January 7, 2024
St. Andrew Church
Rev. Anne McAnelly
First Lesson Mark 1:4-7
4 John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 6 Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals.
Second Lesson Acts 19:1-7
While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul passed through the interior regions and came to Ephesus, where he found some disciples. 2 He said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?” They replied, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” 3 Then he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They answered, “Into John’s baptism.” 4 Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, in Jesus.” 5 On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 When Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied – 7 altogether there were about twelve of them.
I just read this provocative passage of John saying, “I have baptized you with water, but Jesus will baptize you with the Holy Spirit” (Mk 1 :8).
How would you describe the Holy Spirit?
Any images or symbols coming to mind?
Do you think of it as part of something else, something larger? When did the Holy Spirit come into being? Ponder that for a moment.
You might be thinking really Anne, it’s the first Sunday of the new year and you are making us work? I was hoping for Magi and Epiphany, but no, you are asking us about one of the hardest parts of scripture.
I would like you to share images or thoughts that came to mind about the Holy Spirit. How do you describe the Holy Spirit?
It is always good to know our starting point. I also want you to know you are in a much better place than the people Paul spoke to in Ephesus. Listen now for God’s word as it comes from Acts 19:1-7.
Both of our passages connect the Holy Spirit to baptism. The gospel tells us John baptized Jesus and the Spirit descended upon Jesus like a dove. (Good for us for thinking of Holy Spirit as a dove and fire). Today is Baptism of our Lord Sunday. A time we remember Jesus’ baptism and honor our own. Yet what is fascinating me about baptism is how the Holy Spirit is integrally connected to baptism, to the sacraments. So I want to look at how the Holy Spirit is life giving, life changing and life revealing.
The Holy Spirit as life giving. John declared he baptized with water, but Jesus will baptize with the Holy Spirit. This is a life-giving moment in faith. Even if you do not remember your baptism, being baptized in Jesus’ name is life giving to a Christian. Paul also expressed this, asking about receiving the Holy Spirit when the twelve men became believers. It wasn’t enough to be baptized into John’s baptism of repentance, they needed to receive the Holy Spirit. Paul then laid hands on these believers and the Holy Spirit came upon them. The consequence is their ability to speak in tongues and prophesy. Remember these people had just declared, “We have not even heard there is a Holy Spirit” (2). Moments later after baptism in Jesus’ name and receiving the Holy Spirit -the Spirit is moving in their life.
I have often wanted to have such a demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit, but that is not how the Holy Spirit lives in me. Yet the Holy Spirit is life giving just the same. So here is a litany of what the Holy Spirit does, along with the scriptural references.
“We learn from the New Testament that Jesus was with the wind (pneuma) of the Holy Spirit at creation (John 1:1-5), and the Spirit gives us the strength to obey (Luke 1:35)-working powerfully through a person aware of the Father’s love (Matt. 3:16-17). The Spirit makes us born again (John 3:5-8), is our Helper (John 14:16-17), reveals Jesus (John 15:26), and guides us into all truth (John 16: 13). The Spirit glorifies Jesus (John 16: 14-15) and reveals to us the depths of God {l Cor. 2:9-12). The Spirit always builds up the Body of Christ (I Cor. 12:12-14), empowers us with the Father’s love (Rom. 8:14-15), and teaches us what to say when we need to declare our faith (Luke 12:11-12). By the Spirit we learn how to walk on the path of life (Gal. 5:16-17), experience freedom (2 Cor. 3:17), gain the fruitful character of Christ (Gal. 5:22-25), quench our spiritual thirst (John 7:37-39), and come out of deserts with power (Luke 4:1-2;14-15). The Holy Spirit strengthens the Body through gifted leaders (Eph. 4:11-13), speaks to us through the Scriptures (2 Tim. 3:14-17), through impressions and intuitions (Acts 20:22-23), and through gifts of wisdom (James 3:13,17; Col. 1 :9-12). The Spirit is a deposit and guarantee of resurrection and the New Creation to come (2 Cor. 5:5), helping us wait in hope (Gal. 5:5), giving us divine perspective (Ps. 73: 16-17), and opening us to the Father’s love (Gal. 4:6)” (https://seedbed.com/abrief-history-of-the-holy-spirit-in-the-scripturesD. The Holy Spirit is life giving.
The Holy Spirit is also life changing. Three verses tell of Jesus’ baptism. We have no backstory, no ancestry, no divine birth narrative in Mark’s gospel. Instead, we have a baptism. We have the Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ baptism, nature itself is upended. The heavens are “tom apart”. All creation in the moment of Jesus’ baptism is altered. We often gloss over this and go right to the Spirit descending like a dove. But the word “tom open” used here of the heavens occurs again when the temple veil is tom during the crucifixion (15:38). This implies a connection between the baptism and crucifixion. Life changing events for Jesus and for us as people of faith .. Moreover, the announcement ”you are my son,” is one of three moments in the gospel where Jesus is proclaimed “son” – here, at the transfiguration (Mark 9:7), and at the crucifixion (Mark 15 :39). All moments of change. Out of that rupture comes the Holy Spirit in a form that is described as a dove. That dove does not simply alight on Jesus, because in the Greek, it can be said to have come into him. He is infused with the Spirit from God. A new reality has come into the world. Finally, the water and the dove evoke the creation story in Genesis 1, the “beginning” of the scriptures; the changing from the chaotic void to God’s glorious creation (Working Preacher, Cynthia Briggs Kettridge and Melinda Quivik). The Holy Spirit is life changing.
Finally, the Holy Spirit is life revealing. By the power of the Holy Spirit, God is revealed to us, our life is revealed to God. The Holy Spirit is the connection between us and God, us and Jesus, us and all of salvation history. I learned a new term to describe the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has been called the unveiled epiphany of God. The Holy Spirit facilitates God being made known to us. For that is what epiphany means, to appear or make known. At Jesus’ baptism, the Holy Spirit made known God’s adoption of Jesus claiming him as God’s Son.
“We often speak of baptism as a “means of grace,” that is, one of the ways that God’s grace comes to us. Physically it’s only a small splash of water, but it marks the beginning of a whole new life – of forgiveness, of the presence of God’s Spirit, of our union with Jesus, and our becoming part of the world-wide Christian church!” (Working Preacher, Michael Rogness).
Baptism is the beginning of the life revealing nature of the Holy Spirit. Yet I also believe that communion is like a booster shot in our connection to the Holy Spirit.
Think back to the height of COVID. Our world had stopped; worship, community, family were all cut off. Life as we knew it was altered, diminished. We di_d not understand the virus. Yet fear of the unknown and of death plagued us. Recall how we anxiously awaited the vaccines, then recall how different the world felt after we were vaccinated, especially after the second shot. Our whole world changed because of that small prick in .our arms. The larger world changed too, as more and more people were immunized against the worst of COVID. Those shots gave us our lives back. They were life giving, life changing and life revealing.
Baptism is the beginning of our relationship with the Holy Spirit. Communion is like the booster shot we get of the Holy Spirit. We get to taste God’s love, we drink in the divine presence, sit at Christ’s table with the unveiled epiphany of God as we experience the union and communion of our souls with full glory of the divine. Let us pray: Jesus, I receive the Holy Spirit! My heart is full just pondering your work in history, and your work in us as your Church. Come, Holy Spirit, I receive you with my whole heart; fill me with your presence. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
