The Unauthorized Homily

By Bill Dunn

A commentary on the Scripture readings from the Sunday Lectionary

(Scripture readings for Sunday, May 4th: Acts 1:12-14; 1 Peter 4:13-16; John 17:1-11)

Note: My recent experiment of using the text of a church presentation as three consecutive Unauthorized Homilies went over very well. (I am, of course, using the definition of the phrase “went over very well” that means: I didn’t have to write anything for three weeks.) Now that Pentecost is almost upon us, I’m going to try it again. This is Part 1 of a talk I gave last fall at a Charismatic prayer meeting.

TRANSFORMED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT – PART 1

Thank you very much. It’s great to be here tonight.

A few weeks ago Peg B., with the Charismatic Renewal Office, called me and said, “We’re having a Regional Prayer Meeting in Norfolk in November. Would you like to speak at that meeting, Bill? Would you be interested in giving a teaching?”

I said, “Sure, I’d love to. There’s a couple of important topics I’ve been thinking about lately, and I’d enjoy giving a talk on either one. The first topic is: ‘The Presidential Race—I’m already fed up with the whole thing, and yet the election is still a year away!’ And the other topic is:  ‘How About Those Red Sox?!’”

Peg replied, “Um, Bill, the theme of the meeting is, ‘Allowing the Holy Spirit to transform us into the image of Christ.’”

“Oh. That’s very different,” I said. “Well, that’s all right. That’s not a bad topic either. I can do that. Sure, I’ll speak about that. Why not? And come to think of it, it might even be a slightly more appropriate topic for a Regional Prayer Meeting.”

So that’s our topic tonight: Allowing the Holy Spirit to transform us into the image of Christ. (By the way, if you want to talk about politics or the Red Sox, I’ll meet you at the little social gathering afterward.)

The power of the Holy Spirit is absolutely necessary to transform us. We know this is true from reading about the apostles. On the night Jesus was arrested, they all ran away in fear. Even St. Peter, who earlier declared, “Even though I should have to die with you, I will not deny you!” was reduced to a quivering mound of Jell-O when confronted by a teenage slave girl.

But then, three days later, Jesus rose from the grave—thank God! And He appeared to the apostles. So they saw Him alive, and they believed in Him. They knew the truth of the Resurrection. And that was great.

But what happened after Jesus ascended back into Heaven? What did the apostles do with that belief and knowledge? They hid behind locked doors like frightened bunny rabbits, afraid the authorities were going to come after them.

I suspect that while they were hiding behind those locked doors, they said to one another, “Wow, Jesus really rose from the dead. That’s amazing. We saw it, and we believe it. So, anyway, how are we going to sneak out of Jerusalem without being seen, and get back to Galilee to resume our former lives as fishermen?”

At that point in time, the belief in Jesus, the knowledge of the Resurrection, had very little impact on their lives. For years they had been living their lives as fishermen. Then they met Jesus, and the experience was truly remarkable. But even after meeting Jesus, they were all set to go back to their former lives without any change.

And we’re a lot like that nowadays. We live our lives in this fallen, sinful world. And as you may have noticed, life can be rather difficult at times, with much pain and suffering, fear and anxiety. Many people live, as the poet said, “lives of quiet desperation.” (And, of course, there are those whose desperation is not so quiet. Do you know anybody like that? Someone who tells everybody all of their problems—all of the time?)

But then we meet Jesus—maybe during Mass one day, or maybe when we’re younger at a CCD class, or maybe by talking with a friend or co-worker, or by watching a Billy Graham special on TV. Or maybe like I did, by reading a little paperback book about the basics of Christianity. And so, we are thrilled when we meet Jesus. We’re excited to know that He is Lord, and to know that the Resurrection is a fact. It’s great.

And then, we go back to our former lives without any real change. We go right back to the same fear and anxiety, and powerlessness—just like the apostles.

But what happened to them? What changed all their plans about resuming their former lives? The Holy Spirit happened. We read about it in Acts, chapter 2. Hiding in that room, behind locked doors, those frightened bunny rabbits suddenly “were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them.”

And then they burst out of that room—no longer bunnies, now courageous lions—and they began to preach the Good News about Jesus to the very same people they had been afraid of only moments earlier. 

By the way, that book in the Bible, “The Acts of the Apostles,” really should be named “The Acts of the Holy Spirit,” because the Holy Spirit is without a doubt the star of the show. Throughout the entire book, which chronicles the early decades of the Church’s history, the Holy Spirit constantly empowered the believers to do wondrous things, and live faithful, victorious lives—lives that could not in any way be described as “quiet desperation.”

A very interesting episode occurred many years after that first day of Pentecost. In chapter 19 of the Acts of the Holy Spirit—oops, I mean the Acts of the Apostles—St. Paul visited the believers in the city of Ephesus. When he found some disciples, he asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you first believed?”

Now listen to their reply. They said, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”

Paul said, “Whoa, you guys need a Life in the Spirit Seminar!”

No, actually he didn’t say that—but I bet he was thinking it. Verse 6 says, “When Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.”

If St. Paul came to one of our parishes today and asked that same question, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit?” I suspect most parishioners would say the same thing the Ephesians said: “We have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”

No, I take that back. Most parishioners would not say that. They’d say, “Oh sure, we’ve heard of the Holy Spirit. We sign ourselves by saying, ‘In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.’ See? We’ve heard of it.”

So the question would have to be, “Who or what is the Holy Spirit, and what is his or its function in our lives?”

In that case, the answer would be, very similar to Ralph Kramden on “The Honeymooners”:  “Uh…hummana hummana hummana…I dunno. You gotta help me, Norton!” (As far as Jackie Gleason impersonations go, you have to admit, that was really bad.)

In the typical American parish these days, the Holy Spirit has become Heaven’s version of the Maytag repairman. He’s just sitting there, waiting for people to call on Him and ask for help, but the phone never rings.

In the advertising campaign, the idea is that the Maytag repairman is lonely because no one ever calls him. This is because the products are so good that there never are any breakdowns or failures or problems.

But with the Holy Spirit, is the reason that most people do not call on Him because we never have any breakdowns or failures or problems?

If you said yes, I would like to visit your planet some day. Because on my planet, we have problems all the time.

The Holy Spirit is just sitting there, waiting for us to call on Him, because His whole function, His whole purpose, is to empower believers to do wondrous things, and live faithful, victorious lives—lives that will never be described as “quiet desperation.”

I personally think we don’t open ourselves to the power of the Holy Spirit because we’re very confused and intimidated by the doctrine of the Trinity.

(Next week: Understanding the doctrine of the Holy Trinity in three easy steps.)

©2008