Come Holy Spirit
May 19, 2024 Pentecost Sunday at Faith-Lilac Way Lutheran Pastor Pam Stalheim Lane
Come Holy Spirit. Fill the hearts of your faithful
This is the beginning of the prayer for the gift of the Holy Spirit. But be careful what you ask for. The Holy Spirit – as we heard in the reading from Acts – can come with a violent rush of wind. On a hot summer day, we bless the breeze that comes off the lake or the trees. But a rush of wind can easily get out of control – think hurricanes and tornados. The word for “Wind” is “Pnuema” – which also means Spirit. So the Spirit blew in with a violent rush. Are you ready for that?
Maybe? Maybe not. But maybe the Holy Spirit doesn’t want to wait. So… Come Holy Spirit. Fill the hearts of your faithful until there is no room for anything else. Come Holy Spirit.
Come Holy Spirit and fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in us the fire of your love.
The Wind/ Spirit is not all that came that day. Fire came too – a fire that did not consume. But it still burned hot – with the fire of God’s love. And with that Wind/Spirit and the fire of God’s love came the WORD. But this time, the WORD did not simply become flesh and move into the neighborhood” as the message Bible translates the first verse of John’s Gospel. Instead, the Holy Spirit became like a Google language translator making people able to hear the Word of God in their own language. Somehow, miraculously, “all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues.”
Learning a new language is not easy. When I went to Germany, I decided it would be good to learn a few words so I could say something to the people there. I wasn’t very diligent in my studies – but another member of my group spoke quite well so I didn’t worry too much about it. But when we were in Wittenberg, we got split up on a bus. I was wanting to connect with the locals and so I tried to say a couple of words in German to the older lady sitting next to me. I found out later that I was speaking to her in a mix of bad German, Spanish, and English and did it all with a Norwegian accent. But it didn’t seem to phase her. She was so insistent about telling me something about the church, Christ chapel. But I didn’t understand her. I found out later that it was closing in half an hour for construction work and wouldn’t be open the rest of the week. She tried – and I missed it. I guess we will just have to go back!
For those of you who have tried a foreign language, you know that it is not easy – unless perhaps you grew up bilingual or learned the second language as a child. But in the book of Acts, these were adults speaking a foreign language fluently – and proclaiming God’s word. Just the ability to speak the language was a miracle. But the Holy Spirit wasn’t done. Instead the Holy Spirit was kindling a fire of understanding by having people speak in the native tongue of all the people there – so that no one was left out; everyone could understand. The news of the Good News of Jesus came – not in translation – but in the ordinary words of the people who were there regardless of the language that they spoke, whether they were male or female, whether they were old or young, and regardless of where they were from.
Come Holy Spirit…Send forth your Spirit and we shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth.
How would the Holy Spirit renew the face of the earth today? Would the Holy Spirit come with wind and fire and disrupt the warring nations? Would the Holy Spirit inspire leaders to speak in the tongue of the one they called “enemy”? Would the Holy Spirit mend the rifts and division in our nation, in our community, in families and neighbors? How would the Holy Spirit transform and renew you? Would the Holy Spirit fill you with the Holy Spirit’s ability to speak the language of the one that you consider, “other?” Would you even want that? If not, be careful what you pray for.
O God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit did instruct the hearts of the faithful; grant that by that same Spirit, we may be truly wise and ever enjoy his consolations.
Let us pray that God will work through us so that we move beyond the artificial divisions and distinctions that we apply when we call someone “other.” Let us embrace the way of the Holy Spirit which is to show no partiality. Instead, the way of God is to enable the Holy Spirit to reach and bless all people – by empowering you and me to share the Good News of God’s love.
Come Holy Spirit, Come – whether we are ready or not. Amen.