Thomas Alva Edison once said, “Genius is one per cent inspiration, ninety-nine per cent perspiration.” In other words, it’s a general truth that the initial breakthrough is only the first step in a long process.
You could look at the first Christian Pentecost as a crucial breakthrough: suddenly, as if out of nowhere, comes the gift of the Holy Spirit. The story in the Acts of the Apostles attempts to describe the indescribable; how can you describe being clothed with power from on high, and filled and over-filled with joy and delight? You can’t. Luke speaks of wind and flame - mysterious and uncontrollable forces. People saw the disciples out on the street and thought they must be drunk on the new wine of Pentecost, which is one of Jewish harvest festivals. And maybe in a way, new wine was indeed the cause of it all - just not the new wine the scoffers in the crowd imagined, instead an experience beyond language, for the disciples and also for those who saw and heard them.
But this immense spiritual high was only a first step. Jesus had told his disciples that the Spirit of truth would lead them into all truth. So Pentecost is not only an event, it’s also a process, a process of discovery and enlightenment, a process of apostolic formation. We may experience the Spirit as either fire or dove, and both are valid. The Spirit can be the tempest wind that throws the windows open, but she can equally be the gentle breeze that quietly breathes new life into our hearts. The Spirit is God's personal touch upon us, and that’s different for each different person.
Holy Spirit may come as storm wind or as gentle breeze, but the Spirit always comes to bring power and joy. And the Spirit stirs up those gifts within us which form a foundation for building the Church: not only joy but also love, peace, and things like patience, kindness, self-control and gentleness that enable us each to be Christ-like ourselves and to be Christ-centred together as a community of faith.
On that first Christian Pentecost the Holy Spirit fell in full force upon the disciples; but their joyful preaching that day was still only a first step. They had much still to learn, to discover, and to experience. It took time to realise that this gift could be received by those who were not Jews as well as those who were. When you read the Acts of the Apostles you discover a community founded in the Spirit that all the way through the book is still receiving the Spirit, and still learning what it means to have God present in power among them and within them. Still learning too just what their Lord was calling them to do in and for the world. That first Day of Pentecost didn’t answer all their questions in one go, wonderful and life-changing though it was. In fact it probably raised a few new ones.
Simple statement: the Church must continue to be Pentecostal. The Church was founded in the Spirit, and it must be always open to the Spirit. That word Pentecostal usually describes a particular and quite narrow definition of Church; for me that’s never enough. To be Pentecostal is not to be some particular style of Christian, but just to be Christian, open to the God who isn’t only out there, in heaven or in some mysterious place of glory, nor is he only in here, in the pages of scripture or of history. To be Pentecostal is to believe in God in us, in God's empowering presence in my own life and yours. In my case it hasn’t ever been quite the rushing wind and tongues of fire that we read of in Acts chapter 2. But I certainly can think back to times when I’ve felt God’s presence and power (times too, if I'm honest, when I’ve tried to push him away).
I do thank God for the times when his love has broken through the protective shell I’ve erected of selfishness or fear; these are times when the penny drops, when eyes are opened, when I've understood what God is calling out of me more deeply and clearly. So you could say that the work of the Holy Spirit is to bridge that decisive gap, the eighteen inches or so that separate mind from heart. Billy Graham once called those eighteen inches the most important mission journey.
Jesus said that the Spirit of truth will lead us into all truth. This isn't the truth of book-learning or lecture halls, this is the truth of emotional engagement, truth not only known in mind but also felt like a fire in one's heart; and Pentecost is a celebration of the truth that possesses us, and claims us as its own, a celebration of God in breakthrough mode, empowering a little group of disciples to begin the mission that would be worldwide, and that continues to this day.
As long as the Church remains prayerfully open to this wild and unpredictable Holy Spirit, to God as wind and flame, to God as gentle dove, to God as comforter, to God as disturber, that breakthrough mode persists; things happen, new disciples are made, great works are done. But when the Church prefers to keep God under lock and key in however beautiful a shrine or safety box, the fire of that breakthrough day fades away, and the Church becomes a thing rather than a movement. But of course, what has happened again and again through history is that when the Church gets jaded and old and no longer going anywhere, the Spirit breaks through again in renewal and revival, and people rediscover the joyful Pentecost awareness of God as love, God not just as a doctrine or philosophy, but as a truth that dances within us. We have had ten days of a wave of prayer, or at least that’s what the archbishops called us to be doing. How hard were we praying? And were we praying for the filling of our churches, or, more honestly and Pentecostally, for people to encounter God for themselves, to meet with Jesus, to be filled with his love? Maybe at last the time is right for the Spirit to move again across our land.
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