The Holy Spirit is Love

Bible Readings: Acts 2:1-21; Psalm 104:25-35, 37; 1 Corinthians 12:3-13; John 20:19-23

Please pray with me: Lord, thank you for being here with us. As we look to our left and as we look to our right, you are there. And your Spirit is always in our hearts and minds. May only your words be spoken; may only your words be heard. Amen.

Last Sunday, from Rev. Janice ‘s sermon on the Ascension, we learned, and I quote, that the Holy Spirit is creative, it animates, advocates, empowers and inspires. Today’s readings continue the story of this Holy ally and how we are to employ it in our everyday lives.

I frequently read about a particularly powerful man who lived two lives. His power to persecute is well documented in scripture as is his power to love. You would know one of these lives to be Saul of Tarsus. Let’s spend a minute on Saul. He was born in about 5 AD to Jewish parents in Asia Minor, now modern day Turkey. His parents and thus Saul possessed the coveted Roman citizenship. As a boy, his family moved to Jerusalem where he began studying Hebrew scripture and Jewish law under a distinguished Jewish Rabbi.

He eventually grew up to be famous, or some would say infamous. As I researched Saul, I read in places that he was a Pharisee, in others he was a Sadducee, but suffice it to say that he empathized with both against Jesus as the Messiah. It is thought that he was present at the trial of Stephen, and it is documented in Acts 7:58 that after Stephen’s stoning to death, his garments were laid at Saul’s feet. I believe this was a gift to Saul, given to gain favor with a man who had become a well-known persecutor of Jewish Christians. His prosecution of the Law had no limits as he went door to door to make arrests of both men and women for imprisonment. In Saul’s mind, there was no mercy for any believer of Jesus.

Now, here is a thought to consider. As ungodly as Saul’s behavior sounds to us, a community of Jesus as the Christ, Saul was likely a Pharisaic hero in his time. He would have been a privileged member of the community by virtue of his Roman citizenship, lauded as an expert in Jewish law, and a respected zealot for his prosecution of anyone that contradicted the centers of Jewish power at the time. Whether knowingly or unwittingly, he had become “muscle” for the Sanhedrin, which was like a Jewish Supreme Court, consisting of both Pharisees and Sadducees.

So full of hubris was “Saul,” that he was incapable of considering that what he was doing may not be what God intended, the very God whose law he so heartily enforced. As you think about our society outside these doors today, do you know people who suffer from Saul’s hubris?

Related to Saul’s extreme beliefs, we just finished a five-week study in Adult Education about the cultural phenomenon of polarization, titled “Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White.” In this series, we discussed the polar opposite ends of a spectrum of beliefs on faith, politics, the ethics of Jesus, and spiritual maturity. We were tasked to ascertain how Jesus may manage the current culture wars around the many, current social issues. It was an action packed 5 weeks!

Ultimately, we coalesced around one fundamental truth, that being the central ethic of Jesus is “love.” In that love, we concluded that it is possible to move toward a cultural centeredness; this is a place where we can listen to the views of others and find some truth in the most unyielding positions. There is both peace and power in bringing together these opposite perspectives.

So, how do we get there? How do we individually employ the love of Jesus outside these doors. First let me say that the outside world belongs to Jesus just as much as this holy sanctuary. So does the workplace, your living room, the restaurants where you eat with friends, and your places of entertainment. Jesus owns it all as God’s creation. Jesus is everywhere.

With that said, let’s see what our scripture readings have to say that will help us to avoid the “Saul syndrome.” In Acts 2:1-21 we find the Apostles locked in a room somewhere, likely in a building in the temple. It is the day of Pentecost. While they are still digesting all that has happened, their fear and suspicion of the religious authorities is still palpable. There is confusion among them with some, all-in on the legacy of Jesus words while others are still processing it. Everyone is trying to logically understand, as we humans do, how to accept in faith, everything Jesus said would happen. And then, Jesus answers. In verse three, it says “they saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.”

They began to declare the wonders of God in many languages, understood by everyone that was near enough to hear. Now, keep in mind that there were Jews and visitors from all around the known world in Jerusalem at the time. Thousands of miles separated people’s native languages from Rome and Libya in the West to as far away as India to the East. Many spoke Aramaic and Greek of course but the praise and blessings of God must have been heard in countless languages all at the same time! A humorous phrase came to mind, this must have been like “celebratory cacophony of chaos.”

What happened is the appearance of the Holy Spirit as Jesus said it would. And that same Spirit has been passed on to us. It was at this moment that the mission of Peter and the other Apostles began. Over the next few days, some 3,000 people repented and were baptized and were invested with the Holy Spirit of Jesus. And what is the principal attribute of the Spirit? Love! This is confirmed in Galatians 5:22 where it says, “The fruit of the Holy Spirit is love.”

Holding that thought, let’s go back to find out what Saul is doing. But wait! Saul had his own encounter with God, and he is now “Paul,” the great evangelist, the unafraid disciple, and the poor soul sent to deal with us Gentiles. And he has his hands full in Corinth. This pagan Greek city of some 250,000 people has a God for everything. They can pick out a God from the shelf like we do medicine to address our ailments. They even have them to justify any sin they want to commit. Within this “learned Greek city” is a nascent Christian community in desperate need of help.

In response, Paul is writing to them to restore it in its areas of weakness. These problems included immorality in the church, litigation in pagan courts, false teaching, and divisions on a number of issues, not the least of which concerned the resurrection itself. Chapter 12 is basically a lecture. He praises the diversity of spiritual gifts while pointing out how collectively, they unify the church. They should not be used to promote oneself but instead to promote the common good.

After his lecture, he goes on in Chapter 13 to “show [them] the most excellent way” to reconcile their differences and realign their relationships and worship with the Spirit of Jesus. He tells them love is the key. Not only does he tell them that, but he defines it in detail. Now, romantic love is the love we are most familiar with and can define easily. What about non-romantic love? In 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, Paul defines it for us where he says, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude; it is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered; it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, it always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”

There is so much to celebrate in Pentecost. Trust in Jesus’s promises. Faith in his power, both seen and unseen. Hope in repentance and redemption. Peace and joy in the bosom of his love. And he tells us that among these things, love is the greatest.

So, we leave here today with knowledge and an assignment. We now have knowledge of the unmatched power of love, as the premier gift of the Spirit. It is not a mysterious, indefinable, undoable gift given only to the worthiest among us. No, the Spirit was first given to the less-than-perfect Apostles, and subsequently passed down to the less-than-perfect you and me. Let me repeat Paul’s definition of love, in my own words; love is …. patience, kindness, humility, selflessness, generosity, forgiveness, and truth.

Now, for the assignment. The assignment is to elevate our thinking above our current ourselves. When you are present with a cultural controversy, a disagreement with family or friend; when you are about slip out of your “love consciousness,” and default to your past positions and opinions . . . first reach up and take Jesus’s hand. Ask him to pull you up, to elevate your thinking and before you speak, ask yourself, “what would Jesus think?” The conversation may be an easy one, or more difficult, things such as divisions within the church, abortion, LGBT rights, trans-genderism, DEI in school curriculums, immigration, racism, social justice, or rampant crime. These are most of the hot buttons in our culture today.

When you ask Jesus to elevate your thinking, you engage the Spirit of love within you. In so doing, you may find, as I have, that the Spirit of love can modify your thinking and your words. To quote Father Samuel in our recent Newsletter, “Where the Spirit is, there is love and unity, but where the Spirit is absent, there is hostility and tension.” Let me give you an example of that wisdom.

I have always been a supporter of securing our border. My first concern has always been with keeping bad people and drugs out of the U.S. It has been about protecting U.S. citizens and the sovereignty of our border. But when I include Jesus to elevate my thinking, I now think of a man sitting in a ramshackle house in Guatemala or Honduras. He has no job and no hope. He ponders the look of lost hope on the faces of his wife and innocent children. However, he recently heard that he may be able to get his family into the U.S., the land of opportunity, the land of hope. So, what does he do? He gathers them up and heads north, just like you and I would.

That is my vision of immigration now. I am not unsympathetic to my prior concerns but now, as I apply the love of the Spirit to their desperation, I think of that well-intentioned family and their otherwise hopeless plight.

So, I beg you . . .. be courageous, let it happen; let the Spirit change you if change is what love requires of you.

Please pray with me. Lord, we thank you for the Spirit. We thank you for the love it brings to us and pray for the courage to ask you to elevate our thinking with this love and pass it on to others in thought, word, and deed. Amen.