Becoming fully present to the Power and Presence of God
A sermon by Jill Friebel on John 20:19-23, Acts 2:1-21, 15 May 2005

“Today we celebrate the feast of Pentecost and of the descent of the Spirit, the fulfilment of promise and the achievement of hope. 0 how great and how exalted is the mystery!" (Pentecost Vespers, STICHERA, Tone 1)  St Gregory the Theologian

Tonight is the celebration of the coming of the Spirit which concludes the yearly remembrance of our salvation. This is the day when God’s Spirit the Spirit of Jesus was poured down from heaven and the Presence of God now dwelt within the people of God. This is stupendous. Up until this time God had not dwelt within the human person in the same way since Adam and Eve. There had been moments and flashes of what was to come through leaders and prophets that God set apart. God had called a chosen people and he/she dwelt among them within the tabernacle and then the temple but well behind the curtain where it was forbidden to enter. The Ark of the Covenant was the visible glory of God’s presence and God help you if you came too close. His glory and power had the effect of a 240 vault surging through a 110 appliance, or an electrician holding a live wire in his hand. The human person simply can’t cope with that sort of power and energy. This is the mighty power of God that called universes into being and created out of their own essence of love.

Today we celebrate the Presence of God her/himself coming to and dwelling among every single one of us who is baptised into Christ and yet - we still live. No longer do we need to fear for our life, but we can safely let this Person and Presence surge through us and transform us into a mighty and powerful man or woman of God. Today is the celebration of the achievement of hope for you and the world. Today we celebrate the power that raises our loved ones from the dead. Now this presence is for everyone, not the select few. There is not one person exempt in this room that God’s presence and gifts are withheld from.

The disciples were waiting and praying together, the men and the women expectantly in the upper room. They were fully present to themselves and to each other and were fully present to God.

Tonight we are all present. But I can tell during the sermon when you are really present to me and you can tell when I am really present to you. There is a connection, something happens. Its like that with every encounter we have with another person. We may be present but most of the time we are not truly present. We are bored, preoccupied, somewhere else. How many conversations at the end of the day made your heart burn within you? That’s being truly present. How often does your heart burn within you when you are talking to God, that’s being truly present to God?

Being present is a heart to heart communication and experiencing someone else in their depth. I hear people complaining all the time that others are boring and I say it myself. It is boring to talk to someone who isn’t present to themselves or to you. This lack of engagement kills community. It has an unconscious affect on us all. It creates a distance and sadness that gathers momentum from irritation into frustration and soon become a raging anger. It is interesting that this is so. Why is it so frustrating to be with someone, especially someone you love, and experience so much anguish when you feel they are continually absent? It is so maddening, you want to scream and yell “Where are you”. It will eat away at you, and it is a relief when they are literally not present. When they are there and you do not feel heard, or you are not able to share one person to another it seems to be a violation of your soul. Why does it have such an impact? Could it be that it is truly a violation of what it is to be human? The deepest longing in every human heart is to belong, to be in communion with another, to be loved and to love to be present to one another.

How many times has your own cry been “I feel so empty, so alone, I wish I could die”? Is this one of the greatest desires and gifts of God for us. Are we made to exist for one another and for God and anything less means we are less than human, anything less and we are only half alive?

The first recorded question God ever asked a human was “Where are you?” He had created them in his image and placed them in paradise to enjoy intimate communion with each other and God. Everything God made was theirs and they belonged to God. One evening as usual Adam and Eve heard him coming in the breeze – the sound of God was like the wind – and when they heard it this time they ran and hid. “Where are you?” God called out. Where are you? They were afraid and were hiding from the presence of God. Their act of rebellion gave them a fear of being in God’s presence and probably for good reasons. He sought them out but their guilt, fear and shame prevented them from being fully present with God. No longer could they look into God’s face and enjoy the peace and presence of life, the intimacy of their communion which had given them fullness of life. It was gone and from now on there be would be a void that would never be filled, a desperate longing that would never be fulfilled. They would wander the earth seeking something or someone that would replace the emptiness within.

Eons later the hands of the clock have gone around and the hands are back to where they started. The clock looks the same and yet generations have come and gone. It is the time for the recreation of the beginning all over again.

It is the evening again, the first day of the week. And John tells us that the disciples are hiding behind closed doors because they are afraid. Nothing has changed. We may wonder why they were in such a state because Jesus had told them he would die and rise again, but it was so far to the left or right that they couldn’t be present to that sort of information. To them a Messiah was one who came in glory and power, and did not suffer the shameful death of a criminal.

Suddenly Jesus appears in their midst behind the closed doors and he says to them “Peace be with you”. He showed them his hands and side and again said “Peace be with you, just as the Father sent me, I send you.”

Then he re-enacted the Creation – he took a deep breath and breathed into them “Receive the Holy Spirit,” The holy spirit! Jesus has said so much already about the coming of the comforter, the one that would come in his place but in which he would be truly present in spirit, the spirit through which we can now cry Abba father. Now the time has come. All of salvation history has been heading to this time. All the promises of the coming Kingdom are now present and available. The breath and spirit of God is within them allowing them to truly experience and taste this divine presence.

The disciples continued to meet together in prayer sharing with one another all the events and experiences. They waited in expectancy as they had been instructed. On the 50^th day there was a sudden noise like a violent rushing wind from heaven and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. They were baptised with fire and the spirit and on that day God poured out his presence for all his people. With this baptism came power and spiritual gifts for every believer baptised into Christ. We are all invited to participate in the life of God fully and be present to his presence in the deepest sense of the word.

It is hard to really comprehend the magnitude and mystery of what this really means. Ever since Adam and Eve were banished from Eden God had been working towards bringing us home again. Now the way has finally been opened up, every obstacle that prevented our return has been removed. God accomplished all that in Jesus. The Baptism of the Spirit was the culmination of thousands of years of preparation and a one off event, just the same as the death and resurrection of Jesus. That day thousands participated in the grace gift when they came to be baptised into Christ as a result of hearing the disciples preaching in their own language. It is an invitation to an immersion into the life of God and a participation of the presence of Jesus through his Spirit.

But I believe that becoming present to God’s presence is not a one off event but a process of letting go and trusting. The disciples had journeyed with Jesus and by the time Pentecost had come they had become so focused on Jesus that when they received the Spirit they responded with obedience and humility. They were transformed overnight. This frightened small group became fearless.

Jesus is still asking us “Where are you?” Are you present in the body but still absent? Do you walk with Jesus in prayer so that you are aware of him and he has your full attention? Is there an emotional response to his voice that makes you feel alive? It is too easy to settle for a superficial experience and rush into the pursuit of trifles – into anything so long as it is new and catches our fancy or makes us feel important. It will never fill the emptiness and it will become an insatiable appetite for more things, for more reassurance, for more events to fill your life, for more friends.

Jesus demands everything. It is only as you lose your life for him that you will find it. What you think is precious is rubbish compared to the gifts and joy of becoming fully present to him and experiencing the power and gifting of this presence to go and heal the world. Don’t live in the greyness of life, where you are only partly present and half alive.

“Come Holy Spirit, come paint your people bright red, red for fire, red for danger, red for blood, and red for true love bursting out of our hearts for you and for each other.”

Make us alive to ourselves, to You and to each other.