Does the Holy Spirit ever not show up?
I’ve shared a bit before about my adventures during two of my college summers up in Washington State, where together we led Sunday morning worship services in the North Cascades. I had this girlfriend at the time named Heather, who was with me, and her father was a pastor. I had gotten to meet him once or twice, and I had learned from him that he didn’t write his sermons until Sunday morning.
I thought that sounded pretty good. I wasn’t a pastor yet, first of all...nor did I want to be (interestingly). I figured not writing any kind of message was a great idea: I’d just work and play in the National Park all week, and then when Sunday morning came around, I’d just do something that I heard various pastors and young Christians say -- (not generally Lutheran pastors, but) mostly those on television or classmates from the more fundamentalist branches of our Christian family: I’d just “let the Spirit speak” through me on Sunday morning. I wouldn’t prepare anything and just let the Spirit speak...
Well, how do you think that went?
I remember saying to Heather after fumbling through a message at our sunrise Sunday morning service along the beautiful waters of Lake Chalan, vacationers up early with us to worship and sing and pray and hear an inspired message, “I think the Holy Spirit was sleeping late this morning.” As if it was the Spirit’s fault.
I did nothing with whatever God-given gifts I had for writing and composition, biblical interpretation and public speaking, and just expected God to work through my laziness.
And in some ways I was right on! God does work through our laziness. The Spirit moves, sisters and brothers in Christ, whether we get on that train or not! That’s good news. But I was not participating in the Spirit’s movement. I wan’t getting on board.
We are called to utilize the gifts we have been given. We each have different gifts. And Spirit-borne work is when together we share those gifts.
Holy Spirit work doesn’t happen in isolation. Spirituality is a term that’s floating around a lot these later years. “I’m spiritual but not religious.” Have you ever heard that? Maybe you feel that way yourself. “I totally believe in God, and see the Spirit’s work all around us -- in nature, in babies, in baseball, etc. -- but church and the community of church just isn’t really my thing.” I think that speaks for lots of people today, I think it speaks for most people. I mean doesn’t a majority of our culture profess belief in God, and yet church attendance and participation is in the greatest decline we’ve seen in years. I think there’s this notion that we can do Spirit work in isolation, that we can do it alone, that we can both control it and let it happen to us, without community.
Maybe this is what was happening to the early Corinthians that Paul was addressing, as well? Maybe they were fracturing, isolating themselves, thinking they could control the Spirit’s power without the wisdom of the community of faith. Without the love, the encouragement, the support, the hymnody, the prayers, the multiple generations, the food, the drink, the hope, the challenge, and even the brokenness of the community of faith. (Did you know the word “liturgy” literally means the “work of the people”? You can’t do liturgy by yourself.)
Paul’s words: “To one is given -- through the Spirit -- the utterance of wisdom...to another discernment, to another the ability to speak languages, to another gifts of healing…just as the body has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body.”
When we cut ourselves off from the body, when we fail to use our God-given gifts, the Holy Spirit’s work has to go on without us.
That word “gifts” is an interesting one: in the Greek, the word is charismata, where we get the word charisma. We translate it gifts, but it really has to do with “grace, God’s favor, and beauty”. Not using our gifts within the context of the community, not working with the rest of the body, is really about squandering grace, not responding to God’s grace! We know the struggle, the pain, the sorrow, the frustration of when a part of our own body (or that of our loved ones) ceases to function, or is amputated, or injured.
The Holy Spirit keeps us connected. Keeps us involved. Keeps us healthy in the context of community. If you’re a strong arm, don’t do it isolation. Because a strong arm in isolation will eventually be no good to anyone. If your a keen mind, what good will you be unattached? If you’re a huge heart, where are you going to pump all that goodness and love if you’re unconnected?
“On the day of Pentecost, they were all together in one place.”
God takes us -- in all our diversity and complexity of life experience, and talent, and wisdom and background -- God takes us, and molds us, and fills us with the Holy Spirit, and binds us together and sends us out. Our part is just showing up “Here I am, Lord”: I didn’t show up when I did nothing to prepare a message back in the mountains. I show up, when I gather with the faithful...and use my gifts -- that is, my God-given grace. When I receive and respond to God’s grace.
How many of you memorized Luther’s Small Catechism in confirmation? Oh good, let’s say together the 3rd article of the Apostle’s Creed (p.1162):
I believe that by my own understanding or strength I cannot believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him, but instead the Holy Spirit has called me through the gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, made me holy and kept me in the true faith, just as he calls, gathers, enlightens, and makes holy the whole Christian church on earth and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one common, true faith. Daily in this Christian church the Holy Spirit abundantly forgives all sins—mine and those of all believers. On the last day the Holy Spirit will raise me and all the dead and will give to me and all believers in Christ eternal life. This is most certainly true.
Spirit work comes from without, and draws us together. Spirit work fills us with potential, with life, with joy, with forgiveness, and with faith. I believe that I can’t do that on my own. I need the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit shows me that I need you.
It’s true: my father-in-law penned his sermons on Sunday morning. But do you know what he did all week? He met with the people of his congregation, he poured over the text with his colleagues, he prayed with friends and his spouse, he visited with people in the neighborhoods, he shared and listened with strangers. Everything he did all week, can be described with the word “with”!
“Thanks be to God,” we sing, with one another, in one place, filled with God’s love, burning with joy and passion for the Gospel, and reaching outward to love and serve the world. Thanks be to God who gives us the Spirit! AMEN.
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