'The Holy Spirit who beggars belief'

Preached at St John Chrysostom's, Manchester, 30th May 2004 [Pentecost]
Set readings for the day

I used to work with street people in Manchester.
People who choose to live and work on the streets - sex workers of various sorts
People who don't choose to live on the streets, but who are there because life has dealt with them harshly
And people who have wandered onto the streets
in alcoholic or drug- or debt-induced states and who are never 'together enough'

Some live off charity and hand-outs in order to make ends meet.
And some also need to beg - for a variety of reasons it may be easy for the rest of us to judge.

And when I walk around the streets of Manchester it saddens me greatly, all these years later, to see some of the same people still there,
still begging,
like they were years ago.......

We all have our own experience of beggars.
Some of us have decided never to give to 'those scroungers'
Some of us do - aware that even so we might be being taking for a ride.
And some of us will buy food or hot drinks or bus tickets.

But whether you've worked with beggars
or whether you've just met them on the streets,
most of us will know what an encounter with a beggar 'feels like'. Inside us.

There they are on the pavement with their blanket and their dog.
(The dog is important not as a gimmick, but because the dog may be the only loving, trusting relationship in that person's life.)
Or else they may be heading your way, 'working' the crowd. Coming straight towards you!
Do we dart out of the way?
Dare we make eye-contact?
Do we give? And how little?
(And please don't think that, even my experience of working with them makes me in any way invulnerable to these thoughts!)

Encountering beggars can be a risky business. Precarious.
We may well risk verbal abuse - as easily as the 'have a nice day' catch phrase.
We might imagine a threat or an aggressive gesture.
We might run the danger of having to listen to some endless and highly dubious sob story or heart-rending real-life tragedy.
We might even risk being deflected from our intention that day, being late for that meeting, or show, or that business.

We might even, if we're slow enough,
gullible enough,
brave or stupid,
socially minded or Christian enough,
find ourselves entering their world
or coming to see the world through their eyes
and, in the process, finding our lives changed for ever.

After all, it happened to me.
The direction of my ministry and Christian practice was turned upside down, inside out.
And my faith was, quite literally, beggared.
My belief was beggared! Imagine that!

I sat with them behind dustbins and under arches
I came to share their stories, lives and food;
their sorrows and joys, triumphs and defeats.
I admired their resilience, tenacity and, often, their crafty cunning.
I tried to fathom the depths and chasms of their personal woundedness
(and let them help me with my own).

And, despite the occasional violent flaring of frustrated anger,
I wondered at their understanding of each other's fragility
and the way that, often in such abject wretchedness,
gallows humour, mixed with gentleness and patience,
could bring an inner strength and hope. Enough, at least, for another day's living.
In my experience the working of the Holy Spirit,
poured out upon disciples then and now,
the Sprit of the living God we celebrate this day
can be likened to the action of a beggar.

The Spirit of God,
that is in each one of us
whoever we are, however 'holy' or else 'unworthy' we imagine ourselves to be,
the Spirit of the living God
is like a beggar.
Think about this next time you meet one.

The Spirit is persistent with us, persevering, relentless.
Insisting on getting our attention, our response,
determined to make eye-, heart- and soul-contact.

The Spirit is creative-cunning,
Inventive-resourceful,
Challenging our self-definitions and values, testing our limits,
meeting us at the edges of our experience
and drawing us on, out, up and beyond ourselves,
teasing us across our settled horizons,
coaxing us down unfamiliar paths - and revealing herself to us!

The Spirit of God is no respecter of persons:
just as keen to approach the expensive suit, the short skirt or the threadbare anorak;
always there trying to tap us for what we're reluctant to give
always looking for unexpected ways to take us for a ride
always unpredictable. Risky. Dangerous. Life-threatening.
Death-defying, like a leap into the darkness.
Not wanting to un-nerve us completely, however,
this living Spirit also sometimes approaches and draws close to us
with a welcoming smile on her face

persuading us to give up our gifts
with familiar words and catch phrases
designed to seduce us to compliance:

'Do not be afraid'
'I call you by your name - you are mine'
'You are precious in my sight'
'You are redeemed. Go free.'
'And love one another - as you are loved by God.'

So how do we respond?
And do we give of ourselves?
Do we dare say YES to this life-changing gesture
proffered by this beggarly Spirit?
Do we take the risk of placing ourselves
into the hand of the One whose holy work sustains us?
This Holiest of Beggars.
This Helper and Comfort.
This Advocate.
This Paraclete.
Do we dare?
I dare you.

Oh, and you do know, don't you, what 'paraclete' means in modern Greek?
Why, 'beggar', of course.

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