May 31, 2020 | Be The Church - The Holy Spirit, Here and Now | Rev. Gary Gibson

Jesus dominated the four Gospel accounts, but the Holy Spirit dominates the book of Acts. Luke’s second book (Acts) begins with Jesus’ reminder of his pre-Resurrection promise to send his followers the Holy Spirit.This is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now (Acts 1:4b-5).

In the second chapter of Acts we find the arrival of the Holy Spirit promised by the Resurrected Jesus in Acts 1:4-5. God pours the Holy Spirit on a community of believers. The Holy Spirit is not given to be co-opted for one’s personal, privatized use. Instead, God gives the Spirit as a distinguishing mark of a people who belong to God, people who will be sent to bear witness to Christ throughout the world.

We are reminded by this passage the ways that the Spirit cannot be contained and cannot be shut up in homes for our personal private devotional life. The life of the Spirit always leads us outward. We are also reminded that the Spirit is working even we can’t imagine or understand. It is easy to focus our faith life on God the Father and God the Son, but the Spirit messes with our conceptions. We can’t pin the Spirit down, instead, she runs out ahead of us, always leading as we play catch up. We may be socially distancing, but that doesn’t stop the working of the Spirit in our lives.

Some scholars note the church’s tendency toward bitarianism, worshiping God the Father and God the Son, while regarding the Holy Spirit as a marginal member of the Holy Trinity. Think of the ease with which we utter the Lord’s Prayer that begins its focus on the first person in the godhead: “Our Father.” We frequently punctuate our prayers with the second person in the godhead: “In the name of Jesus.” But how much prayer time, meditation, and Bible study do we devote to the third person in the godhead: the Holy Spirit? If our tendency is to keep the Holy Spirit cloistered in the smallest spaces of our devotional lives, only allowed to make public appearances once a year during Pentecost, then we are ignoring the tremendous promise of comfort, guidance, and empowerment Jesus offers us.