Hi friends:
We haven't really seen any action here on the old blog site, but I'm thinking we might post sermons on here, rather than on the website. Then members and friends can debate and discuss just like we do Sunday mornings!
Pentecost is coming up and I'm thinking of the new book Unbinding the Gospel. The focus of evangelism, the author says, is faith-sharing.
After he received the Holy Spirit, Peter stood up in the temple and started preaching. The content of that sermon seems to have been the core of the early church's preaching. But the drama of that particular moment was not just in the sermon, but in the strangeness of bumbling, misspeaking Peter preaching boldly, powerfully and clearly, even as Jesus himself did, with real authority.
Acts seems to suggest that the Holy Spirit delivers authority. The scandal is that ordinary people who open themselves to Christ are literally made one with the living God. The question in my mind, as a mainline pastor, is just how this Holy Spirit is given.
I believe that the Christian discipline practiced and taught by Jesus (prayer, worship, the study of scripture , repentance, reconciliation and generosity, to name a few) are a way to open ourselves to the gift of the Holy Spirit. When we practice all of these disciplines as the chief principles and values of our lives, we empty ourselves, as it were, of all competing powers and spirits that may rule us. This prepares us for God to offer us his Spirit.
Peter had to go down a long road before God gave him this Spirit. Even Paul, whom we think of as having a sudden conversion, not only had lived his life until that point as a deeply faithful and observant Jew (far more conversant in scripture at the time of his conversion than most of us are after a lifetime of church membership), and Paul still had to undergo instruction in Damascus before he received the Spirit.
I don't wish to delimit God. God can and does bestow his Spirit freely to whomever he chooses. But it my experience and my reading of the scriptures that suggest that most of us have a lot of work to do before that gift is given.
Martha Grace Reese makes the excellent point that sharing faith clearly cannot happen if we don't have a faith to share. I would understand faith as the condition in which we find ourselves when we receive the Holy Spirit. Faith becomes the foundation of our lives with a connection to God, an almost scandalous connection, that gives us real power to say what God wants said.
For many mainline churchgoers, faith is more a set of values, and the scriptural stories simple moral myths designed to teach us to love and be fair. But this story of Acts speaks of things deeper than values. It speaks of possession by an unseen Spirit that gives us power we did not have before.
Let's hear some comments!
Peace,
Mike
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Scripture Reading from John 1:1-5
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
When John was writing these words, he was establishing the fact, Jesus Christ himself is God and nothing could be created without him, even life which he called the light of men. This light is what shines within us is the very nature or spirit of Jesus Christ, our living God. This is the Holy Spirit.
The day that you accepted Jesus into your life, his Holy Spirit filled you. You are 100% full of Jesus’ Spirit. You will never need or get anymore than what was giving to you that day! You might be wondering how this is possible. You don’t feel like you have his Spirit in you. In fact, most of us may feel quite the opposite.
You can think of it this way. You are much like a house with many rooms and there is a furnace running deep inside you fueled by the Holy Spirit. Each of these rooms are different aspects of your life, each with their own vents which you much open in order to have the warmth of this furnace to start filling up that room. Once the vent is open a transformation occurs, first the air gets warmer, then the furniture, then walls and floors until everywhere in the room has been filled with the warmth and it radiates from everything.
Our lives are much like this house. The day we accepted the Lord Jesus Christ into our lives, his Holy Spirit entered and began to provide us with all we ever needed, but like the house, we just would not allow it to flow throughout all aspects of our lives. We need to open up the vents in our lives and allow Jesus’ Holy Spirit to flow and fill every nook and cranny in our lives. As we allow the Holy Spirit to flow into our lives, the same transformation occurs within us. The Love which God has for us all begins to warms our soul. As we continue to allow the Holy Spirit to flow and take over the ‘rooms’ in our lives, the transformation continues and we begin to provide warmth for others.
If you now revisit John 1:1-5 and think of it as being the very day you accepted Jesus Christ into your life, it gives you a totally different perspective on your Christian Life, doesn’t it?
In the beginning... Jesus was with you. All things which you do for the Kingdom of God are made possible only by Jesus. He is the new life that lives within you! This new life shines and warms your soul. If you allow it to take over all aspects of your life, it will also light up the world around you! It will overtake the darkness in your life, remove it completely. For Darkness can not exist when there is light.
The question is not WWJD - "What Would Jesus Do", but rather "What will you allow Jesus to Do in your life?"
Open up the 'rooms' in your life and let Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, take over. Let His Spirit fill all aspects of your life. Allow Christ to live through you, not in you.
-- Closing Prayer
Father, The Lord of all Creation, you came to us as flesh and blood because you loved us. You provided a way for us to not only spent eternity with you once we leave this body, you also provide us with a way to allow your love to shown to the world through us. All we have to do is accept on Faith the gift of your Love, Mercy and Grace. Allow your Spirit in the person of Jesus Christ to not only live in us, but through us. We give thanks and praise to your Holy name. May we all come to realize that we can not live this Christian life on our own, it is impossible. Christ alone is the answer. Amen!
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