The Spirit's "third way"

“Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem…the crowd gathered was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked,…And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?”


God didn’t have the crowd all suddenly understand one language. Instead God had one message sent out - that could be interpreted and understood in many languages!


This passage alerts us to the fact that Jerusalem was very diverse… perhaps we don’t think of it that way. And many people were gathered there celebrating Yom Kippur: “Pentecost” which means 50 days since Passover. Jesus celebrated Yom Kippur…which still is the holiest day of the year for the Jewish community. It is the day of atonement. A day when people fast and pray and atone for their sins of the previous year.


Theologian Richard Rohr has written about Atonement as “at-one-ment.” He splits up the word to express how sin as separation from God is repaired through atonement. This at-one-ment means we are united again with God and one another through meditating on how we are divided from God and one another - and how we spend time through prayer not as punishment - but to see where we have fallen away from one another and our selves in God.


So here we are in Jerusalem with everyone gathered to atone…
And a strong wind arrives as the Holy Spirit…and alights upon the apostles who can now speak in many different languages.
To communicate the message…
Can you imagine…. That moment…


This diverse gathering all hearing a message of Jesus’ teachings - and the gift of the Holy Spirit present here to guide us_”


Three thousand people were baptized that day.


It is an event of “at-one-ment.”


And it is written that the fellowship of believers that came together from that moment, held everything in common; they sold their possessions - and fed the poor; they broke bread together; they worshipped and shared the teachings of Jesus with “glad and sincere hearts.”


This was their response to the message from the Holy Spirit they heard in many languages - this was what “saved” them from what Peter called “a corrupt generation.”
They found at-one-ment in their very life style - a way to be saved from the cruelty and competitiveness of a corrupt World.


So many people from so many different nations brought together through a message of love. This is what saved them…the Holy Spirit at work in the World through them…
Before…Christianity was a formal religion
Before technology
Before Face book…


They were Tribal (who perhaps like today in our Facebook world) only heard stories about the “other”
through biased claims.
and unexperienced connection.


But at that Pentecost and Today we learn
The Holy Spirit is here with us.
Our guide who asks us to listen
(Without the tv
Without FB)
To listen
To one another -


And remember Jesus said, “when two or three are gathered in my name I am with you.”


There is this third force always with us
If we tune in.


The Spirit of Truth doesn’t speak to us in one language.
Just as it didn’t speak to the people of Jerusalem in one language.


But in many. I think it is a mistake to believe that our unity as followers of Jesus is dependent on whether we will all think alike.


But instead to have a “singlenesss of heart” - that devotion to Christian hope and love which opens us up to a higher calling.


Listening allows us to be opened up to that presence -
That third force that is always with us
Guiding us into communication…
because it offers us a “third way” - out of polarized thinking and responding.


We may tune into the Holy Spirit’s guiding force when we take a stance of wishing to come from a place from “above” - To
Elevate our level of Perception
Elevate our level of participation
Elevate Our level of communication
The Holy Spirit is all about communication…available to guide from this higher calling: God working through us in the World.


As Father Mac said last week the Book of Acts has no ending because we continue the book of Acts…through communion with the Holy Spirit.


Rather than it being known as the “Acts of the Apostles” it has also been named “the Acts of the Holy Spirit”… because all that is good, all the power of the apostles, all of their healings; and communicative connection is prompted by the power of the Spirit.


And we have been given that gift.


Joy in the presence of Jesus, as I spoke about a couple of weeks ago - is maintained through Joy in the Holy Spirit.


The promise of the Spirit and the joy that follows links Jesus’ final words to his disciples before his ascension … and then picks right up in the beginning of Acts… as we see the joy that both new converts experience - as well as the joy that the already established group experience gathering more (as scripture tells us “their numbers increased daily”).




This is part of our hope…As Paul says in Romans, we do not hope for what is seen.
It is in hope that we are saved. Hope is not a feeling - it is a continuous act; a singleness of heart.


It is the drive toward something (perhaps not yet attained) but nevertheless promises us the Kingdom to come.


The Spirit helps guide us through this process of hope.


So in St. Paul’s famous words:
May the God of hope fill us with all joy and peace in
believing through the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Romans 15:13