Water Daily: Spirit

Showing posts with label Spirit. Show all posts

7-10-24 - Trust Fund Babies

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's epistle reading is here.

What would it be like to be a “trust fund baby,” to have wealth sufficient to buy anything I want, to receive a steady stream of income my whole life? Would it be freeing? Deadening? Enabling of dysfunction or generosity or both? I'll probably never know in the financial sense, but I’m told I am the recipient of a pretty huge trust fund spiritually, one that I can access any time I want:

In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.

This inheritance, which gives us access to the power that made the heavens, that can heal the sick and revive the soul, is already ours; “we have obtained” it. Paul lays out some steps to taking hold of it:

hearing the word of truth, the Good News of access to the love of God;
believing in Jesus Christ;
being sealed in the Holy Spirit as a pledge on the inheritance to come.

“Marked with the seal” refers to the chrismation in baptism, that moment when the baptizand is anointed with oil. In the Episcopal rite, this is accompanied by the words, “You are sealed by the Holy Spirit in baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever.”

In that moment, we receive the gift of the Spirit in our lives, the Spirit of Christ with whom we are united in baptism. All the riches in that trust fund become available to us – the faith to believe in what cannot be seen, the power to heal what seems hopeless, the grace to forgive the unforgivable, the capacity to love beyond our own ability. That sealing, Paul says, is a pledge, a down payment, on the fullness of life in the Spirit that we will know in eternity, which we begin to live into in this life.

The question for us is: will we draw on the funds already available to us, or leave that account sitting idle? There is no benefit to leaving it alone – unlike most bank accounts, this fund only grows as it is drawn on; it accrues interest by being used. It will never run out, and there is no limit to how many times we can withdraw from it. God’s power is not rationed or constrained – we can pray for bad colds as well as world peace, and never exhaust the power and love there for us.

For what would you like to draw on that trust fund? Where around you do you perceive the need for healing, hope, forgiveness, peace, grace and love? Go ahead – take it out. The fund will not diminish.

We have heard the truth of the Gospel. We are invited to believe and to be baptized. We have received the promised Holy Spirit, and been given the bank card to access the funds. The password is Maranatha, “Come, Lord Jesus.”

© Kate Heichler, 2024. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.

6-5-23 - Harassed and Helpless

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.

Congratulations – you have made it through the seasons and festivals and holidays that span Christmas through Easter to Pentecost, and have arrived safely at that long stretch we call “Ordinary Time.” From now until Advent, minus a few feast days, we will hear stories from Jesus’ ministry and teaching. We have an opportunity to get to know him better, and to explore our own callings within his ongoing mission.

For that, we come in at a good spot – next Sunday’s Gospel lesson drops us at the start of Jesus’ travels, with his instructions to his disciples before their first foray out. Let’s listen as though we were one of them, for, indeed, we are, and the mission field Jesus described then, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few,” is as apt today.

The mood of the people Jesus encountered is also the same as what we see today:
Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

Jesus set out to proclaim the Good News of God’s mission to restore and renew all of creation to wholeness, and to demonstrate that mission by healing every infirm person he encountered. As he went, he also responded with compassion to what he saw – people who were harassed and helpless, rudderless, leader-less.

The ones he encountered lived in poverty and fear, under the thumb of the Roman occupiers and further oppressed by their own religious leaders. People we encounter in our lives may more often be harassed by the demands of wealth and stress than poverty, but many are also seeking direction, to be led to safety and green pastures and still waters. They are hungry for meaning, thirsty for purpose and the kind of love only God can give. We have access to these gifts – will we share?

Who do you know who is harassed or helpless, or both? Who is awakening your compassion? How might God be sending you to that person with a message of promise and life?

Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

Are you ready to be sent? Ask God in prayer to show you where and when and how and to whom. Just say the word – God will send you into the harvest.

To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.

6-2-23 - Always

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.

It's one of the great promises God makes to us: God's presence, always. Jesus does not send us off alone with the charge to spread the Good News – he comes with us through His Spirit poured out on all people. Jesus’ last words on that mountain were, “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” But sometimes it can be hard to feel his presence. Here are a few ways I know of to draw on that promise:

Prayer – when we allow our minds to quiet and invite the Spirit to fill us, it is the Spirit of Christ who comes to us. The visually inclined can ask Jesus to show up in the imagination in some place and form that resonates for us, where we can talk and listen to him - and just hang out.

Praise – when we release our spirits in praise, as we sing or admire beauty or enjoy an intimate meal, we feel a presence in us and around us. That is Christ, joining our praises.

Eucharist – We offer these words and actions to remember Him, because he said to… and remember means more than "recall." It also means to reconstitute the members of a body. We receive the life of Christ in those signs of his body and blood – and He has promised to be there with us.

In the Hungry and Forgotten – Jesus said when we feed and clothe and visit and tend to those in need, we do it for him. Doing ministry among people with obvious needs – and many assets, don’t forget – is a wonderful way to be with Jesus. Ask him in advance to show himself to you.

Ministries of Power – Jesus told his followers that when the Spirit came, they would do even greater works than they’d seen in him. When we pray for healing or reconciliation or exercise spiritual power in Jesus’ name, we are invoking his presence with us.

What are the ways you sense the presence of Jesus? Are there times you feel abandoned anyway? Those are normal, especially when a lot of things are going wrong. God invites us to pray through them and pipe up and say, “What happened to, ‘I will be with you always?’ Not feeling it…”

Always is a long time. We can experience Christ with us moment by moment, and expand our capacity to feel him in the challenging spaces. This is how we prepare ourselves to be with him Always.

6-1-23 - The Great Co-Mission

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.

Jesus said, “Go and make disciples of all nations.” Christians reply, “Okay, We have our orders - here we go to save some souls!” And there the church has gone, for over 2,000 years, carrying the Good News to the ends of the earth. In the late 1970s we held a multi-day preaching revival mission at my church in New York, keynoted by a Ugandan bishop, Festo Kavingere, come to save the souls of secular New Yorkers. The ends of the earth (from our Western perspective, anyway…) had come to us. The Great Commission is our job.

Yet when we understand God’s mission as a job, an order to follow, we lose sight of perhaps the most important word: “Co.” Co-mission means mission with. Jesus never intended his followers to take the hand-off from him and run with the ball on our own. He promised His Spirit would be in us, confirming the power of our words in signs and wonders. When the Great Commission runs off the rails it’s usually because the “co” got dropped and it became just mission. Our mission. My mission.

Co-mission means we are always partners in God’s mission, not recruiting God as a silent partner to bless our missions. When we are partners in God’s mission, we can be sure that we’re in God’s will and that good fruit is promised. God is always creating new life, restoring wholeness – so we can be sure God always has a mission for us to join into. God seems, in fact, to rely on our joining in, or that thing doesn’t get accomplished. It’s like an electrical current needing a conductor to carry it – we’re the wire, folks, literally wired in to what God has already purposed.

How do we know when it’s God’s mission? It will resemble Christ’s missions. Look around you: Where do you see energy and passion that result in people being blessed, healed, fed, reconciled? There’s God’s mission. Where do you see hunger, fear, injustice or oppression? God may be inviting you to join God there.

Where do you see needs, frustration, wheels spinning? Maybe that’s a place where mission is being undertaken without God, like a wire disconnected from the current. Sometimes much of what I spend my time and energy on does not feel like God’s mission at all, but rather my attempt to help prop up old conveyor belts for human mission initiatives, my own included.

God’s mission is not about meeting needs, though needs are often met as we go about God’s mission. God’s mission is about bringing life to things that are dead or on their way there. God’s mission is about freedom and peace. We’re about God’s mission when we feel our sails full of Holy Spirit wind; when we don’t know the route but know we’re going somewhere blessed.

When do you feel you are “co-missioning” with God rather than “missioning” on your own? When do you feel your passion and energy rising in ministry? Start noticing what gets your attention, and when in conversation you become more focused and enthusiastic.
You might ask God to wire you in to a mission, large or small – and to give you a clue that’s what’s happening by letting you see some fruit.

If God is always on the move, and if God needs us to carry the current of what God wants to accomplish… think how often God may want us just to show up and say, “Here I am. Use me.” That’s the Greatest Co-mission of all.

5-25-23 - Upon All Flesh

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's principal reading is here.

“Flesh” is one of those words that mean one thing in churchy settings and another in the wider world. “Out there” it means bodily substance, plant or animal. In Bible World it refers to humanity, or human nature. This is how Peter uses it when, trying to interpret the furor at Pentecost, he locates this event as the fulfillment of a prophecy: “This is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh.’”

We meet the Holy Spirit in the Hebrew Bible: hovering at creation, inspiring artisans, speaking through prophets. References increase in the New Testament, especially in Luke’s stories: prophetic utterances, Jesus’ conception, baptism and subsequent ministry. Jesus is often said to be “full of the Spirit” when miracles are recounted. The Spirit was not limited to Jesus, but Jesus, the Son of God in a human body, was the first human with the capacity to hold and wield the Spirit’s power full-strength. That’s why he could do such works that we think of as miracles, because faith and Spirit were undiluted in him.

I’ve come to believe that the chief goal of Jesus’ ministry with his followers was to help increase their capacity for holding and wielding the Spirit’s power, so that God’s life would be less diluted in them too. Far more than teaching them to “do,” He was equipping them to receive and live out the Life of God. If God wants this Life to be abundant in the world, God needs vessels with the breadth and depth to carry such love, such power.

What changed at Pentecost is that the presence of God was poured into human containers, ready or not. Jesus demonstrated that humankind could carry such divine power. Now it was up to those who were willing to have their capacity increased. And that could be any kind of person: “…I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.”

What a prophecy of radical equality! So Paul can say with confidence some years after this event, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Anyone with the willingness to receive the life of God can be filled with the Spirit. Even people we’re not fond of. Even us.

Who are some people in whom you discern the Spirit of God? Anyone on that list surprise you? What sort of people do you think would not be eligible?
Do you feel worthy yourself? Are you interested in being filled with more God-Life?
How might you allow your capacity for faith and filling to be expanded?

What’s in the way?

If Jesus was truly more about increasing his followers’ receptivity to the Spirit than about “training them for ministry,” what does that suggest about where the church can best put its energies? How might we better increase our collective capacity for living in the Spirit, as the Spirit lives in us? I don't think there is a person created by God whose capacity for the Spirit cannot be expanded.

Pentecost was only the beginning. We can live the rest of the story every day.

5-15-23 - Eternity Starts Now

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.

As John’s Gospel renders the account of Jesus’ last night with his disciples before his arrest and execution, he took a LONG time to say goodbye. The “farewell discourses” comprise five chapters in John. Much of that is Jesus’ final teaching about what he’s been up to, and what (who…) is coming next. These words ground the development of our doctrine of the Trinity, God as Three distinct “persons” in One unified whole.

Finishing his remarks to his followers, Jesus turns to his heavenly Father, in what scholars call “the high priestly prayer.” This text inspired the Church’s understanding that the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, existed before all things were made, “was with God and was God” always and forever. Jesus says, “I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.”

In the presence of God is where Jesus began, and where he returned after his mission in the world was completed. In the presence of God is also where Jesus’ followers will dwell eternally. Jesus prayed, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent."

We may think that eternal life knowing God, dwelling in God’s presence, happens when we die. But our Good News proclaims that, in Christ, God came among us. Our Good News is that when Jesus returned to the Father, God sent the Spirit of Christ to be with us always, at all times, to the end of the ages. Eternity has already begun. It is now.

We can forget that, aware of so much that is not of God. Our great claim as Christians is that the Life of God is already, is now, is here. Indeed, we help bring it more fully into being when we reflect that Life more than we do the life of the world. Life in this world is among the things that will pass away. Life in God, which we enter here and now, is forever.

What or who in your life today reminds you that you are already living in the eternal Life of God? What or who distracts you from that heart-knowledge?
How might you exercise your faith to affirm that God is here, releasing the matters that make you fear God is not?

Jesus completed his work. He released into this world the Life of God. It cannot be re-contained or suppressed. But to many it can remain invisible – unless we make it known by how we live God-Life here and now. Where will you make that Life known today?

To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.

5-9-23 - Love Capacity

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.

Yesterday, we explored the relationship between loving Jesus and following his commands. Though these can be summed up generally as loving God and our neighbor, he gave plenty that were specific: “Love your enemies.” “Give to anyone who asks.” “Take up your cross and follow me.” “Proclaim the Good News and heal the sick.” Many of Jesus’ commandments are so counter-cultural, counter-intuitive, not to mention inconvenient, that keeping them is possible for us only from a place of love.

Such love also enables us to receive the gift Jesus promised his disciples that night before he was taken from them: ”And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him.”

Jesus calls the Spirit “another Advocate,” suggesting "advocate" had been one of his roles with them, to stand with them against spiritual danger, to strengthen them in God’s mission. In this role, he was limited by his time in this earthly life. But the Advocate whom the Father will send, he says, will be with them forever - a promise with no close-out clause.

Jesus says this "Spirit of truth” is a force whom the world - humanity at large - does not see or recognize, and therefore cannot receive. The gift of the Holy Spirit is given to all who have the capacity to receive him – and what increases our capacity is love, giving and receiving love. Swimmers and singers find their capacity for taking in and holding breath increases with practice. It is the same with love. Our capacity grows as we exercise it.

In what ways do you feel you are inhibited in giving love?
What gets in the way of your ability to receive love?
What are some ways you might expand your capacity for love, given and received?

You might try on a discipline of learning to love someone whom you find challenging – start by praying for them each day to be blessed. Or is there someone whose love you keep at a distance, or someone who wants to help you in some way that you won’t allow… can you, as an experiment, allow that person into your life a little more, allow the assistance they could render?

When our capacity to give and receive love increases, it has a ripple effect. Our being more loving invites the people around us to receive more and give more in turn. Imagine if we lived in a culture based on love and more love? Think how many stuck systems and stuck people might be released to function in wholeness.

We don’t have to dwell in such utopian visions – let’s just start with ourselves, and our own hearts, inviting the Spirit to expand our capacity for love. That's the way we can help God with the big picture.

5-3-23 - If You Don't Know Me By Now

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.

“If you don’t know me by now…” Today’s pop tune link goes to Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes. And that is just what Jesus might have sung when he realized yet again how scarcely his closest friends have really known him, seen him, recognized what was most authentic and true about him:

Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’ Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?"

I believe that human beings have a deep need to be known, perhaps even deeper than our need to be loved. After all, real love presumes knowledge about the one we love, all that is wonderful about them and much that is not. Jesus’ words are poignant: “All this time, and still you do not know me?”

In fairness to the disciples, it must have been very hard to take at face value the things Jesus said about his union with his “father in heaven,” despite witnessing the spiritual power he demonstrated. Surely he’s being metaphorical, symbolic, hyperbolic, they thought… Often we say the same things about this One whose truth we can never fully grasp.

We can never grasp the truth about another until we can “walk a mile in their shoes.” Our sacred story tells us that Jesus came in human flesh to walk a mile in our shoes. How might we walk in his sandals? By letting his Spirit, whom we name Holy, fill us. By truly being His Body in the world. By entering into conversation with him in prayer, reading about him, talking to other people who know him. The same way we seek to get to know anyone.

Today, in prayer, take a bold step. Ask Jesus something you want to know about yourself, or about him. Try to sit in quiet awhile and see if you sense any response – it may not come in words. It may come in an image that you see in your mind, or something that catches your eye around you. It may come later in the day in song lyrics or in an encounter with someone, in a thought or insight. And maybe in words. And see if Jesus has a question for you.

Our Good News diverges from the song in that it’s never too late to get to know Jesus (a few scary parables notwithstanding...) As with any relationship, getting to know him takes an investment of time and vulnerability and desire. Billions of people have found it worthwhile. Meet him for coffee and see where it goes.

1-5-23 - Affirmation

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.

We could name the "movements" in Jesus' baptism: Assent, Immersion, Emergence, Anointing, and then Affirmation. Something extraordinary occurs when Jesus comes up from that river - not only does the Spirit of God descend upon him in a visible form, there is an auditory phenomenon as well:

And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased."

Here we see all three persons in the One Triune God participating in the launch of Jesus’ mission on earth: the Spirit, the Father, and the one whom the Father claims as Son. When early church thinkers were working out theological implications of the Good News, scriptural passages like this helped to inform the doctrines of the Trinity and of Jesus’ nature as fully human and fully divine. Jesus, alone of humans born of woman, is called God’s Son.

That is the only part of the baptism unique to him. The pattern in Jesus’ baptism, Assent, Immersion, Emergence, Anointing and Affirmation, is true for us as well, if more internalized. We, or someone acting on our behalf, offer assent to the Story into which we are baptized. We undergo the dying and rising symbolically, in our interaction with the water, whether it’s actual immersion or not. We receive the anointing with oil of chrism, and the affirmation of belovedness. We are adopted as members of God’s household through our spiritual bond with the Son. And we receive God’s eternal “yes," claimed as beloved forever.

When have you heard God's "yes" spoken into you? Sometimes it comes through human agents, sometimes we feel it directly, inside. Remember those moments of spiritual affirmation, of being loved by your Creator for who you are. Recall them in moments when faith seems difficult, or you can’t see your way forward. More than any other message I have ever received in prayer I have heard God say, “I love you. Rest in my love.” Those are prayer times I can return to, remember, reclaim.

Let's note that the Father’s naming and claiming Jesus as his own, "the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased," comes before Jesus has actually “done” anything. His first thirty years appear to have been spent with his family, sharing his earthly father’s carpentry craft. His public ministry is still to come – and yet already, the Father proclaims himself “Well pleased.” All Jesus has done so far is show up.

I hope and pray we can remember this ourselves in moments when we feel inadequate or less than lovable – God loves us just as we show up and offer ourselves for relationship. There is nothing we can or need to do to earn that love – God already loves us “the most.” As we are able to accept that, we are able to show that kind of love to ourselves, and to one another, and beyond. What the world needs now...

To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Next Sunday’s readings are here. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.

7-18-22 - A Certain Place

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.

Do you have a special place where you pray? Some people pray in the car, chatting with Jesus in the passenger seat. Others pray as they walk in nature. Some even pray in churches. Many people pray on the run, going from here to there, or as need or occasion arises.

All of these are good and valid forms of prayer in terms of talking to God. And if we truly want to hear what God has to say to us we will also incorporate the kind of prayer that builds up our relationship with God. The gospels show us that Jesus often went apart to pray, and spent time in prayer. His disciples seem to have observed this pattern and were intrigued.

He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples."

No relationship can grow unless both parties devote time to conversation. When we’ve made a new friend, or become enamored of someone, we find ourselves naturally wanting to communicate. That impulse can weaken as familiarity grows, so we need to be proactive and intentional about it. If we want to strengthen our connection with the God who made the universe, who knows and loves us more than we can imagine, we will need to show up for the conversation God is always ready to have with us. Yes, it requires more from us, because, unlike God, our time is finite and we can only effectively focus on one person at a time.

Designating a time and especially a place for quiet, contemplative prayer is key. What time of day are you least likely to be distracted? Is there a place in your home, a chair, a window, where you can truly relax and go into “spirit-mode?” What you do when you get there can vary – some people read and chew on a passage of Scripture, or read the Daily Office (Episcopal-speak for a cycle of readings and prayers for morning and evening). You might read Water Daily and find your own way into Sunday’s gospel reading.

Leave some time to allow your spirit to settle deeply and invite God to speak in that silence. Perhaps your imagination will produce a scene in which you and Jesus can chat. I don’t know what it will look like for you. I only know that God desires connection with God’s beloveds, and connection requires communication, and communication with God will transform our whole day – and life.

To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Next Sunday’s readings are here. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.

6-21-22 - Fire From Heaven

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.

Many Christians of my “brand” – mainline Protestant, mostly progressive – are horrified at the violent rhetoric we hear from often conservative churches, particularly the identification among many American evangelicals with gun culture.* The language of vengeance and violence, though present in Old Testament texts, runs counter to the Good News proclaimed and lived by Jesus Christ. Yet not even his disciples were strangers to that flame-throwing impulse:

On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; but they did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” But he turned and rebuked them. Then they went on to another village.

James and John are being hyperbolic – there are no recorded instances of fire from heaven consuming the wicked, though the prophet Elijah did a number with fire on a wet altar, after which he had 400 enemy prophets slaughtered (yeah, it’s in the book). Maybe their anti-Samaritan ire was kindled; maybe they were juiced by the power they saw in Jesus and were beginning to exercise themselves. Yet I am less interested in their blood-lust than in Jesus’ response: “Nope. Let’s move on.”

When our message or our ministry is rejected, it is tempting to get angry at the very people we hoped to bless. Such feelings are human. But when we act on them, we depart from the way of Jesus. He was clear in his instructions to his disciples when he first sent them out: If a village does not receive you, shake its dust off your feet and move on to another place. (Luke 10:10-11) How long we are to try, and when we are to go elsewhere are matters to be discerned. The spiritual reality is that God’s work never has to be forced. When we are moving with the Spirit of God on God’s mission, it flows; things come naturally, connections are made, “coincidences” abound, and fruit results.

I have been slow to learn this. Too often I try to push things or make projects happen on my own steam, ending up tired and frustrated. I’m learning to release my efforts and initiatives and blockages into God’s hand, to sit back more and watch the Spirit arrange things so that my gifts and time are most fruitfully used. This is what happens when we learn to expect blessings – and if we’re not experiencing blessing in one endeavor, see where else the Spirit is leading us.

Are there areas in your life that feel stuck or stale? Ways you have been trying to live the Gospel that don’t appear to bear fruit? Offer them to God in prayer. Ask for insight about when to persevere, and when to fold your tents and move on.

God does want us to command fire from heaven – the fire of the Holy Spirit moving through us to cleanse and make holy our hearts and the world around us. The more we invite that holy fire into our hearts, the freer we are to minister God’s grace.

*Please watch The Armor of Light for a powerful look at how one such conservative, the Rev. Rob Schenk, a leader in the pro-life movement and in conservative church circles, came to see how incompatible opposition to gun safety laws was with being pro-life… it’s been on PBS, and hopefully will be again soon, or get a copy to show. It's more urgent than ever.

6-15-22 - Demonizing

You can listen to this reflection here.

Our country is once again in the throes of processing its latest eruptions of gun violence. (I first wrote that sentence six years ago and nothing has changed…) The drill has grown numbingly familiar – we learn about the shooter and his motives; we honor and remember the victims; support the survivors; call for action; pledge to pray; opine on social media. As the rhetoric flies, it is very easy to demonize different elements involved, especially the perpetrators of violence and those who enable them.

That is not what Jesus would do. This week’s story, among others, shows that he had a gift for separating disease, sin and evil from a person afflicted by them. He did not confuse people with the problems they manifest. Confronted with this terrified and terrorizing man, Jesus sees what’s wrong and addresses it head on. In this case, that means dealing first with the demons oppressing the man.

Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” He said, “Legion”; for many demons had entered him. They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss.

This man’s neighbors were not so discerning. They took the human approach – they saw the problem, not the human being. They sought to control him, subdue him, ultimately to enchain and isolate him. It didn’t work – he was at the mercy of evil run rampant, beyond his control – and theirs.

Am I suggesting that people who manifest evil are not responsible? This story does not yield such a conclusion. We are not told that this man was destructive to people other than himself. But even in the case of mass murderers and hate-mongerers (and Jesus would put these on the same moral level), we do well to remember what Paul wrote to the Ephesians: “Our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”

Remembering that our battle is with the powers of evil – and that it has been won by Jesus Christ, who gives us his power to wield in further skirmishes – is the key to approaching evil with love. Whether we are dealing with a person bent on destruction, or someone in the grip of addiction, or simply someone who annoys the daylights out of us, we are called to separate the person from the condition they bear or the problems they bring. We are to do our best to build up the person’s spirit, weak as it may be, while working to free them from the ills that beset them.

Does anyone in your life come to mind when you think about this? Has anyone done this for you, seen you apart from what was wrong with you? Sometimes that is the key to opening hearts so healing can begin.

It has become so easy these days to demonize other people, those whose values or behaviors or actions or opinions strike us as unholy and destructive. Technically, though, only one entity in the universe can actually demonize someone, and that is the Devil, the enemy of human nature. We don’t want to be doing his work for him, do we?

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5-25-21 - By Night

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.

What is symbol, and what merely detail? When it comes to the Gospel of John, it is tempting to see symbols everywhere. More literary than the other gospels, more informed by philosophical thought, furthered removed from the time it portrays, it invites allegorical interpretation, that way of seeing the multiple layers in a biblical text, bringing out the interplay among different texts and ideas.

So what are we to make of the time this story takes place? John is often very precise about time, noting things happening at “six o’clock” or “noon,” or “on the second day.” Here he offers just one temporal clue: “He [Nicodemus] came to Jesus by night.”

By night. There are many possibilities for Nicodemus’ choice of time. Some assume he came furtively, under cover of dark, because he was afraid of what his colleagues would think if they saw him talking with Jesus. Possible. Or maybe, given the demands on both of them, he sought Jesus out at a time when he could have a real conversation with him, without crowds and onlookers around. He wanted a personal conversation.

That’s the surface layer. Let’s go deeper – what does “at night” mean to you? Night suggests mystery, offering less clarity than daylight. There is light, but lunar light is less direct than solar, being itself a reflection. “Night” conveys insights gained in borrowed light, refracted from multiple angles, form emerging from shadows.

Nighttime is also – for those who work days and manage to stop – a time when we can be in a different mode. Our bodies in motion come to rest; we slow a bit, are solitary or social in a different way than during the day, perhaps gathering over a meal at which we can digest our experiences. Conversations at night can be different than in the daytime – longer, deeper, more connective.

And night is when we allow our conscious mind to recharge and a different way of processing information and reality comes out to play. Our dreams are full of stories and images – we don’t get didactic teachings in dreamscapes. And, like our scriptures, our dreams can contain contradictory images, mash-ups of feelings and information we have trouble processing straight on. Dreams are the land of paradox and nuance, as is the life of faith.

Who knows if the writer of John intended all this with those two words, “by night,” but allegorical interpretation sees everything as fair game. Knowing this encounter took place by night invites us to put on different lenses as we try to make sense of it.

We might say the whole enterprise of faith is a walk in the dark. If faith means believing in what is unseen, to walk by faith means stumbling in the dark. We can only really grasp God with our night vision – our “infra-red vision,” to borrow an image from a powerful dream I once had. Infra-red vision sees heat as light; it finds Life.

And doctrines such as the Trinity, God as one and yet three persons existing in perpetual community? That takes dream vision to see if we are to see it at all. Let’s polish up our night goggles as we attempt to understand what Jesus is saying to Nicodemus about flesh and spirit. Night vision will help us to get what our rational minds cannot quite grasp. And by night we might just encounter Jesus afresh.

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5-19-21 - Holy Pie

You can listen to this reflection here. The main reading for Sunday is here.

When I start reading what St. Paul has to say about the Holy Spirit, I soon get to thinking about pie. Why’s that, you ask? Because there’s a lot of talk about fruit and filling! (Yeah, no one else laughs at that either…).

St. Paul had a lot to say about the Holy Spirit – his function in the life of the church; the gifts, or charisms, given to us by the Spirit; the way the more charismatic of the charisms should be lived out in worship and community; and the fruit and the filling ("Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit..." Eph 5:18). Paul said he accompanied his proclamation of the Good News with signs of the power we're given as heirs to the Gospel: “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.” (I Cor 2:4-5)

It is the Spirit’s power that makes our message and our ministry effective at opening hearts and making peace and calling forth justice. The Spirit also equips us with the gifts and character we need as saints of the Living God on an ongoing basis. There are personality traits that Paul called “the fruit of the Spirit”:
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." (Galatians 5:22-23a).

Human beings are capable of such attributes without God, I’m sure – but not often, and rarely in a sustained manner. When we truly allow the Holy Spirit to fill us and transform us, we find ourselves manifesting these fruits in a way that surprises us and the people around us. We can tell the difference between the Holy Spirit and Prozac when someone who's always been downcast becomes a person of joy. Likewise, when someone known for her temper develops forbearance, you know God must be up to something.

What if we were to make a list of these “fruits” Paul names, adding ones we feel are missing, like humility. Then we might do an inventory, noting the levels of each of these we feel we possess – give it a number or fill in a circle with a rough percentage. Have you experienced more of any of these since you became more conscious about following Christ? Which are the attributes you particularly crave? We could revisit the list periodically, check our "levels."

God desires that each of us experience this fruit. And we don't get the fruit without the filling. And one way we get Spirit-filled, allowing God to sow the seeds of these traits in us, is to intentionally invite the Spirit to take up residence in us. That prayer is as simple as “Come, Holy Spirit!” It is a prayer I utter frequently before and during worship, and at other times when I realize I’m trying to do something on my own, or when my spirits are low. If we could get to the point where that prayer rose up in us all through the day, as well as spending lengthier times just bathing in the Spirit’s love and peace, I think we’d find ourselves both filled and fruitful.

In my experience, the Spirit is an eager guest, but one who awaits our invitation. She does not insist or break down the door. He doesn’t even knock all that hard, just is happy when we say, “Oh, I forgot you were there. Please come in... Want some pie?”

5-18-21 - Pumped

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's main reading is here.

Theological doctrines relating to the Holy Spirit are called “Pneumatology,” pneuma being the ancient Greek word for breath, spirit, soul. It is also the root of our word “pneumatic,” referring to compressing air to create power. (And, on the other end of the intellectual spectrum, there was the old Saturday Night Live sketch, with the body builders Hanz and Franz and their catch phrase, “Pump you up!"…)

Definitions of pneumatic refer to things being “filled with air,” or “using air pressure to move or work.” We see how inflated tires will help a vehicle move, or steam-fed pistons power machinery. The compressed air moves the pistons, which move other parts, small things powering the whole. That’s a pretty good image of the church engaged in God’s mission to reclaim, restore and renew all of creation to wholeness. What if we were to think of ourselves as vehicles or machines working pneumatically to accomplish far more than we could on our own?

The New Testament has many references to people being “filled with the Spirit.” This is one way the Holy Spirit seems to work in the world – by filling human beings. We even read of Jesus, before certain miracles, that “the Spirit was with him.” When we are filled with the Spirit, we are able to do “immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine,” to use Paul’s phrase. We are able to exercise faith, mobilize others, speak boldly, pray powerfully, organize brilliantly, joyfully aware that God is working with and through us.

What does it feel like to be filled with the Holy Spirit? It can be a gentle experience, waves of comfort or well-being or peace washing over us. It can feel like an influx of energy, with a physiological effect on our nervous system – increased heartbeat, tingling, trembling, feeling heat in extremities or all over. It can come with an intensity of emotion – joy, hope, faith, love – or give us total clarity about something we’re doing or saying. What does it feel like for you?

I can feel the difference between when I do something on my own steam (writing Water Daily, for instance), using natural talents and ideas, and when it feels like the Holy Spirit is filling me, writing through me. Sometimes I don’t feel anything different – I only know by the result that the Spirit added more than I brought. And sometimes I’m in a flow that I know to be Spirit-filled. We might call that pneumatic ministry. I think God desires us to be filled with compressed power that moves us so that the whole enterprise functions at peak effectiveness. God wants our faith tires filled so we can move mountains.

Of course, “pumped” is also slang for “excited,” “psyched up,” anticipating great things. If we truly want the gifts and blessings and ministries that are our inheritance as beloved believers in Christ, we will allow the Holy Spirit to "pump us up," and seek to live “pumped.”

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” (Ephesians 3:20-21)