Do You Believe in the Holy Spirit?

 

Sunday is Pentecost, the day the Christian Church celebrates the coming  of the Holy Spirit.

At Baptism and Confirmation we always ask the question: “Do you believe in the Holy Spirit?” Everyone always says ‘yes.’ I wonder how often we really wonder what, exactly, that question entails.

The Holy Spirit is, in many ways, the natural enemy of organized religion. If we believe in the Holy Spirit, we believe that the Holy Spirit moves us where God is moving, or trying to move us. Often that movement is out of our comfort zones and often out of the structures we live within and often love. The Holy Spirit moves us away from the known, often into the unknown.

Do you believe in the Holy Spirit?

We in organized religion say we do, but often don’t particularly care for the Holy Spirit moving in our midst. I know when I lead Worship I structure a Liturgy and the Liturgy is printed in the bulletin. When I preach the sermon has come after hours of preparation. The prayers were written or chosen and the hymns were selected with a sense of theme and style and concern as to how well everyone knows them. If someone were to stand up and say they needed to preach or ‘say a few words’ and it wasn’t in the bulletin, I’d be miffed. If someone were to stand up and say, “That prayer didn’t work for me, do a different one,” or “Hey, let’s sing this hymn instead of the hymn you selected,” I would not be happy.

Additionally, over lunch that day people who were attendance would probably say, “Can you believe the nerve of that person? Who do they think they are standing up in Worship and demanding a change?”

What happens, however, when this rabble rouser of sorts was right and was actually moved by the Holy Spirit?

One of the most troubling stories in the Bible is when Jesus overturns the tables of the money changers in the courtyard of the Temple. In reality, they were not doing anything wrong. People were forced to use Roman money in their day to day lives. Their little rebellion was being able to use Jewish money at the Temple. This meant that people had to change their currency from Roman money to Jewish money at the Temple. The moneychangers were doing their job.

I went to college in Ogdensburg, New York. If you look on a map of New York State and find Ogdensburg, you’ll find that it is on the St. Lawrence River. People who live in New Albany, Indiana understand this. We, in New Albany, live on the Ohio River. Directly across the river is Louisville, Kentucky. Directly across the river from Ogdensburg was Prescott, Ontario.

If we were going to spend the day in Ottawa, or go to Montreal, or spend any time in Canada, we’d often head to the bank to change money. One time my parents, my sister, and my Grandmother came up for Parent’s Weekend and stayed at a hotel in Prescott. My Grandmother put money in the Coke machine and it went right through. I told her she needed Canadian money. She looked at me and said, “Everyone knows you can’t use Canadian money in a Coke machine.” I told her, “True, unless you are in Canada….”

The moneychangers at the Temple were merely doing their job. Jesus disrupted them. The presence of the living God was moving in the midst of the Temple courtyard, disrupting things, and people were miffed.

We believe God is a living God, moving in our midst, through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.

Do you believe in the Holy Spirit?