Speaking Of The Spirit
Sermon
Sermons On The Second Reading
Series I, Cycle A
There's something you might not know about the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul never tells any stories about Jesus. But he does talk about the meaning of those stories. For instance, Paul never tells the story of Christmas, but he does say, "When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law" (Galatians 4:4). He doesn't speak of shepherds, angels, or Magi, but he talks about the meaning of Jesus' birth.
Paul never tells about the crucifixion - never a word about the nails in the flesh, the cry of dereliction, the ripping of the Temple curtain - but he has a lot to say about the cross: "We proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God" (1 Corinthians 1:23--24).
In fact, Paul doesn't have much to say about the story of Easter - he never mentions an empty tomb or angels in white. He does, however, affirm Jesus Christ is risen. "Death has been swallowed up in victory ... Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 15:54, 57)
Given this pattern, what do you think Paul has to say about the Day Of Pentecost? Absolutely nothing. There is no word of the rushing wind, Peter's sermon, or the testimony in various languages. But Paul does have a few things to say about the Holy Spirit. Listen:
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, "Abba! Father!" it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ - if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.
- Romans 8:14--17
The Holy Spirit is the most mysterious person of the Trinity. Presbyterians, for the most part, get stuck when it comes to ghost stories. We focus a lot of energy on God, who holds both Old and New Covenants together. We have a lot to say about Jesus, who lived, and died, and lives again. But we don't always know what to tell our children about the Holy Spirit. As people of order and reason, the topic has often been elusive, as fleeting as a ghost in the night.
This isn't the case among churches that emphasize experience, excitement, and enthusiasm. Most of them have much more to say about the Spirit. For example, I remember a memorable line by a Pentecostal preacher. He stood up one day and said, "The Spirit is the electrical current in this congregation. Whenever God sends the Spirit, we always get charged up." That's what he said. A few months after he said it, the congregation had problems with its fuse box, and needed to have the whole building rewired. Perhaps the amperage was too high.
As we heard in the short section from his letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul took a quieter approach. He struggles to define what he means by the Holy Spirit. A few verses before our text, he said the Holy Spirit is God dwelling in us (8:9). Then he claims the Holy Spirit is "Christ in (all of) you" (8:10). He goes on to affirm that the very power of God that raised Jesus from the dead is the power that raises us - first, raises us out of bed; and finally raises us out of the grave. Either way, the Holy Spirit is God himself giving us life and power and peace. If we are looking for a definition of the Holy Spirit, phrases like these are the best Paul can do.
But we still struggle to find something to say. In the four verses we heard today, Paul doesn't talk so much about the person as the work of the Holy Spirit. What does the Spirit do? There are three answers in the text.
1. The Spirit leads us.
2. The Spirit frees us.
3. The Spirit witnesses through us.
Behind them is the affirmation that, through the Spirit of God, we belong to God. Thanks to the Spirit, we are God's children.
Sometimes people know who they are by who they look like. Others may say to us, "You're the spitting image of your mother," or "You talk like your dad." One of the frightening things that happens when children grow up and become parents themselves is when they suddenly hear their parent's words coming out of their own mouths. They may have vowed it never would happen, but it happens anyway.
Sometimes we are known by whom we resemble. In the Gospels, some people ask of Jesus in Nazareth, "Isn't this Joseph's son?" (Luke 4:22). Others weren't so sure. They discerned that Jesus was led by a deeper purpose and motivation. Not merely appearance, but action. What does God do? That is what we should do.
In our text, Paul reminds us that we are known by how we act. "If you are led by the Spirit of God, you show that you are God's very own children." All of us are made in the image of God, but when we act like God acts, we show that we belong to God. Not only are we God's spitting image, we are called upon to do his work. We are invited to act as God acts toward us.
Needless to say, that is something of a challenge. A lot of times we follow our own spirits. We act our own ways. We behave as if God is no force in our lives whatsoever. We do what comes naturally. The fact of the matter is, some of that can look pretty ugly. Here we are: prone to jealousy and superstition, always bending in our own direction, always wanting to know, "What's in it for me?" If we do anything that reflects the justice and mercy of God - if it coincides with what we naturally want to do - that's one thing. If it doesn't coincide with our desires, we say, "We're going to be ourselves."
Believe me when I say that "being yourself" is not all it's cracked up to be. The gift of God is the Spirit of God. Christians believe that Someone Else's Spirit comes to claim us and direct us. When we reduce our daily behavior simply to saying, "I was being myself," that means we follow the will of the "flesh," and not the will of God. God gives us a spirit of freedom, not a spirit of license, not a spirit of "I can do whatever I want." There is no passage in the Bible that says, "Be yourself." No, we are told to become who we were baptized to be. The only way to grow into our Christian identity is to follow the lead of the Holy Spirit, who offers us the direction of holiness, truth, and mercy.
The greatest human need is to justify ourselves. Do whatever we want, and say, "I deserve this, because...." But the news of the gospel is that God has already justified us in Jesus Christ. We don't have to strive to measure up or prove ourselves. God has already shored up the difference. For our part, we only have to trust that it's true, live as people who have been freed by the death and resurrection of Jesus, and trust that nothing can ever separate us from the love of God through Christ Jesus our Lord.
It really comes down to this: Do you belong to God, yes or no? "All who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God." That's what Paul has to say to us.
I usually pick my sermon titles by Monday or Tuesday. Sometimes picking a title is a trap, because you think you know what you're going to say before you finish preparing to say it. By the time Sunday arrives, God leads me down a different path to say something else. When I thought about the Romans passage earlier in the week, I was taken by the word "adoption." It's a rare word in the New Testament, and I started thinking about the church. Thanks to the Holy Spirit, we are adopted in a blended family, with our Single Parent who art in heaven. But the more I think about it, and now that the bulletin deadline is past, I think I might retitle this sermon, "Why 'Being Yourself' is a Bad Idea."
Today, I am not speaking against being authentic, or being real, or taking stock of the gifts and abilities which God has given us. No, the gifts of God are to be used by God. If you are a baker or a painter, you need to bake or paint because God gave you that gift and intended it to be used.
Rather, my concern is getting out from under the burden of being an individual, getting free of the burden of being "your own person" while the rest of the world is ignored and left to rot. The gospel of Jesus Christ lifts the burden of thinking the world is mine to conquer, mine to plunder, and mine to do with whatever I feel like doing.
There is nothing in the gospel to justify that kind of thinking. What we hear instead is the news that we belong to God, and through God, we belong to one another. Coming to terms with that central truth is what it means, I think, to be led by the Holy Spirit.
I saw it happen. We took the confirmation class down to Philadelphia for an overnight. It seemed like a good idea to see what the church looks like in a different place. There we were: four adults with ten adolescents, on a sunny weekend. You could feel the energy surging in our ten young people. Developmentally they are at a time in their life when they are spreading their wings ... and testing the adults all around them. I know some adults who might think that taking a trip like that, with kids so full of energy, would be more trouble than it was worth. But that was not the case.
At lunch on that Saturday, we went to St. Vincent's Catholic Church in Germantown. That parish runs a soup kitchen in their fellowship hall. The kids in our class dished up canned ravioli and vegetables for about 200 people who came through the food line. They themselves didn't get to eat lunch until almost 2:00, and not one of our kids complained about it. I think I know why. For the moment, they knew it was more important to feed some hungry people, to do a beautiful deed for God, than to demand a fat meal for themselves. Even if they didn't have the words to explain it, they knew what it means to be led by the Spirit.
It is no coincidence that we have been working on some catechism questions with those confirmation students. The first question asks, "Who are you?" The answer is not, "I am my own person" or "I am so and so," or "The child of so and so." No, among the baptized, the first and most appropriate answer is, "I am a child of God."
We do not belong to ourselves. We belong to God. We are adopted into God's family. God willing, we will be continually haunted by the Holy Ghost, so that we might be who we were baptized to become. If our only pursuit is doing what comes naturally, then what separates us from the animals? If the only thing we do is our own thing, then we are suffocated by our own limits. As Christians we are called to be led by the Spirit, to follow the lead of the Somebody who is far more loving and wise than we are. God is greater than our own conscience, broader than our own imagination, more generous than we would normally choose to be. To live into all of that is to live into the full inheritance of all God chooses to give us.
The poet Wendell Berry sums this up when he prays these words:
O Thou, far off and here, whole and broken,
Who in necessity and in bounty wait,
Whose truth is light and dark, mute though spoken,
By Thy wide grace show me Thy narrow gate.1
____________
1. Wendell Berry, "To the Holy Spirit," Collected Poems (San Francisco: North Point Press, 1984), p. 209.
Paul never tells about the crucifixion - never a word about the nails in the flesh, the cry of dereliction, the ripping of the Temple curtain - but he has a lot to say about the cross: "We proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God" (1 Corinthians 1:23--24).
In fact, Paul doesn't have much to say about the story of Easter - he never mentions an empty tomb or angels in white. He does, however, affirm Jesus Christ is risen. "Death has been swallowed up in victory ... Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 15:54, 57)
Given this pattern, what do you think Paul has to say about the Day Of Pentecost? Absolutely nothing. There is no word of the rushing wind, Peter's sermon, or the testimony in various languages. But Paul does have a few things to say about the Holy Spirit. Listen:
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, "Abba! Father!" it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ - if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.
- Romans 8:14--17
The Holy Spirit is the most mysterious person of the Trinity. Presbyterians, for the most part, get stuck when it comes to ghost stories. We focus a lot of energy on God, who holds both Old and New Covenants together. We have a lot to say about Jesus, who lived, and died, and lives again. But we don't always know what to tell our children about the Holy Spirit. As people of order and reason, the topic has often been elusive, as fleeting as a ghost in the night.
This isn't the case among churches that emphasize experience, excitement, and enthusiasm. Most of them have much more to say about the Spirit. For example, I remember a memorable line by a Pentecostal preacher. He stood up one day and said, "The Spirit is the electrical current in this congregation. Whenever God sends the Spirit, we always get charged up." That's what he said. A few months after he said it, the congregation had problems with its fuse box, and needed to have the whole building rewired. Perhaps the amperage was too high.
As we heard in the short section from his letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul took a quieter approach. He struggles to define what he means by the Holy Spirit. A few verses before our text, he said the Holy Spirit is God dwelling in us (8:9). Then he claims the Holy Spirit is "Christ in (all of) you" (8:10). He goes on to affirm that the very power of God that raised Jesus from the dead is the power that raises us - first, raises us out of bed; and finally raises us out of the grave. Either way, the Holy Spirit is God himself giving us life and power and peace. If we are looking for a definition of the Holy Spirit, phrases like these are the best Paul can do.
But we still struggle to find something to say. In the four verses we heard today, Paul doesn't talk so much about the person as the work of the Holy Spirit. What does the Spirit do? There are three answers in the text.
1. The Spirit leads us.
2. The Spirit frees us.
3. The Spirit witnesses through us.
Behind them is the affirmation that, through the Spirit of God, we belong to God. Thanks to the Spirit, we are God's children.
Sometimes people know who they are by who they look like. Others may say to us, "You're the spitting image of your mother," or "You talk like your dad." One of the frightening things that happens when children grow up and become parents themselves is when they suddenly hear their parent's words coming out of their own mouths. They may have vowed it never would happen, but it happens anyway.
Sometimes we are known by whom we resemble. In the Gospels, some people ask of Jesus in Nazareth, "Isn't this Joseph's son?" (Luke 4:22). Others weren't so sure. They discerned that Jesus was led by a deeper purpose and motivation. Not merely appearance, but action. What does God do? That is what we should do.
In our text, Paul reminds us that we are known by how we act. "If you are led by the Spirit of God, you show that you are God's very own children." All of us are made in the image of God, but when we act like God acts, we show that we belong to God. Not only are we God's spitting image, we are called upon to do his work. We are invited to act as God acts toward us.
Needless to say, that is something of a challenge. A lot of times we follow our own spirits. We act our own ways. We behave as if God is no force in our lives whatsoever. We do what comes naturally. The fact of the matter is, some of that can look pretty ugly. Here we are: prone to jealousy and superstition, always bending in our own direction, always wanting to know, "What's in it for me?" If we do anything that reflects the justice and mercy of God - if it coincides with what we naturally want to do - that's one thing. If it doesn't coincide with our desires, we say, "We're going to be ourselves."
Believe me when I say that "being yourself" is not all it's cracked up to be. The gift of God is the Spirit of God. Christians believe that Someone Else's Spirit comes to claim us and direct us. When we reduce our daily behavior simply to saying, "I was being myself," that means we follow the will of the "flesh," and not the will of God. God gives us a spirit of freedom, not a spirit of license, not a spirit of "I can do whatever I want." There is no passage in the Bible that says, "Be yourself." No, we are told to become who we were baptized to be. The only way to grow into our Christian identity is to follow the lead of the Holy Spirit, who offers us the direction of holiness, truth, and mercy.
The greatest human need is to justify ourselves. Do whatever we want, and say, "I deserve this, because...." But the news of the gospel is that God has already justified us in Jesus Christ. We don't have to strive to measure up or prove ourselves. God has already shored up the difference. For our part, we only have to trust that it's true, live as people who have been freed by the death and resurrection of Jesus, and trust that nothing can ever separate us from the love of God through Christ Jesus our Lord.
It really comes down to this: Do you belong to God, yes or no? "All who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God." That's what Paul has to say to us.
I usually pick my sermon titles by Monday or Tuesday. Sometimes picking a title is a trap, because you think you know what you're going to say before you finish preparing to say it. By the time Sunday arrives, God leads me down a different path to say something else. When I thought about the Romans passage earlier in the week, I was taken by the word "adoption." It's a rare word in the New Testament, and I started thinking about the church. Thanks to the Holy Spirit, we are adopted in a blended family, with our Single Parent who art in heaven. But the more I think about it, and now that the bulletin deadline is past, I think I might retitle this sermon, "Why 'Being Yourself' is a Bad Idea."
Today, I am not speaking against being authentic, or being real, or taking stock of the gifts and abilities which God has given us. No, the gifts of God are to be used by God. If you are a baker or a painter, you need to bake or paint because God gave you that gift and intended it to be used.
Rather, my concern is getting out from under the burden of being an individual, getting free of the burden of being "your own person" while the rest of the world is ignored and left to rot. The gospel of Jesus Christ lifts the burden of thinking the world is mine to conquer, mine to plunder, and mine to do with whatever I feel like doing.
There is nothing in the gospel to justify that kind of thinking. What we hear instead is the news that we belong to God, and through God, we belong to one another. Coming to terms with that central truth is what it means, I think, to be led by the Holy Spirit.
I saw it happen. We took the confirmation class down to Philadelphia for an overnight. It seemed like a good idea to see what the church looks like in a different place. There we were: four adults with ten adolescents, on a sunny weekend. You could feel the energy surging in our ten young people. Developmentally they are at a time in their life when they are spreading their wings ... and testing the adults all around them. I know some adults who might think that taking a trip like that, with kids so full of energy, would be more trouble than it was worth. But that was not the case.
At lunch on that Saturday, we went to St. Vincent's Catholic Church in Germantown. That parish runs a soup kitchen in their fellowship hall. The kids in our class dished up canned ravioli and vegetables for about 200 people who came through the food line. They themselves didn't get to eat lunch until almost 2:00, and not one of our kids complained about it. I think I know why. For the moment, they knew it was more important to feed some hungry people, to do a beautiful deed for God, than to demand a fat meal for themselves. Even if they didn't have the words to explain it, they knew what it means to be led by the Spirit.
It is no coincidence that we have been working on some catechism questions with those confirmation students. The first question asks, "Who are you?" The answer is not, "I am my own person" or "I am so and so," or "The child of so and so." No, among the baptized, the first and most appropriate answer is, "I am a child of God."
We do not belong to ourselves. We belong to God. We are adopted into God's family. God willing, we will be continually haunted by the Holy Ghost, so that we might be who we were baptized to become. If our only pursuit is doing what comes naturally, then what separates us from the animals? If the only thing we do is our own thing, then we are suffocated by our own limits. As Christians we are called to be led by the Spirit, to follow the lead of the Somebody who is far more loving and wise than we are. God is greater than our own conscience, broader than our own imagination, more generous than we would normally choose to be. To live into all of that is to live into the full inheritance of all God chooses to give us.
The poet Wendell Berry sums this up when he prays these words:
O Thou, far off and here, whole and broken,
Who in necessity and in bounty wait,
Whose truth is light and dark, mute though spoken,
By Thy wide grace show me Thy narrow gate.1
____________
1. Wendell Berry, "To the Holy Spirit," Collected Poems (San Francisco: North Point Press, 1984), p. 209.
