Pentecost - Presence

Supernatural Events in Quiet Churches

Photo by Se. Tsuchiya on Unsplash

My first two pieces in this time between The Ascension and Pentecost sought to expand our awareness of “Spirit filled” beyond definitions of personal feeling, expression, and excitement. I hope I gave some useful insight into how worship guided by The Book of Common Prayer is offered in the Spirit, in fulfillment of Jesus’ own words about the Holy Spirit’s work. In Confession of Sin, it is the Spirit who convicts us and inspires us to confess and repent. In the hearing and preaching of God’s word, the Spirit helps us to understand the words and work of Jesus and brings them to mind so we can serve him in daily living.

In this last piece, I want to show how the Holy Spirit is doing the supernatural and miraculous in liturgical churches, even sedate ones. By the work of the Spirit, Christ is really present with, in, and through his people — literally and supernaturally — through the Sacraments.

A sacrament is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace. God gives us the sign as a means by which we receive that grace and as a tangible assurance that we do in fact receive it.

Sacraments are one mark of an authentic (by definition Spirit-filled) church. In my thoughts on Pentecost and Preaching, I quoted the 39 Articles of Religion XIX,

The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men, in which the pure Word of God is preached, and the Sacraments be duly ministered according to Christ's ordinance, in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same.

The Anglican Reformers embraced the necessity of the Dominical Sacraments, Baptism and Holy Communion, the two specifically commanded by Jesus. I’m not here to engender debate on the number of Sacraments or hair splitting about how they work — different Christian traditions have different ways of articulating the details. As an Anglican, I am going to focus on Baptism and Holy Communion; I encourage you to study your church’s Sacramental practices and seek the Spirit’s presence in them.

My main point here is that the Holy Spirit is working two miracles at the same time whenever his church gathers at the waters of Baptism and at the altar for the Lord’s Supper.

First, in the Sacraments, the Spirit is uniting us with Jesus Christ, truly present.

Second, in the Sacraments, the Spirit is uniting us to one another, to manifest the body of Christ in the world.

Ephesians 4:4-6 reveals that

There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

Notice that the one body that is filled with the Spirit is both Christ and the people. One Lord, Jesus Christ, and one people, united in one hope and one faith by one baptism. When these Spirit-filled realities are present, God is over, through and in all.

Think about that. The bunch of normy (or not normy?) people you see at church are the body of Christ and are filled with the Holy Spirit, because, as the Apostle Paul teaches, they became part of Christ and one another in baptism,

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. (Romans 6:3-5)

There is a miracle in progress every time that quiet, or loud, or boring, or enthusiastic, or beautiful, or kitschy, or formal, or folksy, or whatever kind of church you stumble into gathers. The crucified and resurrected Christ is present in unity with his people, who were joined by the Spirit to his death and resurrection in the waters of baptism. The liturgy’s prayer over the water is answered:

Now, Father, sanctify this water by the power of your Holy Spirit. May all who are baptized here be cleansed from sin, be born again, and continue for ever in the risen life of Jesus Christ our Savior. To him, to you, and to the Holy Spirit, be all honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen.

Holy Communion contains the same simultaneous miracles. Christ is present, both in the Sacrament he gave us and in the gathering of people come to share it. We see this in Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians,

Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? … For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes…anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. (Selections from Chapter 11)

What is the body? Some would say it is the bread and wine, which become the real presence of Christ. Others would say that the body is the people gathered in Christ’s name. Paul says both.

The body is not discerned when there are divisions in the church, in this case, the rich looking down on the poor. But it is also true that the body is not discerned when the real presence of Christ (which he declared in saying, “this is my body”) is ignored. The Spirit transforms bread and wine into the real presence of Christ and transforms those receiving him in faith into his body on earth.

Thus the celebrant at the altar invokes the Holy Spirit over the bread and wine,

We celebrate the memorial of our redemption, O Father, in this sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, and we offer you these gifts. Sanctify them by your Word and Spirit to be for your people the Body and Blood of your Son Jesus Christ. Sanctify us also, that we may worthily receive this Holy Sacrament, and be made one body with him, that he may dwell in us, and we in him.

Paul summarizes the Holy Spirit’s simultaneoous miracles with this illustration,

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:12-13)

I’ve tried to say througout these pieces that I do not denigrate any church of any “style” or tradition. The Azusa Street Revival that launched the Pentecostal movement was one of the first American churches to break down racial barriers, which is a true sign of the Spirit dating back to the first Pentecost. All churches have their Spirit filled glories and fleshly failures. Article XIX of the Anglican 39 went on to say (remember, this was in the 16th century),

As the Church of Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch, have erred, so also the Church of Rome hath erred, not only in their living and manner of Ceremonies, but also in matters of Faith. (I would gladly add “The Church of Canterbury” and any other historic church HQ to that list).

For those of you in liturgical churches, I hope that God has given me useful words in these three pieces, and that by the Spirit’s help God has given you fresh awareness of the Spirit-filled realities of your Confession of Sin, your attention to the lessons and sermon, and your reception of Holy Communion.

May your Pentecost be a powerful celebration, whether you celebrate inwardly in heart and mind or outwardly in voice and gesture. Jesus loved the contemplative Mary and her expressive sister, Martha.