June 8, 2003 Pentecost Sunday

A Sermon by The Rev. Merrill Wade

"How wonderful it is that God has provided so many ways to say something so quintessentially true that he has provided for us, his people of faith throughout the world. Whatever language we might speak, we are blessed. We are graced by the Holy Spirit. Thank God."

John Wesley was speaking to a new believer when he said these words, that echo the two stories of the coming of the Spirit, the coming in wind in that Upper Room and what we just experienced with the multitude of proclamation in various languages. But also, Jesus’ coming into the Upper Room that night, with doors locked and saying to his disciples, "Receive the Holy Spirit" so quietly.

John Wesley said to this to that new believer, "Many find the Holy Spirit rushing upon them like a torrent while they experience the overwhelming power of saving grace. This has indeed been the experience of many. But in others, God works in a very different way.

"God deigns his influence to infuse, sweet refreshing as the silent dews. It has pleased the Holy Spirit to work the latter way in you," he said to that new believer, "from the very beginning. And it is not improbable that he will continue to work in a gentle, almost invisible manner." And he concluded with these words, "Let the Spirit take his own way with you. God is wiser than you. God will do all things well in you. Do not reason about this. Let the prayer of your heart be, ‘I am thy clay, mold me, O Holy Spirit’."

And when the Holy Spirit molds us, what is the result? To what are we making ourselves available? Evelyn Underhill, an English writer of the last century, said there are three trademarks amongst many, but three that she pointed out that she thinks are most important that I’d like to share with you. Three trademarks, three distinguishing characteristics, which the Holy Spirit has produced in a heart anchored in God.

The first is tranquility. She wrote that a sense of peace, not perfect peace, not constant peace, but a sense of peace accompanies the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit. When a person experiences the Holy Spirit, Underhill suggests that, "the fuss and feverishness of anxiety, intensity, intolerance, instability, pessimism, the wobble of hurry and worry , these things which are telltale signs of being self-made and self-directed, these things begin to melt away." None of us is perfect in this. God’s Holy Spirit doesn’t wholly supplant ours. But these things can, and do, begin to melt away. Thank God. The result of this tranquility is a form of serenity that allows us, if we allow it to, to forsake judging others - to give up self-justification through achievement and performance. To let go of certainty about outcomes that we require, according to our preconceived notions. This is tranquility of the Spirit. What a gift.

The second is the gift of gentleness. This is the way we handle the ups and downs of life, life’s inequalities, the emotional or professional disappointments in our relationships and in our work, the sudden intervention of bad fortune, as well as, the truth be told, a rising and falling of inner-religious temperature or faith temperature that we know too well. Calamitous personal change is often a temptation for us to live in self-loathing or self-pity. These are tremendous invitations, these anxieties for us to deal harshly and in ugly ways with ourselves and with others. Gentleness as a gift of the Holy Spirit, is the Spirit’s gift of self-acceptance and the acceptance of the others in our lives, without having to change them to think as we think, or do as we do or believe exactly how we believe. Gentleness as the quality of the Holy Spirit’s presence in the believer, confirms through an inner knowing that God’s love is not limited. That God is somehow working through us and others.

We pray this day for this gentleness and tranquility for our brother Bishop Leo Alard who has resigned his duties in the Diocese of Texas due to serious illness. His resignation will be made public to the entire church in the next several weeks, and will be received by the General Convention. We pray for the Gift of the Holy Spirit to allow him to know that tranquility and gentleness that he faces in this tough time.

The third quality of the Holy Spirit that Evelyn Underhill talks about is strength. It is steadiness in the spiritual life. Steadiness is the capacity to stick it out, even when you don’t think you can. This is what Wesley was talking about to that new believer. The kind of strength that is wrought in cooperation with God, that flows out of relationship with God, almost imperceptibly, invisibly, yet present. We know that God has helped us through something we know we couldn’t have handled on our own. This does not come from wealth or power or other human sources, this comes from God.

And in that capacity of strength, we are empowered

When hated, we can return hatred with love. When dealt with contempt, we can respond to contempt with respect.

So we thank God. We thank God for these gifts of tranquility, of gentleness and strength, and I say, as your pastor, God’s Holy Spirit is indeed at work in you this morning, and at work in us, as a community. So be tranquil, be gentle, be strong, saying to the Lord, "Oh God, I am but clay, mold me by the power of your Holy Spirit."

We thank God this day for this church and all it means to us. So we pray for the strength and the gentleness and the tranquility of the Holy Spirit, for us, as a congregation. And we thank God for all things. Amen.