Advent Lutheran Church

"Receive the Holy Spirit"

            Grace and peace to you from God the Creator and the Lord Jesus.  Amen.

            Last weekend I participated in the Synod Assembly, the annual gathering that calls together representatives of all of the ELCA congregations in Missouri and Kansas.  The stated reason that we get together is to do the business of the Church, but we include worship and opportunities for learning, and also manage a good bit of fellowship.  All in all, it’s a worthwhile few days. 

I was there for most of it, except for a brief window on Saturday afternoon, when I ducked out to do what turned to be a remarkable wedding.  This wedding took place at noon on Saturday at I-Lan Park, a little vest-pocket park at 127^th and Nall.  If you recall the weather at noon last Saturday, you’ll recall 95 degrees, sunny, and high humidity.  We were all sweating.  But there we were, perspiring together in a gazebo that was startling close to a very busy Nall Avenue, just a few feet away.  On this particular day there was a soccer game going on in a meadow just beyond the parking lot; someone was grilling hot dogs right next to the noisy playground, which was just next to the bathrooms, from which we could occasionally hear a flush.  Meanwhile, people were strolling by on the sidewalk that runs right next to the gazebo, walking their dogs and talking on their cell phones.

As I began the wedding with the words, “Who brings this woman to be married to this man?”, I was struck by two thoughts, back to back.  The first was: “Boy, I’ve done weddings in some interesting places, but this one takes the cake!”  And the next was: “Perfect!  This is absolutely perfect – performing a sacred act in the midst of ordinary, everyday life.”

That’s really what God intends for us, isn’t it, to experience the holy in the midst of the everyday?   And we do it all the time.  When we forgive someone, we perform a sacred act.  When we reconcile with someone from whom we’ve been estranged, we perform a sacred act.  When we make and keep promises, we perform sacred acts.

The sacred in the midst of the everyday – that’s precisely what happened at the ancient Jewish festival of Pentecost when the followers of Jesus gathered: the divine Spirit of God descended into the very human Church and gave it power to, as we might phrase it, do God’s work with their hands.  As Christians, the Pentecost story with which we’re most familiar is probably that lengthy reading from Acts that we heard as our first lesson this morning.  You know the story: the Holy Spirit descended, not gently like a dove as it did in Jesus’ baptism but with an almost violent force; it filled their meeting house and displayed among them as tongues of fire sitting atop their heads, giving them extraordinary abilities of language.

A less-familiar Pentecost story, but one that might be more relevant and accessible to us, comes from the Gospel of John.  Here it is again: “ … Jesus cried out, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink.  As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.’  Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive … .”

This is both an invitation and a promise that Jesus makes in the face of deep human need, deep human yearning.  After all, who among us this morning is not thirsting for something?  Money, possessions, security, knowledge, intimacy, power, significance – it’s almost as if to be human is to be thirsting for something, something more than we have; or to be someone more than we are.

Advertisers know very well about our thirst.  That’s the reason they’ve all learned how to talk like Jesus.  They probably don’t mean to sound like him, but they make the same appeal.  “Let all of you who are thirsty come to us.  You want to be young, to be sexy, to be edgy; you want to do more than just survive but thrive?  You want to fill your life with excellent experiences?  Come to us, and we’ll satisfy your thirst, and it won’t cost you much at all.  Trust us.”

I received a brochure from a credit card company the other day, encouraging me to take out another credit card, and that this one would make my dreams come true.  As I read the fine print I thought that, with these interest rates, they were hoping that I would make their dreams come true.

Jesus’ invitation to us is far deeper, and is grounded in far more than self-interest.  In fact, if we listen carefully we can hear an echo of a much earlier voice, that of the Old Testament prophet Isaiah, who lived several hundred years before Jesus and whose message was similar.  Isaiah said, “Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters.”  But Isaiah went further; he asked a question of his audience: “Why do you spend your money … for that which does not satisfy?”  Jesus’ invitation is the same: It appeals to all those who have found the seductive promises of our culture empty and are now searching for true significance in their lives.

Lillian Daniel is pastor of a United Church of Christ congregation in Chicago.  Daniel has a real heart for social justice, and sometimes her heart gets her into trouble.  She writes about the time that she was arrested for taking part in a peaceful demonstration inside a government building.  She and her colleagues were protesting unfair labor practices, and the police came and arrested them, took them off in separate paddy wagons.  As Daniel was being driven away, the young police officer who had arrested her struck up a conversation with her.  He spoke to her through the small window that separated the front seat from the passenger compartment.

The young police officer apologized to Daniel for having to arrest her, said that he didn’t think that he was really cut out for police work.  He liked the other officers just fine, it wasn’t that, and he had great respect for what they did; it was just that he didn’t think it was for him.

Daniel said, “So why are you in this field, if you don’t like it?”

“Just fell into it, I guess, after the military,” he said.  “So I retire in a couple of years, and I’m young.” 

But then the officer revealed a much deeper thirst in his life.  “But what I wanted to say to you was something else.  What I wanted to say to you was that back there, when you guys were singing ‘Amazing Grace’ in the capitol building – I liked that.  I like the way your voices sounded when you sang those songs.  So I wanted to let you know.”

“Thanks,” she said.

“You’ll get out of here soon,” he said.

“You too,” she said.

Jesus speaks to all those who find themselves searching for a life of profound meaning.  And he goes far beyond simply saying, “Things won’t make you happy.”  He offers up a particular kind of significance, and a particular way of experiencing it.  Over the last few weeks we’ve seen the end of another school year.  For most of our young people that means summer break until school begins again in the fall.  But for those who are at the end of the education pipeline, a whole new reality awaits in the form of a tough job market and a wounded economy.

It’s been interesting to read highlights of some of the college and university commencement speeches that are designed to launch these graduates into the next phase of their lives.  These speeches seem to have a theme, and the theme is this: “Embrace all of your experiences – successes and failures, joys and sorrows – because they are actually the tools that you will use as you construct your unique lives.  First, find yourself; then, find your passion; then, chart your course and pursue your dreams.”    

That’s actually the drumbeat of the Baby Boom generation, reverberating down into the present one.  From commencement speeches to Oprah to Oprah’s successor, Lady Gaga, the message is the same: The fulfillment of the self is the center of a life.

That’s a cultural message, but not a biblical one.  Writer David Brooks unintentionally makes a wonderful theological point when he offers a countermessage to that cultural one.  He writes this: “Most successful young people don’t look inside and then plan a life. They look outside and find a problem, which summons their life. A relative suffers from Alzheimer’s and a young woman feels called to help cure that disease. A young man works under a miserable boss and must develop management skills so his department can function. Another young woman finds herself confronted by an opportunity she never thought of in a job category she never imagined.  This wasn’t in her plans, but this is where she can make her contribution.

            “Most people don’t form a self and then lead a life. They are called by a problem, and the self is constructed gradually by their calling. … The purpose of life is not to find yourself, it’s to lose yourself.”  We can imagine Jesus standing behind that observation and saying, as he does in the Gospels, “… those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”  That’s Jesus’ invitation to us: drink deeply from the well that is Jesus Christ, and as we drink from that well we will find ourselves in him.

            That’s the invitation, but the Pentecost story also carries a promise: “As the Scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.’  Now Jesus said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive.”  As we take our deepest thirst to him and drink, rivers of life then flow from us!  Christ responds to our thirst by turning loose in us, activating in us, the gift of the Holy Spirit that we received in our baptism.  Through that Spirit we participate in the life of God, and, like a conduit, we carry God’s life-giving river of life to the world.

            As I mentioned, last weekend I was involved in the synod assembly, and as the assembly wore on I became very aware that this congregation of Advent was all over that event!  Everywhere you turned, there was Advent!  Advent member Tom Xaymongkhong, the leader of our Laotian community, read one of the lessons at a worship service; advent members Cynthia Schnaath and Becky Llewellyn organized and managed the assembly; Pastor Susan brought a report from the churchwide organization to the assembly; Advent member Bart Stuckey spoke during the Bishop’s Report, sharing his reflections of Joplin; Advent member Scott Schulte is the synod treasurer and gave his report; another Advent member offered a workshop on lay leadership. 

            We were all over the place, and it wasn’t because we were trying to make a big deal out of ourselves; it’s just that we’re a very active congregation; God’s river of life flows through this place.  But it would be very misleading to suggest that that river of life flows only or even primarily once a year when this congregation gathers with others during an assembly; or that it flows only or primarily when we gather for worship on Sunday morning.  The promise of the Holy Spirit it that this Son of God, this Jesus who walked the dusty back roads of Palestine, who healed and taught, who gathered a group of disciples, who was tried by Pontius Pilate, who was executed on a Roman cross and after three days was raised from the dead by the power of God – this Jesus is for us not just a memory, not just a role model, not just an idea; but a living, constant presence in our lives.

Last Sunday we celebrated the Ascension, as the crucified Christ was raised up into heaven to assume his seat at the right hand of God.  Today we celebrate Pentecost, the conviction that through the Holy Spirit the life of Christ descended once again to take up residence in you and in me.  What a blessing!  What an opportunity!  There are 168 hours in a week.  We spend one of those hours in worship.  But God is just as concerned about the 167 hours that you spend out there as God is with the one hour that you spend in here.

So here’s a question for you to carry into this next week: Who will you bless?  Who will experience God’s life-giving water through you?  I encourage you to go into this coming week with that in mind, and to go further: Let me know how it’s going!  Seriously, I’d like to know.  Give me a call, shoot me a text, send an email, find me on Facebook or Twitter.  Or if you remember how to do this, take a pen and a piece of paper and actually write me a letter.  Let me know who you bless this week, who experiences God’s life-giving water through you.

God is faithful, and God is true to God’s promise and word.  Just as Christ is one with God, he is one with you, making your life like his – large and life-giving, a river of God’s life-giving water of life.  Amen.