Pentecost Sunday, 11 June 2000
Come with me for a moment from the Upper Room, from Jesus and disciples, from rushing wind and flame. Come with me into West Texas during the Depression. Mr. Yates was like many other ranchers and farmers. He had a lot of land, and a lot of debt. Mr. Yates wasn't able to make enough on his ranching operation to pay the principal and interest on the mortgage, so he was in danger of losing his ranch. With little money for clothes or food, his family (like many others) had to live on a government subsidy.
Day after day, as he grazed his sheep over those rolling West Texas hills, he was no doubt greatly troubled about how he would pay his bills. Then a seismographic crew from an oil company came into the area and told him there might be oil on his land. They asked permission to drill a wildcat well, and he signed a lease contract.
At 1,115 feet they struck a huge oil reserve. The first well came in at 80,000 barrels a day. Many subsequent wells were more than twice as large. In fact, 30 years after the discovery, a government test of one of the wells showed it still had the potential flow of 125,000 barrels of oil a day.
And Mr. Yates owned it all. The day he purchased the land he had received the oil and mineral rights. Yet, he'd been living on relief. A multimillionaire living in poverty. The problem? He didn't know the oil was there even though he owned it.
It is fair to say that you and I are a lot like Mr. Yates at times. We are heirs of a vast treasure and yet we live in spiritual poverty. We are entitled to the gifts of the Holy Spirit and his energizing power, and yet we live unaware of our birthright. We gather today to remember how rich we are. (1)
From the moment Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit into the disciples the church has been filled with this treasure. In the events of Pentecost day the gift became evident to many in a rather spectacular manner. As members of the People of God, the treasure of the Holy Spirit is ours.
This treasure is given us in baptism. The minister prayed for us after our baptism: "Sustain them, O Lord, in your Holy Spirit [not just for a time, but forever!]. Give them an inquiring and discerning heart, the courage to will and to persevere, a spirit to know and to love you, and the gift of joy and wonder in all your works." (BCP, p. 308) We are reminded of this baptismal gift, this baptismal treasure every time we gather to celebrate a baptism. We didn't earn anything, we were given this great gift by our God.
The oil under Mr. Yates' sheep was a treasure awaiting discovery. It had value after its discovery only if it was pumped and refined. Like that oil, the gift of the Holy Spirit, our treasure, our wealth beyond telling, has value after its discovery only if it is accessed and used. In Confirmation the Bishop prays that we will use the gift, use the treasure we have been given: "Strengthen, O Lord, your servant with your Holy Spirit; empower her for your service; and sustain her all the days of her life." (BCP, p. 418) You heard the Apostle Paul tell us this morning that the Holy Spirit gift is not a treasure to be eyed and contemplated and not shared. This treasure demands to be spent and so we pray to be empowered for service by this treasure.
On Easter Day, Robert used the hole in the window to help us better understand the God shaped hole in our own selves. Let me add to that imagery as I share a Holy Spirit story from 10th Century Rome, the medieval church.
Harvard scholar Diana Eck, in her work, Encountering God (Boston: Beacon, 1993) discovered that Pentecost was one of the most unique and creatively celebrated days on the church's calendar. In 10th-century Rome, for example, the church really knew how to throw its own birthday party. In order to make the coming of the Holy Spirit a dramatic, dynamic event for their congregations, leaders of Pentecost services involved the architecture of the cathedral, not just anthems.
The custom of painting heavenly scenes on the great domed and vaulted ceilings of cathedrals served not only to inspire the devout with blessed visions. It also served to disguise some discreet trap doors. These small openings were drilled through the cathedral ceiling to the rooftop. During the Pentecost worship service, some hapless servants would be drafted to get up on the roof. At the appropriate moment during the liturgy, they would release live doves through these holes. From out of the painted skies and clouds on the cathedral ceiling, swooping, diving symbols of a vitally present Holy Spirit would descend toward the people below.
At the same moment, the choirboys would break into the whooshing and drumming sound of a holy windstorm. Finally, as the doves were flying and the winds were rushing, the ceiling holes would once again be utilized—as bushels of rose petals were showered down upon the congregation. These red, flickering bits of flowers symbolized tongues of flame falling upon all who waited below in faith.
They called these openings to the sky in medieval churches "Holy Spirit holes."
Our church needs a lot more Holy Spirit holes. An opening outward and skyward to the Divine. An opening that allows the Divine to gain entry into our everyday world, into our community of family and friends, and even complete strangers. An opening to constantly remind us of the Holy Spirit treasure already let loose in our lives covering us and filling us with a treasure that we only have just begun to explore.
In Diana Eck's words, "We need these Holy Spirit holes. Our churches need these skyward openings to the wind rush of God.... Holy Spirit holes would be perpetual reminders to both the prophetic and the Pentecostal movements in our churches that our knowledge of God is not complete. They would ceaselessly remind us that no image or icon, no petal or flame can domesticate God's Spirit. Its symbolic images, like the dove and the wildfire, are images of utter freedom." (2)
And most amazing of all, God, in utter freedom, has chosen you and me to receive this gift. It is already ours, we need only to believe, we need only to remember how blessed we are.
Rather than making more holes in the windows or roof of the church, it is my hope that as we pray and sing today our very hearts will become the Holy Spirit hole that our church needs, that our families need, that our neighborhoods and workplaces need. It is my prayer that as our hearts open to the divine, to the free and powerful Spirit, they will not simply receive and trap the Spirit, but will remain open: a way for the Spirit to be let loose in our world through us.
Trust God, that if you open this Holy Spirit hole within you amazing and wonderful things will become possible not only in your life, but in all the lives you touch. Give the Spirit that opening. Share your gift with others.
This act of faith—of knocking open the Holy Spirit hole—this act of faith, is forever written in my heart as a prayer. It is a prayer I learned here. It is a prayer I use frequently. Many of you know it. I suspect many of you continue to knock open the Holy Spirit hole as you pray it.
Come Holy Spirit, come with your fire and burn us, come with your rain and cleanse us, come with your light and reveal to us. Convict us, convert us, consecrate us until we do something with our lives. (3) Amen.
(1) Dr. Bill Bright, Campus Crusade for Christ as reported by Greg Asimakoupoulos, Naperville, Illinois in Weekly Illustration Update; source: Bill Bright, "How to Be Filled with the Spirit" (Campus Crusade publication)
(2) This story and application is taken from a homily entitled "Holy Spirit Holes" and posted on-line at: http://www.homileticsonline.com/Installments/may2696.htm. It was printed in the journal Homiletics on May 26, 1996.
(3) This prayer was used by The Rev. Brad Hall
at the start of all his sermons. It has become a part of my daily
prayer life. I suspect it was inspired by a prayer composed by
Eric Milner-White, 1884-1964. His prayer is reprinted in The
Oxford Book of Prayer, edited by George Appleton:
O God, the Holy Spirit, come to us, and among us: come as the
fire, and burn; come as the dew, and refresh: convict, convert,
and consecrate many hearts and lives to our great good and thy
greater glory, and this we ask for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.
The Rev. Daniel Rondeau
drondeau@stmargarets.org
11 June 2000