God bestows upon us the Holy Spirit, creating and renewing the church of
Jesus Christ, binding in covenant faithful people of all ages, tongues, and
races. God calls us into the church to accept the cost and joy of discipleship,
to be servants in the service of the whole human family, to proclaim the gospel
to all the world and resist the powers of evil, to share in Christ’s baptism
and eat at his table, to join him in his passion and victory.
Whoa, this is a mouthful…perhaps too much for one morning
meditation. Yet, I think part of what
the above is saying is that the Spirit fuels and feeds the church. As heady and wordy UCC people, who never met
a committee we didn’t love…who then voted to form a sub-committee for good
measure, I am not sure where we land with the Spirit. I am not sure where you land with this
beautifully elusive and evasive part of God?
The Spirit, for me, is the part of God that brings play and prayer
together. As serious, somber people who
love to sing our ditties and dirges about the solemnity of church as we tell
the children to quit running the church and being so loud, maybe we don’t trust
the Spirit? Maybe the Spirit left the
building with laughter and joyfully making mistakes from which we learn. The Spirit is that part that seeks to make a
joyful noise (Psalm 100) and lament when we feel forgotten by God
(Psalm 22). Maybe the Spirit is the
emotive part of our faith? For me, the Spirit
is the thread that connects us all together.
The Spirit is the spacious part of the Sacred that helps us find unity
in diversity, which is so countercultural in our world today. What is provoked in you from the above? When have you felt the Spirit? What does our theological textbook called “a
hymnal” say about the Spirit? Let loose
your wild imagination today to see where the Spirit ministers, who can be
gentle/soft/ whisper to your soul as well as sing out with gusto, to your life
this day. Amen.
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