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A group of children lived near a cemetery that was situated
round a suburban church. They would often play near a hedge
adjacent to the graves and, while there, hear the ministers
conducting services. One day they played funerals and dug a
grave in which they buried a pretend casket. One of them intoned
the prayers and ended with what he assumed the minister was
saying: "In the name of the father, And of the son, And in the
hole he goes!"(1)
Do you believe in ghosts? Do you? Be careful how you
respond. After all, from week to week we say, "I believe in the
Holy Ghost," even though many folks might have no more
understanding of what they are saying than those kids at their
funeral.
"I believe in the Holy Ghost." Today when we say the word
"ghost" most folks mean an apparition from the dead, as in
Dickens' "Ghost of Christmas Past," or "Casper the Friendly..."
But 400 years ago, when our New Testament was translated from
Greek into English, "ghost" was an Anglo-Saxon word which meant
"spirit." For example, in the King James account of the death of
Christ, we read that Jesus "gave up the ghost,"(2) meaning that the
spirit of life left his body. So when you say you believe in the
Holy Ghost what you mean is the Holy Spirit (and that is the way
many modern statements of the creed render this affirmation - "I
believe in the Holy Spirit.")
Come to think of it, the only time we hear reference to the
"Holy Ghost" outside of our creed is from our Pentecostal friends
who are apparently reluctant to update the terminology. To be
painfully honest, most folks in the mainline church are more than
a little put off by our enthusiastic compatriots - the worship
with eyes tightly closed and hands waving in the air; the seeming
lack of decorum during services with their shouts of Hallelujah,
Amen, and Preach, Brother, Preach; the speaking in tongues, the
televangelists with people being knocked off their feet ("slain
in the Spirit," as they say) in miracles of healing. On top of
that, we get the feeling that our energetic friends look down
their theological noses at us who refer to ourselves as God's
Frozen Chosen because we have not arrived at their lofty level of
spiritual enlightenment.
I will never forget sitting in worship as a boy, looking out
over the congregation from my perch in the Junior Choir one
Sunday as my father preached (a man who, by the way, was one of
God's wonderful saints - quiet, kind, caring, and who everyone
saw was utterly devoted to Jesus Christ). Suddenly a woman who
was visiting for the first time stood up in the midst of the
sermon and asked, "Pastor, have you spoken in tongues?" Dad
responded in the gentle way that was always his and said that he
had not. She retorted quickly (just before the ushers got to
her) that then he was obviously not much of a Christian. That
sort of spiritual elitism is very uncomfortable. I cannot speak
for anyone else, but I for one have no interest in affirming
faith in any "Holy Ghost" who would prompt such behavior.
So what then IS this Spirit in which we say we believe? We
could be wonderfully orthodox and say, "The third person in the
Trinity." Or, along with our lesson from John's gospel,
(depending on which translation is in hand) the Advocate, or the
Comforter, or the Counselor. The Greek word behind those terms
is parakletos, a term which comes from the courtroom and means
one who walks along side, sort of a defense attorney, but on a
deeper level, one who looks out for you. The Paraclete. In
Jesus' words on that night of the Last Supper, knowing that he
would soon no longer be physically present, "I will not leave you
orphaned." This "Paraclete" will be as the presence of Jesus
himself, reminding the faithful of all they have already been
taught and teaching new lessons to meet the challenges of
tomorrow.
We hear about the Holy Spirit in John's gospel, but we get
to meet the Spirit in the book of Acts. Indeed, some have
suggested that the title of the book should not be the Acts of
the Apostles, but rather the Acts of the Holy Spirit. As the
book opens, the twelve are gathered with Jesus on the Mount of
Olives just prior to the Ascension. Jesus tells them to go to
Jerusalem and wait - the power of the Holy Spirit would come upon
them. They went, they waited, they prayed, and BLAM! Power.
Pentecost. Listen to the way scripture describes it:
As the story continues, we find the Spirit enabling miracles
of healing, more bold proclamation in the face of opposition and
even arrest. A marvelous heart of sharing began to beat in the
church and leaders with gifts of compassion were empowered to
oversee ministries of concern and consolation. As time would go
on, others would experience spiritual gifts of their own -
preaching, teaching, healing, forms of leadership, the much-misunderstood gift of tongues, and especially the gift of love.
Witness? Even in the face of death, the Spirit enabled
powerful testimony. The Spirit began to move the faithful and
their message beyond Jerusalem...down on the Jericho Road as
Philip shared the word of Jesus with an Ethiopian eunuch; the
Damascus Road as Saul of Tarsus, one of the most zealous
persecutors of the young church, was unceremoniously dumped in
the dirt and marvelously converted; in Caesarea, as Peter offered
the good news of the gospel and broke the racial barrier in the
home of the Gentile Cornelius. From that day to this, literally
billions of people have heard what is by now, "the old, old story
of Jesus and his love." Power. The power we affirm when we say,
"I believe in the Holy Ghost."
Archbishop Temple called the Holy Spirit "the active energy
of God." It is God at work in our lives, changing us. It was
frightened disciples, huddled in fear behind closed doors, being
transformed into confident evangelists, defying the power of Rome
itself. It is you and me being changed, day by day, being
enabled to love people we dislike, enabled to confront injustice
at the cost of other people disliking us. The Holy Spirit brings
power.(4) "I believe in the Holy Ghost."
You are familiar with the name, D. L. Moody, a shoe clerk
who became a great evangelist for Jesus Christ. At one time,
Moody visited a small church in Great Britain. When he got up to
speak during the morning service, he faced the coldest, most
apathetic congregation he had ever seen, and he was glad when the
experience was over. He dreaded going back that evening, but
unfortunately his presence had been advertised.
That evening service, though, was totally different. As he
preached, Moody noticed some warmth in the crowd. Then there was
more warmth. Finally, there was so much warmth that a revival
broke out and, though Moody was engaged to be somewhere else the
next day, he promised to come back in a few days and continue to
preach, so that the promise of that wonderful evening could be
fulfilled.
When he returned, Moody learned what had happened that
unusual Sunday. An older woman in the congregation could no
longer attend church, but spent her days in a wheelchair. When
she first read about D. L. Moody and his great gifts as an
evangelist, she had prayed that he would one day come to visit
her little church. Then when a relative came home from church
that Sunday morning and told her the preacher had been D. L.
Moody from America, she had prayed all afternoon, asking God to
send the Spirit upon the congregation and fill it with a desire
for repentance and new life in Christ.
What happened that remarkable evening, said Moody, was not
his doing. It was the work of that woman in her wheelchair, and
of the powerful Spirit of God that had swept over the
congregation, changing hearts and calling the entire church to
new spiritual adventures.(5)
A bit scary, eh? As one commentator has said, "We all pray
for the Holy Spirit, but as soon as the tongues of flame begin to
appear we all run for the fire department."(6)
Still, we say "I believe in the Holy Ghost." Why? Because
this is God at work in our world today, every minute of every
hour of every day. It is good to know that when you need the
divine presence in your life, God is not off on vacation
somewhere. God is always present in the person of the Holy
Spirit.
What will that mean in the nitty-gritty of life? After all,
we have been insisting throughout our series that as we believe,
so we behave. The abiding presence of the Spirit with us HELPS
us behave.
Recall that passage we heard from Galatians 5. The Apostle
Paul pictures human nature as possessing two sides. There is the
flesh, which is our point of kinship with the animals and which
is always pulling us down to our baser selves - "fornication,
impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife,
jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy,
drunkenness, carousing, and things like these." On the other
side is our spirit, which is akin to God and which is always
pulling us upward to our better selves. Paul pictures these two
sides of human nature as in conflict, but he insists that it is
possible for us, under the control of the Spirit, to be changed
from our baser to our better selves. Call it being born again,
call it regeneration, call it conversion, call it the new life of
the Spirit, call it what you will; the claim of the Christian
gospel is that we can be changed.(7)
The fruit of the Spirit.(8) There is Love, and not just any
old kind of love - agapé love. It means unconquerable
benevolence. It means that no matter what someone might do to us
by way of insult or injury or humiliation we will never seek
anything else but that person's highest good. It is a feeling
of the mind as much as of the heart; it concerns the will as much
as the emotions. It describes the deliberate effort--which we
can make only with the help of God--never to seek anything but
the best even for those who seek the worst for us.
There is Joy. Not the joy that comes from earthly things,
still less from triumphing over someone else in competition. It
is a joy whose foundation is God.
Peace. Not just the absence of conflict or freedom
from trouble but everything that makes for a person's highest
good. It means that tranquillity of heart which derives from the
all-pervading consciousness that our times are in the hands of
God.
Patience. Generally speaking the word is not used of
patience in regard to things or events but in regard to
people. It is the graciousness of the person who could exact
revenge but does not, the person who is slow to anger. It is
commonly used in the New Testament of the attitude of God
toward you and me.(9)
Kindness. It could also be translated goodness or even
sweetness. It is a lovely word. Plutarch says that it
has a far wider place than justice.
Faithfulness. Trustworthiness. It is the characteristic of
the person who is reliable.
Gentleness. In the New Testament the word we translate here
has three main meanings: (a) it means being submissive to the
will of God; (b) it means being teachable, being not too
proud to learn; and (c) most often of all, it means being
considerate. Aristotle defined it as the midpoint between
excessive anger and excessive angerlessness, the quality of the
one who is always angry at the right time and never at the wrong
time. This is the animal that has been tamed.
Finally, Self-control. It is used of the athlete's
discipline of the body and of the Christian's mastery of sex.
Secular Greek uses the term in reference to the virtue of an
Emperor who never lets his private interests influence the
government of his people. It is the virtue which makes you and
me so masters of ourselves that we are fit to be servants of
others.
"I believe in the Holy Ghost." And why not. If I can
become all I ought to be, WONDERFUL!
The good news of the gospel is that we CAN be changed.
Wherever you look in the Bible you will find it. "So if anyone is
in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed
away; see, everything has become new!" says Paul.(10)
"No man need stay the way he is," says Harry Emerson Fosdick
in one of his sermons to a generation past:
Amen!
1. Joe Parrish, via Ecunet, "Eculaugh," #6333, 1/7/99 2. Mark 15:37, 39; Luke 23:46; John 19:30 3. Acts 2:2-4 4. Isabel Wood Rogers, "The Giver of Life," Presbyterian Outlook, Feb, 1986 5. John Killinger, You are What You Believe: The Apostles' Creed for Today, (Nashville:
Abingdon, 1990), pp. 87-88 6. Melvin G. Kyle quoted by Addison Leitch, Interpreting Basic Theology, (Great Neck,
NY: Channel Press, 1961), p. 125 7. John A. Redhead, Jr., Uncommon Common Sense, Volume III, The Apostles' Creed,
(Greensboro, NC: Alexander McAlister Worth Foundation, 1997), p. 156-157 8. The brief expositions that follow are from William Barclay, The Daily Study Bible, CD-ROM edition (Liguori, MO: Liguori Faithware, 1996) used by permission of Westminster/John
Knox Press 9. Romans 2:4; Romans 9:22; 1 Timothy 1:16; 1 Peter 3:20 10. 2 Cor. 5:17 11. Quoted by Redhead, pp. 157-158
Suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush
of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where
they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire,
appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of
them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and
began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave
them ability.(3)
The story goes on as Peter, the same man who just weeks
before had been so protective of his own precious hide that he
had denied even knowing Jesus. Now, in front of thousands of
Jerusalem's Pentecost pilgrims, he stands and proclaims boldly
the gospel of the crucified and risen Christ. Pentecost has been
called the Birthday of the Church because Peter's preaching was
so powerful that 3,000 joined the fellowship that day. Wow!
If I did not believe that human nature can be changed -
the selfish man becoming unselfish, the drinking man
becoming the sober man, the man who loses his temper
becoming the man who controls his temper, the dishonest
man becoming honorable, and the man of passion becoming
the man of purity - then I would be forced to resign my
job and go into some other business. I believe it can
happen because I have seen it happen, and because I
believe in the power of God which can make it happen.(11)
YES! Me too. And that is why I can say with all my heart,
"I believe in the Holy Ghost!" Can you?
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