WOW is this the One that John was talking about? A voice from heaven is heard and now there is no separation between heaven and earth… God’s Spirit is among them.
Luke’s gospel tells us that following Jesus’ baptism he begins his ministry. He begins his ministry equipped with the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the force that energizes Jesus. It guides him and comforts him. Especially in Luke’s gospel both prayer and the Holy Spirit are important. It is in his moment of prayer that Jesus is able to tap into the power of the Holy Spirit. In this moment of prayer Jesus knows he is God’s son and in prayer he has opened himself to be used for God’s purposes. Later in Nazareth Jesus will read the scroll from the prophet Isaiah saying “The spirit of the Lord is upon me for he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free.” Then he tells the crowd today this scripture has been fulfilled. Filled with the Holy Spirit Jesus comes with his good news!
Whenever we hear this story of Jesus’ baptism we are reminded that in baptism we are united with Christ and we too receive the Holy Spirit. Our ministry whatever that may be is empowered by the Holy Spirit. Our lives are empowered by the Holy Spirit. Baptism marks us as God’s beloved children and agents of God’s work in the world, the work of bringing good news to the poor, release to the captive and sight to the blind. Maybe you don’t think much about your baptism or that you are empowered by the Holy Spirit but this is powerful stuff! One theologian said we should meditate on our baptism daily. In baptism we are claimed by God and charged to live a new life in Christ. We profess Jesus as Savior the One who will lead our lives, we agree to resist evil (and the temptation of evil comes in all different forms friends!), we agree to be disciples of Jesus...and we know we can not do any of this without God’s help. God helps us by empowering with the Holy Spirit. It’s this Holy Spirit that makes all our following possible.
The word for Spirit used in scripture is “ruach” in Hebrew and pneuma in Greek meaning “wind” or “breath”. The Holy Spirit is the very breath of God breathing new life in us. It is a gale force wind that pushes us forward. Now, you may be sitting there thinking “I don’t know about this Holy Spirit thing I don’t think I’ve ever felt its presence.” But sometimes we are aware of the Spirit’s presence and sometimes we’re not. The Holy Spirit may very well have been the force that got you here this morning…you know those Sundays when you’d rather stay home in bed reading the Sunday paper but somehow you show up…I believe that’s the Holy Spirit. After all you come here to hear the Good News that Jesus was charged to spread because he was led by the Spirit. Not only that, but our church’s logo assures us that this is a place where the spirit is alive! This is a place where we all come to feel the tangible presence of the Spirit descend upon us like a dove…the Spirit that empowers us to go forth from this place and live the good news that we hear week after week.
But still it is hard to put our finger on the Holy Spirit and to say it is this or that. I just know from my own experience sometimes we feel a nudge inside to do something or be something we feel completely incapable of being or doing but something pushes us forward. OR Sometimes we find ourselves in those extremely difficult places in life that feel like we’ll never get through but somehow we do. Sometimes we find ourselves experiencing the deepest sadness we have ever felt and from somewhere deep inside we find comfort. These are all time when the presence of the Holy Spirit is at work in us.
I know for sure that the Spirit descended upon me when I felt a call to ministry. I mean I tried best I could to avoid the nudge but it wouldn’t go away. When I was at Yale I felt inadequate…incapable and somehow I graduated. In the ordination process I felt pretty much the same yet somehow I got through. And to make matters worse in the midst of it I experienced the death of my Mom and my sister and a friend. How could I possible get through all of this and come out whole? Well obviously I did and I know without doubt that is was the power of the Holy Spirit bringing me through. You too have your own stories I know. The Holy Spirit is God working through you to bring you to the place that God wants you to be. It is God’s comfort at our darkest moment. AND It’s the Holy Spirit that empowers each of us to do the ministry we are called to do…it equips us for that ministry no matter how inadequate we might feel!
The Holy Spirit is called the “Comforter” “Advocate” and “Counselor” Sometimes I think we fool ourselves thinking that when God’s Spirit is working in us things will go smoothly or feel good. BUT there’s a familiar saying about the Holy Spirit…I’m not sure where it comes from but it goes like this “The Holy Spirit comes to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” Hear that again “The Holy Spirit comes to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” The truth is that when the Spirit descends upon us it can be reassuring and comforting but it can also be quite uncomfortable. My mentor from Hartford Seminary MT Winter says it this way “Spirit is always calling to us. The call comes from outside of us and also from within us, to suggest we move in a new direction or to convince us to stay where we are. Sometimes the call is urgent and comes before we are ready, committing us to God knows what and God knows for how long. We are led into the wilderness or enticed to step out unencumbered into the vast unknown. So what if we feel inadequate or were making other plans.” (eucharist with a small “e” page 156)
No matter how inadequate we feel or how scared or sad we are the good news is we are never alone God is just a breath away…the breath of God gives us life everyday. God is the wind that blows through all the stale places in our lives refreshing us…rejuvenating us…bringing us new life. We just need to be willing to step out in faith and remember our baptism. Baptism is not really a one time event but a process of living our baptism daily, remembering that we are disciples of Christ called to bring good news to the world. AND when this seems like a daunting task remember we are empowered by the Holy Spirit.