Pentecost, 31 May 2020 – churches closed
There is a Spirit spreading through the nation, bringing joy and inspiration to those who feel its power.
There is a Spirit spreading through the nation, affecting in turn one person then another.
This Spirit, uniting people in celebration and purpose, melting away the differences between races, backgrounds, languages and creeds.
It is a Spirit of vision – for those enlightened by it look at themselves and the world in a new way.
It is a Spirit of dreams – for those it affects, imagine audacious new possibilities for the world.
This Spirit passes from old to young, from woman to girl, from man to boy. Children convey it.
It is spread by dedicated workers and those who have made an art out of their isolation. By the fit ones and the frail, by those who paint rainbows and those who write to politicians, by those delivering food to neighbours, or patiently schooling their children at home.
The Spirit provokes people to acts of love and devotion to their community and to outsiders.
The Spirit helps those who are attempting good things.
The Spirit lights up the lives of those who embrace its loving, liberating power.
The Spirit is on a journey through the nation. The Spirit is travelling through this world.
Dare I identify this Spirit as God’s Holy Spirit? Dare I connect these days we’re living through to that first Day of Pentecost – the day when the vigorous power of God’s Holy Spirit first affected the world? I do, for the wave of goodwill and good works for the well-being of friends, neighbours, strangers alike which we have been experiencing, carries the same marks as the fruits of the Spirit described by Paul: ‘love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control’ [2] If in these circumscribed weeks we’ve shared, you have witnessed love in action, rejoiced in acts of kindness, or felt the goodness seeping through those gentle sacrifices of self-control, then I’d say you’ve been touched by the Spirit of God.
We live in a spiritual world; and as nations we can be riding the waves of the Holy Spirit, or find ourselves drowning in other spirits instead. Have you noticed a discernible change in the spirit of our country over recent days? A steady dissipation of our once tightly-disciplined adherence to social distancing for the sake of the common good, now giving way to that mean familiar old spirit which insists on me, myself and mine first?
We can trace the moments which triggered this turning: moments where people were left confused by a Prime Minister’s speech or angry when a senior civil servant was perceived to have disdained the spirit of the lockdown law. [3] We can see how these moments have led to the spread of what Charles Dickens once called ‘a moral infection’. In Little Dorrit he describes how ‘it is at least as difficult to stay a moral infection as a physical one; that such a disease will spread with the malignity and rapidity of the Plague.’ [4]
Such a contagion, Dickens, said, ‘will spare no pursuit or condition, but will lay hold on people in the soundest health, and become developed in the most unlikely constitutions.’ For it is easy for any of us, left unguarded, to be swept off on a wave of ill-will before we know it. In what spirit am I receiving the increasing numbers of visitors to my village? In what spirit am I judging the behaviour of others in the marketplace and supermarket in these times? In what spirit do I listen to those who have different ideas about the shape our common future should take coming out of this viral time?
If we’re seeking to contribute positively to the life of our spiritual world, we must each day discern the spirits who drive our desires and influence our behaviour, to create space for the Spirit of God to guide, and journey with us, in the practical ways we live alongside others, sharing their struggles, raising their concerns.
This is what we call a spiritual discipline: it involves waiting on God’s Spirit in prayer, like those first disciples waited for God’s Spirit in Jerusalem, as Jesus had instructed them. And it involves reflection and study, asking God’s Spirit to open up our understanding of the Bible and other works of theology and spirituality as we spend time with them.
This spiritual discipline is a lifetime’s work. We may rightly feel like the writer Maya Angelou who once said, ‘I’m grateful to be a practicing Christian. I’m always amazed when people say, ‘I’m a Christian.’ I think, ‘Already?’ It’s an ongoing process. You know, you keep trying. And blowing it and trying and blowing it…’ [5]
The Holy Spirit will be with us when we’re trying, if we ask for him; and the Holy Spirit will be with us when we blow it, helping us to try again. This Spirit is on a journey through the nation. This Spirit is travelling through this world. May it be this Spirit we catch, and hold; this One who drives our actions, through these testing times and always.
Notes
[1] Adapted from my earlier sermon There is a Spirit spreading through the nation, preached in Devon, Pentecost 2012.
[2] Galatians 5.22-23.
[3] Alert, but confused: Boris Johnson’s new covid-19 campaign falls flat. Economist, 11 May 2020; Coronavirus: I don’t regret what I did, says Dominic Cummings. BBC News, 25 May 2020.
[4] Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit, Chapter 13: The Progress of an Epidemic. Referenced in Leo Robinson, Infected by ideas. New Statesman, 22-28 May 2020.
[5] Maya Angelou quoted in allchristianquotes.org. And in Robert Gallagher’s weekly email, 25 May 2020. Thanks, Robert.
