Poured out for the world...........

That was the theme for this year's assembly, and I would guess to some it describes what I consider the worst stereotypes held about people of faith.  Our culture doesn't have a great deal of space for sacrifice or sacrificial giving.  Our advertising is about acquiring and achieving and attaining.......certainly not about being 'poured out for the world.'

Yet this is the very gift we have received in the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus - a creating and creative God who poured life into the incarnate Jesus, taking on the limitations of our fleshly existence for the sake of those whom God created in the beginning.  Then Jesus poured out himself - giving, granting, sharing, teaching, leading, guiding,correcting, loving, healing....dying....so we might know a different way of living a full and abundant life.  Then in his resurrection Jesus carried the creation back to the Creator God.

God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit are poured out into our world - an act of love which calls into life all that is broken and lost.  No one can move in this world without the Spirit moving around, with and for their sake.  No one ....and as Paul puts it in his letter to the Romans, not even pestilence, famine, sorrow, powers, or other creatures.....can separate us from this great love of God poured out in Jesus.  When you go swimming in this world that God created you will get wet with the love of God, whether you like it or not.

But here's the amazing thing.  When you pour yourself out for others, when you give beyond politeness and even beyond 'substantial', when you love enough to forgive, when you seek the light wherever you are.....you will be transformed.  When you lose yourself, you find yourself.  When you release your deadly grasp of this life, you discover life abundant.

Others may look at all this and see people of faith as doormats and Pollyannas and a bunch of other weak, powerless, even silly images.  People of faith know that in giving we receive and in dying we are raised to eternal life.....today, tomorrow, until eternity is all in all.

The Spirit at work. Acts 2 again?

"When the day of Pentecost had come,
they were all together in one place.  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 the.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability."  Acts 2.1-4

Yesterday the members of the ELCA when gathered in assembly called the Rev. Elizabeth Eaton to lead us for the next 6 years as Presiding Bishop.  Many are calling it the work of the Spirit....much like the first Pentecost.

Oh, Lord, we pray that it is so....even though we have no idea what it would look like if the Spirit poured out upon this church.  Let's be clear, I don't mean the administration, nor the organization, but on the people, gathered in worship and working together in the world.  I can guess: we would feel the fire of the Spirit in our bones, moving us in our lives to share Jesus' story with others, invite them into a relationship with the source of all life, and caring for others as we see the need.

But I'd also guess that we'll be called to walk in directions and along paths that will create anxiety and often feel like dead ends.  We will be asked to leave behind stuff we consider absolutely essential and to trust that the Lord will provide.  Like that first day of Pentecostal Spirit we will need to radically embrace diversity - encouraging and supporting a wide variety of worship styles, leadership models, music and language.  We might need to give up our dependence on Pastors!

We as the ELCA have traveled along some perilous paths in these last 10 years.....and I pray that Bishop Elizabeth Eaton is open to the Spirit's leading, for that is where we truly want to go: where the Living Lord is leading us....even if we will be 100% uncomfortable with the outcomes.

Welcome Bishop Eaton.  Come, Holy Spirit, come!

Oh no! Jesus is at it again....

One of the important truths of the biblical story about Jesus is this:  very religious people often - frequently - rejected Jesus and the vision he brought of the future in God.  It was nothing personal, they simply couldn't conceive that God's work in this world would take such a radical and unexpected direction. Religious people today often feel the same way

The Jesus who upset the balance 2000 years ago continues to upset the status quo today as well.  We have a resurrection God and that means that what we see as a dead end, God sees as a place for new life, new possibilities, a new creation.  This means that all those clear answers and considered opinions we have held for so long might have to be chucked out the window to make room for God's new thing to happen.

The Spirit continues to move into new corners and bring about new life for the sake of the whole world.  The Spirit continues to form new communities around the God actions of mercy and compassion and serving others. 

We have to get out ahead of the curve to keep up with this creating Spirit.  Remember learning how to ride a bicycle?  If you peddle too slowly you simply can't find your balance - you have to keep moving with what feels like crazy aplomb  in order for it to work at all.  They say you never forget how to ride a bike once you've learned.  Let's pray that the same is true about working with the Spirit of God.

Surprised by the Spirit

A Spirit surprises everyone on Pentecost.  That Spirit is the Holy Spirit - the breath of God which renders a space holy, sacred, set apart to God's purposes.  That Holy Spirit always comes as a surprise; occasionally unwelcome.  It comes as fire or wind, as warmth or light, as breath or breeze.  It comes through the open windows and rushes out again, enticing those within to be about the Creator's work of bringing life to others. 

It comes and goes as it wants, where it wants and anoints who it wants.  Therein lies the rub.  Our well-prejudiced conception of who ought to be instruments of God's creative, reconciling, forgiving, moving spirit ....is rarely the Spirit's ideal. 

Look up the text in Acts 2.  The Spirit anoints the Galileans, everybody's definition of a 'hick' to speak God's Word into the midst of educated (possibly) cosmopolitan (probably) Jews.  Galileans!  Just like God made his son a Galilean, so again God moves these 'redneck' equivalents to be God's messengers. 

Oh, and to call the Church into being.  To tell the story of the risen Jesus.  To baptize. 

When Jesus tells us that everyone is welcome to the table, he means everyone.  In fact, God will use a truly motley crew of people to even set the table so we can all feast together.  I know this because the Spirit called me.

Like I said, the Spirit is always surprising us.

the spirit of Truth

Did you notice what I did?  I made the 's' of spirit lower case and the 'T' of Truth upper case. We Christian believers are more accustomed to capitalizing that Spirit - which is a nod to the Holy Spirit and not just any old spirit - but I want to focus on the word Truth. 

Jesus promises that the Advocate, the Comforter, the Spirit he is sending is the spirit of Truth (John14.17). Pilate asked, "What is truth?" (John18.38) when Jesus was standing right in front of him.  I think that Pilate had no idea that truth was a synonym for revelation of God in the gospel of John.

"What is truth?" The answer is as concrete as it is eternal. Truth:  the love of the Creator for those who were created is so profound that Jesus emptied himself and took on the form of a servant so to reconcile this world to the one who created it.

That's you.  That's me.  That's every Tom, Dick and Harry.
Now that's a Truth well worth capitalizing.

Pray for your enemies

Even at a distance we can appreciate the carnage that someone thought was necessary to their cause.  I wonder about folks who walk in such darkness, who have lost all sense of shared humanity and real hope.  Whatever their 'reason' these are broken people, chained by their own anger, clinging to some real or imagined wounds.....we are called to pray for them.  Not just as a command to be obeyed, but because, as people of faith, we know that prayer is powerful and God reigns.

Pour out your Holy Spirit O Lord upon this place of ravaged lives where the seeds of a new hatred can too easily be sown.  Call all your people into prayer.  Not because we know the answer and not because we believe we can turn this around, but because we trust in you and your love for a world we cannot understand.  AMEN

What's the Spirit got to do with it?

If the Spirit is actively guiding your life, perhaps you shouldn't mention it.....at least not around staid, stoic Lutherans.

Lutherans have historically had a limited relationship with the Holy Spirit.   Well, that's not completely true.  We recognize and acknowledge the work of the Spirit as recorded in the scriptures.  We just don't talk about the Spirit's power or movement in our day to day lives, or in our worship, or in our prayer.  I think we don't really know what to do or say about the Spirit, so we don't say anything.

The Holy Spirit is the power of God moving and acting in this world (and possibly in other worlds as well but that's not the point).  Jesus was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit - ergo the Spirit gives life, even new life.  Elijah was directed to return to his calling as a prophet (out there in the cave, you know, the 'still small voice') so the Spirit can direct our work and our days.  The Spirit moved among the worshippers on the day of Pentecost and everyone spoke boldly, openly and everyone else understood them.....so the Spirit gives us boldness to speak and openness to hear.

The Spirit is more that a 'feeling' but I expect most of us first experience the Spirit's moving through an inner sense that we would call a feeling.  Sometimes the Spirit guides us by giving us clarity - about a decision to be made or a person who needs to be visited.  Sometimes the Spirit calls us into a situation quite unbeknownest to us so we can witness the Spirit at work and be inspired to new work on God's behalf.

In our baptism, we are anointed with the Holy Spirit.  At confirmation, our young people once again call on the Spirit to guide their feet and build their faith.  At ordination, the Spirit is invoked (we call on its name) to bless and guide the new pastor. 

Perhaps we are afraid of the Spirit's power?  I don't know; being raised from the dead is a pretty exciting possibility.  How about we increase our quotient of Spirit talk and expectation?  What could that bring in 2013?

How many ways the Spirit?

Lutherans are not generally comfortable talking about the Spirit - the Holy Spirit that is.  I don't know if it is so much a weak point in our theological perspective as it is the natural evolution of a Christian community founded by reticent Germans and Scandinavians. 

I think we would benefit from practicing Spirit talk, yet the concrete thinkers among us are quick to realize that the scriptures give us multiple sightings/metaphors for the movement and work of the Spirit. 

The Spirit moves over the waters and begins creating.  
God breathes in the first human, 'adamah and gives life.
 Elijah stands in the cave ready to obey God's command to come forth - and God does not move in the earthquake, nor in the wind, nor in the fire (where it might be expected) but in a still small voice (or a great silence - apparently translating the Hebrew makes it uncertain).
In Jeremiah, the Word of God in the prophet's mouth does it's best to lead people out of their chosen path and into life.
In Ezekiel, the spoken Word of God in the mouth of the prophet causes the Spirit to bring new life to the valley of dry bones. 
The Spirit 'overshadows' Mary and she conceives Jesus.
The Spirit descends like a dove (or pigeon) on Jesus during his baptism.

Now the Spirit comes as tongues of fire in the Pentecost account of Acts 2.  People of very different nations spoke in 'other languages' and each one heard Jesus' story in his own language.  Although we focus on the miracle of multiple languages being spoken, I think the real miracle is that people listened to what they heard.

It is difficult to get a handle on the Spirit.  The Spirit of God moves where it will, when it will, as it will with the purpose of bringing new life into being - directly or indirectly.  It is the power of God that raised Jesus from the dead.  It is the power of the resurrection present throughout our days.

Each time you see life arise from nothing or death of any kind turned away by a stronger power - you have seen the Spirit at work.  Name it and claim it.  Soon you'll be wondering how we got by so many years without Spirit talk.