Holy Spirit

 I was talking to our Sunday school youth this morning about John the Baptist and Jesus and how they are related. They literally go way back, back to the time when Mary and Elizabeth where meeting while pregnant and John leapt in the womb. But there was also another person, another presence there was well. Luke tells that Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit when she exclaimed, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!" 

This Sunday is entitled, "The Baptism of Jesus" in the UCC Worship Planner. We have Jesus coming to John the Baptist to be baptized. We have John talking about the coming of Jesus as the Messiah and the preparing the way. John tells the crowd that he only baptizes with water, but Jesus will come baptizing with  the Holy Spirit and fire! However, in other Gospels, not Luke's, Jesus receives the Holy Spirit coming down on him as soon as he comes out of the water. IF that isn't baptizing with the Holy Spirit, then I don't know what is. 

After Jesus lineage is told in the Gospel of Luke; Jesus, full of the Spirit, is lead by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted. In the Gospel of Mark, he writes that Jesus wasn't lead into the wilderness, but was driven. The Spirit isn't just something like electricity that can be turned on or off. In the story of Acts which we didn't read, in chapter 8, the apostles Peter and John go to people who were baptized in Jesus' name, but it was only when they laid hands on them, did they receive the Holy Spirit. So it wasn't all put together yet and wasn't all uniform. 

I almost want to do a Paul Harvey and tell you the "rest of the story...", but there is a problem, we really don't know the rest of the story. We have stories, we have hints, but what we truly do not have a solid definition, a DNA sample, or an interview where the Holy Spirit tells all.

My favorite Hebrew word is their word for Spirit, any one know what it is? It is Ruach. Which means simultaneously: spirit, wind, and breath. OK, I have to confess that shalom is actually my favorite which means more than just peace but everything and everyone in harmony. But Ruach is a close, close second. It is the Spirit of God, Ruach, that hovers over the chaotic waters before creation starts, it is the breath, Ruach, that God breathes into the first human to give life, it is the wind, Ruach, that drives through the Red Sea so the Israelites lead by Moses on dry land to freedom.

But, but, what we know as the Holy Spirit isn't just described in the Hebrew Scriptures as Spirit, but also we refer to the Holy Spirit from those texts as Wisdom. Some of you may know the Hebrew word for wisdom...  It is Sophia which can be seen as the feminine side of God. I had a Pentecostal preacher once confess that he believes that the Holy Spirit is a woman. We can read about this in Proverbs where Wisdom is portrayed as a woman calling out to everyone in the market offering them what they need to live a good and abundant life. 

In Jesus' ministry, we know that Jesus did a lot of healing with the Spirit and even times when the Holy Spirit didn't wait for Jesus. In the story of the woman who suffered for 12 years who reached out to touch Jesus as he was on his way to heal a 12 year old girl, the power when out from Jesus and Jesus asked, "Who touched me? Who was healed?" 

In the New Testament, the most central story of the Holy Spirit is the opening of Acts when the Holy Spirit bursts forth on the disciples who are hiding but are driven out of the house with a huge sound that everyone hears, and gifts the disciples with a multitude of tongues so that they might share the good news to all who are in Jerusalem. The Apostle Paul writes a lot about the Holy Spirit, giving in 1st Corinthians 12 as master class as the Holy Spirit is the one who gives each disciple, each apostle, each follower, each member of the body of Christ their gifts, and brings and binds them and us together. 

Why I am talking about the Holy Spirit today? I am not exactly sure, but I think it is for two reasons. One, we are once again separated and cannot worship together in the same space and everything seems to be pulling us apart right now. This pandemic is excruciating and way, way too long. Even for those of us who haven't got it, our lives have been disrupted and going back to normal isn't happening anytime soon, if ever. But, However, we have the Holy Spirit, who was there at the beginning of creation, we have the breath who breathed live into our bodies and continues to do so, and we have the Spirit blowing through our world, holding us together, even as we are spaced apart.

The second reason I am focusing on the Holy Spirit is because the world is full of chaos, but the world is also full of goodness. We do have a friend, a partner, a giver, a healer, and someone who nudges us, watches over us, and is present with us in each and every breath. The world is full of chaos, but there is a wisdom who teaches us how to navigate through life, through the waters, and through the disasters of our world. The world is full of chaos, but the universe is full of goodness and love and God. God is so big, so immense, that God cannot be contained in just one being, but whom we know as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; Creator, Christ, and Comforter; Yahweh, "I am who I am", Jesus of Nazareth, son of Mary, love incarnate and enfleshed, and Ruach, Sophia, and the wind that blows where nobody knows where she comes from or where she is going. 

So what do we do? We pay attention. We listen for that small still voice. We cling to that what binds us together, the fruits of the Spirit: goodness, kindness, patience, faithfulness, self-control, love, joy, peace, and gentleness. We can't control what is happening or what will happen. That is not our job or our purpose. But we can create a better world, a safer community, and a more loving chaos. 

Amen