One in Christ through the Holy Spirit

This past weekend my wife and I were in Williamsburg for one of our son’s graduation from the William and Mary Law School. On Sunday we joined him and his family for worship at Incarnation Anglican Church. Those that follow the church calendar will know that this was Pentecost Sunday and will not be surprised that the sermon was on the Holy Spirit.

I’ve been thinking about Pentecost, about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and about an implication for our ministries to prisoners.

First some background to provide context.

Adam and Eve’s rebellion corrupted and polluted all humankind. The Fall caused all people to be expelled from the presence of God.

With Abraham, God moved toward men and women and initiated a covenant relationship with them based on his steadfast love. But because of their corruption the response to God could only be made through the blood of sacrificial offerings.

After the Exodus God went further and dwelled among his people. His glory rested in the tabernacle, on the mercy seat on the ark of testimony within the Most Holy Place. Though God was now in the midst of the people they were still shielded from his presence by the curtains of the tabernacle.

Entrance into the Most Holy Place, into the presence God, was limited to the high priest alone, and that only once a year at Yom Kippur. For everyone else, though God was among them, his presence was inaccessible due to his perfection and their corruption.

God’s inaccessibility to sinful people was dramatically shown in the incident with Uzzah, which is recorded in 2 Samuel 6.

The ark had been captured by the Philistines but was now returning to Jerusalem. Oh, what a happy day it was for God’s people. The ark, the place upon which God’s glory rested, was coming back to the tabernacle. It was a time of great rejoicing and celebration.

David took thirty thousand chosen men of Israel to accompany the ark and they rejoiced mightily. They played music with lyres and harps and with tambourines, castanets, and cymbals. They shouted and they sang. It was a great and happy day.

Then Uzzah touched the ark.

The ark was being transported on a new cart. Uzzah was one of the cart drivers. At one point the oxen stumbled, and the ark tottered. It looked like it was about to fall off into the dirt. Uzzah reached out and put his hand on the ark to protect it from falling. The moment he did, God struck him dead (2 Samuel 6:6-7).

I heard R.C. Sproul say that nothing about falling in the dirt would have defiled the ark because dirt is not sinful. Sinful humans could not come into contact with a holy God and live.  

All of that changed with the incarnation. In Jesus, God lived with sinful people. He walked with sinful people. He ate with sinful people. He touched sinful people and sinful people touched him—and they lived! God crossed the divide that separated him from his people. They could now be in his presence and live!

Then that changed even further with Pentecost. At Pentecost, God the Holy Spirit descended and not only lived with sinful people but dwelled inside them.

Please pause and meditate on the significance of that for a few minutes. Sinful people, corrupt people, are really and truly indwelt by a holy God. God is inside them, and they do not die!

The gift of the Holy Spirit is not conditioned on anyone’s performance. You don’t have to be good enough or smart enough to receive the Holy Spirit. You don’t have to have a special calling to receive the Holy Spirit. Everyone who is a believer, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord receives the gift.

And it is the gift of the Holy Spirit, the indwelling of God, that makes us a unique people, a people where there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, but all are one in Christ (Gal. 3:28).

It is an amazing thing that the holy God lives within us sinful people, and it is an amazing thing that that truth unites us to one another in a way that is more significant than any other connection or affinity in the world.

And that connection of us each who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit to all others who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit includes prisoners.

There is a tendency to do not think about prisoners, to forget them. One pastor admitted to me that when it comes to prisoners it is out of sight out of mind. He doesn’t ever see prisoners and so he doesn’t think about them. There is also a tendency, if we’re honest, among many church people to look down on prisoners as criminals who are getting what they deserve. If that’s the case, then why think about them?

The command from the writer of Hebrews struck me again as I thought about these things: Remember those in prison as though in prison with them (Heb. 13:3).

One thing that Pentecost teaches us, that demands of us, is to see Christian prisoners, regardless of their sins and crimes, as dwelling places of the Holy Spirit and united with every other person where the Spirt of God dwells.

What especially grabbed me from the sermon Sunday is that Christian prisoners are in every way our brothers and sisters. They are one with us and we with them. Our Spirit-filled kinship and connection with Christian prisoners is not broken by razor wire fences or concrete walls.

Much love, Barry