Sermon, May 19, 2002
Pentecost Sunday, Year A
The Rev. Lowell E. Grisham
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas

This past week I was in a conversation with some people about what happens when we pray. We were talking about the process of prayer – to whom do you pray; where do you direct prayer. For one person prayer was directed out of himself, toward the other, Holy God. For another, prayer was a simple observation of his internal depths.

As I tried to find words for an inexpressible mystery, I said that for me, prayer was going into God, into the deepest life that I experience within me; and there I find another, a "Thou" which contains not only all that I am but also all that is and some infinite more. Abstract, unsatisfactory words.

When people began to try to describe the reality of the Spirit, originally they began with pictures, with images – the liveliness of the air, the wind, the breeze, ...the breath. Concrete, symbolic words. Picture-words saying that there is an invisible depth and complexity and richness to life. There is Spirit – more than physical but something that enters our material world. Dynamic and living like the breath and the moving wind. The Spirit is God’s presence: an active, formative, life-giving power. That power can be invasive and dramatic as we heard today in the story of Pentecost; it can also be quiet and subtle as the gentle breath of Jesus releasing his Spirit upon his friends. An invisible mystery beyond our grasp, "the wind blows where it will, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from or where it goes."

The Spirit is not another thing among things, like "pulpit," "organ," "Holy Spirit." It’s more like the word "life." What is life? Where is life? Spirit is a special form of being. In the Spirit God is present and active. In the Spirit God comes closest to us, dwells with us / in us, acts upon us. In the ancient story of the first human, God first forms us from the material of the earth, but it is when God breathes Spirit into us that we become truly human.

Therefore, spirituality has to do with becoming a person in the fullest sense, becoming fully human. And that’s what I want to talk about today. It is the work of the spirit to draw us beyond ourselves into a new manner of life. From a self-centered mode of being into a new freedom and creativity.

I want to offer you a tool to help that spiritual process of being open to the Spirit. There are many tools, that’s what most of the spiritual disciplines that the church teaches are – tools to help us in the spiritual journey, the process by which we move from our lower nature – the desires of the flesh (impurity, anger, envy, selfishness and such things) – to be transformed to manifest the fruits of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. So, here is a tool to help nurture the breath of the Spirit. You can use it any time, any where.

We begin with a concrete image – the heart. The ancients liked to say that the Spirit dwells in the heart, the center of our being. Focus upon your heart. What is its condition? Is your heart hard or soft right now? How hard; how soft? So many things make our hearts hard. Let your attention move toward your heart, and, if you can, choose a gentle, soft heart.

What conflicts are troubling you? What worries? What people? Recognize the feelings and thoughts that harden your heart, then choose a feeling of a gentle heart, an open heart, a soft heart. Generate appreciation and compassion, the keys to the heart of Jesus.

That’s it. Focus on your heart, and choose a soft heart. Most of the time, such a simple, gentle act of self-awareness and self-transcendence is enough to restore us to balance. The Spirit breathes in us and we are freer.

Sometimes our burdens are more than a simple intention to soften the heart can accomplish. Our heart is wounded and encrusted. So, here’s a second step, a further path into heart healing. Allow yourself to rest in the Spirit. Use your imagination. Focusing on your heart, let the center of your being rest, floating on a soft raft in a gentle ocean, or in a warm tub. Let your cares be absorbed as you float in a "soft heart," finding a soft place in your heart where your afflictive emotions can be soaked and gently neutralized.

Deeper still, there is a place of peace at the center of your heart. A place where all is well and all manner of things shall be well. A deep place of infinite compassion for you and for all. You can find that place and rest there. Out of that peace comes heart wisdom. Listen. What does the Spirit say? Allow genuine care, appreciation, compassion, love to emerge from that deep place of peace. Feel the healing of your heart and the empowerment of the Spirit.

Our heart is a room for our encounter with the risen Christ. When our heart is hard, its doors locked for fear, Jesus can come in as he did with the fearful disciples huddling in their fear-filled room. Jesus showed them the signs of suffering, his hands and his sides. But now, these scars of anger, envy and violence have changed, ...softened. They no longer hurt. There is no anxiety or worry connected with their old evil. The only emotion that remains for the gathered community gazing upon their wounded healer is joy. The disciples rejoiced. And his words are always, "Peace. Peace be with you." He gives them his peace; breathes his Holy Spirit upon them; and empowers their hearts. It is now within their power. They may bind sins to their hearts, to heaven within; or they may loose sins from their hearts. Their hearts may become hard – attaching the cares and hurts and resentments of a lifetime, encrusting a self-centered wall around their inmost being. Or their hearts may be open and free – allowing the breath of Spirit to soften and transcend the most evil and deadly of wounds. We are given that divine power to bind and to loose the contents of our hearts. Our choices will define the nature of our own spirit.

Let the breath of the Divine Spirit breathe into your heart today. Peace dwells in the center of your being. Open yourself to that peace. Let the active, formative, life-giving power of God’s Spirit breathe new life and healing into you, replacing heart-hearted impurity, anger, envy, selfishness with the soft heart of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Your heart breathes. It says, "Peace be with you."

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