The Diocese of East Tennessee
Sermons

June 11, 2000
Day of Pentecost
Delivered at St Paul's, Kingsport

Sermon: The Woolly Ghost
The Right Reverend Charles G. vonRosenberg
Third Bishop of East Tennessee

Annie and I very much appreciate the kind and hospitable welcome that we have received from the people of St. Paul's. Actually, we have been here previously - and, in fact, I have had regular office hours scheduled in the building next door. It is always a treat to be with you. In addition, I am grateful to your clergy, both for what they do in this place and, also, for their service to the Diocese of East Tennessee as well.

When I attended Vacation Bible School as a boy, it seemed that our church hosted a community event. Boys and girls from many different churches went to Bible School at St. John's Church in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Some of those children from other churches discovered some strangely different ways of doing things and of saying things in the Episcopal Church. And I remember in particular a story about one of my Presbyterian friends. This little boy was very inquisitive, and he insisted on receiving answers to his many questions. One day, after spending the morning in Episcopal Bible School, he went home to his mother. He walked up to her, put his hands on his hips, and demanded to know, "Mother, who is the Woolly Ghost?"

The feast of Pentecost marks the time that we focus attention on the mysterious third person of the Trinity. We know more about the other two - the Father and the Son. But this last one seems to cause us trouble. "Who is the Woolly Ghost?" - known also as the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit - seems to be an appropriate question for us all.

Our creeds tell us some things about the persons of the Trinity. God the Father is the Creator. We know also that in the formative event for God's people - the Exodus - God the Father indicates His constant care as He gives manna - the bread of heaven - to His hungry people. The Father sustains and provides for the people in the wilderness in many ways. He also directs the people by means of the Ten Commandments and other boundaries of behavior, which are intended to be laws of love.

Again from the creeds, we know that God the Son - Jesus Christ - was born into a human family. He became "Emanuel", God-with-us. He lived in a particular time of history; he died; he rose from death; he ascended into heaven. Jesus sits in the presence of the Father as both our advocate and our judge. He knows us, and he knows life as we know it.

Now, listen to the creed's list of topics associated with the work of God the Holy Spirit: "the holy catholic Church" - that is, the Church universal, the Body of Christ in the world today - and also, "the communion of saints," "the forgiveness of sins," "the resurrection of the body", and "the life everlasting." Pretty important matters, those are. The one who enables them, the one who makes them possible, the person of God who is involved with these things now, clearly must be significant indeed. "Who is the Woolly Ghost?" is a central question for our faith.

Because of names - if for no other reason - the third person of the Trinity seems a mystery. After all, "ghosts" and "spirits" are not everyday conversation topics, this side of Hollywood. And, therefore, God the Holy Spirit may seem remote, distant, and out of touch. If that is the case, however, we miss the point, as well as having our faith considerably diminished.

On the other hand, we do use the word "spirit" in some ways that can be enlightening in our consideration this morning. For instance, students among us have "spirit week" at school. Politicians command attention in their "spirited speeches" - or, at least, we hope that they might. And we manage to "get into the spirit of the season" at least once a year.

Following these hints, it seems to me that the Spirit of God has to do with life and breath and power … life and breath and power.

We begin life outside our mothers' wombs with a breath and, sometimes, with a cry, as we inhale the breath of life. Then, at the end of earthly life, we breathe our last. Life and breath go together. One cannot exist for human beings without the other.

Following Jesus' resurrection, he appeared to his disciples several times. On one occasion - one that we read about today - he said to them, "'Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.'" And then we read, "When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit'"(Jn 20:21-22). "He breathed on them and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.'" The breath of new life comes by means of God the Holy Spirit.

Today it is our honor to take part in a baptism and in confirmation, which recalls baptism. Baptism is the sacrament of rebirth, of being born again. As we are born into a human family at physical birth, so we are reborn into God's family - the Church - at baptism. And, at confirmation, we confirm the baptismal promises that - in many cases - were made for us previously. Soon, then, we will pray these words over the water of Baptism: "Through (this water) we are reborn by the Holy Spirit." We will say the candidate's name with our breath, and then we will baptize the candidate in the sacrament of new birth. Later, candidates for Confirmation will confirm their baptismal promises, as they speak with the breath of affirmation. Thus, in our service today, we witness breath and life - the environment of the Holy Spirit's work.

Then, too, the Holy Spirit means power. This does not refer to the power of muscles or armies or numbers. Rather, the power of the Spirit involves the use of the gifts that God gives to us. For instance, we may be given the ability to show compassion, or to arrange events, or to speak convincingly, or to persevere diligently, or to express love. These are some of God's gifts, and when we exercise them for others, then we participate in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Living in awareness of what we do well - and offering that gift for other people - is not mysterious or threatening. When we enter into some activity for which we have gifts, then we discover that we are most fully alive. We know the reality of such giving of ourselves from our own experiences. What we sometimes do not acknowledge is that such activity is accomplished and enabled in and through and by the Holy Spirit of God. When we exercise our God-given gifts, then we live in the power of God's Spirit.

Thus, today - on this Day of Pentecost - we pray that each candidate to be presented will grow in God's grace and in the life, breath, and power of God's Spirit. In a few minutes, we will put the sign of the cross on the forehead of the one to be baptized, and we will say, "You are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism." Then, that same sealing is affirmed at Confirmation. And then, for the rest of our lives, we live into who we are - gifted brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit of God.

Copyright © 2000 The Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee