From Francis Honey

What is spiritual growth, why should we want it and how can we help one another and those we encounter to grow spiritually ?
California seems to be full of people who like to talk about spiritual things, being spiritual and growing spiritually and in that sense is no different from our understanding of the world a couple of thousand years ago. Today with the availability of modern communications all sorts of ideas, ideologies and religious beliefs can be presented and traded. We can know about a lot of stuff. There are probably more than enough religions to offer the religiously inclined a different one each year of their lives. They do not all have the same fundamentals and those folk who like to mix and match will probably never be satisfied in their hunger. The hunger is often not defined but could be considered to be our innate desire to experience something or someone infinitely wiser, loving and more permanent than we in our short lives are. The hunger is not limited to any particular age range either.
St. Philip's is a very peculiar place. It is a tiny proportion of the local population and its credo concerns a carpenter, Jesus of Nazareth who lived and died in poor circumstances in the Middle East two thousand years ago. However the credo is extraordinary because the belief is that this poor carpenter who became an itinerant preacher, healer and friend of the unloved was murdered and then rose from the dead again three days later. The belief is even more extreme. This carpenter was the son of God and somehow in his dying he was able to free those who trust him from their sins which separate them from God.
Looked at coldly that is a crazy idea, yet the idea of trust suggests that there is a relationship with someone beyond our normal understanding. How has such a strange idea not only cropped up in Scott's Valley but also survived for 2000 years ?  The early Christian church was faced with the same challenge and in fact before there was a church the carpenter told his followers to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit.
It should be noted that the followers of that carpenter themselves had a spiritual hunger. They were of a race and religion, which believed in an infinite, wise, just and holy God. They also had a belief that he was terrible in his might and would take vengeance on His and their enemies. Another belief they had was that he would send someone who would change the whole order of things. They called this person who was to come messiah , savior or redeemer and after the carpenter died and then ap

parently rose again a group of his followers began to believe that he might be that messiah. However to proclaim any such idea would meet with such derision, disbelief and antagonism that those who proclaimed it would be highly unlikely to sustain their belief in the truth of their claims let alone survive. When they met together they were behind closed doors, terrified of a vicious group of opponents, then something extraordinary happened. A letter from a man to his friend (The Acts of the Apostles) records that the Holy Spirit came and changed the lives of these frightened followers of the carpenter in such a way that they went out and talked about Jesus in the face of incredible opposition and managed to convince others of what they believed. They grew in their knowledge and love of God, they grew spiritually. The Christian church was born at a time the Jews call Pentecost, and the Acts of the Apostles and many of the letters in the New Testament are concerned about the actions of the followers of Jesus in conjunction with the Holy Spirit. They helped others grow spiritually.
The credo of St. Philip's is that the God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are one.
In the Old Testament the Holy Spirit came mainly to special people, prophets and the like, then  in the early part of the New Testament, we hear of the same Holy Spirit being active in the lives of those who were close to Jesus in his early years. Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, carried out His ministry, preaching, healing and challenging and then told His followers to wait for the Holy Spirit which would give them the power to carry out the work He had for them.
The Acts of the Apostles has also been called the adventures of the disciples with the Holy Spirit and it certainly isn't a story of tame games. It is wonderful to read how the disciples went around teaching about Jesus, healing, baptizing and laying on hands and seeing folk changed as the Holy Spirit came into their lives.
Today we are all hungry in different ways and during this season of Pentecost, through Advent and into next year there will be opportunities to learn more about Jesus and to experience the Holy Spirit in all our lives. Through our weekly services, the meetings of the different groups for fellowship, Alpha courses  ( in the fall for adults and then in the spring for youngsters ) and Retreats, there will be many ways to help us all grow spiritually, to help one another and those we meet at the same time.
The Holy Spirit is not for a few special Christians only. The Holy Spirit is ready to come into the lives of all who are spiritually hungry including you and me. We can then grow spiritually and help others.
If you would like to know more about our program for spiritual growth from Pentecost to Pentecost then please ask Fr. Martin, Karen Krestensen or myself.

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