Praise of Future Past, or Days of Future Pastors (Ross Meikle)

This sermon was first preached on Sunday 1st June 2014 between Ascension Day and Pentecost. 

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

- long pause -

What are we waiting for?

- another pause -

What are we waiting for?

---

Once upon a time, quite a long time ago but in the grand scheme of the millions of years since time began not so very long ago at all, a band of friends were waiting. What were they waiting for? Their friend and teacher had recently vanished into the sky telling them to await his Holy Spirit.

The what? The Holy Spirit? What is that? What are we waiting for?

- pause -

Fire! Pyro! Tongues of fire! That is what it felt like to the disciples - that band of friends - when the Holy Spirit finally appeared on the day now celebrated as Pentecost. Like on the mitre of a Bishop. We talk about the Holy Spirit burning in our hearts, the Gospel spreading like a wild fire. The Spirit blazes like a Phoenix.


Water! John baptised with water. Jesus baptised with the Holy Spirit. We baptise using both at once. 


Earth! We talk about the fruits of the Spirit as though it is a tree or a plant.


Air! In Junior Church last week we talked about the imagery of the Holy Spirit as a wind, the reasoning behind the beautiful streamers that they processed in with. The Holy Spirit hovered over the waters like a bird, there was a Holy Wind on that day of the first Pentecost.

Fire! Water! Earth! Air! 

I had a holiday recently to the Lake District. My goodness was it a wonderful week! During my time there I was struck by the innate beauty of those four elements. Watching a fire dance in a hearth of a cosy country pub is hypnotic. A river, a waterfall, a Storm is enchanting to behold. The grand intricacies of a tree, a flower, a leaf, a blade of grass is sublime. To feel the air move and rush around you as you admire a view is uplifting.

No wonder we rely on these natural images to try and capture a glimpse of God’s Holy Spirit, that ultimate mystique of the universe. The elements are beautiful and wild and ever-lasting, like the Spirit. It is important for us to remember that the elements are rooted in the Holy Spirit. Not vice versa - the Holy Spirit is not rooted in the elements. The Holy Spirit is all of them, transcends them, and is more than them.

The Holy Spirit was there before the elements existed. The Holy Spirit was before there was a before. Before light, there was God. And there was God’s Holy Spirit. 

Sometimes it is thought that the Holy Spirit turns up as a parting gift from Jesus as he ascends from the Earth to be glorified on his throne in Heaven, but the Holy Spirit is in fact the ultimate building block in the creation of everything. It is there in the light, even in the darkness. It is there in the fire, water, earth, and air. It is in all of time and all of space. It is in all life - from the Toad to the Wolverine, it is in every Beast.  

It is in us. It is in me. It is in you.

So what are we waiting for?

Is there a paradox at work here? Are we waiting for something that has already arrived? That seems a bit silly to me. Like waiting for the microwave to warm something up, it goes popty-ping, but we’re still waiting.

What are we waiting for?

- pause -

I went to see the new X-Men film recently. These comic book heroes whose powers come from genetic mutation, thus granting them their own unique gift. Telepathy, weather manipulation, super speed, accelerated healing. It is an extensive list of genetic gifts dreamt up by the comic writers. The gift that makes them special is a fluke mutation, and it can be both a blessing and a curse for the X-Men.

In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul talks about the gifts of the Spirit. These aren’t quite the same as the super powers given to the X-Men. They aren’t a Rogue mutation. They haven’t come to us by chance.

They are gifts that each of us received from God - it is God’s Holy Spirit working in us. I like to think of it as a seed that we need to water and care for.

Paul mentions in his letter: wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, working miracles, prophecy, discernment of spirits, speaking in many tongues, and the interpretation of such tongues. And I am sure that the list goes on! All from the same Spirit. 

In this time of waiting, are we waiting to receive our gifts then?

Or, perhaps, we are waiting for affirmation or validation of our gifts?

What are we waiting for?

- pause -

 be very good at thinking how not special we are, and how the gifts of others are better than our own. I am very good at this. One of my discoveries this year at St Matthew’s is a life-long deficiency of self-belief that I am now able to address.

So I know that it is easier said than done when I say to you now:

Don’t you dare.

Don’t you dare.

Don’t you dare think that your gift from the Spirit is worth any less than anyone else’s because it isn’t. Your gift given to you by God’s Holy Spirit is one of the most beautiful and amazing and precious things that you own.

And it is yours.

No one else has quite the same gift as you.

So don’t you dare.

Throughout life - whether we be at school or work or with family or with friends - we are compared, contrasted, measured up against those around us. I think this will always be the case, but it doesn’t mean we have to listen to these unfair comparisons. 

Whether it is any of the gifts listed by Paul, or whether it is a gift to teach, to dance, to sing, to read, to listen to people in their darkest moments, to bring peace and friendship where there is hurt, to make people feel welcome - it comes from God’s Holy Spirit. And it is part of your spirit.

A quick aside now because I feel like it is worth saying that sometimes our gift can feel more like a burden than a blessing, like the X-Men struggle with theirs. As we find those expressions of the self, we can open ourselves to being hurt or exploited by others. But that burden is a part of us taking up our cross, and following Christ. It is part of our sacrifice that we try to live out in love, and that helps us to grow. And as we grow, we learn how to manage our gifts.

I believe that my writing is a gift from the Holy Spirit. When I write I am nourished and energised. It is watering that seed. It is spending time with that part of my soul to help it to grow like how Prince Charles speaks to carrots to make them grow.

When I write, my soul is fed and I never feel more alive.

I think that feeling comes with connecting to God’s Holy Spirit. The feeling that is like there is a fire blazing above our heads, like there is a wind howling around us, like water is rushing about your body like Quicksilver, like your feet have never been so rooted to the earth. It’s elemental, primeval, a feeling known worldwide and down the millennia and that is incapable of expression in words.

I think we should use this time between Ascension Day and Pentecost to really think about God’s gift to us. To have those conversations where we are free to explore and express ideas that we might not have ever aired before.

Let’s dare to find the gift of the Holy Spirit in our lives and to celebrate that. Because once we have discerned our gift from the Spirit the question is not:

What are we waiting for?

But instead:

What are we waiting for?!

Before I went away to my BAP, I had spent about two years exploring and discerning my vocation to the priesthood. It needed to take that long for the seed of my gift from the Holy Spirit to grow. It needed to be a slow process for me. So I had this idea in my head that I would defer for a year. It had taken me this long to get to this stage. What’s another year?

But since receiving my recommendation for training, my thinking has changed. With my vocation affirmed, why wait? What am I waiting for?! Let’s go for it!

Once we have received that holy inspiration, what is stopping us?

What are we waiting for?

For the younger members of our congregation, if you know what God’s gift to you is - then use it. Go for it. You have your whole life ahead of you to grow that seed and for it to bear fruit.

For the not-so-young members of our congregation, if you know what God’s gift to you is - then use it. Go for it. You have your whole life ahead of you to grow that seed and for it to bear fruit.

Because when we go for it, that is when we grow.

And we bear fruit. Fruit that feeds and nourishes us, and others.

These fruits of the Spirit are named by Paul:

Love
Joy
Peace
Patience
Kindness
Goodness
Faithfulness
Gentleness
Self-control.

And as these fruits ripen within us, we become more and more like him. Like Jesus - the Son of God inhabited by God’s Holy Spirit (because he is God) that he shared with us anew on that first Pentecost.

We become more Christ-like.

After all, isn’t that what we Christians are all about in the end?

So. What are you waiting for?

Amen