The Totally Tubular Spirit of God

By Rev. Gusti Linnea Newquist


. . . and then Peter goes on to describe the gift of God that has been given to the world in the ministry of Jesus . . . and of his devastating death through the evil of the cross . . . and of his glorious resurrection and ascension just days before the festival of Pentecost . . . and of the promise . . . of the gift of the guidance of the Spirit of God . . . that will be with them always . . . even to the end of the age. And, if we read the Scriptures carefully, through any stage of youth or old age or womanhood or manhood or slavery or freedom. The Spirit poured out on us all who are already one covenant community of the great diversity of humanity . . . united in the gift of God’s grace that can never be undone. That can only forever be truly sung in alleluia after alleluia. Which is what, I would suggest, Pentecost is all about.

This Pentecost Spirit that is poured out on every one of us is, as far as I am concerned, the greatest blessing of God that there is. It gives us the courage to pray without ceasing. It leads us to thrive beyond any vision we can possibly imagine. It says absolutely nothing can ever hold you back!

Including, of course, for Peter. Who . . . if you really think about it . . . receives the ultimate gift of the grace of the Spirit on this Pentecost Sunday . . .

And I am guessing Peter is thinking about it. I am guessing Peter has been thinking over and over and over again in these past fifty days . . . about how he denied his teacher over and over and over again . . . on that “holy” Thursday seven weeks ago . . . giving in to fear . . . and denying the very one on whom he knew for sure God’s Spirit had already been poured out. The one who had surely been anointed to “bring good news to the poor . . . recovery of sight to the blind . . . release to the captives . . . and liberty to the oppressed.” Surely Peter has been thinking in these past fifty days in agonizing detail about how he denied Jesus in his hour of greatest need.

And yet here we are . . . fifty days later . . . at the Festival of Pentecost . . . with the denier named Peter who by all rights should so easily be paralyzed by deep pangs of guilt instead becoming so profoundly filled with the poured out Spirit of the Living God that his fear has turned into triumph . . . and his guilt has turned into conviction . . . and the power of his preaching has transformed the hearts and minds of three thousand souls on this Pentecost morning . . . and the early church has been born . . . as God’s beloved children from all across the known world can hear the prophetic call of Christ . . . in whatever language it takes to speak to their spirits . . . to turn their hearts and minds away from the deep violence that . . . let’s face it . . . dwells in every one of us . . . and to receive instead the gift of the Holy Spirit through their baptism in Christ’s name. And to know in their bones that they are already one covenant community in the Spirit of the living God . . . that includes the great diversity of humanity . . . and the gift of grace that can never be undone . . . that can only be always and forever truly sung . . . in alleluia after alleluia . . . which is what Pentecost is all about . . . which is that there really is a sweet, sweet spirit in this place. And I know that it’s the Spirit of our God

Which is what we are singing two thousand years later . . . here at Madison Square . . . in whatever language we can find to anyone with ears to hear . . . that the same power of the Spirit of God that propelled that fickle disciple named Peter to a proud proclamation of the gospel can equally propel any one of us from a spirit of fear into a spirit of triumph . . . from a spirit of despair into a spirit of joy . . . from a spirit of violence into a spirit of reconciliation . . . from a spirit of mis-understanding across all our different ways of mis-communicating into a profound and prophetic peace that passes all understanding. This is the alleluia we are singing on this Pentecost Sunday here at Madison Square . . . because there really is a “sweet, sweet Spirit in this place . . . and we know that it’s the Spirit of our God.”

Of course, I don’t really need to tell you this. Just about everyone I have known to walk through the doors of this church has spoken of the Spirit of God that we all have experienced soaring through this sanctuary . . . on this particular Sunday through a great big red plastic tube . . . which I have delightfully dubbed “the totally tubular Spirit of God.” And even with the playful poking fun of this “whooshing” and “whirring” with our kids . . . did we not also experience it as powerful beyond the telling of it? This energy . . . this enthusiasm . . . this dwelling in the holy, holy, holy that has no real words to describe it. Except that all will be well . . . and all shall be well . . . and every manner of thing shall be well . . . in the words of that great 14th century mystic theologian, Julian of Norwich. Who, like Peter . . . and like so many of us . . . knew what it was to suffer . . . and to come out on the other side with a profoundly renewed trust in the guidance of the Spirit of God.
This is, I will confess, why Pentecost is my truly favorite Christian holiday. Even more than Lent. Even more than Easter. Way more than Christmas. I chose to be ordained to the ministry of Word and Sacrament on Pentecost Sunday because I believe so profoundly in that healing journey of faith borne witness in the transformation of Peter . . . through the trauma and grief and despair and guilt that was surely his cross to bear . . . and all the other disciples, too . . . is one that we as 21st Century Christians can parallel through the liturgical seasons of Lent and Easter and . . . finally . . . Pentecost.

Here is what I mean by that: we all . . . every one of us . . . if we are human . . . carry a cross that has somehow become ours to bear. For some of us it is violence we have inflicted . . . or endured. For some of us it is the guilt we simply cannot let go. For some of us it is a grief we think we truly cannot bear. And there is, it seems to me, an inevitable feeling of victimization that comes with whatever cross is ours. In Lent we have the liturgical invitation to bring the full weight of that suffering into the compassionate, crucified heart of God and let our crying carry us through the pain. It is the earliest stage of healing.

Then Easter, as I see it, is about survival. It is that sudden burst of adrenaline that shoots out from the pain and flat out refuses to give up. It is the sheer, raw determination not to let the crucifixion win. That insists on moving from victim to survivor . . . and claiming the spiritual and psychological transformation that comes with simply having made it through, with having overcome.

But the journey does not end on Easter. As I have said over and over again, Easter is a Season, not just a Sunday. It takes time to come to terms with survival. To be absolutely sure we really did make it. To stare down the demons of fear and isolation and victimization . . . and . . . like Peter . . . to come to know deep in our bones that God’s grace really is sufficient to cover all of our sins . . . and all of our suffering . . . and all of our fear. And that we no longer have to lay victim to despair or violence or even systematic oppression. And we don’t even have to be “survivors” anymore. Because we are finally ready to open our hearts to the great rush of the wind of the Spirit. Calming and free. Where we are fully healed. By the Spirit of the Living God. Who has given every one of us a second chance to thrive.
This is the great gift of the Spirit of God for every one of us on this Pentecost Sunday . . . and why it is my very favorite Christian holiday. Pentecost is the promise that whatever pain we have endured . . . whatever cross has been ours to bear . . . whatever guilt has kept us in chains . . . whatever law has pushed us down . . . can really truly be overcome . . . and we can really truly thrive together . . . as the Spirit-led people of God we have always been created to be.

It is true for every one of us. Every one of us. And it is even more true for this congregation. The Spirit of Pentecost was given to a community, after all . . . so that the people of the world might truly listen and speak and understand and know . . . within every part of them . . . that God had bound up their wounds . . . and given them a mission . . . and ushered in a whole new life . . . for all of them together.

Surely this is the gift for Madison Square Presbyterian Church . . . on this Pentecost Sunday two thousand years later . . . with a mission study that is now complete . . . and a set of vision and values and priorities to implement . . . and a Pastor Nominating Committee ready to be elected . . . and the survival of the church that is secure . . . and the “thriving into the future” that really can begin today.

Surely there is a sweet, sweet Spirit in this place on this particular Pentecost Sunday . . . and wherever we are . . . and whoever we are . . . the totally tubular Spirit of God, ushered in by the fabulous children and youth of Madison Square will no doubt take every one of us . . . and this congregation with it . . . to places beyond our greatest imagination . . . as one covenant community of the great diversity of humanity . . . already united in the great gift of grace that can never be undone. That can only forever be truly and completely sung . . . in alleluia after alleluia.

Which is what, I would suggest, Pentecost is all about.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Do you trust in Jesus Christ your Savior, acknowledge him Lord of all and Head of the Church, and through him believe in one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?

Do you accept the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be, by the Holy Spirit, the unique and authoritative witness to Jesus Christ in the Church universal, and God’s Word to you?

Do you sincerely receive and adopt the essential tenets of the Reformed faith as expressed in the confessions of our church as authentic and reliable expositions of what Scripture leads us to believe and do, and will you be instructed and led by those confessions as you lead the people of God?

Will you fulfill your ministry in obedience to Jesus Christ under the authority of Scripture, and be continually guided by our confessions?

Will you be governed by our church’s polity, and will you abide by its discipline? Will you be a friend among your colleagues in ministry, working with them, subject to the ordering of God’s Word and Spirit?

Will you in your own life seek to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, love your neighbors, and work for the reconciliation of the world?

Do you promise to further the peace, unity, and purity of the church?

Will you pray for and seek to serve the people with energy, intelligence, imagination, and love?

Will you be a faithful teaching elder, proclaiming the good news in Word and Sacrament, teaching faith and caring for people? Will you be active in government and discipline, serving in the councils of the church; and in your ministry will you try to show the love and justice of Jesus Christ?