Sermon: Transforming Spirit

Sung Eucharist

May the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts be now and always acceptable in your sight, O Lord our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

I want to hold together in this sermon a biblical text and a liturgical text.  The biblical text is from Romans 8:

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwells in you.

And the liturgical text is:

            Therefore we proclaim the death he suffered on the cross,

            we celebrate his resurrection, his bursting from the tomb,

            we rejoice that he reigns at your right hand on high

            and we long for his coming in glory.

            Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

            As we recall the one, perfect sacrifice of our redemption,

            Father, by your Holy Spirit let these gifts of your creation

            be to us the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ;

            form us into the likeness of Christ

            and make us a perfect offering in your sight.

            Amen. Come, Holy Spirit.

            Look with favour on your people

            and in your mercy hear the cry of our hearts.

            Bless the earth, heal the sick, let the oppressed go free

            and fill your Church with power from on high.

            Amen. Come, Holy Spirit.

Words from Eucharistic Prayer F which we shall pray presently.  And what wonderfully appropriate words for this Sunday after Ascension Day.  Because today we continue to rejoice in the Ascension of our Lord, but we also look forward to next Sunday, the Day of Pentecost, Whitsunday, when we recall the coming of the Spirit, the birthday of the Church, the re-creating love and power of God.

Today's Eucharistic Prayer sets out these truths. It reminds us that the salvation of the world has been achieved by a sequence of events; the coming of God in Christ into our world, embracing our humanity, his saving death whereby forgiveness is made possible, his mighty resurrection, overcoming our fallen mortality, and his glorious ascension, where our human nature is raised to the courts of heaven itself.

And now because Christ our Lord is at God's right hand on high, he engages in a costly ministry of intercession to the Father for us and the world, pleading his sacrifice, and asking the Father to send the Spirit.

And I want you to notice that the vision in this eucharistic prayer for the sending of the Spirit is not narrow.  Rather, it is expansive.  Just as on the Day of Pentecost, the Spirit was given to 120 people, and then the gift spread to hundreds, thousands, millions; so in this prayer we ask the Father to send the Spirit to accomplish the words of Jesus, This is my body, This is my blood, so that the Eucharistic gift is realised. But note that it doesn't stop there - for we go on to ask the Spirit to transform us through these holy gifts - to form us into the likeness of Christ; to make us a perfect offering in God's sight.  But it doesn't stop there. We then go on to ask that the same Spirit might bless the earth, heal the sick, free the oppressed, and renew the Church.  In other words, that the freedom, joy and wholeness of God's kingdom might be known now in human experience.  And it doesn't stop there - because these present in-breakings of the kingdom are simply foretaste of the final work of the Spirit which is to bring the new creation to its perfection - words also from today's Eucharistic Prayer:

            Gather your people from the ends of the earth

            to feast with all your saints

            at the table in your kingdom,

            where the new creation is brought to perfection.

And the truth is that we actually see it happening before our eyes- if only we have eyes to see. Because this morning, at the Consecration, on the basis of the saving death and passion of Jesus, we ask the Father to send the Spirit - to send the Spirit upon material things, bread and wine, bits of creation, so that they become transformed as the vehicles of divine grace, which in turn transform us as we receive all the benefits of Christ's passion.  And in those moments, on the altar and in our hands, and in our mouths, we glimpse our future - for the holy gifts are a foretaste of a transformed creation and the transformation we experience is a foretaste of a transformed humanity, through the work and power of Holy Spirit.  So communion itself is expansive - it is about us, but not just us - it's about a renewed humanity, a renewed creation. In communion we glimpse our future and we are empowered by the same Spirit to anticipate that future now - to seek to being into the present the freedom, joy, and wholeness of the Kingdom of God.

And just in case anyone is worried about how the Spirit relates to matter - bits of bread and wine - well, remember that it was the Spirit brooding over watery chaos that effected the divine word Fiat lux, Let there be light.  And consider again, the verse which I quoted at the beginning from Romans 8:

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwells in you.

This is about the Spirit giving live to our mortal bodies; in other words bodies that will die, dead bodies.  For the paradigm is Christ. His body was dead - crucified, dead and buried, but God raised his dead body by the power of the Spirit.

Now let me apply some of this.  To my eyes, in the events of the world, the release of Nelson Mandela and the end of apartheid was Holy Spirit; the coming down of the Berlin Wall was Holy Spirit; the peace process in Northern Ireland was Holy Spirit; the partial relief of Third World debt was Holy Spirit. And I see many signs on a more local level of the Spirit's presence. Over the last few weeks, I have witnessed some magnificent acts of care and kindness to individuals in need. This is real Kingdom of God stuff, although one person was surprised when I said to her, ‘your work is inspired'. I would also say that the moral and political chastening we are experiencing in our nation at present is Holy Spirit. Isn't it interesting that now that the economic bubble has burst, was is being exposed is gross self-interest, greed, fraud, and the Banks, financial Institutions and Parliament are only three arenas where such abuses have gone unchecked.  But I have also been interested in the degree of personal morality and integrity of many, dare I say, ordinary people, honest, hard-working people who pay their taxes, in response to this crisis.  That to me also is Holy Spirit.  

It is the Spirit who convicts the world of sin and of judgment, and my goodness, in the life of our nation we are experiencing judgment at this present. But it could be transformative, if it leads to a society that is more interested in giving than getting, in the common good rather than rank self-interest, in responsibility and accountability rather than irresponsible collusion.

When we invoke the Holy Spirit, we invoke the Holy Spirit and holiness shows up sin.  It makes sin visible for what it really is. I may say that the Spirit also exposes the sins of the Church, and Ireland this week is just one example again of the abuse of power, and the offense of collusion.

But let me return to Eucharistic Prayer F and to one phrase in conclusion. We ask the Spirit to ‘form us into the likeness of Christ'.  What a beautiful phrase that it, ‘form us into the likeness of Christ'; and may we pray it today with full conviction. It is as we feed through the Spirit on his word and sacrament that daily we grow into his likeness. And that's our future, to be conformed to his image, to become like him, and to share his glory.  And perhaps this morning, just for a moment, as we kneel in Christ's presence we'll see it and taste it, we'll see and taste our future and be empowered to live that future now.

Even so, come Holy Spirit, renew us and renew the face of the earth.