The Unauthorized Homily

By Bill Dunn

A commentary on the Scripture readings from the Sunday Lectionary

(Scripture readings for Pentecost Sunday, May 27th: Acts 2:1-11; 1 Corinthians 12:3-13; John 20:19-23)

THE LONG LOST 29TH CHAPTER OF ‘ACTS’

Did you hear the exciting news? An ancient manuscript was discovered recently in a cave in the hills of Israel. It turns out this manuscript is the long lost 29th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. People often have wondered why the book of Acts ends so abruptly after 28 chapters. Well, now we know why: there is one final chapter which wraps up the story.

The 29th chapter was recently translated into English, and here’s what it says:

The Lord God spoke unto Paul, saying, “Behold, the power of the Holy Spirit, which has filled my people from the day of Pentecost until now, shall cease once this present generation has passed away.”
 

Paul replied, saying, “But Lord, the Holy Spirit has worked so many wondrous deeds. The fruits of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit have transformed countless lives and brought many people to the faith. Why must this power stop?”

“Because,” answered the Lord, “I don’t want people in the 21st century to get bogged down with all that ‘religious stuff.’ Their schedules will be so jam-packed they won’t have time to get serious about faith. They barely will be able to spare one hour on Sunday morning for me. It will mess up too many of their plans if the Holy Spirit is still available to transform lives. So I have decreed that once this present generation passes away, only religious professionals will get serious about having a relationship with me, people such as pastors and priests, nuns and deacons. This will allow everyone else to focus on more important things, like their careers and their cars and their lawns and watching ESPN and keeping up with the latest exploits of Paris Hilton. Thus saith the Lord.”

And that’s how the 29th chapter ends.

OK, well maybe I exaggerate a bit. But an awful lot of Christians down through the centuries, including the institutional Church herself at times, have acted as if this bogus 29th chapter were real.

Some fundamentalist groups accuse the Catholic Church of trying to make the Holy Trinity a quartet. They misinterpret Catholic devotion toward Mary (“All generations shall call me blessed,” Scripture says) as worshipping Mary. This is not true, of course, and it’s a good subject for another day.

However, a much more common and real problem is not making the Holy Trinity into a quartet, it is making the Holy Trinity into a duo.

Christian Trinitarian doctrine teaches that the one God exists in three persons (again, a good subject for another day, but maybe I’ll let someone else take a shot at it since I get a headache every time I try to comprehend the Trinity).

Believers have no problem acknowledging the first person of the Trinity, the Father, the Almighty, maker of Heaven and earth. And they have no problem acknowledging the second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father.

But when it comes to the third person of the Trinity, most believers pause and say, “Umm…well, two out of three ain’t bad.”

Far too many people are under the mistaken impression that the wondrous deeds of the Holy Spirit chronicled in the book of Acts—the fruits of the Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit, the miracles, the healings, etc.—somehow died off when the first century Christians died off. The thinking is, “Yeah, well, Peter and Paul and Andrew and Lenny and whoever those other apostles were, they needed that stuff back then, but once the faith spread and the church got established, it was no longer necessary.”

What a goofy thought. Nowhere in Scripture is it stated, or even implied, that the Holy Spirit’s ministry was a temp assignment. After guiding the first century believers, the Holy Spirit did not go on vacation, or get His pink slip. He is still present; He is still working; He is still inspiring God’s people, filling them with faith and hope and love, and empowering them to live victorious lives on this side of eternity.

This week’s feast of Pentecost is a great time to contemplate the ministry of the Holy Spirit. We should read through the exciting book of Acts (just the first 28 chapters, please) to see how the Holy Spirit worked in the lives of the early believers. We should realize that same miraculous power is still available to us today. And we should sincerely open up our hearts and let the power of the Holy Spirit flow from within us. (Attending a Life in the Spirit seminar and/or joining a charismatic prayer group can be a great help.)

OK, before I close, let me take a shot at an imperfect Trinitarian analogy, no matter of much of a headache it gives me:

God is like an electric lamp. God the Father is the lamp fixture itself. Jesus is the light bulb. And the Holy Spirit is the electricity. Too many Christians are satisfied with only the lamp and the light bulb, and don’t see the need to plug it in. They think they are living in God’s glorious light, but things are actually quite dark.

When they finally tap into the Holy Spirit’s power—when they finally plug in the lamp—they are amazed at how brilliant and wonderful God’s light truly is, and they sheepishly laugh at how they once thought sitting in darkness was good enough. (I know first hand—been there, done that, got the “I’m an apathetic Christian” T-shirt.)

Yeah, I was right. I need a couple of aspirin.

©2007