The languages of the Holy Spirit

Notes on a sermon for Pentecost Sunday, June 12, 2011

I just finished a week at another Formational Prayer Seminar at Ashland Theological Seminary, and came back home to Pentecost Sunday.  At Christ the King, we also welcomed baby Everett into the family of God through the Sacrament of Holy Baptism.  These three events - the Seminar, Everett's baptism, and Pentecost - combined in my heart and sermon to think about the languages of the Holy Spirit in a different way - one I hope you can help me expand on.

When the disciples received the gift of the Holy Spirit on that first Pentecost Sunday, the people around them heard the disciples speaking in languages the crowd knew, even though the disciples were all Galileans.  I'm pretty sure that baby Everett, young as he is, doesn't really understand English yet.  So as we welcome him into God's family through the work of the Holy Spirit, what languages does the Spirit give us to communicate the love of Jesus to him?

The language of belonging.  We welcome him into our midst.  We will smile whenever he comes.  We'll ask how he's doing.  Some of us will pass him around for a bit of snuggling.  He's part of our church family now, and all our actions can tell him that.

The language of love.  We can encourage his parents to show him their love.  We watch how his big sister loves him, and encourage her to keep it up.  We bless him with loving arms and hands and voices and faces.

The language of safety.  We are determined to help his parents nurture him and keep him safe, from the dangers of this world and from spiritual dangers also.  We will pray for him, and we will bless him.

The language of significance.  As with all children who are part of the Christ the King family, he will be welcomed into the worship community, where he will learn to sing and to say "Amen" and to received the blessing of Jesus as his parents bring him along with them to the Communion rail.  He may join me at the door after the service, to greet the people as they come out.  As he grows, we'll give him other important responsibilities among us.

As he grows among us, he'll eventually learn other languages of the Holy Spirit - the language of purpose and the language of understanding - but those will come in time.

In the meantime, we pour into him these languages that the Holy Spirit has given us through our own adoption as the children of God because we truly do welcome him and value him and want him to know that he belongs here.

Besides, as he grows it won't be too long before he begins to learn the languages of anger and of frustration and of mistrust, and a whole lot of other nasty stuff.  In this beginning, though, we keep on praying that the Spirit will give him, through us, a foundation of the Spirit's languages that will enable him to grow in grace and in the love of Jesus throughout his life.