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Come Holy Ghost

Today is Pentecost Sunday. I hope you remembered

to wear something red for our birthday. Today we

celebrate the beginning of a brand new life. Those

who had been locked up zombie like in an upper

room were set on fire with a brand new spirit. God’s

Spirit. The Holy Spirit. And everything changed.

They stood clinging to each other in the womb of the

upper room because they were very, very afraid.

The one they followed had upset the apple cart and

overturned the spiritual, economic and religious

system. And now He was nowhere to be found. Oh,

they did experience His resurrection from the dead

and were overjoyed to see that He had conquered

death and would be going back to the Father from

whence He came, but a lot of good that did them.

They were left alone, orphans, and very, very

afraid. With the authorities pounding at the door,

threatening their lives, what did they do? What all

fearful people do, they closed the doors, they locked

them, they froze.

Oh, they did do one more thing. They prayed. They

prayed the great prayer that comes automatically to

the lips of those in peril: HELP! Help me, Jesus, help

me! (This is one of my favorite prayers.) This may

sound like a low level prayer but it’s not. This is a

prayer that comes out of desperation, anxiety and

most of all vulnerability. And it seems like God

cannot resist taking care of the vulnerable. Thank

God because we are all vulnerable and very, very

fragile.

In the Gospels Jesus gives an order to His disciples to

ask and they will receive, seek and they will find,

knock and the door will be opened to them. He is

inviting, encouraging us to pray. For what? A new

Mercedes? An American Girl doll? Two tickets to the

Cubs World Series (okay, let’s not push it)? No, God

can give the only thing God has to give and that’s...

God. God can’t or probably won’t give us a new

little red wagon but He can and always will send

forth His Spirit for those who ask. So ask! What are

you waiting for?

You may protest, “But I have asked and He hasn’t

answered.” Fair enough. Keep asking. One of my

favorite bits of spiritual wisdom comes from the black

community that keeps on reminding us that, “God

might not be there when you want Him but He’s

always on time.” You see, the Divine presence of

God’s Sprit is all around us and even in us. This old

world of ours is shot through and through with the

Divine. It’s a sacred universe. And that Spirit dwells

within us as well. But it is often locked up. It is locked

up by the very fear that grips us.

It is, indeed, kind of a spiritual catch 22 that we want

to be released from fear by the power of the Spirit

and it is our very fear that keeps us from allowing the

Spirit to be unleashed. That’s why praying is an act

of faith. It is so much easier to do the woe-is-me thing

than it is to say “Come, Holy Ghost. Come, Holy

Spirit release me from my fear, set me free from my

anxiety.” This is a prayer that must be heard and will

be answered in God’s time and insofar as we are

ready to receive it.

Sometimes it is hard to receive the Spirit of God

because our container is so small or so filled. There is

a wonderful Zen story of the man that sought

enlightenment from the guru. The master said, “Of

course I will give you enlightenment but first let’s have

a cup of tea.” As he begins to pour the tea into his

cup it came half way and then full, and then over full

and was spilling over into the saucer and onto the

man’s lap. He shouted, “You can’t put anymore in

there. There is no more room.” The master

responded, “Exactly. You are so filled with yourself

there is no room for enlightenment.” We are so filled

with our thoughts, anxieties, and fears. They

constantly feed us and we feed on them so much that

there simply is no room for the Spirit of God.

Whenever I pray for healing the first thing I do is an

exorcism. And you can do it yourself. Cast out the

spirits of fear, anxiety, prejudice, hatred, resentment

... (fill in the blank). Send them off to Jesus to

dispose of as He will and then ask for the Holy Ghost,

pray for the Holy Spirit, seek God’s perfect love

which casts out all fear.

So, are you caught in the upper room? Are you

gripped by your fears? It’s time to get out. But I

must warn you as the great theologian Karl Barth

once warned, you don’t dare say, “Come, Holy

Ghost” unless you mean it. God’s Holy Spirit is neither

a play thing nor a dumb waiter waiting to fulfill our

every desire. God’s Holy Spirit will burn off the chaf,

cut out the sucker branches and prune the good ones

so that you may be able to bear fruit. Receiving

God’s Holy Spirit is not about making you feel good

but about the proclamation of the Kingdom. And as

that begins to happen you will experience the fruits

of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, long-suffering,

kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-

control (Galatians 5:22). When you experience

these things you will know that you have broken out

of jail, the upper room has been unlocked, and

you’re free to go with utter confidence. At that point,

say what you will, do what you do and it will have an

effect. It is not you speaking, it is the Sprit speaking

through you. At that point, we become a conduit for

God’s grace.

Today is Pentecost Sunday. It’s your birthday. So?

What do you really want for your birthday? Come,

Holy Ghost.

In Jesus, the Spirit of God Incarnate,

Father Tony