[AI translation] Many of you know, but let me tell those of you who only come to church on major holidays, that on the last Sunday of every month for almost a year now, I have been explaining the next item in the Apostles' Creed in the sermon. I would like to do the same now, although today is not the last Sunday of the month, and it is not Article III of the Creed that is still on the agenda, but the one immediately before it. Still, being Pentecost, it is only natural that we should take up this phrase from the Creed: "I believe in the Holy Spirit". Even many believers have little to do with this statement of our faith. It would be difficult for us to give an account of what we mean when we say: 'I believe in the Holy Spirit'.The following incident happened in a tobacconist's shop on the boulevard. At exactly quarter to eight in the morning, the door opens and an elderly man in a briefcase enters. He takes a packet of cigarettes from his pocket, puts one in his mouth, walks over to the gas flame on the wall and lights up. Then, as if he has done what he came to do, he leaves. The next day, at exactly 8:15, the same man, with the same briefcase, lights the gas flame in the same way and leaves. On the third day, he appeared again, and so on the fourth and fifth days, until one day the tobacconist heard him and asked him what he wanted. The briefcase man calmly said, "Nothing, thank you, just a light"...
I don't know how the story went on, but it immediately occurred to me that the church has "customers" like that! Even among Christians there are some who come to church just to take a little flame with them, they just want a little fire, nothing else... They come for a little warmth at Christmas. New Year's Eve for a little romance, Good Friday for a little devotion. Easter for a little optimism. That's all they need, all they take with them! Once, a pastor somewhere, at the end of the Easter service, supposedly said to the congregation, "I wish you a Merry Christmas." And when someone warned him that he was wrong, because it was Easter, the pastor insisted that he was not wrong: because he knew that many of the people present would not see him again until Christmas. Most of them just come for a little light... These are the so-called festive Christians.
But in a sense, we are all such festive Christians. We come to God with very little need, a bit like the man with the briefcase in the tobacconist's. All we want is a little flame, a little flastrom on the wound, a little painkiller that will at least dull the pain for a few hours, but that doesn't actually heal. A little pious mood that lasts little longer than smoking a cigarette. A little cleaner air, a calmer atmosphere than that which surrounds us in the world. A little different from the one we're in. A little illusion, or a kind of mental caffeine pill that revives you for a while. A tiny spark of goodness, of love, of purity, because we are suffocating in this soulless world!
And how nice to have such a little flame here in the church! A real fire. We really do have a little bit to take with us. That's something! But look: God wants to give us much more than that. Jesus, the great owner of the church, the owner of the temple, is offering much, much more than that - not even for sale, but for free! God doesn't want to give a little of this or that, a sniff of that, but He wants to give Himself. This is the very essence of Pentecost. Pentecost reveals that Jesus has bequeathed to us not only his teachings and his memory, but also himself, his own living person through the Holy Spirit. This is what the Pentecost Gospel tells us when it says: "Let us all be filled with the Holy Spirit." The Holy Spirit is God Himself, Jesus Himself, who as the Spirit steps out of Himself and comes to man, and even enters into man! God, as we have come to know Him in the person of Jesus, wants to unite with us, wants to penetrate every part of our complex being, our thoughts, our feelings, our heart, our soul, to penetrate us as fire penetrates iron. The disciples felt at once as if they were saturated with Jesus, their whole lives were filled with a whole new charge, something like the heavenly charge that was at work in Jesus. "They were filled", says the Scripture, and not only with a certain good feeling, a certain mood, a certain reverence, a certain joy, not with something, but with Someone, namely God Himself, the living Jesus, the Holy Spirit!
And when I say, "I believe in the Holy Spirit", let it be a big, bold gesture of opening myself to God, like opening a closed window to let the light and warmth of the spring sunshine flood in... "I believe in the Holy Spirit" - as if to say: I believe not only that God created me, not only that the death and resurrection of Jesus redeemed me, but also that this loving divine Reality wants to enter me, wants to fill me. Well then, I welcome it, please, I look forward to being flooded, possessed, used! Make me alive! Yes: this is what it means to "believe in the Holy Spirit".
But what good is it to myself, and what good is it to the world, that I thus believe in the Holy Spirit? Well, in our Word we read, "They were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." (Acts 2,4) I do not want to explain the Pentecostal tongue miracle here, because it is only the beginning, only the manifestation of a deeper radical transformation that man cannot accomplish on his own. Instead of a theoretical explanation, let me illustrate this miracle of his complete transformation, of his becoming something completely different, by the example of one man, the apostle Peter.
You know this disciple of Jesus: he was a man of impulsive nature, of the enthusiastic type, who repeatedly made statements whose implications he did not anticipate. One night he assured Jesus that he would never betray him, and the next night he claimed he had never even seen Jesus! And when Jesus spoke of being delivered into the hands of men, Peter protested vehemently, "God save me, Lord! "Save me, God, save me!" (Mt 16,22) - As if he had said: "I will be there! And when that dark hour came, Peter tried to disappear into the bushes. When Jesus was crucified, Peter was not there. When Jesus was buried, Peter was hiding somewhere. When Jesus rose from the dead, Peter did not believe. And look: here in the Pentecost scene, is this the same Peter we are talking about now? Behold, this fisherman, who was better at tying nets than he was at talking, is now preaching to a huge celebratory crowd. He speaks in a fervent yet calm manner, in round sentences, with great power! How is it that this man dares to speak so publicly about Jesus, when only a few weeks ago he dared not tell a slave girl that he belonged to Jesus? What has changed this man so much? Not the crucifixion, because he was hiding somewhere. Not the resurrection, for even the sight of an empty tomb could not convince him. It was the filling of the Holy Spirit that changed him, that made him such a different man. It was then that the timid, reticent, hesitant, doubting man became a courageous, confessing, determined apostle! But the same thing happens to other apostles. It is almost incomprehensible that in the Jesus whom the world despised, whom they themselves had abandoned, whom they had disappointed - in whom, after his resurrection and ascension, they now suddenly recognised the Saviour of the world! And they confess this faith publicly without any fear, even though they suspect that the world will treat them no more gently than it treated their Master. What happened to these people? There is really only one word to express this change: they have been born again!
Well, that is what the Holy Spirit does! It is precisely this complete renewal, this change of character, that is the certainty that some kind of divine intervention, which cannot be psychologically explained, has indeed taken place. Because human nature is malleable to the extreme and capable of many things. It is capable of repairing itself, of making amends for certain things it has done wrong. With a strong will it can achieve a lot, it can give up passions, it can overcome passions, it can improve itself here and there, but it cannot do one thing: it cannot regenerate itself! He cannot change his own nature. Only God, who created us, can make us new! And that is the miracle of Pentecost! Those who are filled with the Holy Spirit begin to speak with a different tongue, to live and walk among men with a different emotion, feeling, action and spirit! In the passion of Jesus, in the spirit of Jesus, in the actions of Jesus!
Because Pentecost means that Jesus comes to you in the Spirit, in an invisible but real spiritual radiance, and unites with you! And then something that does not come from us, that does not flow from us, comes into you: the life of Jesus flows into you. The heavenly electricity is switched on, the light bulb goes on, it lights up, it serves. Yes, this miracle must happen when one truly, with conviction, says "I believe in the Holy Spirit".
Let me also say that it is truly in the interest of this world that we should be Christians of such a Pentecostal faith, that is, of a changed life. For without Pentecost, this world is slowly becoming quite Christless. This does not mean that people forget a catechism, stop going to church, or break with the Church, but that society is less and less permeated by the spiritual power, conviction and zeal of which Jesus was the embodiment and bearer on this earth. It is becoming less and less full of forgiveness, humility, love, mercy, the sublime splendour of goodness, the holy revolution. The conviction that the joy and justice of a radiant eternity await us beyond the visible world, and that we are being prepared for it here, is increasingly fading from our lives! And with this spiritual impoverishment humanity will not be happier, but more miserable. For man - every man - is made for Christ, and only in him can he find rest, peace, and untroubled harmony with himself, with his fellow-men, and with the invisible power over the world - God! Oh, my brethren, nothing is so much needed in this world as the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God who makes Jesus alive and active in us!
Once, at a revival conference, a respected, highly respected scientist had someone - an old friend of God - touch him on the shoulder and say to him, "You need to be a different person!" My brother, this whole Pentecost is like a divine hand touching your shoulder and calling you: "You must be a different man! And a divine call is always a divine mandate! God has already made sure that you can become that other person! You just have to agree and cooperate with God! We didn't see Jesus crucified, we weren't there when Jesus was resurrected, just like Peter. But the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Jesus can change us just as much as it did Peter.
The Holy Spirit is the only power in the world that can transform a person from the inside, to be born again! And look, God poured out His Spirit on the earth on that first Pentecost. Even now He is hovering around us, mysterious as the wind, waiting for us to give Him the opportunity to penetrate us. Do you feel how good it is to believe, to be free to believe in the Holy Spirit?!
So please, with truly open hearts:
Come, living Spirit of God, come and bless me,
Let your eternal flame pass through my heart and mouth.
Untie me, send me away, fill me with fire!
Living Spirit of God, come and bless me!
(Canticle 463, verse 1)
Amen
Date: 5 June 1960 Pentecost
Lesson
ApCsel 2,1-14