Pentecost B (Ezekiel 37:1-14; Romans 8:22-27; Psalm 104:25-35, 37; John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15)

On this Day of Pentecost, I want to raise a very uncommon question for us Episcopalians, “Have you received the Holy Spirit? Has the Holy Spirit descended on you? Has God put the Holy Spirit within you?” This is a yes or no question that is yet quite challenging to answer. Probably because we don’t know what it really means. This discussion of receiving the Holy Spirit has never been quite clear, especially in the Episcopal Church. 

My friends, I can assure you that you can say “yes” to the question. You might have some hesitation or a second thought about whether you really did experience the Holy Spirit just because you haven’t experienced the Holy Spirit in the ways you or others think you should. This second thought is actually not that beneficial because the coming of the Holy Spirit is not up to us or does not depend on our subjective experiences or theories about it. The Holy Spirit has already happened. It’s just that we might not have recognized it yet.  So how do we know we’ve already received the Holy Spirit? 

Let’s start with “dry bones” in the valley where the Spirit of God takes Ezekiel and identify ourselves and our world with them. This is not one of the most beautiful images that one would associate with but is indeed a hopeful one. As we can see and acknowledge we’re like dry bones, we’re accepting our spiritual thirst, hunger, and void in us and in the world. This spiritual lack becomes our motivation to be filled with the Spirit. So the prophecy of Ezekiel is the good news for us dry bones: “O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.” (Ezekiel 37:4-6)

The key in this prophecy is breath. The breath of God, ruah in Hebrew or pneuma in Greek, which is the Holy Spirit, is breathed into our being. Then, our own breath becomes the very entry to sense the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. We too often take our ability to breathe for granted but this is the very evidence of life. It’s also something we’ve never learned how to. We simply do. But what if we imagine that it is God who is breathing into our very existence from moment to moment? If that one human activity that we have never stopped doing ever since we were born is this act of breathing, can we say God has never stopped breathing into us? If this is not grace, what is?

Then the focus of our spiritual practice is simple. Be attentive and aware of our own breathing first. Every time we’re mindful of our breathing in and out, we realize that our lives are not our own but are sustained by the very breath of God. With this great thanksgiving, we open ourselves to God, others, and the world. This awareness of God’s breathing in our own breathing is to connect, communicate, commune with ourselves, our neighbors, our environments, and God. When we’re able to see ourselves and the world around us that we experience, perceive, and construct by connecting physically and spiritually through breathing, we become one with one another. This is how God lays sinews on us, causes flesh to come upon us, and covers us with skin as described in the prophecy of Ezekiel, which is the forming of God’s beloved community. 

Our own breath, which is the breath of God the Spirit is what Jesus leaves behind in today’s gospel lesson. Also, let’s not forget that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth, aleitheia in Greek whose literal meaning is unforgetfulness or awakening. We then need to work on raising our awareness and awakening to the divine breath. Now, the question is not about whether we received the Holy Spirit or not but how aware and awake we are of the Holy Spirit through our own breathing. I leave us with another question, “Who’s breathing in you?”