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Epiphany 3 Lesson: Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10
January 24, 2010 Psalm 19
The Rev. C. Wallace Marsh Epistle: 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a
St. James’ Church, Marietta Holy Gospel: Luke 4:14-21
Early this week, an email went out on the prayer chain asking us to pray for a grandson of a parishioner in this parish. The grandson said he felt the Spirit of God calling him to Haiti and he went. What an amazing response, like that of the disciples, who up and followed Jesus.
I bet you have not heard many sermons from an Episcopal pulpit about the power of the Holy Spirit. Well, today is your day! The reading from Corinthians is full of references of the Spirit, and it makes a distinction between two very important Greek words: Pneumatika (Spirit) and Charismatika (Spirit).
Pneumatika is about being full of the worldly Spirit – think about last week’s Reading from John’s gospel, about the wedding at Cana. Jesus turned 90 gallons of water into wine, and the passage says those people were full of the spirit. Pneumatika is best described as a spirit of ecstasy.
Today’s reading from Corinthians talks about Charismatika. It is where we get the word charismatic, which means being full of the Spirit of God.
We all know, or at some point in our lives, we have attended a charismatic church, and that is probably why you are sitting in this Church today. In the eyes of many people in today’s world, the Episcopal liturgy is anything but a charismatic experience. My question for you today is, is that true? Yes, we do not have people jumping around all over the place (thank God), but do you not have a charismatic experience here?
A few weeks ago, we read Luke’s Gospel account of Jesus’ baptism, and we saw that the Spirit descended upon him in bodily form. On Wednesday evening, a group of us gathered for the Wednesday evening Holy Eucharist and Healing service and we celebrated the life of Fabian. In the year 256, an Italian by the name of Fabian was in Rome shopping at the mall, getting his groceries – who knows what he was doing! While in Rome, this layman, like everyone of you, decided to hightail it to Vatican Square (well, it was before Vatican Square, but let me create a picture for you) because they were electing a new pope.
Sure enough, he was out there with all those people, waiting to see who was chosen the new pope. Just like the story of Jesus’ baptism, a dove came fluttering down and descended upon Fabian. The crowd became full of the Spirit and started chanting, “Fabian, Fabian.” They pulled him aside, ordained him, and made him Pope. The Spirit was upon him.
The gift of the Spirit is what Jesus is speaking about in today’s Gospel reading from Luke. Jesus says, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.” In saying those words, Jesus reminds us that the Spirit of the Lord is upon each of us in our baptism.
So, the questions before us today are: How aware are you of the Spirit in your life? Do you recognize the Spirit of God in your life? Do you experience the Spirit of God in your life or in this worship?
Perhaps many of you are like me – you feel the Spirit calling you toward something as you sit here in prayer or come to the table. You feel the Spirit moving you toward something, but you rationalize yourself out of it. You know what I am talking about. We are all guilty of it!
Let me give you an example. “I really want to go on this church retreat, like maybe the one coming up on February 5th & 6th, but Saturday morning is the day I go to Lowes and Publix for those two hours. Somehow the structure of the entire week will implode upon itself.”
How about another example. Maybe you feel the Spirit calling you to sing in the choir, but Wednesday nights are the evening before Sally’s math test, and God forbid I let my husband help her with her homework or she will be stuck in the 6th grade until she is 25!
Our lives are so busy these days that we can rationalize the Spirit right out of our life. Yes, God calls you to make sacrifices. God calls you to be a faithful parent. God calls you to be involved in the life of your community. But one thing seems very clear in Luke’s Gospel (and I am just telling you what I see), and that is Jesus allows the Spirit to lead him and fill him.
Throughout Luke’s Gospel, we see Jesus being led by the Spirit, healing and preaching. Suddenly, when he has no energy left – when the cup is empty and the disciples are looking for him – he is often found on a mountain in prayer. While he was up there on that mountain, rest assured people were dying, a lot of folks were not getting healed, there were places with no bread or fish, and the one that hits me right here is that he missed another opportunity to preach a sermon. There was every reason for him not to go to that mountain five times in Luke’s Gospel, but the Spirit leads him and it is there that the Spirit fills him up and gives him life.
Jesus says, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.” Puritan theologian Thomas Goodwin wrote the following about our relationship with God and what it is like to be filled with God’s Spirit. Goodwin said to picture a child walking next to his or her parent, holding the parent’s hand. He said that is our relationship with God; we walk side by side, hand in hand, through life.
Goodwin writes that being filled with the Spirit is when that parent reaches down and embraces that child in their arms, and smothers them with hugs and kisses, and returns them back to the ground and they walk hand in hand. Goodwin believes you can sense that great feeling of love between the parent and child in that exchange, and the child realizes how wonderfully they are loved.
My friends, I do not have a long sermon for you today. Instead, my message is short, simple and direct: Where is the Spirit of God in your life? Where is the Spirit of God leading you? Are you following, or are you resisting?
Like that child, my prayer for us today is that each of us will stop resisting and be open to the hand of God in our lives. Amen.
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