Spirit's continuing work

For many Christians, the feast of Pentecost -- the arrival of the Holy Spirit -- marks the beginning of the Church. Yet, such a commemoration has different meanings for different people.

Those of us who grew up with the idea that the Church is an institution grew up having no need of a Holy Spirit, except at exam time. Institutions run themselves, even institutions which deal in God's business. Besides, good institutions, unlike the Church of the Christian Scriptures, seem to operate best with minimum diversity and maximum conformity.

Thankfully, the early Christian community never thought of itself as an institution. We know from their writings that Jesus' first followers regarded themselves as parts of His body, a community of believers carrying on His work and ministry, daily participating in His death and resurrection.

Staying together

Unlike later followers of Jesus, the first Christians didn't conceive of the Holy Spirit as someone who helped them create dogmas; they regarded the Holy Spirit as an amazing, essential power helping them form community, the force responsible for all the contradictions which good communities embody.

Sunday's three readings make sense only when we hear them proclaimed against such a background. Luke (Acts 2:1-11) perfectly depicts the ongoing tension between the Spirit's disruptiveness and its power to unite. Though the Spirit arrives in the midst of noise, wind and fire -- each an unsettling element -- the Spirit is still the force which empowers the disciples to speak to the crowd in such a unifying way that everyone hears them speaking in his or her "own tongue about the marvels God has accomplished."

Paul carries on the same theme (I Cor 12:3-7, 12-13). Some in the Corinthian church are using their individual gifts of the Spirit for their own personal benefit and not for the community's benefit. "There are different gifts," the Apostle writes, "but the same Spirit,...different ministries but the same Lord,...different works, but the same God....To each person, the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good."

The Corinthian church is leaning so much toward the diversity which sets Jesus' body apart from earthly institutions that it's destroying the unity which that same body demands. Paul reminds his readers that the Spirit enlivens both elements. Only when we permit the Spirit to keep these two forces in proper tension do we actually become Jesus' body.

Ongoing work

Given the forgiving context of John's Gospel, Jesus' gift of the Spirit empowers His followers to forgive one another. His mention of holding someone's sins bound seems to be a recognition and reminder of what happens when we don't fall back on the Spirit. (We can accomplish such an unchristian action on our own. We don't need the Spirit's help to bind people in their sins.) Only those who forgive are able to form and maintain the body of Christ as a living, growing entity.

We're not reading the Christian Scriptures very carefully if we think the Holy Spirit came just once upon Jesus' followers, structuring them into a hierarchical institution which would continue unchanged until the end of time.

Pope John XXIII once said, "We are not on earth to guard a museum, but to cultivate a flourishing garden of life." His words are never more meaningful than when we bring them to mind on the feast of Pentecost.

(05-28-98) [[In-content Ad]]