Spiritual Growth :: Sermons

Pentecost 2005

The Rev. Tricia de Beer

Sometimes life is not all we thought … It’s more. It’s much more than we could ask for or imagine. For instance we can see it in a story Dr. Rachel Remen tells about assisting a friend of hers doing research on spontaneous remission of cancer. As the researcher’s interest became widely known, people would call or write him to tell their stories. One of these was a man who claimed to have had a spontaneous healing from a dire form of bone cancer called osteogenic sarcoma. He had been diagnosed many years before as a college student. Noticing a hard lump in his right thigh, he had gone to see a doctor. A biopsy confirmed the doctor’s suspicion. The doctor told him of his findings and strongly recommended that he have his right leg amputated at the hip. He was nineteen years old. Despite the urging of several doctors and his parents, he had refused the surgery, and had gone home to his parent’s farm without any treatment to live out his life. Nothing further had been done, except that the pastor of his church had asked those people who were so moved, to pray for him at seven o’clock every night. People prayed for two years. Over time, the mass in his thigh had simply grown smaller and finally disappeared.

The researcher was captivated by this story. Normally fairly skeptical, he noticed how genuine and matter of fact this former patient had been. He asked Dr. Remen to track down the doctor and see if he would confirm the story. After 20 years, she was doubtful that she would find the doctor, or that the doctor would remember. But when she mentioned the name, his response was immediate. "Of course I remember him, he said, "I’ve thought of him many times over the years. What a senseless tragedy. Are you calling on behalf of the family?" She said "no" and told him that the man was still alive. The response to that was "Thank God. Where did he have his surgery?" When she said "He didn’t have surgery. There was a pause. "Then what happened?" he asked. So she told him the story as it had been told to her. There was a long silence then, and without another word, he hung up the phone. Several attempts to reach him were unsuccessful.

Perhaps the possibility of a world in which healing just happens because of a spiritual power –a world which we do not control, didn’t sound like good news to him. Like this doctor, most of us encounter a great deal more mystery than we are willing to acknowledge. We often filter out the awesome "co-incidences" of our lives. Sometimes life requires us to suspend our fixed belief systems. Catching the wind of the Spirit means we need to recognize that all our hard-won knowledge and experience may only be provisional-- that the world may be quite different than we believe it to be. Sometimes the Spirit is frightening or disorienting, so we hang up the phone.

One way we hang up, is not to expect much. We say our prayers, but we don’t get too specific. We come to church, but we don’t expect that God could really change our lives. Another way we frustrate the divine call is to switch on the caller I.D. All but the familiar calls get screened out. If we experienced a conversion by listening to George Herbert’s poetry, we wouldn’t dream that this time God may have a word for us in images of a Sufi master. Or if we have felt the fellowship and blessing of being in the choir, we would not consider being open to a new fellowship gathered around mission.

In today’s gospel, Jesus repeated "peace be with you and said, "As the Father sent me, so I send you." Then he breathed on them saying "Receive the Holy Spirit." The same spirit that had filled Jesus in his baptism, was being passed onto the church. That is why the gospel of John tells of Jesus’ last words on the cross as those of victory, even triumph, as he said "It is accomplished. And bowing his head he handed over the Spirit". On the cross, Jesus does not just yield up his Spirit. He actively handed over the Spirit which would guide and empower the disciples in the days to come. When Jesus said "Receive the Holy Spirit", he could equally well have said "Receive my Spirit", because that is what he was asking of them. Then he sent them out to carry on the work of reconciliation which he had begun.

Unlike the researcher I mentioned in the story, God never stops trying to reach us and sooner or later we realize that we are not alone. The spirit comes to us in surprising ways. (Mary dancing, Debbie connecting, my own experience of being with an individual) I heard from one person that she felt the Sprit’s presence at the moment when she was given strength to move ahead with a divorce. Another discovered the Spirit as she became clear that she had to leave the church she had been raised in, and to find a new community. Another talked about the experience of moving around a lot, and finding God through the people at Redeemer who welcomed and received him and his family. The Spirit is continually working to awaken us to our deepest connection to God and to each other. The Spirit is the energy that soars through us when we discover again our capacity for wonder, or compassion, or truth, or self giving. The Spirit is the energy that calls us to open our eyes to God’s work in the world about us.

Pentecost was one of those moments when life wasn’t what the disciples expected. It was more. At the evening of the Resurrection, Jesus breathed his Spirit upon them. But later he also told them to wait for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The wonderful thing about the promise he gave, is that the Spirit is not given only once. It is an ongoing promise, an endless promise—a promise that is always being fulfilled.

Another thing about the spirit is that it is not a possession. Jesus said "Receive the Holy Spirit". There is something passive about what we are asked to do. We cannot control it. Like the air we breathe, we can have all that we wish to take into our lungs, but it does not belong to us. Air is not made to be possessed, and neither is the spirit. "The wind blows where it wills and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know when it comes or whither it goes, so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.

So what does it look like when we are receptive to the Spirit?

First, we expect that the Spirit is capable of transforming us, both as individuals and as a people.

Second, we ask for the Spirit to fill us. We ask specifically for what we need.

Third, we put ourselves in the fellowship of the church. Not just superficially, but in some way in which relationships can grow. For example, I know of a young woman who was telling her friends, "I’m scared, please pray" and she found herself enveloped in a power so much bigger than herself. But she needed the prayers of those who knew her and cared about her to discover God’s presence.

Fourth, we ask for direction and become superb listeners. When we are about to make an important decision about the size of our house, we pray about it. When we are trying to figure out whether our child should be held back a year, we pray about it.

Fifth, we are willing to risk acting on those nudges we feel from God. If we have recently been drawn to serving at the altar, maybe now is the time to let that be known. When we see the need of a Haitian child or the person affected by HIV-AIDS and something stirs deep within, we act on it.

Sometimes life is not all we thought. It is so much more, because our God does not leave us alone. We are nudged, and strengthened, and healed, and directed, and sustained in countless ways. (This is the faith into which we bring Olivia this morning. We stand with her in the joyful knowledge that we will be filled by God’s spirit again and again. )

The Spirit has already been at work here at Redeemer. I was drawn to Redeemer because of the presence of the Spirit in the Search committee and the connection I felt with them, both individually and as a group. I was drawn to Redeemer because of the Mission committee and what seemed to me, a very inspirited sense of call to reach out beyond the congregation. And I am sure that there are many other parts of Redeemer in which God has been moving. And now we are about to begin a new chapter of our lives together as I join you as rector. I am excited to discover the vision that God will show us and to experience being sent out, lending our lives to the mystery which never ends. Like the ones who have gone before us, I pray that we will find ourselves communicating with people with whom we never dreamed we could reach and that our hearts will be set on fire!