Barry Manilow, the Bible, and the Breath of God
Pentecost – Year C. June 8, 2025
Accompanying Scripture Readings:
Acts 2:1-21
The Gospel According to John 14:8-17 (25-27)
Sermon by Deacon Bramwell Richards of the Northern Highlands Benefice in the Episcopal Diocese of Wisconsin
Back in the fall of 2004 as my 37th birthday approached, I was struggling with depression. I was wondering why I was here and what was my purpose. I felt lost and alone. The woman I shared an office with at work noticed I was quiet, moody, and generally not myself for quite a few days. Usually I would get in 8 a.m., turn on a desk lamp, and play some music. She would get in at 10 a.m., turn on the overhead light, and say “Turn off that music!” She noticed I had not been listening to the music of the greatest musician of all time—Barry Manilow. She asked me what was wrong. I told her I was just not seeing any purpose in my life. She asked me if I knew God. I explained to her how I had been raised Roman Catholic and was confirmed as a teenager and how my family went to church every Sunday until I was 14. Then we stopped going every week and just went at Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, Easter, and Christmas. I told her I didn’t really believe in God or a higher power anymore.
Barry Manilow live at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, MN on January 11, 2008. Photo taken by Matt Becker.
She told me how she came to know God. She had been raised without any religious upbringing. She had studied different religions at university and when her aunt heard this, she gave her a Bible and told her as she had read everything else, she should also read the Bible. She did, and that’s when she found God and a purpose in life.
I had read parts of the Bible in the past as a boy in church and again after my Dad died, and it hadn’t moved me. I was skeptical. But I thought “Why not, it can’t hurt.” So, I picked up a Bible and read the Gospel according to Matthew. And then the Gospels according to Mark, Luke, and John. I felt at peace, I didn’t feel alone anymore. Over the years I have tried to put this experience into words that are rational and logical—I can’t. The only way I can explain what happened is to say the Holy Spirit spoke to me as I read the Gospels and I heard it. Through the reading of God’s word, my heart and soul was opened to God through the power of the Holy Spirit. From that moment till now I have tried to find ways to serve God and to learn about God and what I am supposed to do with my life to serve God. And that is how the Holy Spirit brought me to God.
Today we celebrate the feast of Pentecost, when God sent the Holy Spirit to Peter and the other apostles, just like God sent the Holy Spirit to me back in 2004. Let’s now look at what the Bible says about the Holy Spirit and the day of Pentecost.
In the Gospel according to John, there are several references to the Holy Spirit. Today we heard that Jesus said, “the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.” (John 14:26) Later in the Gospel according to John, when Jesus had risen from the dead and visited the disciples in the locked room, “Jesus breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” (John 20:22)
In today’s reading from the book of Acts, we hear how the Holy Spirit came to the apostles on the day of Pentecost. Pentecost was fifty days after the Jewish day of Passover. The Jews, including the apostles, were gathered to celebrate the day. According to Acts, “suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.” (Acts 2:2-4)
People hearing the apostles speak in many languages thought they were drunk. But Peter explained what had happened by quoting the prophet Joel: God had poured out God’s Spirit upon them and would do so for all people—men and women, old and young, Jew and gentile.
The apostles were speaking in many languages so that all people would understand them—not because they were drunk. The apostles were given the power to speak many languages by the Holy Spirit so they could proclaim to all of humanity that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Joel as quoted by Peter in Acts 2:21)
The fact that this proclamation was for everyone and not just the Jews was a revolutionary statement. In Jesus’ time, each nation had their own gods that they worshiped. The Romans had their gods, the Greeks had theirs, the Egyptians had their gods, and so on. The idea that a God could be for all peoples and not just one group was new and revolutionary.
But what exactly is the Holy Spirit? Some people say the Spirit can be impersonal, like a force—the energy or power of God. Others see the Holy Spirit as the common bond of love between God’s people—a spirit of grace, mercy, and comfort. And still others say the Holy Spirit is the mind behind creation. All of these interpretations of what the Holy Spirit is are supported by scripture. In the Bible there are thirty-two different names for the Holy Spirit. Don’t worry, I am not going to list all thirty-two! A few will suffice to explain what the Holy Spirit is.
The Holy Spirit is called “Breath of the Almighty”—the life-giving breath of God;
The Holy Spirit is called Counselor Comforter—the Holy Spirit comforts, counsels, and gives strength;
The Holy Spirit is called Eternal Spirit—the Holy Spirit is eternal God;
The Holy Spirit is called Power of the Highest—the Spirit is God’s power, the greatest power there is;
The Holy Spirit is called Spirit of Grace—God’s Spirit is a merciful spirit;
The Holy Spirit is called Spirit of Prophecy—it is the Holy Spirit who inspires true prophecy;
The Holy Spirit is called a Gift Giver.
In the apostle Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, he writes that the Holy Spirit gives gifts to everyone who believes in Christ: “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.” (1 Cor. 12:4-11)
So, the Holy Spirit is a comforter, a teacher, the life-giving breath of God, an inspirer of true prophecy, and the giver of gifts to individuals who believe and to the church as a whole. Ultimately, all of these descriptions of the Holy Spirit can only lead to one conclusion—the Holy Spirit is God. This is because no other thing has the power to do what the Holy Spirit is described as doing in the Bible. The Holy Spirit is a member of the Trinity—one of the three persons in the being we call God. Next week we will celebrate Trinity Sunday, and we will learn more about the Trinity then.
I have taken us down a long path from my conversion story to an explanation of what the Holy Spirit is. You may be asking “What does all of this have to do with me?” And that is a good question—whenever one hears scripture at a service or reads it, one should ask “So what? How does what I heard or read apply to my life?” So let me try to answer you.
As we heard Peter say in the reading from Acts, when he quoted the prophet Joel, the Holy Spirit is sent to all of humanity—men and women, young and old, white and Black and persons of all skin colors, Jew and Gentile and Muslim and people of other faith traditions, people of all sexual orientations and identities, Democrats and Republicans, capitalists and socialists, Americans and Mexicans and peoples of all nations. The Holy Spirit is sent to everyone equally. It lives in all of us and urges us to believe in God. It is never too late to hear God’s voice speaking in us through the Holy Spirit—it took me 37 years to hear it! When we are in distress, the Holy Spirit will comfort us. When we are unsure about what God wants us to do and how we are to use the gifts given to us by the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit will guide us. And it is never too late to use the gifts given to us by the Holy Spirit.
The promise of the Holy Spirit is that if we believe and listen, we will be comforted, guided, and enabled to exercise our gifts. So let us read scripture and meditate on God’s Word and spend time listening for the Holy Spirit. And then pray for comfort when you are in distress, pray for guidance when facing difficult challenges, and pray for guidance in exercising the gifts given to us to help each other. That is how the gift of the Holy Spirit applies to your life.
So, on this day when we celebrate the feast of Pentecost let us thank God for sending the Holy Spirit to us. And let us be comforted by the love of the one true God who sent the Holy Spirit to dwell in us even though we are all sinners.
Copyright Bramwell Richards, all rights reserved.
