Wait in the city of Jerusalem “until you have been clothed with power from on high”.  “…you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you…” (NRSV, Luke 24:49; Acts 1:8)

After the clamour and violence of Good Friday, Holy Saturday in Jerusalem was quiet, for it was the Sabbath, and the whole city “…rested according to the commandment” (NRSV, Luke 23:56).  No one, not even the Apostles, appreciated the meaning of this lull which contrasted so sharply with the agonising tumult of the previous day.  For them, it was the day after the burial of their Master, marking the end of all their faith and hope, the calm that comes with the fall of night.

But it was in fact the day before their Master’s Resurrection from the dead, the still expectancy that precedes the dawn when “…the Lord awoke as from sleep…” (NRSV, Psalm 78:65) and began his Risen life.

A similar lull occurred after the Ascension, but this time the Apostles fully understood its significance.  Wait in the city of Jerusalem, Our Blessed Lord had told them “until you have been clothed with power from on high”.  “…you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (NRSV, Luke 24:49; Acts 1:8).

So for 10 days they waited quietly in prayer with Our Lady and the rest of the disciples.  The only event recorded during that time was the choice of St Matthias to take the place in the Apostolic band which Judas Iscariot had once occupied.  No suspicion reached the outside world of what was in store for it, as Our Lord unobtrusively completed his preparations for his very own counter-attack against evil which he was about to unleash by means of his Catholic and Apostolic Church.

For the life and power of the Church is Our Lord’s own life and power, first given at Pentecost with the out-pouring of his Holy Spirit upon the Apostles.

St Peter, with his eager, impetuous nature had perhaps found his patience chafing at having to wait, before he could proclaim the Gospel and continue his Master’s Ministry.  But he knew – none better – that unless the Church was founded by God and filled with his personal life, it was as good as dead before it started.  If St Peter and the rest of the Apostles had gone out on their own without waiting for Pentecost, we should not be in this church now.

Gamaliel, the eminent Jewish leader, was shrewd enough to recognise this when he advised the Supreme Council not to attempt to suppress the Apostles.  “…if this plan or this undertaking is of human origin,” he said, “it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them – in that case you may even be found fighting against God!” (NRSV, Acts 5:38,39).

And in point of fact that is what happened.  For whenever the enemies of the Gospel have persecuted Our Lord’s Church they have really been persecuting him and it is he who has resisted them and in the end defeated them.

“Saul, Saul,” said Our Lord to the future Apostle, “why do you persecute me?” (NRSV, Acts 9:4, our emphasis).  And because Our Lord and his Church are one, the Church has always been supported in her hour of need by his Holy Spirit who is her life.  So when Our Lord warned his Apostles how they would be arrested and put on trial, he told them not to worry beforehand about their defence but “…say whatever is given you at that time, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit” (NRSV, Mark 13:11).

That is why the very gates of Hell itself have been unable to prevail against the Catholic and Apostolic Church.  During the first three centuries which followed that first Pentecost, a series of attempts, carefully planned and most ruthlessly executed were made in an all-out effort to stamp out the Church and her Faith.  All the resources of the world were brought to bear against her – imprisonment, torture, death – those three things over and over again with every variety that human cruelty and ingenuity could devise.

And in face of it all the Church stood completely unarmed.  Unarmed?  No, irresistibly armed, as St Paul says, with the “…whole armour of God” – “the belt of truth”, “the breastplate of righteousness”, “the shield of faith”, “the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit…” (NRSV, Ephesians 6:13-17).  And it was the Sword of the Spirit that triumphed.

Indeed, in the end the enemies of the Faith were converted to it.  And when at last the Roman Empire reached the evening of her long day and the calm of her latter years was shattered and swept away by the stormy night of the barbarian invasions and the old civilisation was wiped out, it was the invincible Church which survived; and not only survived, but gradually converted the savage conquerors and brought them to Christ.

For the converting and vitalising power of the Holy Spirit knows no limit.  Let us take another, but no less telling example.  At the beginning of the 19th century the Church of England was seemingly dead.  The general appearance of most churches was dirty and slovenly: the chancels were ill-kept and everything connected with the altars was mean and grubby.

In most parishes the Holy Communion was celebrated only three times a year – Christmas, Easter and Whitsun.  And even then in the year 1800 at St Paul’s Cathedral, “…there were but six communicants at the only celebration on Easter Day”. (1)

The state of the Church at that time and for some 30 years after, has been aptly summed up in the words, “…the Church of England…was folding its robes to die with what dignity it could”. (2) As Dr Arnold, Headmaster of Rugby School, said in 1833, “The Church as it now is, no human power can save”. (3)

But where human power could not avail, the Holy Spirit worked the miracle.  The Catholic Revival swept like a cleansing and invigorating breeze through England.  The churches were opened, and within them order and cleanliness and beauty returned: the Sacramental life of the Church was renewed and the dignity of her worship restored.  And many a soul since then has been converted and become a faithful penitent and devout communicant.

And the worldwide Church has shown in the last century and in our own 21st century, that faced by persecution, neither imprisonment nor torture nor death can crush her for she is God’s own Church, filled, inspired and supported by his Holy Spirit.

And what the Holy Spirit has done for his Church, he does also for each individual member who does not resist him.  For there are members of the Church who resist the Holy Spirit, who do not want to be converted, who do not want to grow in holiness, who only wish for God to leave them alone in their respectability.

But there are others who open their hearts to the cleansing and vitalising breeze of the Holy Spirit, who want their souls to be temples of God, made clean and kept clean for him to dwell in, so that they may become the kind of people the all-holy God wants them to be, whatever personal sacrifice of their selfish instincts or their selfish interests that may mean: people whose prayer is that they may persevere in their following of him until the time comes for him to call them home.

Such souls are indeed the living temples of the Holy Spirit, and let us pray that each of us may be numbered among them.  And let us pray that, like Peter and the first Apostles, in the power of the Holy Spirit, we may proclaim the Gospel in word and deed and continue our Master’s work, drawing others into the Family of the Church.  And may the people of our land be freed from the tyranny of secularism and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

Collect for the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity

God, who in generous mercy sent the Holy Spirit
       upon your Church in the burning fire of your love:
grant that your people may be fervent
in the fellowship of the gospel
that, always abiding in you,
they may be found steadfast in faith and active in service;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. (4)

References

1. Wakeman, H.O. (4th edition) (1897) An introduction to the history of the Church of England, London: Rivington, Percival & Co.

2. Mozley, T. (1882) Reminiscences chiefly of Oriel College and the Oxford Movement, Volume 1, London: Longmans Green and Co, p.273.  Available from:
http://archive.org/stream/reminiscencesch01mozlgoog#page/n304/mode/2up (Accessed 09 May 2013) (Internet).

3. Cited in Addison, W. (1947) The English country parson, London: J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd, p.151.

4. ©The Archbishops' Council of the Church of England (2004) Common Worship Collects and Post Communions in Contemporary Language.  Available from:
http://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-worship/worship/texts/collects-and-post-communions/contemporary-language/postwhit.aspx (Accessed 10 May 2013) (Internet).