THE SPIRIT-SUSTAINED LIFE

                                               

Sermon delivered on the Whit Sunday, the 23^rd May 2010 by Fr Nicholas J.G. Sykes in the congregation of St. Alban's Church of England, George Town, Cayman Islands in the service of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion [Charlotte Amilia Blanka Gothar]

 

Scriptures:    Acts 2:1-21                  Romans 8:14-17                     S. John 3: 1-8

 

Romans 8:14 “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.”

 

Whit Sunday commemorates the spiritual event on the Day of Pentecost following the Passion, Resurrection and Ascension of our Lord that formed the birthday of the Church, the Body of Christ. From that time on the Church has been directed to live her calling as a Spirit-directed and Spirit-sustained body. To be Spirit-directed and Spirit-sustained is the specific calling by God of all of us who are baptised by water and the Spirit, whether in adulthood or in infancy, and therefore it is highly appropriate for this day Whitsunday to be a day of Baptism. It is obvious that a necessity for any of us to be baptised is to have been born in the first place. To the font of  regeneration we go, not empty-handed so to speak, but with a bundle of living, human flesh that, in the context of the faith of its family, its godparents and its church, is being called no longer to be led or dominated by its own appetites. The bundle of flesh that is the new baptismal candidate is being introduced to the domain of self-control, in other words renunciation, and of listening to and following a different melody, one that is higher than its own. This is the calling of the Church herself, and this calling and the calling of all her members is one and the same.

 

The relationship between parent and child is affected greatly by how much the parent, and especially the mother, is able to listen to the sounds being made by the baby and interpret them. The kinds of cries that babies make are what they have been given to communicate what they want. As the communication with his family develops the baby starts to become better able to learn the difference between the sense of being genuinely heard and the sense of merely getting what he or she demands.

 

To the developing communication-relationship a child proceeds to form with his parents we can liken the Spirit-directed and Spirit-sustained life that the Church and her members are called to walk in communication with the heavenly Father. From the very Birthday of the Church, the Day of Pentecost after the Ascension of Christ, it is clear that this walk is all about communication and relationship. In Acts chapter 2 the sound like a mighty rushing wind and the tongues as of fire are manifestly a communication from heaven. The immediate effect of the unique event is to make the disciples intelligible to others, to enable them to understand and be understood. We read that others, even those of other languages, hearing them, understand them telling of the mighty works of God, and the disciples through their spokesman Peter understand their own situation in terms of the prophetic "last days", seeing very starkly that the Jesus that the people of Jerusalem crucified, was truly being demonstrated as the Lord and Christ exalted at God's right hand, and now pouring out the gift of the Holy Spirit which, on His exaltation, He had received from the Father. And we must notice that St. Paul in Romans 8 speaks of the Spirit that directs and sustains the Church and her members as the Spirit of sonship, and contrasts this with the spirit of slavery. It is the Spirit of sonship that enables us as sons and daughters of God to address Him as "Father", indeed as "Abba", a familiar though respectful term for a Dad. And I think this should be the focus of attention for parents and godparents and for all of us. This is, after all, a dangerous world, and a dangerous universe.  Whether or not there is intelligent life anywhere else in the universe other than here, it is now clear that most of it would be entirely inhospitable for beings such as ourselves. Conditions on the earth itself, what with our  capacity to self-destruct and the demonstrated willingness to use this capacity, and even in the presence of hurricane, earthquake and volcano, can be very scary, and do not by themselves instantly manifest a beneficent providence. So although we might like to think that we have sufficient knowledge of God from everything around us, without the need for a particular intervention by God Himself, I would like to suggest that this is not in fact the case. For us to be personally certain that God is our Father, we do need His specific intervention. And it is just this intervention that is proclaimed and memorialised by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is precisely this intervention that enables us with credibility to speak of God as Father, and that enables us to have the Spirit of sonship rather than a spirit of slavery and fear, and that enables us also with confidence to help to bring others into such a realm.  It is St. Paul too who reminds us, as Jesus so often did, that this filial relationship with our Father, our being sons and daughters of God, is not a cheaply happy idling along. St. Paul regards it as normal and expected that a son or daughter of God is going to be a co-sufferer with Christ, God's Son. It is a normal circumstance on the road of being co-glorified with Christ. For some weeks here in church we have thought of Christ's statements about His being "glorified", and His Father's being "glorified" by His death and exaltation, and have shown this "glorification" to be an expression of the divine love. St. Paul then considers that our goal too is to be caught up in the glory of the divine love. This can come about through the walk in the Spirit of being a son or daughter, calling upon our Father, and the  co-suffering with Christ that a faithful walk in this age will necessitate. And being caught up in the glory of the divine love is not removed from our current experience, although it is principally a goal and our future hope.

 

Just as a growing child has much to learn of the way of communication and relationship in the context of his family, so Whit Sunday reminds us that we also are called to do the same as children of God, going forward in understanding, communication and trust in God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. If it is only the fear of God that we have, we have not yet loved Him in the way we should; for we should love Him as His sons and daughters, just as a child that only fears his father or his mother has not begun to love him in the way that should be taking place. But that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. And being born from above, being given the gift of regeneration in or with Baptism, is no more anything that we do than being born into the world is anything that we personally do. Therefore we ought not only to be born from above. We should pray that we and the whole Church listen to the voice of God's Spirit and increasingly walk as God's children, even suffering when called to it with Christ our Brother, so that like a small child caught up in his parents' love, we also may be glorified with Christ.