Learning Jesus
Ana DelCorazón sermonizes on the practice of being open to Holy Spirit
SERMON
The original version of this sermon was delivered at the
Tabernacle United Church in Philadelphia, PA on November 15, 2020.
READINGS
Matthew 3:13-17
Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
Luke 4:1-2
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished.
PRAYER
O God of love and mercy, I ask that through the power of Your Holy Spirit you open up our hearts and minds to receive your word.
May the spirit of God speak through me and in spite of me.
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.
Amen and amen
This is a long time coming.
I am a spiritual seeker, and for the last 20 years, I’ve been looking for a spiritual home. I have prayed daily for a spiritual community that will embrace me completely, one where I can use my charisma, or God-given gifts and talents bestowed on me through the Holy Spirit.
Oh, yes, the Holy Spirit - that brings me to the topic at hand. El Espíritu Santo. I cannot imagine my life without her. While I won’t be able to cover everything I want to say about such a big topic, I’ll begin by opening up your imagination to who and what the Holy Spirit is to me.
In “Dancing with the Wild Child: Evangélicas and the Holy Spirit” (Latina Evangelicas: A Theological Survey from the Margins, Cascade Books, 2013), Puerto Rican Pentecostal theologian Zaida Maldonado Pérez writes:
I love the Holy Spirit. She is like the wild child of the Trinity, anywhere and everywhere moving, calling forth, and stirring things up. She is wonderfully elusive yet also fully present. She is untamable, full of possibilities and creative potential. She is the salsa beat in our daily foxtrot and the un-dos-tres-bachata in our electric slide. She is and will be unconventional, even uncultured. She is the wonder that moves our questions from, what does this all mean? to, what shall we do? She can forever alter our lives and change our world. She is life-giving breath, wind, and fire. She is the ruach elohim, the flaming divine pneuma that is always "going native" because she wants to be encountered by all. She is calming Spirit amid the storm. She is wisdom...As part of the Godhead, she reminds us that she cannot be had or possessed as many claim when they say, tengo el Espíritu Santo (I possess the Holy Spirit and therefore can order it about). Rather, it is we who are the Holy Spirit’s temple, God’s vessel.
To be young, Puerto Rican and Pentecostal
Now that I am in seminary, I am spending a lot of time thinking about my theology, my faith and faith journey, and how the Holy Spirit has been working in my life.
I currently live in Iowa with my spouse and son, but I grew up in North Philadelphia, where I attended a Puerto Rican, Spanish-speaking, evangelical Pentecostal church. Because I left the church of my youth when I was about 18 years old, I have a childlike understanding of my religious home. I mostly remember what it felt like to be in church: the constant motion, the physical warmth, the rhythmic beats of clapping and stomping, the percussion instruments, the singing and dancing in the spirit, the laying of hands in prayer over my body, refueling my soul. Most importantly, I remember the feeling of belonging, of being part of a family, of holding each other tightly and mostly looking inward. Our gatherings were timeless—services lasted hours. We were encouraged to let go and let ourselves be moved by the ever-present Holy Spirit.
As an adult, I’ve tried to take a more objective look at what Pentecostalism is—so I looked it up! According to the BBC:
Pentecostalism is a form of Christianity that emphasises the work of the Holy Spirit and the direct experience of the presence of God by the believer.
Pentecostals believe that faith must be powerfully experiential, and not something found merely through ritual or thinking.
Pentecostalism is energetic and dynamic. Its members believe they are driven by the power of God moving within them.
This explains why so much of my memory of that church home in Puerto Rican North Philadelphia was about how it felt to be there—the direct experience of God is central to the Pentecostal faith.
As an evangelical Pentecostal, I was “born again” after receiving salvation by the declaration of faith in accepting Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior, who atoned for my sins through his death and resurrection. The church of my childhood and youth believed that, once we confessed our sinful nature and declared our salvation, we were baptized in the Holy Spirit. Because the Holy Spirit was something we could feel and experience directly, it wasn’t unusual for me to dance in the spirit, to witness church members speak in tongues, or to hear testimonies of healing. The Holy Spirit was always working in and through us, but it was our responsibility and duty to tap into her through our personal relationship with Jesus Christ, through adherence to countercultural rules and practices that demonstrated that we are not of this world, and to share the good news of salvation with others. It was and still is the central message of evangelical Pentecostals to this day.
As people living in the margins of our society, the Puerto Rican Pentecostals I grew up with sought—and still seek—an intimate relationship with God through the Holy Spirit in their daily lives. The Holy Spirit's act of dwelling with us and being in us affirmed our personhood as children of God (Romans 8:16). The Holy Spirit is divine presence. Through her, we were made holy within a dominant culture and society that dehumanized us.
I have come to understand the appeal that my childhood church community had for me as a young Brown woman. It was a place in which to powerfully belong, a place that showed us we were Beloved and protected against a white supremacist society that tried to convince us otherwise.
Rupture and rapture
By the time I went off to college, the distance between who I was becoming and what the church believed had grown too large to hold. During this period, I fell in love with a woman, and the rupture between me and my childhood church, along with my biological family, became complete.
In spite of this, I never believed that God had left me. I believed that who I was and how I felt and what I believed were still within God’s reign. Even when my own flesh and blood rejected me, God, through the Holy Spirit, did not. My family and faith community had nurtured in me a sense of Belovedness—one so powerful that even they couldn’t take it back. So, even as my heart and world were shattered, I held on to what the Holy Spirit whispered to Jesus when he was baptized: You are my beloved Child with whom I am well-pleased (Mark 1:11).
Let me pause for a moment and ask you: What would change in your life if you knew deep in your core that you are a beloved child of God with whom they are well pleased? How would you speak and act? Who would be in the world? What more would you risk to help others if the Spirit constantly reminded you of who you are and to whom you belong?
With this knowing, I began my search for a new spiritual home. I tried on other faiths and learned new spiritual practices that didn’t involve speaking in tongues, praying to God, or even reading the Bible. After almost 20 years of wandering, I believe that the Holy Spirit led me back home, to a beloved community that embraces all of who I am and that follows a Jesus who liberates and centers the marginalized.
Finding unity
Since the first day I entered the doors of Tabernacle United Church, I felt the Spirit among us in ways I hadn’t in a long time. I’ve asked myself: What is it about Tab that makes me feel this way? How are we welcoming the Holy Spirit in this place and in our community? Our church, unlike my childhood church, isn’t as explicit about the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives, at least not for me. I've wondered, what is that role here? Now?
When I joined the church in October of 2020, the Holy Spirit was mentioned in that service several times. I consented to be of service to Jesus Christ by using the gifts which the Holy Spirit bestows. I committed to growing in the life of the Spirit, nurturing my relationship with God and listening for God’s calling in my life. I confessed my belief in the Spirit of God and promised to live in the Holy Spirit. And this church community welcomed me in through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Looking to Jesus
So, I ask again: What is the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and where does it reside?
Well, let’s look to Jesus.
The Holy Spirit was intimately connected with Jesus from conception to ascension and beyond. Before Mary conceived him, an angel spoke to her: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you” (Luke 1:35). Jesus was anointed with the Spirit when he was baptized by John the Baptist, who was also filled with the Spirit. Soon after, Jesus was directed by the Spirit to go to the wilderness to be tested. There are many stories throughout the Bible that describe Jesus as “full of the Spirit” before he prophesied, performed miracles, or preached. Jesus did nothing without the Holy Spirit.
Today, we find ourselves pulled to the wilderness, heeding the call to disrupt systems of oppression and the evils of white supremacy and other forces that work against our Belovedness; this is certainly the work of the Holy Spirit with us and among us. She helped me to find the strength I needed to take my brokenness and forge a new path, one that eventually led me here. We need the Spirit to continually remind us of our Belovedness and to give us the strength we need to sustain the hard work of discipleship, and the work of building the kin’dom of God on earth as it is in heaven.
When Jesus prayed, he did so to align his will to God’s will. He knew and understood that he was the son of God. Through his spiritual practices of prayer, rest, alone time, study of scripture, and communion with his disciples, Jesus was able to hear the Holy Spirit speaking to him.
In my journey, I have found my own way to try to listen deeply for her.
During my time in the wilderness searching for a church home, I began a practice of meditation. Initially, this was a spiritual practice of self-emptying. While I found it helpful to center myself, I continued to feel that something was missing. A few years ago, I was introduced to the practice of contemplative prayer, during which one consents to and welcomes God’s presence and action in one’s life at the beginning of a meditative session. Immediately, I felt a shift within me, as if I’d found the missing piece to my puzzle.
I have now come to understand that I am not only a believer in Jesus Christ but also a disciple, a discipleship that requires me to listen for and look for how God is speaking to me personally and to us collectively. Our faith believes that God is still speaking and, as a disciple, I must practice ways to help me listen—be it through prayer, meditation, fellowship, study, dancing, singing, protesting, playing the tambourine, being of service to others—so that I can do the work the Spirit is asking me to do in the world.
Coming full circle
This aspect of Spirit, of her working in us to remake the world for love and justice, is, in fact, part of the same Pentecostal tradition I thought I had left behind.
Maldonado Pérez refers to the Holy Spirit as the “Holy Subversive One” (Latina Evangélicas, 2013):
Evangélicas know that the wild child of the Trinity, the Holy Subversive One, calls us to stir things up, to become devoted tongues of fire that will dare to proclaim truth to power so that we can get from the question, what does this mean? to the question, what shall we do,? Which will change our churches, our communities, and the world.
How has the Spirit worked in your life to remind you of your Belovedness?
Moreover, how has the Spirit of God pushed you into places of wilderness or difficulty for the sake of love and justice?
Mi familia, My Family, God through the Holy Spirit is speaking to us today—are you listening?
This week, I invite you to sit and listen for the Holy Spirit. Listen for how She is leading you and follow her promptings. You can journal this experience, or even share it with us next week.
Let us pray...
PRAYER
Thank you, God, for the renewing strength of the Holy Spirit who reminds daily of our Belovedness.
May the Spirit of God sustain us as we go forward this week.
Guide us, Dear God, to be warriors for Justice and Love, especially in these times.
May the Holy Spirit fill us with courage and comfort, in Jesus’ Name we pray.
Amen. Asha. So say we all.
