The Rev. Frank Logue
King of Peace Episcopal Church
Kingsland, Georgia
April 23, 2006 

The Holy Spirit—The 18^th Horse
John 20:1-31 

I spent most of my years growing up each Sunday in the second pew at Mount Paran Church of God. The Church of God is a Pentecostal denomination and so they are not shy about talking about the Holy Spirit. Talk of the Holy Spirit was even more present when I attended my first year of college at an Assembly of God Bible College and visited Pentecostal churches in the area. The emphasis in those churches is the work of the Holy Spirit that takes place in and through us due to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Of course, much of the preaching and nearly all of the emphasis of the churches in on the gifts of the Spirit, which include prophecy and healing and most notably the gift of speaking in tongues. 

While this is not exactly a sermon on those gifts, I will say in passing that I am often asked if I believe in that sort of thing. And having read it in scripture, seen it in action in churches and experienced the Holy Spirit working through me in healing some one and in other ways, I have to say of course I believe in the gifts of the spirit. It’s part of the teaching of the Christian church and I think we are poorer if we ignore the potential for the Holy Spirit to do greater things through us than those done in Jesus’ own day. 

But we non-Pentecostals can get so uptight about the whole speaking in tongues thing that we aren’t open to the Holy Spirit at all. We are the less for it as the Holy Spirit is the person of the Trinity most accessible to us. For it is the Holy Spirit in our spirits that allows us to experience God. Every experience you have ever had of God touching your heart, or speaking to you in some way—through events, through other people, through that still small voice in your own mind that you recognize as being from God—all of those are the Holy Spirit working in and through you. 

Mark Dyer, a retired Bishop I know from seminary, says that some people feel that they can not see or know God and so don’t understand how someone else can have faith. But Bishop Mark went on to say that those persons have only ever experienced a world shot through with God’s presence. The difference would be if God withdrew from the world and there was no way we could feel God among us. Bishop Mark concluded saying that if the Holy Spirit was not present in the world, we would not even be able to breath. 

That sounds overly dramatic, but it is God who breathes life into Adam at creation. This original act of inspiration, giving breath into the world is what animates our lives. We see this again in today’s Gospel reading when Jesus appears to his disciples after his resurrection. Jesus’ followers have locked themselves away. Their shared grief and shock keeps them together, while there mutual fear of being known as a disciple of Jesus keeps them locked away lest someone turn them in to the authorities and they face the same sort of persecution Jesus faced.  

Then Jesus appears in that locked upper room. He tells them, “Peace be with you.” Then Jesus shows them his hands and his side. Having seen his wounds, they know it is really Jesus and they rejoice. Then Jesus repeats, “Peace be with you” and he breathes on them and tells them to receive the Holy Spirit.  

This act of Jesus breathing on his disciples repeats the action of God breathing the breath of life into the first human, Adam. This is new creation. Jesus’ death and resurrection bring about that new creation by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit working within the spirits, the hearts, of those first followers that truly unlocks the room they are in and sets them free. Once gathered out of fear, this same rag tag band of disciples will bust out of the room, go into the streets and tell the world about Jesus. Within generations the Good News of their resurrected Lord will be known throughout the Roman Empire and in time it will go out to the ends of the earth all because of that first inspiration given to those disciples gathered in fear. Jesus breath gave them the Holy Spirit working in them to do more than they could ask for or imagine. 

That same Holy Spirit is right here, right now in you as I preach. That’s what I count on every week, knowing that even if I get the sermon wrong, the Holy Spirit can still work with the sermon to speak to your heart. This is something even we Episcopalians know about and so we shouldn’t be afraid to talk about the Holy Spirit. Nor should we be afraid to pray for the spirit to be more fully present in our lives. For it is the Holy Spirit working like yeast within us that can help us be God’s presence in some situation. The Holy Spirit is that extra person you feel when you pray for a loved one in need, knowing that somehow you are not praying alone. 

There is a story which illustrates what I mean about the work of the Holy Spirit. Its told of the ancient Celtic saint, Comgan, that takes place as he arrived in a village soon after the death of the priest.[1] A man of some substance, the priest had 17 horses, but he left no will. The people were arguing among themselves as to who should get the horses when Saint Comgan comes riding onto the scene. 

Comgan told them he could both solve the horse dilemma and find the village a new priest. He said that the horses should be divided so that the sexton should have half the horses for digging the graves and caring for all the property; the beadle should get a third of the horses for his care of the church’s things, especially those items used in worship; and the choirmaster should receive a ninth of the horses for leading the church music. And the person who could resolve how to divide the horses should be the new priest. 

The village was mystified, but agreed to the plan. The sexton, beadle and choirmaster set out to find someone who could solve the new mathematical problem of how to divide 17 into half, a third and a ninth without sawing up any horses or dividing days of the week. They ran into lots of people interested in the dilemma, but none who could solve it. 

Then a young man offered his own horse to the priest’s herd. Now enlarged to 18, the herd was divided in half, with the sexton receiving his nine horses. The beadle got his third by taking home six horses, and the choirmaster got a ninth of the herd with two horses. The original 17 thus divided, the young man took his own horse back. 

The villagers promptly asked the man to be there priest, citing Saint Comgan’s advice. The man agreed and he was sent to the bishop for first training and then ordination before returning to the village for three decades of faithful service to the congregation who miraculously found him. 

One has to assume the role of The Holy Spirit in this story. The story doesn’t work without the Holy Spirit animating it by touching the hearts of those involved, speaking with that still small voice. The Holy Spirit is the one who inspires Comgan to set up the task and also inspires the young man to ride into the village and offer a solution. The same Holy Spirit then gets the Bishop to back the whole plan leads the young man to return to be a faithful priest after going away to study. 

The Holy Spirit is that 18^th horse. Just as the inheritance issue could not have been solved without first adding the 18^th horse, so there are things in your life that you will not be able to get through or able to bear without the Holy Spirit. For God’s presence working in and through you can get you through problems you consider insurmountable.  

If you wonder if you ever felt the Holy Spirit at all, remember that from the perspective of the Bible it is the Holy Spirit which you breathe. Without the Holy Spirit you would not even have the breath of life and in death, it is still the Holy Spirit who is with you.  

If all that sounds like church talk or mumbo jumbo, look to how we humans act so cruelly when left to our own devices. Sure much wrong has been done in God’s name, but that was just us humans acting in our usual cruel ways and attaching God’s name to it. Imagine how we would act if we did not have God in our hearts calling us to listen to the better angels of our natures. Imagine what the world would be like if no one had ever felt God’s presence in his or her life. It would be a world without all those things people of faith have done in their best moments—a world without hospitals, without orphanages, without anyone to feed and cloth the neediest.  

That world without God’s presence would also be a world without compassion and love. I know that may sound like overstating the case, but what our faith teaches us “God is Love” and that we are created in God’s image. We have compassion and love because of the compassion and love of God, just as we have breath because of the breath of God, which is the Holy Spirit. This means that God is not distant. God is in us. And the God within you wants you to just open up more of your heart to make room for a little bit more of the Holy Spirit. Making room for the Holy Spirit is what makes new creation possible. 

Let us close with prayer:
Come, Holy Spirit come. Fill the hearts of your faithful. Breathe your spirit into our spirits anew and kindle in each person here the fire of your love as you set that spark alight in Jesus’ disciples. Awaken us to your presence. Give top each persons gathered here the gifts of the Holy Spirit you have for him or her that we may more fully serve you. This we pray in the name of the one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

Amen.