Our Holy Spirit Adventure
May 28, 2023
The Rev. Joanie Brawley
On Monday, we will celebrate Memorial Day, honoring the men and
women of our military who paid the ultimate price in service to this nation. Like
Christ, they died so that we could be free. Like Jesus, they offered themselves -
their bodies, their talents, their freedom - so we didn’t have to. It is only fitting
that we should honor them this Sunday, and to prayerfully thank them for their
willingness to die protecting us.
As I was thinking about Memorial Day I remembered a story about a WWII
pilot (was it Jim Lovell?) facing an extraordinary challenge. Flying a plane in
battle is certainly a dangerous undertaking; safely landing a plane on the deck of
an aircraft carrier is also dangerous. Landing a plane safely, after a battle, on the
deck of an aircraft carrier, after dark ... without lights is ... well ... impossible!
But this actually happened, I’m told, and the pilot lived to tell the tale.
In the chaos of an intense battle over the Pacific, this pilot had lost radio
power and was separated from its squadron. With no radio, there was no
communication with either his unit or the carrier he needed to return to. And it
was quickly becoming dark. Totally alone in a contracting sky, the pilot’s prayer
was intense and simple. “Lord, Help me!” Within minutes, night had fallen, and
clouds obscured both moon and stars. What hope was there now, he thought.
“Help me, Lord! Help me, Lord!” he kept repeating, as he combed the sea
beneath him for any sight of his carrier. Unbeknownst to our radio-less pilot, the
carrier he was so desperately looking for, was sailing lights-out to avoid
detection, so finding his ship visually was also highly unlikely... until... out of
nowhere there was a flicker ... dead ahead, far off in the ocean. Whatever it was,
he was heading for it as a last hope. As he got closer, that flicker became a trail
... a twinkling path floating across the ocean’s surface ... leading him directly to
the deck of his carrier. Only in a blackened night could he have seen that the
ship’s propellers had ignited sea-life phosphorescence, creating a floating
highway directly back to safety. He was home; he was safe ... and he was
changed! From that moment on, no one would ever convince him that anything
but the hand of God had saved him! For the rest of his life, he delighted to
repeat his story of God’s extraordinary gift of Grace, protection and provision.
This pilot was certain that God had sent His Holy Spirit to light the seas
for him that night; he knew he had experienced the miraculous Hand of God’s
Holy Spirit “at work in the world” around him. This is the same Holy Spirit who,
at Pentecost, was sent to create and sustain Christ’s church in the world around
us. And clearly... extraordinary things happen whenever the Holy Spirit shows
up.
But who IS the Holy Spirit? How do we recognize Him?
He is certainly the most enigmatic aspect of the Trinity, but we discover
who the HS is, by looking at what He does in the world. One of the first things to
notice is that (no matter how dramatic His displays of power are) the works of
the Holy Spirit always point not to Himself, but to God the Father or Jesus
Christ, the Son. In that way, He is God’s power cord for our little light bulbs. He
provides, in His presence, the link in this world ... to God our Father in an eternal
world, through the redeeming actions of Christ, His Son.
We know He hovered over the chaotic waters as God created, well,
everything. We saw Him at work in the Passover, parting the Rea Sea so Israel
could escape Egyptian slavey. He protected Daniel through the fire and in the
lion’s den. We saw Him in the star leading shepherds to Christ’s creche in a
Bethlehem stable. He moved on the wings of a dove at Jesus’ own baptism
sand He delivered God’s voice from heaven saying “This is my Son. Listen to
Him!” At Christ’s crucifixion, in an object-lesson few should have missed, the
Holy Spirit tore (from top to bottom) the Temple curtain that had separated God’s
people from God’s Presence. The Holy Spirit has appeared in or “like” an
earthquake, flames, torrential winds, glowing smoke and clouds ... even as a
hand writing a warning on Nebuchadnezzar’s wall. These are just a few of the
Holy Spirit’s dramatic, powerful moments of proclamation, protection, and
provision.
Yet, sometimes the Holy Spirit arrives gently, tenderly, singularly. He
arrived in the still small voice signaling Elisha’s anointing as God’s prophet. He
instructed Ezekiel to prophesy over dry bones and bring them back to life. He
guided and gave wisdom to the Lord’s anointed leaders ... to Moses, Solomon,
Isaiah, Jeremiah and others.
But on that Pentecost day in Jerusalem, for the first time ever, the Holy
Spirit comes upon each individual Believer, every single follower of Jesus ... with
great power ... through “a sound like the rush of a violent wind” and “divided
tongues of fire” resting on each believer gathered in that place! And, in the
Lord’s undoing of the Tower of Babel’s divisions, each one spoke in a language
he himself did not know or understand, so that - through their untrained,
unknowing lips - others from “Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to
the ends of the earth” heard “about God’s deeds of power.” And 3,000 new
souls became believers... and Christ’s Church was born.
But why then? Why on that Pentecost day, in that place? The answer to
that question is a longer and more intricate “power cord” than this sermon can
extend... but it’s there and it’s significant! Surface it to say for now ... that, in
fulfillment of God’s Passover promises of deliverance from divine judgment for
our sins, Jesus’ final message from the cross tells us everything we need to
know for today. When Christ whispered “It is finished” ... His dying for our sins
fulfilled and accomplished ... God’s restorative breakthrough path into full,
unfettered relationship with God ... the holy, costly that had been obliterated in
man’s Fall from Paradise. Having provided that threshold back to God, Jesus
became the “first fruit” of an entirely new harvest - a new epoch - in which all
who believe in Jesus can be re-attached to God, through the actions of Christ
crucified, by the power of the Holy Spirit given to us - placed into our hearts and
souls - in our own baptism.
It really is impossible to grasp all that the Lord gives us in the Holy -Spirit-
anointing we receive in our baptism. The very notion that Almighty God - who
created and breathed life into the entire universe and ...every... living ...thing ...
would dane to place part of Himself - His own spark - into all who believe and
are baptized into Christ Jesus! Imagine what that Gift - just the potential of such
a Gift - means for us! We really can do all things through Christ who strengthens
us! (Phil 4:13) In his baptism, little Walker is about to receive - once and for
always - that amazing Holy Spirit power cord. And (as is always the case with
the Holy Spirit) that power-cord-Gift can only become Light for a very dark world
... when it is used for and to the Glory of God the Father and Jesus Christ His
Son.
We can look for power and significance in all sorts of places ... in wealth,
or social, political or cultural status ... but eternal light never shines in such
trivia. We - our souls - were created for a much higher calling and home! The
thing is ... God wants us to experience the humbling wonder of what HE thinks
of us! Astoundingly, God created us to have lives of significance ... lives that
mean something ... to His Glory ... and our inexpressible Joy! The truth is ...
only a life lived to glorify God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, can take on
real... eternal ...meaning and purpose. When we plunge into the deep,
phosphorescent, ocean of wonder that IS our Holy Spirit baptism ... we
experience the only power cord we will ever need ... and every cell in our bodies
... and every dream in our souls... is set alight to the Real Life that is a glowing
adventure into true significance ... and depth... and JOY!
This is the surging, uncontainable, incomprehensible, life-igniting Power
little Walker receives today. Imagine how God might use him as a holy, blessed
light in his lifetime! Better yet ... imagine what the Lord wants to do in YOUR
little light-bulb life, to His Glory and your eternal Joy!
Thanks be to God! Amen