Pentecost: Gospel: John 7:37-52; 8:12 “Come and abide in us”

Today is the great feast of Pentecost! Today we once again invoke the Holy Spirit by praying “O Heavenly King…” At the start of every Liturgy we begin with this prayer – except from Pascha to Pentecost – to allow us to grow in hunger for this prayer, and today we once again feast upon it and implore the Holy Spirit to come and abide in us.

Christ told us, (John 15:26) “But when the Helper comes, Whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me…” (John 16:13) “However, when He the Spirit of truth has come, He will guide you into all truth…” (John 16:7) “Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away. The Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.” Christ came that we might have the Holy Spirit always with us.

Let me start with a description of the working of the Holy Spirit from one of my favourite Saints; the quite recently departed Saint Nicolai Velimirovic of Ochrid. (1956)

“Brethren, from what moment do our bodies become the temple of the Holy Spirit? From the moment of our baptism. Although Christ paid the price for all men, only those who are baptized become the temple of the Holy Spirit.”

“Brethren, what is the consequence that the Holy Spirit lives in us? The consequence is this; that we are not our own any more. When the Holy Spirit takes up His abode in our bodies, then He becomes the Master over us, and not us over our bodies or over ourselves. Then brethren, we are the possession of God the Holy Spirit.” “But the Holy Spirit does not dwell in us by force but rather according to our good will. If we transgress against Him, He departs from us, and in place of Him, Satan enters and our physical temple is transformed into a pigsty.” Good food for thought!

Since Pascha we have not knelt. We will soon make up for this a little when we pray the kneeling prayers for Pentecost at the end of today’s Liturgy. These 3 wonderful kneeling prayers come to us from St. Basil in the fourth century, and we only get to say them at this Pentecost service once a year so may God grant us to focus and open our hearts. St. Basil gave them to the Church as he defended the truth of the Holy Spirit being fully God, and one of the Holy Trinity, against the heretical teaching of Macedonius, a bishop of Constantinople who denied the full divinity of the Holy Spirit.

Last night during Pentecost Vespers we heard three Old Testament readings:

In Numbers; Moses asks God for help and he has Moses select 70 men, and then the Lord descended in the cloud and took of the Spirit and rested it upon them. They all prophesied, even two of them that were not at the Tabernacle where they were supposed to be. When Joshua complains about these two Moses says: “Would that all the Lord’s people might be prophets, when the Lord would put His Spirit upon them.”

In Joel: We have the passage that Paul quotes in Acts Chapter 2 at the very beginning of his homily to the crowd at Pentecost: “But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel” and he then goes on to quote extensively from Joel things like: “And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh…upon My menservants and on My maidservants, I will pour out My Spirit in those days…and whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” and they gladly received his word and about 3000 souls were baptized.

And in Ezekiel: “…I shall give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I shall take the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I shall put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in My requirements. You will be My people and I will be your God.”

These Old Testament books are the “scriptures” Christ and His apostles used, the New Testament wasn’t yet written, and it would take another 300 years after it was written before the 27 books we today take for granted that make up the New Testament cannon would be accepted by the Church as the official list of the New Testament books. In John we hear Christ say at the start of His ministry to the Jews (John 5:39) “You search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.” After His resurrection, Christ unveiled the Old Testament writings to His disciples on the road to Emmaus when He appeared to them, (Luke 24:27) “And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself.” He then appears to His disciples the first time ranting them “peace” for they were terrified, eats some fish and honey to prove He was not a spirit but possessed His body and then tells them, Luke 24:44-45) “…that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets concerning Me. And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the scriptures.” Remember, this is just days after Christ has resurrected. There will be no Gospel or New Testament books even written for at least another 20 years. Whenever we see the word scripture used in the New Testament it is referring to the Old Testament writings.

The Old Testament scriptures always need to be interpreted in the light of Christ’s passion which fulfilled all things and completed our creation as children of God began in Adam. The passion of Christ allowed Him to send us the Holy Spirit, Who is everywhere present and filling all things. He is always with us, we were sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit at our baptism and chrismation. He is always here awaiting our cooperation and willingness to have Him come and live within us. He is faithful to show us what He would have us do – and not do – in our lives, to be ever more transformed into the likeness of Christ, as His image lives within each one of us. St. Gregory Nazianzus said, “Look at these facts: Christ is born; the Spirit is His forerunner. He leads Him up. He works miracles; the Spirit accompanies them. He ascends; the Spirit takes His place.”

How do we attract the Holy Spirit into our hearts and make a home for Him to abide within us? Repentance, accepting the forgiveness of God, forgiving others, squashing pride and learning humility, and above all loving each other, these are the requirements that God asks of us. The Holy Spirit can not dwell in a heart that harbours unforgiveness of anyone, so it is especially important for our sake that we search our hearts to make sure we are clean in this area. These are really not burdens, but blessed joys that greatly lighten our lives. In Micah (6:8) we hear: “This is the only thing the Lord asks of you; to act justly, to love tenderly and to walk humbly before your God.” God knows that in our sinful human state we fail miserably even at these simple requests. But when we repent, He sends His Holy Spirit to strengthen us, cleansing us of all our unrighteousness, and keeping us on the path, granting us wisdom and discernment that we may walk in repentance. St. Seraphim of Sarov famously said, “the acquisition of the Holy Spirit is the goal of the Christian life”

How do we recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives? It is by the very gentle fruits of the Spirit; (Gal: 5:22,23) “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control;” not by elevated spiritual feelings or great spiritual insights. No, exalted feelings are more likely to lead us to pride and what the Fathers call “prelest,” a dangerous type of spiritual delusion. Saint Isaac the Syrian defines “general prelest,” which we all suffer from as “forgetting and not noticing our own sinfulness.” He then describes the more advanced case of prelest as occurring when “a man tries to live beyond his capabilities. Without having cleansed himself of passions, he strives for a life of contemplation and dreams of the delights of spiritual grace. Because he thinks too highly of himself, God’s grace is withdrawn from him and he falls under the influence of the evil one, who actively begins to tickle his vainglory with lofty contemplation and spiritual delights. If a man thinks he is righteous, then his righteousness is not divine, but diabolical, foreign, to the grace of God and to humility.” 

As we grow closer to God, we become more aware of our own sinfulness and less concerned about the shortcomings of those around us. Archbishop Lazar summed it up well when he said, “If you feel the need to rebuke a sinner, go and address the one in the mirror.” It is almost always the case that if we are struggling with someone, it is because we are seeing in them things that we are unwilling to see in ourselves. Unless we are dealing with pure and evil abuse of a criminal nature, when we are irritated by someone’s action, we should first seek for the source of our irritation in ourselves, not so much in the other. The fruits of the Spirit in the list from Galatians are characteristics that allow us to live together with our beloved, wounded, suffering and sinful brothers and sisters without needing to judge or correct them. Please do not think you ever have the right to expose and confront anyone “in love,” unless they have very specifically asked and given you permission to do this. We are always to be “speaking the truth in love” with the emphasis on love. Speaking what we perceive to be the “truth” often sends the person into more pain and isolation and feeds our own self-righteousness and pride. God is very gentle and longsuffering with all of us and does not force us to confront the truth – even though we all fall far short of the mark, until He knows we are ready. When we are ready, He very lovingly brings to our awareness only that “truth” we are able to handle. The fruits of the Holy Spirit enable us with kindness, faithfulness and self-control to encourage those around us to know they are treasured, period.

So, my brothers and sisters, if you are struggling with anyone, thank God for them. They are sent by God directly into your life for your salvation. They are a most precious gift to you. Ask God to fill you with His Holy Spirit and move them to the top of your prayer list. Ask for help and prayer from St. Sergius of Radonezh as he is known to be a great reconciler. Do not ask God to change them, but rather to change your heart and soften it up in His love, to teach you to “love tenderly.” We all need love and acceptance in far greater measure than correction. May God grant that every person should feel safe and loved and accepted here at St. Aidan’s, that it may be said of our community as it was said in the beginning centuries of the Church, “See how they love one another.”

Christ tells us today in the Gospel reading: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.  He who believes in Me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.” May God bless, and may we be found to be Christ’s disciples, and a welcome home for the Holy Spirit; that these living waters may flow abundantly to the thirsting world around us. There is no water rationing in the kingdom of heaven. Let us drink to saturation!   With the Feast!