May 21 2017 Sermon
John 14:25-31
“‘I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But 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. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, “I am going away, and I am coming to you.” If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me; but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us be on our way.”
This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.
The last semester I was in undergraduate studies, I recall there was a talent show one Saturday evening in the student center. Bragging rights and a VISA gift card were on the line as students competed to amuse their friends, professors, and college staff. My best friend, who already had a larger than life personality and was loved by every segment of the student body, took the stage to have his go at it. Over the years I had heard stories, especially over the holiday breaks, when he and his family would travel to see relatives out of state. Of course a trip to visit the relatives meant going to their church for services. As he would tell me on the phone and later demonstrate for the student body that Saturday evening in the talent show, worshipping with his relatives was a Spirit filled experience (and in a style of worship a bit foreign to the church he worshipped in back home).
As he took the stage, he grabbed the microphone, doing his best southern televangelist accent, turning Jesus into a three syllable word. His voice rose and fell with enthusiasm, garnering cheers and shouts from the audience, as he imitated the preacher giving the choir director and organist cues to pick up the energy. He began acting like he was playing the keyboard with his hands out in front, then he dropped the mic, indicating that the lighting praise round had begun, and ran up and down the aisles of the student center, hands in the air, until he fell out back on the stage, reminiscent of those slain in the Spirit littering the aisles of the church until the deacons brought out pillows and courtesy blankets.
This is the honest to God truth. I’ve worshipped in churches like the one my best friend depicted. Worship resembles more of a Benny Hinn miracle crusade than the ordered liturgy we’re familiar with here. The preacher lays hands on the heads of those seeking cures and then in the name of Jesus they’re healed, cured, speaking in tongues, or slain in the spirit. To the outsider or the visitor, this can be a downright perplexing, scary, or confusing way to see the Spirit of God at work in the community.
I painted an extravagant picture of the ways others experience the Spirit of God because of the diversity of ways God’s Spirit is understood and sought after in the universal church over the ages. The church is generally pretty comfortable talking about and experiencing God the Father/Mother and Jesus the Christ. But when it comes to the Spirit, there is far less certainty about what he or she is doing, where he or she might go, and how he or she might lead an individual or the church into ministry.
As an aside, I’m using he or she to refer to the Spirit because in Greek, the word is a personal neuter. It’s not an ‘it’ like an object but there is no personal gendered pronoun in English that corresponds.
So what do we do with the Spirit? John reminds us the Spirit blows gently and we can feel the Spirit move even when we can’t see that movement. Like wind in the trees, you know when it’s there but you can’t see it blow. You can see its aftermath and force when it blows through but you can’t hold it in your hands.
The Spirit is an advocate, standing in your corner when the odds are against you. The Spirit is a comforter like a compassionate friend whose touch instills peace in your soul far more effectively than spoken word. The Spirit is the presence of God in your life giving you a discerning mind to do what is just and compassionate to demonstrate the reign of God in the world. The Holy Spirit is the One who in baptism places a call upon your life to serve the Everlasting God and the innate gifts to fulfill that calling.
The Holy Spirit will blow like a western wind through the lives of our graduates and college students opening their hearts and eyes to see suffering and the courage to ease it. I pray the Spirit of God moves through this congregation inspiring us to bold acts of ministry in the name of Jesus the Christ. On this side of Easter and an empty grave, the Spirit gives the church its life. Church without the life of the Spirit doesn’t get very far and doesn’t last very long.
Spirit led ministry doesn’t have to be what we associate with the Pentecostal church, speaking in tongues, and getting slain in the spirit. Spirit led can be followers of Jesus Christ listening well and seeing clearly the world around them and finding ways to use their gifts to make the world a bit more like the way Jesus envisions it. It can be retired adults starting juvenile detention rehabilitation ministries that create mentoring relationships between seasoned adults and youth searching for a hope filled future. Spirit led ministry can be young adults abandoning a deadening pursuit of wealth for life long vocations in service of God and neighbor.
Saying yes to holy nudgings in your life is the kind of Spirit led ministry I want for our congregation and for each of us as individuals.
Courtney might tell you years ago she set out a five year plan for her life. She knew as a college student exactly where she wanted to be in 2013 until the Spirit of God interrupted. Courtney left Tennessee during one of her college summers to serve as an intern for Project Transformation in Dallas, Texas. One year later Courtney returned to serve again as a Project Transformation intern in Dallas. It was after her second year of service with Project Transformation that she began hearing God’s invitation to lead something new. So for a third year, amidst a period of discernment, Courtney returned to Dallas to serve. It was during that summer that God’s clear invitation to a costly and self-sacrificing way of following Jesus in a particular ministry emerged for Courtney. Her commitment and profession of Jesus as Christ led her to take up a call to bring Project Transformation here to Tennessee.
That’s exactly what Courtney did-she brought the idea of Project Transformation Tennessee to church leaders and communities of faith across this area sharing this piece of God’s dream. Churches all across middle Tennessee said ‘yes’ in 2013 to support the faith journey of 24 young adults who led the summer programs. That summer, God said ‘yes’ to 220 children in this city who know love through youth and adults who sat alongside them as they practiced reading. Every year since, the ministry has amplified and the transformation has grown touching the lives of thousands of children and hundreds of young adults who have experienced the enlivening presence of God’s Spirit. As a community of faith, this year we have said ‘yes,’ to be part of God’s work through Project Transformation Tennessee. Perhaps one of our graduates or youth one day will serve with Project Transformation and in the process discern God’s call upon their life. All in all, praise be to God that a young adult’s love for Jesus Christ and commitment to follow him, led her to catch part of God’s dream for children here in middle Tennessee.
When we choose to follow the Spirit of God, faithfully wherever it might blow, it might demand a life altering direction and a high cost of sacrifice. But such is the nature of Spirit led ministry transforming the world in the name of Jesus the Christ.
Bless you in the name of the Almighty. Amen.