Pentecost Sunday   May 24, 2026   OSJ 7:30 & 9:30

I have little understanding of how our three-person divinity is forever unified as one.   We speak of father, son and spirit, or creator, redeemer and animator.  I once heard this description: the Church of Europe is the Church of the Father, the Church of Latin America is the Church of the Son and the Church of Africa is the Church of the Spirit.    There is a fallacy about such a regional description not including the Church of Asia but there is a kernel of truth.  At least we know that the Faith of Africa is filled with the Spirit. 

But today on Pentecost, now fifty days after Easter, we celebrate the gift of the Spirit given to the disciples and then to the whole Church down through the ages.

First: a reflection on an ordinary experience of the spirit; Second an imaginative look at the Spirit of God and Third a look at the Scriptures and the life of the Church.

Our ordinary notions of spirit can give us some clues about the work of God’s Spirit.   We often hear the phrase “school spirit” identifying an attitude that permeates student engagement, especially athletic engagement.  Players of school sports, let’s take basketball as an example, need spirit as much as they need skills.   A coach must build the team around some skilled players.  But the typical second string and even the last man or woman chosen has a role not only on the practice team but also on the bench.  Whether in practice or during games the bench must fill the court with encouraging verbal and body language.   And every huddle must be spirited.

How might such a Spirit act in the life of God?  I call on imagination to illustrate the benefits for us of the Spirit in God.   Imagine a God contemplating at length the problems with creation from nothing and then even hesitating to create because of the possibility of evil.    For such a God the outgoing transparency and enthusiasm of the Spirit in God would overcome any hesitation.   Such a Spirit provides an impetus into space and time, into matter and movement.  

Or suppose there was in our God a tendency to act like an introvert.  Indeed suppose God so relished quiet and the comfort of being alone that creation itself was considered a kind of threat to the divine.    If such a situation existed the third person spirit and animator in God would encourage the taking of some risks with the possibilities of conversation and group activity.   And much to our benefit!  The Spirit is a friend to the noise of creation, to its beauty, its music and art, its vitality and diversity.

It is, I imagine, too, the Spirit of God that drives the divine impulse to become Incarnate in Jesus Christ.   To our benefit, of course.  We humans then are known to be made in the likeness of the Son of God.   And we have a familiar and loving relationship with the divine one like us, with the human Jesus and all of his joys and sorrows. 

But always it is the Spirit, the Spirit sent in turn to us by Jesus that gives zest to this relationship.   It is the Spirit that overcomes our doubt.  It is the Spirit that provides endurance and stability.

Third:  Scriptures, Old and New:   We find in so much in the Old Testament, in the Hebrew Bible mention of the influence of the Spirit of Yahweh.  It is this Spirit that looks at the chaos of the waters of creation and separates the land from the sea.   This is the Spirit of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, of the Kings and Prophets, and of the Wisdom literature.  Although this Spirit in the Old Testament has no personal separate identity, it has feminine characteristics.

Later in places in the New Testament gospels the influence of the Spirit is often present to Jesus himself, bringing about his conception, protecting him in the desert, empowering him at his baptism and in his preaching and healing.   Finally in the Gospel of John, however, near the end of the New Testament period the Spirit of Truth appears with a personal identity when the evangelist  John names this Spirit the Paraclete.   This name signifies that the Spirit is the one who stands by our side and assists us in our needs.  Jesus promises this Spirit both to those individuals who want to know him and to the community of his followers.    

The NT is clear:  Jesus himself knew by his own experience the difficulties that the disciples would have after he was gone.   Jesus sends the Spirit to sustain the life of the Church, that is to sustain the lives of all of us, especially in our faith communities.   We know that Jesus dies penniless, and leaves nothing for the disciples.    But then, then he sends them the Spirit with every gift they need, every gift we need.   While Jesus is the personal foundation of the Church, the Paraclete takes on an accompanying encouraging role in the continuing life of the Church.   

Finally, then:   Over the ages the Spirit fills the Church, the People of God, with the seven gifts of the Spirit that support the goodness to which God calls us:  wisdom, understanding, knowledge, counsel, fortitude, piety and fear of the Lord.    Wherever we find traces or even the fullness of these seven gifts, there the Spirit of God is present.   Think now each of us about those in our lives who are images of the Spirit of God and stand by us: a parent, a grandparent, a coach, a mentor, an author, an artist , those who have inspired us.  In them we experience the powers of these seven gifts: wisdom, understanding, knowledge, counsel, fortitude, piety and fear of the Lord.  

Spirit of the living God, fall now afresh on us.