By Contrast...Let Us Be Guided By The Spirit

The Rev. Kathi Johnson

Lectionary 13, Year C – 26 June 2016

Text: Galatians 5:1, 13-25 and Luke 9:51-62

Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Grand Prairie, Texas

+ INJ +

Our lesson from Paul’s letter to the Galatians today includes one of the most famous parts of the New Testament: the list of the fruit of the Spirit. They are: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.

But before we get to this list of the fruit of the Spirit, Paul writes about the flesh. When Paul talks about “the flesh” he is referring to our sinful selves – that part of each of us where we are self-focused and self-absorbed. Paul gives a whole long list of the works of the flesh: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these.

Paul makes it clear that while we have the freedom to do these things, these are not the types of behaviors that build others up. These are not behaviors that show our love for our neighbor. Since loving our neighbor is to be a priority, Paul urges the Galatians toward the fruit of the Spirit instead. Love. Joy. Peace. Patience. Kindness. Generosity. Faithfulness. Gentleness. Self control. This is the fruit that is borne when we are guided by the Spirit, and following the Spirit’s ways.

Contrast the fruit of the Spirit with the enmity shown in our gospel lesson today. Jesus is traveling with his disciples and he’s going through Samaria. Luke says that the Samaritans refuse to host Jesus because his face is set toward Jerusalem.

Please realize that the Samaritans were religious people who just happened to practice their religion differently than the Jews. The Samaritans mixed Jewish religious practices with pagan practices. The Temple in Jerusalem that Jesus is so determined to reach isn’t a holy place for the Samaritans. Their temple is located right there in Samaria.

Luke 9 gives us a little view into the strife between these two peoples.

On one hand, the Samaritans don’t want to host a religious leader who’s heading toward a sacred place that is not their own. On the other hand, when Jesus’ disciples hear this, they ask Jesus, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?”

Now, Jesus was a Jew. He could’ve said, “Sure! Let’s do that.” But instead, Jesus turns and rebukes his disciples. And then, they travel on. And no one is consumed by fire from heaven.

The few verses of this story show us that if it is left up to us, our very human desire can be to wipe our enemies off the face of the earth.

I’ve talked before about one of my favorite TV shows, “The West Wing,” a political drama that was on about fifteen years ago. In one episode, one of the staffers is meeting with a Russian delegation, preparing for the U.S. President to travel to a summit where he will meet with the Russian President.

Tensions over this meeting are very high. One of the topics to be discussed is the proliferation of nuclear weapons around the world. And as the U.S. President’s staff is trying to figure out how to raise concerns about Russia providing nuclear weapons to other countries, the Russian President sends a message through his staff to the U.S. government: “We must lead the way and stem the tide of nuclear proliferation and we must start with ourselves, for why should two nations still possess power to destroy each other ten times over; surely, once is enough.”

In this fictional story told from a secular point of view, what the Russian President is urging is moderation. He’s suggesting that they meet in the middle of the extreme feelings of fear that are felt on both sides. This restraint stands in contrast to suspicion and panic.

It seems to me that this restraint is what Jesus is going for, too, in today’s gospel story. Sure, we can call down fire upon the heads of our enemies. But the kingdom of God that Jesus is ushering in – this kingdom isn’t brought about by cruel subjection, and it’s not brought about by wiping anybody off the face of the earth. The kingdom of God is a reign of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.

Paul says that there is no law against these things, and, in fact,  he says that the law is summarized in one commandment: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Martin Luther used to describe sin as being curved in on oneself. In Luther’s view, when we are curved in on ourselves, we use every gift that God has given us only to benefit ourselves, only to build ourselves up. When we are curved in on ourselves, we contemplate only ourselves, whether an individual, a group, or an entire nation. What is best for me? What will make me feel the best about myself? What will best eliminate my fears?

“By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self- control. There is no law against such things. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit,” Paul writes.

Paul understands that to live by the Spirit is steadfastly in juxtaposition with how we want to live ourselves, and certainly with how the world wants us to live. That’s why he starts off with the two words, “By contrast…” When we curve in on ourselves, we don’t see others, we don’t care about others, we can’t love others. When we follow the Spirit’s leading, we see others, we care about others, and we love others.

When everything around us says to live our lives according to the fear, hatred, anger, and jealousy of the world, by contrast, let us be guided by the Spirit. Let us love as we are loved. For Jesus’ sake, and in Jesus’ name. Amen.

+ SDG +

The Wilderness and the Water of Life

The baptism site.

Lent 1, Year A

Text: Matthew 4:1-11

Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Grand Prairie, Texas

+ INJ +

Grace and peace be with you all, from God our Father, and his beloved Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.

The scenes described at the end of Matthew 3 and through the beginning of Matthew 4 sound so idyllic. At the end of Matthew 3, we have Jesus at the Jordan River, being baptized by John. The heavens open, the Holy Spirit descends upon him like a dove, and God – speaking from heaven - proclaims Jesus to be his beloved Son.

Then – in Matthew 4 - the Spirit leads Jesus out into the wilderness for a sort of holy camping trip, lasting forty days and forty nights. Even if camping isn’t your thing, there’s something kind of wonderful about Jesus following the Spirit out into the wilderness. And then, after facing temptation after temptation, today’s story ends so beautifully: “Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.”

To get to the baptism site, we drove north from the Dead Sea, through miles and miles of wilderness similar to what Jesus spent his time in. It’s beautiful, actually, this wilderness – there’s a beauty in its roughness, in its ruggedness (especially when viewed from inside a comfortable tour bus!).

We turned onto a road to head toward the Jordan River – seeing more wilderness, more desolation. As we neared the place set aside for tourists near the baptismal site itself, we began to see a few buildings – well, they used to be buildings - now they are empty shells of buildings, all of them surrounded by fences.

We parked and made our way towards the shoreline. The tourist area is very nice – there’s a lovely outdoor pavilion at the top of the hill before the land drops off at the river’s edge – a pavilion that I suppose is used by Christian pilgrimage groups when they are doing group baptisms. We made our way down to the water, down to the shore of the Jordan River, where Jesus walked, where the Israelites might’ve crossed the Jordan so long ago.

There are now steps going down into the river – steps going down into what is probably the dirtiest body of water that I think I have ever seen. This is where Jesus was baptized? In this muddy river that reeks of pollution and filth? I could hardly imagine it.

We stayed a few minutes and read the story of Jesus’ baptism – we read about the heavens opening and the dove descending, and the voice from heaven. We coordinated a group picture, and then we left. We walked past the beautifully clean pavilion and back to our bus. I was disturbed by the dirty water – and I couldn’t get rid of the image of Jesus standing in that dirty water, being baptized by John.

As we drove through the wilderness back to the main road, our guide mentioned: THIS is the wilderness area that Jesus would have been led to – THIS is it! And I tried to capture back the idyllic image in my head of Jesus leaving the river to follow the Spirit out into THIS wilderness.

Except that this wilderness now has these weird shells of buildings, surrounded by fences. And the fences had signs on them that say things like, “Danger! Mine field!” And it isn’t just one sign on one fence – the more we drove, the more of these signs we saw – more and more signs warning us that to walk in the wilderness now would be a dangerous thing indeed.

For me, this part of our trip replaced the idyllic image of Jesus stepping out of the river, newly baptized, to follow the Spirit into the wilderness with a more disturbing image: Jesus, newly baptized in pollution and filth, following the Spirit into the wilderness, trying not to step on a land mine. These images sat heavily with me – it felt as if the corporate sins of our world somehow landed in one area – and I could almost hear the earth and its people, crying out together because of the pollution and the emptiness.

Of course, when Jesus traveled in that area, the water of the Jordan still flowed freely and the wilderness was wide open space filled with life of its own. It was a different time, but today’s story of Jesus being tempted by the devil shows us that maybe times haven’t changed too much, for humanity is still tempted by sin – sin that entered the world with Adam and Eve (as we heard read earlier) and that is still with us today.

Each year, Lent begins with this story of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness. But we don’t begin Lent with this story each year simply to remind us that Jesus, too, faced temptation. And we don’t begin Lent with this story each year simply to admire Jesus for resisting the temptations that the devil threw at him.

We begin Lent with this story each year because, in this story, Jesus is living out who it is that God has just proclaimed him to be: the beloved Son of God. And as the beloved Son of God, he can look the devil square in the face and tell him to bug off (which is pretty much what he does, out in the wilderness).

For we don’t live in an idyllic world. We live in a world that has sin – sin that shows itself in a gazillion ways. Sin that’s revealed in power struggles over land – power struggles that result in land mines being buried in the wilderness near the polluted Jordan River. Sin that’s revealed in our own selfishness or our own pettiness - and our own temptations.

On this past Wednesday – Ash Wednesday – I talked about the ashes that we received on our foreheads  in the sign of the cross – the sign that reminds us of God’s great love for us. When we are baptized, that sign is marked on us, marking us as Christ’s own forever. As he is beloved by God, so are we.

When we welcome Mary Katherine into our church family in a few minutes, we will do so around the baptismal font. This is a reminder to her and to all of us that in our baptisms, we are claimed as Christ's own forever and called to serve him.

Luther used to remind himself of his baptism every single day – every day, he reminded himself of this precious gift of God. And it is this water of life that has the last word over us – always. When we face temptations, even when the weight of temptation sits heavily upon us – the water of life has the last word over us – always.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

+ SDG +

The wilderness, past the mine fields.

On Wind and Birds...

The Rev. Kathi Johnson

C Pentecost – May 19, 2013

Texts: Acts 2:1-21; John 14:25-27

Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Grand Prairie, Texas

+ INJ +

What is the big deal about Pentecost, anyway? This day on which we remember very specifically the coming of the Holy Spirit – what is the big deal?

I mean, the Holy Spirit’s kind of…hazy. Kind of…undefined. Kind of…well, Spirit-ey. We have in our Christian heritage many, many likenesses of God the Son - Jesus (art which often reflects the ethnicity and culture of the artist), and more than a few pictures of God the Father. For the God the Spirit, though, our artwork is limited to pictures of doves or flames (with a few other images thrown in for good measure). Rarely do we see a personified version of the Holy Spirit in Christian artwork.

So in our Gospel lesson for today, from the Gospel of John, Jesus is talking with his disciples about the Holy Spirit. Today’s reading is part of what we call his “Farewell Discourse” – these are his final words to them before he is arrested and killed. In today’s snippet from the Gospel of John, Jesus promises that “the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.”[1]

If we fast-forward from today’s gospel reading to later, after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus; fast-forward to the ascension – the time when Jesus ascended into heaven; fast-forward to the disciples in Jerusalem, following Jesus’ instructions to them, waiting for whatever comes next – waiting for this Advocate to show up…I kind of wonder what or whom they were expecting, exactly. A person? An angel? Were they expecting this…?

“Suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.”[2]

The arrival of the Holy Spirit is not the arrival of a person or an angel - no, this is something much greater! This is the very Spirit of Christ, arriving in dramatic fashion, and immediately giving power to these followers of Jesus – power to proclaim the love of God in Christ Jesus without hesitation and without fear! The story of Pentecost, then, reminds us that sometimes the Spirit makes a dramatic entrance – and sometimes the Spirit moves us in ways that we aren’t expecting at all.

One of the symbols commonly used to portray the movement of the Holy Spirit is wind. That was really the inspiration behind the kite festival this afternoon – to experience the wind and remember the movement of the Holy Spirit. But as I’ve started flying kites to get ready for this event, and watched others do so, too, here’s another correlation: sometimes, the wind moves the kite in totally unexpected directions. One minute, that kite will be up in the sky, looking great, and the next minute, it’s plummeting to earth, dive-bombing everyone within a fifty-foot radius.

So it is with the Spirit. The Spirit moves us – sometimes in very challenging directions – but always for the sake of God’s mission in the world. The Spirit moves us – sometimes way out of our comfort zones – but always with the promise of remaining with us. Jesus promised to be with us always, to the very end of the age – and that is the work of the Holy Spirit: to remind us of Jesus and his teachings, but – more than that – to be that on-going presence of Jesus-with-us.

For most of my adult life, I’ve found it humorous that one of the most commonly-used symbols for the Holy Spirit is…a bird – specifically, a dove. We get this image from Scripture, of course – in the Gospel of Luke it’s found in chapter 3 – Jesus is baptized by John and is standing there – the heavens open up, and the Holy Spirit descends upon him like a dove.

There are images for the Holy Spirit that come from outside Scripture, too. In Celtic Christianity, the Holy Spirit is portrayed as a bird, but not a nice, peaceful dove, gracefully landing on someone’s shoulder. Rather, they use the image of a wild goose – loud, unpredictable, blustery. Even here at Our Redeemer, we’ve starting using these little paper cranes to remind us of the Spirit’s presence with us.

I found another reminder at home this month. A few weeks ago, we began to notice a finch hanging out more on our back patio, under the porch roof. She seemed focused on one of our hanging plants in particular and – sure enough – I went out to check a couple of weeks ago and found a nest with five tiny eggs.

Every day, Mama Finch is there with her eggs, sometimes hovering protectively around the plant, sometimes brooding on the eggs themselves. When I go out to water the plants or do some other task, she flies off, but never very far. She keeps an eye on things from the nearby fence, squawking at me if I get too close to her nest. As soon as I leave the area, she’s right back at the nest again, chirping and nestling in, making sure that all is well.

The other day, I went out to check the nest and found that two of the eggs had just hatched. There, nestled among my plant, were two little fuzzy birds, just beginning to breathe in new life.

I’ve had nesting birds before. Soon, Mama Finch will feed them. And eventually, she’ll urge them on, out of the nest. As I have watched her over these past weeks, I’ve begun to see a new image of the Holy Spirit – the Spirit as…a finch, of all things. Loving, brooding, sometimes quietly present and sometimes squawking at me, but never far away.

And that’s the deal with the Spirit. We will probably never come up with the perfect image to suit the many ways in which the Spirit works among us. But we can trust that the Spirit is working among us and in us and through us. As Pope Francis said this morning (on Twitter): “The Holy Spirit transforms and renews us, creates harmony and unity, and gives us courage and joy for mission.” May we be always attentive to the Holy Spirit’s presence and love and work among us, as we follow the Spirit’s leading.

Amen.

+ SDG +

---

[1] John 14:26

[2] Acts 2:2-4