VENI SANCTE SPIRITUS
(COME, HOLY SPIRIT)
Ezekiel 37: 1-6; Acts 2: 1-13
One of the best educational and spiritual retreats I’ve ever
had was with Episcopal priest, John Westerhoff leading the weekend. In his book
called THE SPIRITUAL LIFE, he describes how he moved from a busy and demanding
life in the world to a quiet awareness in the Spirit of the Lord.
He wrote: “[In 1977] I made a retreat. It was my first
experience of extended solitude and silence, without morning coffee, [and some
of you are saying ‘Not for me!’] afternoon
cocktail, [and others of you are thinking ‘Definitely not for me!’] or ever
present pipe. In their place was one small meal of bread, fruit, and cheese
eaten in solitude and silence [no pumped in music or the visual of a television
or newspaper.] Within the context of days devoid of conversation, books, and
the stimuli of our culture’s accepted drugs, I experienced a touch of wholeness
and well-being unknown to me before. [Wholeness and well-being; does that sound
inviting? Keep listening:] After only a day, I found that I had ordered my
time: rest and exercise, meditation and reflection, prayer and work.” (p. 16)
Now few of us can choose or can afford a contemplative life; it is said to be
of Eastern Culture, or the life of a monk or nun. But being open to God’s Holy Spirit can
inform our soul when facing life choices and make the wholeness of body, mind,
and soul a reality. Our Lord Jesus
clearly found time to pray in worship and in private, and when he left God’s
Spirit for his disciples it was a significant gift. It was a lack of Spirit that made Ezekiel’s
vision of the dry bones so significant: a people without Holy Spirit stop being
a Holy people. “Can these dry bones
live?” could be a question a prophet could ask of many in our culture today. We
need the Spirit of Pentecost to change us. Does it seem to you that pop culture and
political culture are soul-less? Does it seem that those who are weary and sad
need an infusion of the Holy Spirit? Does it seem that sometimes those with the
best hearts and human intentions are the ones who get run over by the styled
wheels of those in power? Jesus was
always taking up the cause of the powerless and disenfranchised, and he
empowered them with something. Could he have left the Holy Spirit in the blind
beggar, in the woman at the well, or in the child who had been sick for
ages? Could he have left his Spirit in
all those who witnessed his ascension on the hill in
Jeffrey A. Sumner