God's Spirit Poured Out on Us

Rebecca Sheridan
Sunday, May 24, 2026
John 7:37-39

    Do you consider yourself to be a spiritual person?  Recent polls have shown that more and more Americans say they are “spiritual but not religious.”  I would guess that many of us would say we are spiritual AND religious.  But what does it mean, exactly, to be a spiritual person?  My guess is, this means different things to different people, but as Christians, we would describe being spiritual as recognizing the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives – paying attention to God’s Holy Spirit working in us.  Christians ARE spiritual people!  Have you come to terms with this?  Do you believe that the Holy Spirit has an active role in your life?  How is the Holy Spirit at work today – because we don’t necessarily see flames of fire on top of people’s heads this morning, or understand when someone is speaking a different language to us.  How do we celebrate that Holy Spirit alive and well in our church, working in and through us?  Pentecost is a great opportunity to reflect on these questions for us.
    I was struck this morning by our gospel reading from John, which notes that “there was no Spirit, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”  This deserves a bit of clarification.  As we began our celebration of baptism this morning, we had this prayer over the water: “In the beginning, your Spirit moved over the waters.”  We confess faith in the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, as one God. God was, is, and always will be. The Holy Spirit has been a person of God from the beginning– there really was no time that there was no Spirit.  Our first reading from Numbers describes one of numerous times when God’s Spirit is active among the faithful.  Am I daring to question the accuracy of scripture here in John? Well, maybe, but really the clarification is that the Spirit had not be unleashed in a particular way through the birth of the Church as the body of Christ.  The Pentecost moment has not happened yet in John 7.  The Holy Spirit comes in its fullness upon believers AFTER Jesus dies and is raised and appears to the disciples post-resurrection.  John is trying to emphasize that Jesus is a particular conduit of the Holy Spirit and his death and resurrection, his “glorification” in other words, allows the Holy Spirit to work through us so that we can do what Jesus does.
    Our gospel reading is before the events of Pentecost in Acts 2, but we are living post-Pentecost as SPIRITUAL Christians.  We confess today the ways we live as if Pentecost still hasn’t happened yet, as if “there is no Spirit,” the ways we try to rely just on ourselves and our own desire to be in control.  How do we dismiss chance encounters as mere coincidences, or fail to notice God’s activity and blessings in our lives?  We try to control the Holy Spirit and understand or explain the Holy Spirit as a concept. Our scriptures today help us come to the realization that it’s better to experience the Holy Spirit than to understand it.  Our Pentecost celebration this morning urges us to reclaim our spiritual identities and to recognize that God’s Spirit lives in and through us.  We HAVE the gift of the Holy Spirit, thanks be to God – let’s live like it!  The Holy Spirit IS alive and well just as it was on that day when it broke into the house where the believers were gathered like a rush of violent wind!
    In our short gospel for this morning, Jesus calls himself living water and describes the Holy Spirit as living water flowing out of the believer’s heart. Jesus is at the temple during the Festival of Booths, John tells us. This Jewish festival celebrates God’s faithfulness to the people of Israel especially in dividing the Red Sea, leading them to the promised land, and providing water in the wilderness from a rock.  In Jesus’ time, the priests would pray for rain and pour water down the temple steps as a reminder of God’s constant faithfulness to the people.  Jesus stands on the steps as another sign of God’s constant faithfulness.  He points to himself as the water poured out for us – so that we would never be thirsty.   So in those times when we feel spiritually dry, like God is distant or absent, we can think about Jesus standing on the steps, pouring out water for us, reminding us that the Spirit of living water lives and flows through us so that we are never truly dry.
    We celebrated Arabella’s baptism this morning, and Holy Baptism is a similar reminder of the amazing things God can do with the combination of water and Spirit.  Just as water flowed over her head, the waters of baptism still flow through us.  We pray this prayer of the prophet Isaiah upon her; the gifts of the Holy Spirit – a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of counsel and might, a spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord, the spirit of JOY in God’s presence – this is the same prayer we received at our baptism, also.  The gifts of the Spirit are poured out and unleashed even in a little baby.  The Holy Spirit helps us grow in understanding, joy, and fear of the Lord.  The Holy Spirit flows in and through us so that we are able to more deeply love one another and rely on the constant faithfulness of God.  In the beginning, the Spirit moved over the waters – at creation, in the wilderness, through the ministry and teachings of Jesus, through his death and resurrection, through the unleashing of the Spirit at Pentecost in fire and wind – we are STILL spiritual people because of God’s steadfast gift of his very spirit living in us!  Thanks be to God!  Amen.