Reading: Acts 2:1-4, 17-18
The story in Acts 2 makes God's gift of Holy Spirit to the followers of Jesus seem very exceptional -- a once-in-a-lifetime experience of the Christian church. Wind from heaven, tongues of fire, and foreign languages are not every-Sunday happenings. Nor do we want them to be.
But other teachings (e.g. I Corinthians 12:4-27, and 14:26b, and Galatians 5:22-26) help open our eyes to the on-going presence and evidence of God's Spirit in things we do and in ways we are -- not only Sunday, but every day. These passages make being Spirit-filled seem attractive and desirable.
A year-and-a-half ago when the church Council identified three priorities of our congregation, the first we identified is that "we welcome people into Christian community."
This started out as welcoming people "into community." But because church is not just any community, we amended it to "spiritual community". Then because there are many kinds of spiritual community, we amended it again to "Christian community."
I wonder if we should have made it "Christian spiritual community"? Do we lose or miss something by not mentioning the Spirit in any way?
Because it might be possible to claim Christ as our guide to God and to human life, without really opening ourselves to what God wants us to do and how God wants us to be by the Holy Spirit given to us. It might be possible to want to follow Christ, without letting ourselves be drawn into action beyond our means and into real transformation of who we are.
"A Song of Faith," the 2006 United Church statement of faith, says that "the church has not always lived up to its vision; it requires the Spirit to reorient it..."
My guess is that we can open ourselves to God's Spirit on Sunday, without having wind and fire immediately threaten our renovated Upper Room. God willing, we will feel and be renewed by something.
What does openness to the Spirit mean to you? Have you seen it in your church life?
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