Reflections on Pentecost

10 Jun 2010

What does Science Fiction have to do with the Holy Spirit? Hugh Bowron goes where no vicar has gone before and discovers the season of Pentecost has more in common with Doctor Who than meets the eye.

Since the Daleks and the Tardis first appeared on screen, the BBC series Doctor Who has become an enduring viewer favourite. Though the Doctors have changed in character and style over the years, the essential plot lines have remained the same. The Doctor is a Time Lord who moves through space and time on a mission to thwart evil, and to protect the human race. He values the qualities of difference in aliens and humans, always seems intent on understanding the creatures he is dealing with and, interestingly enough, he dies at the end of each series to be reborn at the start of the next.

As the Easter season draws to a close, we are left wondering where Jesus has gone to after his Ascension. The short answer is that he has gone into God’s future, the space and place of his fulfilled purposes. From there, he sends the Holy Spirit, who is widely active in our affairs. Moving through space and time, the Holy Spirit turns up in the twists and turns of the human story, exerting a subtle and surprising influence to thwart evil, and to protect the human race. He is especially active in the Church, operating always as a community builder.

What the Holy Spirit makes available are the powers of the age to come. We can see these at work in acts of forgiveness that end cycles of retaliation and retribution. They are evident in the ministry of healing in which human diminishment is reversed by the pouring in of effervescent end-time energies. They are especially on display in the celebration of the Eucharist, at which we remember the future. The fully realised world of the Kingdom of God comes alive in that time of worship. The Church becomes what it is meant to be as it repeats, realises and anticipates what it will be. So the Eucharist should always be celebrated in a style that reflects this weight of future glory.

We, too, are being shaped by this Spirit who comes from the future. Who we are is no longer determined by our past history and failures. What matters is who we are on the road to becoming as we move towards that personal identity that God always thought we had it in ourselves to be. Our Lord the Holy Spirit is building our sense of Christian identity: using the building blocks of our past history and experience, yet changing and transforming these raw ingredients into something and someone who is remarkable. We are on the way to assuming our charismatic identities.

WORDS: Hugh Bowron