The Holy Spirit for Staid Baptists

Psalm 104:24-34, 35b; Acts 2:1-21

Sermon for May 23, 2021

Staid: characterized by dignity and propriety. The dictionary app on my phone says staid is similar to decorous, having good taste in manners and conduct. Many folks would say that we are staid Baptists. We do things with dignity and propriety, right? Good taste is important here. I heard someone refer to us once as Episcobaptists. I took that as a compliment.

I always feel a bit of tension on Pentecost Sunday, though. We talk about the Holy Spirit moving in a mighty way, consuming us, overtaking us, burning within us. “Send tongues of fire to dance upon us again, O Lord,” we pray. But I don’t know that we really mean it. I was talking to an Episcopal colleague about this once, and she said, “Why, yes, we want the Holy Spirit to move in a mighty way, but we want to know what’s going to happen in advance!”

I get that.

Today, Pentecost Sunday, we commemorate the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Jesus, an event that gave birth to the church. It was a very dramatic event with tongues of fire lighting on each of them giving them the ability to speak a new language that everyone could understand. It was such a charismatic event that some of the bystanders mocked the disciples, accusing them of being drunk with wine.

As you know, some churches today claim to still have those kinds of experiences with the Holy Spirit. They belong to the Charismatic Movement. They can be found in most denominations, though many are non- denominational, and are the fastest growing churches worldwide. They speak in tongues, which for most of them is an unintelligible, devotional prayer language. I’ve heard people speak in tongues, as I’m sure some of you have. For an outsider,

it sounds like gibberish. Those who have that gift, though, say they find it to be very meaningful. They lay hands on the sick and claim to heal them. Sometimes in these churches people are “slain in the Spirit,” where the Holy Spirit literally overtakes a person and they fall to the ground or shake violently. Sometimes the Spirit prompts them to scream out or to run down the aisle of the church. And in some locations of the rural south, they get so caught up in the Spirit they pick up venomous snakes—copperheads, rattlesnakes, water moccasins—and dance with them. Their services are anything but staid.

I want to share some honest thoughts about the Holy Spirit today. Who is the Holy Spirit for staid Baptists? Are we missing something? Have these charismatic folks found something that we’ve not yet found? Or are they deluded? Maybe gullible? Impressionable?

Or is it possible that there are many ways of experiencing the Holy Spirit, and we have simply found our way?

There are many ways of experiencing God, and we have embraced a way that fits our temperament, the way we are wired. Our way brings with it very rich encounters with the Holy Spirit. We may not run up and down the aisles and speak in tongues, but our experiences with the Holy Spirit can be just as real. Let me identify a few. These come from my personal experience, and I hope you can relate to them.

Baptists like us tend to encounter the Holy Spirit through intentionality. It’s not so much an accidental or unintended encounter, where the Spirit sweeps in unexpectedly. No, our encounters with the Holy Spirit are more likely to be planned, created. Like the practice of Centering Prayer, which I know some of you practice. I owe a debt to my dear friend Jim Norris who taught me about Centering Prayer. I encourage you to Google it and read about it. You will find helpful information from people like Thomas Keating, Basil Pennington, Thomas Merton, and others. Centering Prayer begins with a religious text. It could be your Bible or a devotional article. You read the text several times until a word or phrase begins to stand out. It could be the phrase “the Spirit of the Lord is upon me.” You block everything out of your mind and begin to say that phrase

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over and over. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Sometimes the phrase will begin to shorten. The Spirit of the Lord. The Spirit of the Lord. The Spirit. Spirit. Allow your spirit then to be absorbed into the Holy Spirit.

Or it could be a practice like walking a labyrinth. A labyrinth is a weaving, turning path that leads to a center point. When you walk a labyrinth, you meditatively walk the circuitous route to the center, which you could envision as God or forgiveness or healing. When you reach the center of the labyrinth, you rest there. Rest in God. Rest in forgiveness, healing, whatever you need that day. Then you turn and meditatively walk out, to your life, to your reality. Except now you walk with God. You walk in forgiveness, healing. We have a labyrinth on our property, and honestly I do not walk it enough. But I will tell you this. Every time I have walked a labyrinth, ours or others, I have found it to be a spiritually meaningful experience.

If you don’t know where our labyrinth is, see me after the service, and I will gladly take you out there.

These and other practices like them are intentional. They are planned. We create them. No, the Holy Spirit doesn’t sweep in unexpectedly, but we do meet the Spirit in a way that is compatible with our makeup. So, don’t feel like you’re missing something just because you’re a staid Baptist. Tap into the resources of your own tradition and encounter the Holy Spirit.

Here’s something else. Our experiences with the Holy Spirit can take us into a mystical realm beyond words, ideas and symbols. God, the infinite Holy Other, is beyond all our finite words, ideas, and symbols. In reality, any words we use to describe God, any ideas we have of God, or any symbols we use to depict God are fundamentally flawed. They are not a true depiction of God because God is beyond our finite language and symbols. The Old Testament often refers to God’s “mighty outstretched arm.” It’s a great image, but God doesn’t have an arm. Not literally. God is not a blown-up version of us. God is not a physical entity. The mighty outstretched arm is a symbol that points toward God; it is not God. The New Testament speaks of pearly gates and streets

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of gold. I love the image, but heaven doesn’t literally have pearly gates and streets paved with gold. Those are symbols, very good ones actually, that point to a reality that is beyond description, beyond words and symbols.

God is beyond description, beyond our words, and beyond our symbols. The Holy Spirit helps us experience that higher realm. For me, this tends to be fleeting. I’m practicing Centering Prayer and experience a sense of grace or calm. I’m working in my garden and feel spiritually connected to the soil and all the people who tilled and tended that soil before me. I’m taking care of my disabled daughter and I have an overwhelming sense of her worth. I’m in worship and something in Harris’ song or Madison’s prayer connects with my spirit.

I can only call it mystical. It is not something that can be reduced to words or ideas or symbols. It’s in a realm beyond that. So no, we’re not missing something. The Holy Spirit is right here in our own tradition.

One more thing. Our understanding of the Holy Spirit can shift the way we think about Jesus. Some traditions think of Jesus only as a figure of ancient history who sacrificed for the world. The Holy Spirit invites us to think of Jesus as a presence in our lives today who challenges us to sacrifice for the world. We may feel the Spirit leading us to be Jesus in the lives of people around us.

You encounter a teen who’s obviously had a bad day. You could just blow it off, thinking he needs to grow up. Life is hard. Get over it. You could do that, or you could be Jesus to that teen. You could care. You could listen. You could validate his feelings as real and important.

Or maybe it’s one of those days at the drive through. You just want your bagel and coffee, but someone is taking her own sweet time while ordering. You’re getting angrier and angrier, and then you finally get to the window. You could unload on the clerk, right? Or you could be Jesus to that clerk. It wasn’t her fault. You could say something to bring a touch of grace to her day.

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We all have these kind of encounters every day. We can allow our lower nature to dominate us. Or we can believe the Spirit of Jesus is a presence in our lives today, and he is challenging us now to sacrifice for the world.

Pentecost, I say, is for staid Baptists too. We’re not missing anything. Dignity and propriety are good things. Good taste is not in opposition to Pentecost. There are many ways of experiencing God. Find the way that fits who you are, my fellow Episcobaptists.

Closing Prayer

Do come, Holy Spirit, in a mighty way. Dance among us and within us. Bring us life. Amen.