A THEOLOGY OF SUFFERING: WHY DOES GOD ALLOW THE RIGHTEOUS TO SUFFER?

 

THE HOLY SPIRIT: WHO IS THE HOLY SPIRIT? WHAT ARE THE SYMBOLS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT? HOW TO BE FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT?

Sermon by The Rev. Canon Dr. Fred Vergara on Pentecost Sunday, May 23, 2021. Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, 130 Jerusalem Avenue, Hicksville, New York, USA.

“Come Holy Spirit, I need you; Come Holy Spirit, I pray. Come in thy strength and thy power. Come in thine own special way.”

My friends, if there is any one or anything, we need so much today, it is the Holy Spirit. Our world is collapsing, our nations are collapsing, our churches are collapsing, many of our lives and the things we hold so dear, are collapsing. We need the Holy Spirit to sustain us, to inspire us, to empower us and to make life worth living.

Today, I will share about the Holy Spirit: (1)  Who is the Holy Spirit? (2) What are the Symbols of the Holy Spirit and what do they mean? (3) How to be filled with the Holy Spirit?

I.WHO IS THE HOLY SPIRIT

It is wrong to ask what is the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit is not a thing. The Holy Spirit is a Person. I think it is also wrong to say Holy Ghost because the Holy Spirit is not a ghost. The Holy Spirit is the third Person in the Holy Trinity (3 Persons 1 God). In the Nicene Creed, which we recite every Sunday during Eucharist, we say “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of Life, who proceeds from the Father, with the Father and the Son, together is worshipped and glorified.” So whenever you merntion the Holy Spirit, always remember we are talking about a Person. Thank you, Holy Spirit; guide me as I teach today. Be by my side to correct me if I make a mistake and lead me to the truth, please Lord.

The Bible says that from the beginning of Creation, the Holy Spirit was brooding over the deep, the darkness, and God said, “Let there be light---and there was light.” So the creation of the world that we know is the result of teamwork: The Father was the author of Creation, the Son is the Light and the Spirit was the conceiver and giver of Life. The Father speaks, the Holy Spirit hovers over and the Son radiates. The Apostle’s Creed, which is a summary of our faith, says in this story of salvation and incarnation, Jesus was “conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.” Jesus was already there from the beginning, but becoming flesh in the world was made possible by the power of the Holy Spirit.

So the Holy Spirit is the “Lord, the Giver of Life.” We are sustained and preserved by the Holy Spirit. That is why when someone dies, someone says, “the Spirit just gave out.” So today, let us first thank the Holy Spirit for giving us life and sustaining us through these times of pandemic.  

We are here today, alive and kicking, because of the Holy Spirit. So far, we survived the pandemic, we survived the Asian hate, we survived any threat to our existence because of the Holy Spirit. But if the Holy Spirit moves away from us, our lips may turn into clay, So thank you, Holy Spirit. And thou are welcome here, in our lives. Amen?

II. WHAT THE SYMBOLS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT AND WHAT DO THESE SYMBOLS MEAN?

Now we do not see the Holy Spirit. But the Bible, the Word of God, teaches us through images; ordinary and visible symbols that describe the works of the Holy Spirit. As human beings, we are better than the animals in being able to read the signs. I remember during our visit to the Holy Land that we passed by the border of Israel and Syria and in-between that border there are mines. Our guide said that there were few human beings who stepped upon those mines but there were several cattle which flew up when those mines they stepped upon exploded. The guide said, “unfortunately, the cattle do not know how to read the warning and the symbol of danger.”

There are at least six popular symbols or images of the Holy Spirit. These symbols are: fire, air, wind, water, the dove, and oil.

A. FIRE 

In the gospel of Matthew 3:11 and Luke 3:16 John who was called The Baptizer said to the people by the river Jordan: “I baptize you with water but He who is coming, whose sandals I am unworthy to untie, will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” John was the baptizer only with water but Jesus was the baptizer of the Holy Spirit. So on the Day of Pentecost, recorded in Acts 2, the Holy Spirit as promised by Jesus came down like tongues of fire. These tongues of fire rested upon the apostles and they were transformed. They spoke in various tongues, Peter preached a powerful sermon, 3,000 people were converted to Christ and the Church was born. Some consider the Day of Pentecost as the birthday of the Church, others call it the Baptism of the Church.

 

However you call it, the fact remains that it was on the Day of Pentecost that the Holy Spirit came in a mighty way. It was the fulfillment of the promise of Jesus that when He ascends to heaven, He and the Father will send the Holy Spirit to be with us, in us, beside us. And He came with the power of the fire symbol.

 

So fire is the symbol of transforming energy. Gold is refined by fire. Fire burns all the dross and impurities and the gold shines out. In the same manner, the Holy Spirit burns out the dirt in our lives so that we shall shine like the sun in the Father’s kingdom.

 

In this pandemic, many people were tried and tested of their faith. To some, it brought our the worst. To others, it brought out the best. The Holy Spirit brings out the best in us, even in the worst of circumstances. My friends, what are you made of? If you are made of wood or hay, when the fire of testing comes your way, you will be razed to the ground. But if you are made of gold, you will shine like the sun, and you will rise!

 

B. AIR, BREATH OR WIND

In John 20:22 Jesus breathed on the disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” In Hebrew, the word for spirit is “ruach” and in Greek it is “pneuma.” The Holy is the breath of life. In the Christian Tai Chi that I developed, there is a part that says, “I breathe the Holy Spirit, the Breath of life” and then I breathe deeply to allow the Holy Spirit to fill me, symbolically.

In the Ezekiel 37 reading, Ezekiel saw a vision of the “valley of dry bones.” The Israelite leaders at that time were exiles in Babylonian. They were so discouraged that they could not sing the Lord’s song in what they considered a strange and foreign land. They felt so uprooted and dried up. Feeling heartbroken, they lamented: “Our bones are dried out and our hope is lost.”

But God is good all the time and said to Ezekiel: ”Prophesy to the bones and tell them to breathe.” When Ezekiel prophesied to the valley of dry bones, something extraordinary happened. There was a rattling sound as bones come together with bones, flesh came together with flesh---and the whole valley of dry bones come to life!

Some people say many of our churches are dead and our denomination is like a valley of dry bones. Maybe we need an Ezekiel to prophesy so that these bones will live and the valley of our dry churches will breathe with new life and new energy.

In a spiritual sense we are the dead ones brought out of our sins and misery. We are alive in Christ because the Holy Spirit has come and restored our valley of dry bones. Alleluia!

The wind symbol is an extension of this air and the breath of God and so at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit sounded like a rush of a mighty wind. My friends, when you feel the breeze, when the trees are swaying by the wind, please be reminded of the Holy Spirit.

3. WATER
Water is a powerful image of the Holy Spirit. In the Gospel of John 7:37-39 Jesus said: “If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink.  He who believes in me, out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.” The rivers of living water, flowing in and out of us, is the Holy Spirit of God.

There’s a river of life, flowing out of me, makes the lame to walk and the blind to see, open prison doors make the captives free, there’s a river of life, flowing out of me.

Like air that we breathe, water is also a symbol of life.  We need water to live. According to science, at least 60% of the adult body is made of water. A human being can survive without food for about three weeks but he or she would only last for three to four days without water. You may perhaps think that when Jesus, who was fully human, fasted for forty days and forty nights, he fasted only from food.

So think about that with your spiritual life. Just like we need water to live, so too do we need the Holy Spirit to sustain our spiritual life. We use water to cleanse and nourish our physical body. We need the Holy Spirit to cleanse and nourish our spiritual life. That is why Jesus said, “humans do not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Do not neglect your spiritual life, my friends.

4. THE DOVE

The first use of the Dove for the Holy Spirit was during the time of Noah. After the flood which practically cleansed the earth and erased a sinful world, a dove was released by Noah from the arc. The dove returned with a fresh olive-tree branch in its beak as a sign that the earth was again habitable and that peace with God and humanity was restored.

I think the Dove is the most popular image or symbol of the Holy Spirit and it is because at the baptism of Jesus in the river Jordan, there were three things that happened: the heavens opened, the voice of the Father was heard, and a Dove alighted on Jesus. It was a revelation of the Holy Trinity: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Spirit was invisible so God chose a symbol of the Dove. The Dove, like water, fire and wind is not the Holy Spirit but was presented to us as a symbol. But what was the meaning of the symbol? The Dove is the symbol of peace. Peace with God, peace of mind, peace in the world and peace in our hearts---and Jesus is the Prince of Peace.

When you are about to make a major decision in life, ask yourself this question: “Do I experience peace as I make this decision?” The Holy Spirit gives you peace when your decision is right or discomfort when your decision is wrong. So whatever you do, wait for the Spirit. Peace, I give to you, the peace that the world cannot give. Come Holy Dove, give us peace.

5. OIL

Oil is another symbol of the Holy Spirit. This symbol reminds us that we have been anointed by the Holy Spirit by virtue of our baptism and Confirmation. Those of us who were baptized as a baby were anointed with oil; when we were confirmed, we were again anointed with oil. This is what we call “chrism” or the “oil of the catechumens.”

When you are a priest or a bishop, you are also anointed with oil. Normally, the newly-ordained deacon or priest is anointed with oil on the palm of their hands; and the bishops on their foreheads.

Then when you get sick and the priest prays for you and sometimes anoints you with the oil. So there are two uses of anointing: anointing for mission and anointing for healing. When you are “the anointed” it means that you have a special mission to perform. There are several “anointed ones” in the Old Testament. The most popular was David, the shepherd boy who became the greatest King of Israel. God commanded the prophet Samuel to anoint David. The Bible says in 1^st Samuel 16:13 that after the anointing, the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward.

But the most unique anointing was on Jesus, the anointed ONE. In Luke 4:18, He announced his mission thus: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me for He has anointed me to preach Good News to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord’s favor.”

The Holy Spirit established Jesus as “the Christ.” The Holy Spirit filled Jesus with power and the Spirit went out from him in His acts of healing and of saving. Finally, it was the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead. Fully established as “Christ” in his humanity and victorious over death, He and the Father now sent the Holy Spirit into the Church. If the Old Testament is the Era of the Father, the New Testament is the Era of the Son, the Era of the Acts of the Apostles and today is the Era of the Holy Spirit.

III. HOW TO BE FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT

Now we come to the third point of our teaching: how can we be filled with the Holy Spirit?

In Ephesians 5:18, St. Paul wrote: ”Do not get drunk with wine, which leads to indiscretion, but be filled with the Spirit.”

Why is it necessary to be filled with the Spirit? It is because as human beings, we are also a trinity: we are Body, Mind and Spirit. And like water which is over 60% of our body, we are mostly spirit than flesh. St Teresa de Avila and other mystics would say: ”We are not physical beings with spirits but we are spiritual beings with bodies.” Our physical body will go back (when we die) earth to earth, dust to dust, ashes to ashes but our spiritual body will go back to our Maker and we will go either to the resurrection to eternal life or to the resurrection of judgment.

So how do we get filled with the Spirit? The Bible resources offer us the  three R’s, not reading, writing and ‘rithmetic, but repenting, receiving and renewing. Repent of your sins, receive the Holy Spirit and renew your life in Christ. Walk in the Spirit, live in the Spirit, be filled with the Holy Spirit.

If there are areas in your life that are not right, repent and turn or return to the Lord. Then ask and receive the Holy Spirit, being open to His leading and guidance. Do not feel condemned but have the courage to accept that you are accepted. Then renew your life and walk with the Spirit.

CONCLUSION

Being filled with the Holy Spirit means that as a believer you are also empowered by the Holy Spirit to do things on the Lord's behalf. The Holy Spirit has given each one of us certain spiritual gifts so that we may juse them for service. St. Paul wrote in 1^st Corinthians 12: “There are different kinds of gifts but it is the same Holy Spirit Who gives them… One person is given the gift of wisdom, another the gift of teaching, another the gift of faith, another the gift of healing…but all these are given by the same Holy Spirit.”

I have another teaching solely on spiritual gifts but being filled with the Holy Spirit means it is the opposite of being filled with the flesh. Paul reveals this difference when he said to, "walk in the Spirit but do not gratify the desires of the flesh.” So in order for us not to be puffed up by pride or too arrogant because of our gifts, the Holy Spirit gives us maturity, called the fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5:22-23 says: “And the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control…”

With both the gifts and the fruit of the Spirit, like two wings of a dove, we can fly. Amen.