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June 4, 2006, Pentecost (Whitsunday), All Souls' Church   

By one spirit we are all baptized into one body.

     This is the Feast of Pentecost when we recall how God the Holy Ghost descended upon the infant Christian Church and brought that church to new, eternal spiritual life. This is, as it were, the birthday of the church. This is the day we give thanks for the gift of The Comforter, God the Holy Spirit.

     Between the time our Lord Jesus rose from the dead in resurrection and his glorious ascension to Heaven, a period of forty days elapsed. During that time, our Lord visited with his disciples, teaching them, and promising that although he would ascend to Heaven, he would never leave or forsake his church and would abide with us forever. How is this possible? Our Lord Jesus promised that God would be present with us by the indwelling presence and power of the Holy Ghost. In fact, Jesus told us that when the Holy Ghost dwells with the church, God the Father and God the Son also would abide with the church. If you have trouble understanding this, it likely has to do with your inability to fully grasp the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. And, if this is the case, then welcome to the club of most of us.

     Our Creeds teach us that: 

Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Ghost.
So, the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God.
And yet, there are not three Gods, but one God.

      I know this is difficult to understand, but consider this. When we speak of God the Holy Trinity, we speak of “him”, not of “them.” We worship God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and He is one God. This is all by way of saying that on the Feast of Pentecost, God Himself descended and brought His church to life. God dwells with His church. The God who created Heaven and Earth sustains the church with His grace. Think about what all this means. The church refers to the Bible as “God’s Word Written.” The authors of the Scriptures were inspired by God. The Holy Spirit who inspired the Bible’s authors now inspires His church, leading us into all truth. We cannot be faithful to Him without also being faithful to His Word. We certainly cannot claim to be faithful while contradicting His Word.

     The question which remains is will we be faithful? In our discursiveness, we tend to make things more complicated than they need to be. The real question for Christians is not whether we are conservative or liberal, traditional or modernist, but whether or not we are faithful. Do we listen to the voice of the One True Shepherd or do we prefer the voices of strangers?

     The church whose birth we celebrate exists as one body in Heaven and on Earth. It is vitally important that we recognize this fact. The church is the body of Christ. We are one body. This means that we must not make important decisions without considering the entire body. What our brothers and sisters all around the world think matters to us because we are one. Furthermore, if you are at any meeting of the church faced with voting on some important questions, you must ask not only what your brothers and sisters around the world might think, but you must also ask what St. Peter and St. Paul might think; what the Apostles and the Martyrs might think; what St. Augustine and the Church Fathers might think; what the Blessed Virgin Mary might think. Why? This is important because they are all still members of the church. They are members in glory, more truly alive than we are at present. You are either a member of the Body of Christ or you are not, but there is no such thing as a past member. There are members on Earth and members in glory, but it is all one body. Of course, what I am speaking about is what we mean by the importance of tradition. Tradition is so important precisely because the church is a living body existing at once in time and eternity. We seek the wisdom of tradition not because we are clinging to the past but because we want to get the present right. Tradition is important not because it’s our link to the past but because it is our link to those presently members of Christ’s body – in glory. 

     Because the church is one body in Heaven and Earth, when we worship and when we celebrate the Holy Communion, we are participating in time in the eternal worship of the church in glory. We are participating in a partial and limited way in the eternal celebration of the knowledge and love and peace and joy of God together with all the company of Heaven, including those we love but see no longer. 

     St. John writes of the nature of God using just three words: God is love. Had St. John simply written, “God is…” he would have captured the wisdom of the ancient world. And yet, St. John writes “God is love” and gives us the Christian revelation. The Heavenly Father loves the Heavenly Son, and the Son loves the Father. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son just as the Heavenly love proceeds. To say that God the Holy Spirit dwells within the church is to say that the very principle of the church’s life is the loving knowledge of God which is the Comforter’s gift.

     The love of the Heavenly Father for the Son is the love in which the Son took our nature upon him and offered himself for us as one of us. This love is our life. It is who we are as Christians. Let us celebrate this Feast of Pentecost by faithfully following the God who calls us into being and fills us with His love. Let us celebrate this Pentecost by truly becoming who we really are, the Body of Christ in whom Christ dwells. Let us live out the glorious liberty of the sons of God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. It is His love which created the world and gave us life. It is His love which “moves the Sun and all the other stars.” It is His love which is our spiritual life.  

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