Tongues of Fire

 Yesterday was Pentecost Sunday in our church year.  This is the event when a great sound and light show came upon the early followers of Jesus Christ who had gathered from the known corners of the world.  The Holy Spirit invaded the gathering of those people in Jerusalem and there was a great wind, tongues of fire over their heads, and the local people were speaking in the languages of everyone who had gathered there

When I was trying to discern my call to be ordained, I was in some ways hoping for something as distinct from the Holy Spirit as all the action on the Day of Pentecost.  I was hoping to get a Road to Damascus experience – like the original one in which Paul was knocked off his horse when he received a voice from Jesus asking him why he was persecuting Jesus?  A voice that would have given me a clear message that the road to ordination I was embarking on was the correct one.  Well on reflection, and considering what happened to Paul, I decided that I would prefer a more subtle message after all. 

I received that some time later.  I was in the process of deciding to begin the path to ordination with the diocese and went for an interview with the Dean of Theology, at Huron College, John Chapman as part of that process. 

Well, I had a very positive interview with the Dean, and the indication seemed to be that I was beginning the journey that God intended for me. 

After the interview, I got in my car to drive home and turned on the radio.  A CBC program was on air in which three people were being interviewed about their becoming clergy later in life – second or third careers like me.  I took that as the work of the Holy Spirit - my road to Damascus or road to ordination experience.  Now this could be dismissed as a mere coincidence.  However, Carl Jung has called these experiences of meaningful coincidences, synchronicity.  It certainly was a meaningful coincidence for me I was certain that this was a sign for me as the work of the Holy Spirit and one that has helped sustain on my road to ordination and as a priest since.

So, can we conclude that the Holy Spirit does not always work in such dramatic ways as it did on the Day of Pentecost which we celebrate today?  Let’s look at some other accounts of the Holy Spirit in the bible.  Jesus promises his disciples in John 16:13 that the Spirit will be a guide and “the Spirit would guide them into all the truth.”  In Acts 8: 29, the Holy Spirit instructed Philip to go to the chariot of the Ethiopian eunuch, leading to the eunuch's conversion. The Holy Spirit is a teacher - Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit as the Advocate who will teach His followers all things and bring to their remembrance all that He had said to them.  The Holy Spirit also has the role of sanctifier.  Paul writes in 2 Thessalonians that God chose the believers to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. 

The Holy Spirit was there in the beginning when God created the world – a wind from God – the Holy Spirit swept over the face of the water before God said, “Let there be light.”   The Holy Spirit the creative power of God – the empowerer, guide, teacher, and sanctifier. 

As I discovered in my road to ordination experience, the Holy Spirit is not always as easy to discern as on that Day of Pentecost.  However, be assured that it is still at work in us and in the world.  We must play our part in working with God by identifying how the Holy Spirit is at work and responding to that knowledge.  It can be in the still small voice we hear; it can be in our dreams if we pay attention to them; it can be in meaningful coincidences; it can be in the inspiration that gives you the answer that you have been struggling to find for a long time.  It can be in the inspiration we receive from an unexpected encounter in reading the bible as you come to gather in bible study or on our own.  It can be when we come together in the name of Jesus Christ to worship and partake in the body and blood of our Saviour.  Be assured that it is there at work in and for each of us. 

May we be blessed to recognize the Holy Spirit guiding us on our journeys. 

Learning the Language of God

Back at the beginning of the millennium I was trying to discern if I had a call to the ordained priesthood.   I thought that it would be great to have a “Road to Damascus” experience i.e., hearing a voice from heaven perhaps with even a heavenly light show to make sure I was paying attention.  However, I can say that I did not receive a message in any way that was like that.  In the end I decided that the only way to test out a calling was to make a commitment to the journey to ordination.  Talking to fellow students during my years at Huron College, I discovered that no one had that kind of a message either.  Looking back I think that I am grateful not to have gone through what Paul experience on that road including being knocked off my mode of transportation and having scales cover my eyes for three days. 

I did receive affirmation of my decision in many ways but not specifically in a Road to Damascus way.  God does speak to us in many different ways which are not necessarily as dramatic or as clear as what Paul experienced.  One experience I had which I believe affirmed my decision occurred just after I had an interview with the Dean of Theology, John Chapman (now Bishop of Ottawa) as part of the process to enter the M. Div. program.  The interview went well and when it was finished I got into my car to drive home.  The car radio was tuned to CBC as usual and the program involved an interview with three clergy who had been ordained later in life.  This certainly fit my experience as I was in my early fifties at the time. 

This experiences was for me synchronistic—a term coined by Carl Jung.  Synchronicity is, simply put, a significant coincidence.   They can be easily dismissed by skeptics as mere coincidence and of no significance other than pure chance.  However, I understood it as a pointer from the divine that I was on the right course.  By itself it would not be enough to make a serious life-changing decision in life.  However, it was one indication that I should continue on this new path and see other signs God might send me.

I believe and have faith that God is speaking to us in many different ways today as God always has.  However, we have not been taught to recognize them.  Our culture does not generally recognize many of these ways.  We need to relearn as a culture and individuals how God does speak to us and how to interpret what might be called the language of God.  One way which I particularly favour is the language of dreams.  Dreams have been called “God’s forgotten language”—a phrase of John Sanford’s, an Episcopal priest and Jungian Analyst and also a title of his very good introduction to dream work. 

There are many other ways such as Contemplative Prayer, Lectio Divina (Holy Listening), and walking the Labyrinth.  My approach to Spiritual Direction is to help directees to identify how God is speaking to them and to help them more fully experience and understand how God is working in their lives. We are each unique children of God and so we are each more receptive to different way in which God is speaking to us.  For instance, my wife Lorna, whose primary way of receiving information is through the five senses, uses that outer input in her inner world.  She is an ISTJ on the Myers Briggs Type Scale i.e. Introverted, Sensing, Thinking, Judging. 

I, on the other hand, am not as in tune with the outer world as many who know me will attest—especially Lorna.  My primary way of receiving information is by intuition, being an INFJ on the Myers Briggs Type Scale i.e. Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, Judging.  This difference means that we are naturally oriented differently to how God is speaking to us.  For instance, Lorna finds walking the Labyrinth to be very meaningful as a form of walking prayer.  The experience of walking the labyrinth does not resonate with me to the same extent.  Rather I find Centering Prayer to be a very meaningful way.

This does not mean that we do not use both forms as a part of our spiritual practices.  I do walk the Labyrinth and Lorna does Centering Prayer.  However, it is not the preferred method in each case.  We both pay attention to our dreams as a way of see if our lives on the course God intends for us.  We both keep dream journals and try to understand the meaning of our dreams or as Lorna says, “don’t you mean the message”? 

The most important thing in all this is to be open to how God is speaking to you and pay attention to the things that you believe God is saying.  This is not always clear and it can be helpful to have someone to help you in that journey such as a clergy person, spiritual director or counsellor.  Blessings,