Acts 2:1-13 “Pentecost”

Way, way back when I was getting my doctorate in ministry, I was sitting in a seminar at Fuller Seminary. My desk partner during the lectures was a very nice man who told me he had received his previous education from a seminary in Jamaica. This fascinated me because he did not have a Jamaican accent. He spoke perfect American English as far as I could hear. Well, maybe he had a touch of a Texas or Louisiana lilt. Yes, he had a touch of the Creole on his tongue. He ended up continuing his ministry after seminary in the Bahamas. As time went on he was elevated up through the ranks of his denomination to become the president of the church for the entire Caribbean region. He retired recently. So, I clicked on a video of his farewell address, to hear him speaking a crisp Caribbean dialect. This is the Rev. Dr. Earl Knight, who has me now convinced that he can speak in tongues.

Going back to the time at Fuller Seminary, Reverend Earl told me that he had recently published a book. He asked me if I would like to read it. I thought he was joshing me. He told me to go down to the Seminary bookstore and look for his name on the shelf. He said that he would sign the book for me later. Then, I thought that there was another theologian with the same name or something. Just like if you go and look under “Olaf Hoeckmann” you will get books written by my uncle Olaf, an archeologist. I did go to the bookstore and found this book about the Holy Spirit with his name on it. And. . .on the back was actually his picture. So I bought it. And, he did actually sign the inside cover for me! His name is Earl Knight. The book is entitled The Power of the Holy Spirit.” You can still buy it. I have long since lent out my copy of it–never to be seen again.

Reverend Earl’s book changed my view and understanding of the Holy Spirit. The first thing that he talks about in chapter one of his book is the personality of the Holy Spirit. I had never really thought about the Holy Spirit having a kind of personality. I guess I had always viewed the Holy Spirit as a kind of an “it,” not a person with a real personality. You know, it made sense to me though in looking back at the Bible that the Holy Spirit does seem to have a personality.

I think that because I have studied Greek, and the word for the Spirit in Greek is neutral, that is not male or female, I assumed that the Spirit was an “it.” Of course, the neutral case in Greek is also used to refer to children. But, it is all Greek to me when I consider the number of Bible passages that give the Holy Spirit a definite personality. Furthermore we have the issue that “Spirit” in Hebrew is רוח, which is feminine. “Spiritus” in Latin is masculine.

Let me just give you a few examples: In Acts 1:16 the Holy Spirit speaks. Well, an “it” cannot speak. A person speaks. In Acts 15:28 the Holy Spirit thinks. Whereas you might say that a computer can calculate; it does not think. The Holy Spirit thinks! In Ephesians 4:30 it says that the Holy Spirit actually feels. It says, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit.” That means that we can cause the Holy Spirit to feel for grief for us. What we do causes the Holy Spirit to feel different things. My favorite mention of the power of Spirit is that it causes us to “dream dreams.” That comes from the sermon that Saint Peter preaches at the time of the Pentecost, a retelling of the prophecy of Joel (vss. 17-21).

From my own experience in the ministry, I have seen that the Holy Spirit does seem to have a mind of its own. The Spirit comes and goes in and out of peoples’ lives just like a long time friend. Sometimes the Holy Spirit feels very close and at other times seems strangely absent.

This can be very frustrating if you are a minister. Sometimes you expect the Holy Spirit to show up, like at 10am Sunday morning. Sometimes the Spirit just does not show up. Maybe it just comes at 11am for Aloha time. Then, the next Sunday you really do feel the presence of the Spirit in worship. Why is this? The Holy Spirit is a free Spirit. The Spirit affects us as the Spirit wills, not as we want the Spirit to do.

On Pentecost we celebrate the fact that the Holy Spirit decided to show up to bless the beginning of the Christian Faith as we know it today. Some call this the birthday of the church. That is not to say that the Holy Spirit was not around before that moment in time. Many Christians celebrate this day as the official day of the coming of the Holy Spirit. Yet, page one of the Bible says that the Holy Spirit was there moving over the waters in the time of the creation of the world. Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures the Spirit of God is mentioned ninety-four times. At the time of Jesus’ baptism by John, the Bible says that the Holy Spirit came down to Jesus. He is no newcomer to the works of God in history! He did not just show up for the first time at the Feast of Pentecost.

At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit seems to show a different side to his personality that had not been seen before. When you look at the rest of the Bible, he is meeting up with people on a one-to-one basis. He is like the shy guy at a party. Maybe he will go and talk to one or two others, but he is not the life of the party. On Pentecost, he is no longer being shy. He is now the absolute life of the party. He is the man! He is out there connecting with everybody and having a great time doing it.

You see, in the rest of the Bible before the Pentecost, you had to be really very special to be visited by the Holy Spirit. After Pentecost, it becomes clear that the Holy Spirit is really available to everyone! He is happy to come into your life and affect you. He is not someone you just can know through somebody else’s experience; he is ready and willing to get to know you.

This personality change in the Holy Spirit has impacted the way that we relate with God through our faith. We have come to believe in the idea that there is a priesthood of all believers that is anointed by the Holy Spirit as those people were on the day of Pentecost two thousand years ago. What does this actually mean? There is a little bit of the personality of the Holy Spirit in each one of us! We have all been touched and affected by the Spirit.

Let me give you an example of what I mean. Once there was a pastor who went away on a long trip overseas on his Sabbatical for three months. During that time, the church decided to have special guest preachers come into to fill the pulpit. (As an aside, I have never understood the terminology “fill the pulpit” and its counterpart “fill the pews.” Are we supposed to have “filling” in the church? Are we a congregation of believers or are we a pastry that needs filling? I think we need “feeling” not “filling.”) Back to the story: the pastor was away for three months. During that time everything seemed to happen all at once in the church. Folks got ill. There were three bereavements. One of the Elders of the church landed himself in jail. Others just needed a whole bunch of counseling.

When the pastor came back finally after three months, he was bombarded by people from the church who told him that he was not ever going to take another sabbatical as long as he was at that church. The church told him that they had felt abandoned.

The pastor, still feeling fresh from his time off asked what all had happened. He was told that he should have been there when so-and-so died and that other gent was in jail. The list went on and on how he had failed in his duties by being absent. Finally the pastor asked his accusers whether or not the family had been visited when so-and-so died. The answer was that nearly twenty people from the church had gone out to the family. And, about the elder in jail? At least ten had visited him in prison. The pastor asked: “Do you not think that the presence of Christ was not made manifest through this? Do you think that the Holy Spirit is really any greater in a pastor than in you yourselves?”

One thing that I can say about the personality of the Holy Spirit: He does not play favorites. I want to say that again: He does not play favorites.

Some folks look at the celebration of Pentecost that happened two thousand years ago and think that this was the greatest most wonderful generation of people that ever lived to have been blessed by the Holy Spirit in that way. They say that they wish they had been born back then so that they could have experienced those heady days when everybody was experiencing the power of the Spirit. They say this as if the Holy Spirit is also now on sabbatical.

He is not hiding himself away somewhere. The Pentecost experience continues on still. The problem is that we look back and think that everything that is great has happened in the past. I do not understand this tendency to do this. Anybody looking back sincerely at the state of the world two thousand years ago as compared to today would have to see that we have come a long way.

The greatest generation to experience the power of the Holy Spirit will be that generation that at the return of Jesus Christ, not the generation that was at the time of Christ’s leaving. Are we that generation?

Today, I have talked about the personality of the Holy Spirit. Everything that I have said is hopefully a prelude, a beginning, for you to come to know this Holy Spirit. I hope that the Spirit will speak to you, empower you, and make you dream dreams. I hope that he will be a major part of your life. I hope that his personality will rub off on you and that his presence will always be felt in your life. Invite him in.

Amen