+ In the Love of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
How many of you have driven on Pfingsten Road? {{Congregational Response}} What does Pfingsten Road have to do with Pentecost? {{Congregational Response}} [German for "Pentecost"].
What do the Jews call "Pentecost?" {{Congregational Response}} [Shavuot]
The word "Shavuot" means "Weeks," meaning the 7 weeks since Passover; first century Jews also called it "Pentecost," the word for "Fiftieth," meaning the Fifty Days since Passover. On Passover, Jews celebrate the Exodus and their freedom from Pharaoh, and Christians celebrate the Resurrection and our freedom from death. On Pentecost, Jews celebrate the giving of the Law, and Christians celebrate the giving of the Holy Spirit.
This morning's readings from the Acts of the Apostles and the Gospel of John are both about the Holy Spirit, and yet what a contrast there is between them! We can hardly imagine two more different approaches to describing the work of the Holy Spirit.
In fact, as I thought about these two contrasting presentations of the Holy Spirit, I remembered the four polar opposites in the Myers-Briggs Personality Inventory, based on Carl Jung's analytic psychology.
For example, the first polar opposite is extraversion on the one hand, and introversion on the other. The Reading from the Acts of the Apostles is all extravert! The exuberance of the disciples spills out into the streets of Jerusalem, and a private gathering of disciples is transformed into a public proclamation of God's power. One of the ways of describing the difference between extraverts and introverts is this: Extroverts wish they hadn't said it, and Introverts wish they had said it! I'll bet later that day Peter wished that he hadn't said, "Hey, we're not drunk; it's only nine o'clock in the morning!" That would not have struck most people as a very convincing argument. On the other hand, in the Gospel, the disciples are so filled with sorrow that they can't say a thing.
The second polar opposite is sensing on the one hand and intuition on the other hand. The Reading from the Acts of the Apostles is a feast for the sensing personality: there is the sound "like the rush of a mighty wind" (whoooshhhhh!), and there is the sight of divided tongues like fire, and then the sound of many languages, and when Peter mentions "the smoky mist" we can almost feel our nostrils come to life!
This engagement of our senses helps to drive the narrative the story. The Greek word for "wind" is also the word for "spirit," so the sound of the wind prepares the way for the outpouring of the Spirit. Similarly, the tongues of fire prepare the way for speaking in other tongues or languages.
It is said that the sensing personality sees the trees but not the forest, the details but not the big picture; while the intuitive personality sees the forest but not the trees, the big picture but not the details. And clearly the Gospel brings us the big picture of the interplay between God― Father, Son, and Spirit― and the disciples.
The third polar opposite is between the thinking personality and the feeling personality. It's not that one is rational and the other irrational; it's just that the key word for the thinking personality is "truth," and the key word for the feeling personality is "tact!" The thinking type wants to know "what's the principle at work here?" The feeling type wants to know, "How will people be affected?" Peter, a feeling type if there ever was one, wants to work the crowd and reassure them even as he proclaims the power of the Spirit.
On the other hand, the Gospel is about the "Spirit of truth," and about testifying to the truth; and about the Spirit as "Advocate," who is both the defense attorney who defends the disciples, and the district attorney who prosecutes the world.
And finally, we have the polarities between the spontaneous type and the orderly type, between those who go with the flow and those who want an orderly process. Well, what could be more spontaneous than the sudden coming of the Holy Spirit, and Peter's rising to the occasion? And what could be more orderly than the Gospel's picture of the Holy Spirit:
"When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf" and "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come."
There you have it! Four great polarities which in their various combinations produce sixteen different personality types, which are in reality sixteen different spirituality types, and the Christian Gospel embraces them all.
And yet as different as these two pictures of the Holy Spirit are― from the Acts account which is extravert, sensing, feeling, and spontaneous; and from John's Gospel, which is introverted, intuitive, thinking, and orderly― both of them are saying the same things:
First, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus. John the Baptist had said, "I baptize you with water, but [Jesus] will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire" (Luke 3:16). And Jesus, who earlier in the Gospel had said to his disciples, "I am the Truth" (John 14:6), promises in this morning's reading that he will send "the Spirit of Truth." In other words, as someone once put it, "The Holy Spirit is Jesus in the present tense."
But the Holy Spirit isn't just "Jesus in the present tense." The Holy Spirit is also Jesus in the future tense. In the reading from Acts, Peter reminds the crowd of what the prophet Joel had said:
". . . your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams."
And in the Gospel Jesus says:
"When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; . . . and he will declare to you the things that are to come."
In other words, the Holy Spirit means that the disciples do not face the future alone, and that means that the Church doesn't face the future alone, and that in turn means that St. Gregory's doesn't face the future alone.
And so as we begin our Sabbaticals, let us dare to see visions and dream dreams. And as we continue to develop our Master Plan together, let us dare to see visions and dream dreams. And, through it all, and always, let us pray:
"O God, because without you we are not able to please you: Mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen" (The Book of Common Prayer 1979, p. 233, Collect for Proper 19).
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