The Holy Spirit

A sermon preached by Revd Sophie Ferguson on Sunday 24 August 2025

Have you ever been asked the question, what gives you life? Holidays and breaks from routine, can be that chance to breathe back in and remind us to be still or to reconnect with the things that fill our soul.

This could be time with friends, with family or perhaps you prefer some good quality alone time.

Maybe what gives you life is going to the beach, or a nice cold G&T at the pub. Sitting with a good book, or going running. Perhaps just a simple phone call with a dear friend is all it takes. Our family enjoy going surfing and being in the wild waves in North Cornwall, which gives us that space we need to reconnect with ourselves and one another. Whatever it is that brings you life, we all need it. I would say in today’s anxious, fractured and fast-paced world, we crave it!

Today we follow on, in our summer sermon series as we celebrate the 1700th anniversary of the Nicene creed. The Nicene creed is a summary of core Christian beliefs that is regularly used in our worship. This anniversary is being marked here, as we explore together what this creed says about what we believe as a Church.
We are also hosting a zoom reflection on Monday evenings following this series which you would be welcomed to join. This morning, I am bringing you the 5th sermon in this series about what as a Church we believe about the Holy Spirit. ‘The giver of life’.

I invite you to listen again to these powerful lines:
“We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father [and the Son],
who with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.”

Let us reflect on the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity, who is this giver of life! The Holy Spirit is not an optional afterthought, nor a vague spiritual force, but the very breath of God.

In our first reading from the first pages of Genesis, we hear of a formless earth and darkness covering the face of the deep, then a wind came. The Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. This rich imagery sparks our imaginations to grasp God’s physical presence in the world. This wind, this divine breath of God, known as Ruach, is the Hebrew word which translates as God’s breath which brings life.

For a moment let us pause here and if you would like to, can everyone take a deep breath in and out.

We breathe in and out about 22,000 times a day. It is vital for survival, and we are all powered by breathing. Although invisible, it sustains life.
The invisible Spirit of God we are exploring this morning was there in the very beginning, bringing forth and sustaining life.

The Holy Spirit therefore is not a New Testament add on, or perhaps the third and forgotten person. Rather, as we declare in the Nicene Creed, the Holy Spirit proceeds the Father and the Son. The Spirit is the very breath of God among us, that has been breathing, speaking, moving, giving and sustaining life from the starting point of all creation.

Throughout the Hebrew scriptures, the Holy Spirit is spoken to have empowered great leaders. The Nicene Creed reminds us that the Spirit “has spoken through the prophets.”

Prophets like Ezekiel, a Priest who had been living in the time of Jerusalem’s fall to Babylon. He announced hope for the people of Israel living in exile. Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dried human bones and skeletons written in Chapter 37 represented the dried-up spirit of the people of Israel.

It is a story of violence and destruction, and the people of Israel were living in exile with no hope.

The prophecy reveals God’s Spirit, God’s ‘Ruach’, breathing on these dry bones. Causing these bones to stand, filling them with life and breath and they even regrow skin.

This prophecy served as a powerful image and promise for future hope of the people of God. What had resulted in death, God would redeem. By breathing new life, God would perform an act of new creation. Again, we hear in this prophecy, of life-giving breath, the Holy Spirit, the very giver of Life.

Moving to our gospel reading today, from John 14, Jesus is speaking to his disciples on the evening before his crucifixion. They are sharing in the Last Supper. Christ shares intimately to his eleven remaining disciples, the promise of the Holy Spirit, when he is no longer physically going to be with them. In this highly emotive space, Jesus promises that they will not be left alone and explains that an advocate is coming to be with us forever. Saying:

‘You know him because he abides in you, and he will be in you”

The author David.H.Jensen in his book The Lord and Giver of Life, describes the presence of God in this way:

‘This presence does more than make us biologically alive. “Life” has a much richer meaning…the Holy Spirit makes us “spiritually” alive… it inspires and strengthens us… it binds us to one another… it assures us of divine acceptance and companionship.’ Pg149

Today, we are celebrating the Baptism of Henry and welcoming him into a Christian community. He will be baptised in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This Holy Spirit, the giver of life, is a gift to Henry today. Henry receives an assurance of companionship. Just as Christ was sharing with his dearest friends that he would not leave them alone but send an advocate, we too have the promise of the same advocate. The same Holy Spirit. So, Henry, when you sleep (and having two small children I will pray for that for you!), when you wake, when you go on wild adventures and make new discoveries, the Holy Spirit, God’s presence is with you. Henry will carry God’s presence wherever he goes.

And parents and Godparents, and for all of us today, who can sometimes feel that the world is a fast and fractured place. When we do not know what to pray. Or perhaps when we see harrowing images in our newspapers and tv screens and when we watch war correspondents reporting from decimated cities. When our world seems like a desolate and dry place. Perhaps too overwhelming to imagine what difference we could make…

What if we took a deep breath in reminded ourselves of the words of Christ:

‘You know him because he abides in you, and he will be in you”

Then in moments of stillness where prayer becomes breath and breath becomes prayer, let us be reminded that the Holy Spirit has been with creation and will always be with us.

As gentle and vital as breath is to our bodies, so too is the breath of God.

Never forced or put upon us but abiding in us.

Just as you are engaged with noticing your breath, there is always an invitation to receive new life, ‘Come Holy Spirit’.

We can ask the advocate to intercede on our behalf and call us into the work of hope.

So, what gives you life?

Going back to where we started, keep enjoying your holidays, your meals out or whatever it is that gives you life and a chance to relax, because those things are important for us all, and yet they do not continually sustain us. The Lord the Giver of Life will ultimately sustain us.

So, as the world seems at war with itself, the Holy Spirit – the Lord the Giver of life is still our advocate and is binding us together.

The advocate is alongside us and urges us on, to be partners in breathing new creation, new life into our own lives, into the places we live, into our world, and into the darkest and barren of places.

Amen