Dispirited

The scriptures referred to are Genesis 1:1-5, Acts 19:1-7 and Mark 1:4-11.

Isn't it frustrating to see a meme on the internet that expresses a great thought, and even has a beautiful or arresting photo behind it but you hesitate to share it because of a misspelling? I saw one that actually spelled “Christianity” as “Christinanity!” Is there no spellcheck on meme generators? In some cases it's a grammar check that's needed, like the person uses the wrong “you're/your” or the wrong “it's/its.” For those of us who are professional writers who constantly hunt for elusive typos in longer compositions, it's infuriating that people don't do it before posting one sentence. Especially when the sentiment expressed is worth sharing. I want people to read it but I don't want to look like an idiot who doesn't know the difference between “there,” “they're” and “their.”

Another thing that bothers me, and maybe it's just me, is the inspirational post that overgeneralizes. Like all those memes that tell you to pursue your dreams no matter what anyone else says. There's a big problem with that. Your dream might not be achievable. Sometimes people have unrealistic dreams that they should give up on. I think of all the episodes of American Idol where they focused on people whose singing sounded like a cat with its leg in a bear trap. I noticed we never heard the people who were almost but not quite good enough. That's not entertaining. What we heard were people who were genetically incapable of hitting the right note or maintaining a beat and who either had absurdly supportive friends and family or followed the advice of never listening to anyone who tells you what you don't want to hear. The worse case scenario of following your dream no matter what is someone whose dreams are just plain wrong, like those of Charles Manson, Ted Bundy or Adolf Hitler. There are timid creative people who need more self-confidence, but sadly confidence does not always accompany competence and a strong belief in oneself can go hand in hand with a disregard for others. I like what Rudyard Kipling wrote in his poem If: “If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting, too.”

What triggered this is a post by a colleague that was a list of something like 2 dozen good, short pieces of advice, like “Live beneath your means,” “Be kind to unkind people,” “Realize and accept that life isn't fair,” and “Listen more; talk less.” But the last two lines were; “Don't sweat the small stuff. It's all small stuff.” The problem is it's not all small stuff. Some things in life are huge: deciding whether to marry someone, deciding to ingest a recreational drug or not, deciding to follow Jesus. And some things that seem small may in fact make an enormous difference: a gesture, a word, or even an inflection. That last changes the whole meaning of a key sentence in Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation. You should always be suspicious of statements that make sweeping generalizations. Or use words like “always.”

In today's lectionary texts we have a couple of what appear to be oversights that make a huge differences. One is in our Old Testament passage. It reads, “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over of the face of the waters.” There are no perfect translations of the Bible but the NRSV is one of the best. Still I question their translation of the Hebrew words ruach elohim here as a “wind from God.” The word ruach can mean “wind” but it can also mean “spirit”and everywhere else in the Hebrew Bible that phrase means the “Spirit of God.” Plus the verb that precedes it means, at its root, “brood, hover, flutter.” Wind doesn't do that. Birds do and the symbolism is that of the Spirit of God brooding over creation, as a bird broods over a nest of eggs that are about to burst with new life. As we see in our gospel, the Spirit actually appeared as a dove at Jesus' baptism. And for the believer, baptism is the start of new life in God. Once again, in the Bible, spirit is associated with life. One is dead when one's spirit leaves the body. For all these reasons, I think the traditional translation of the Spirit of God hovering over the formless void before creating the world is preferable.

The lack of the Spirit is crucial in our passage from Acts. Apparently the message of John the Baptist reached Ephesus and he had a dozen disciples there. But they only knew of his baptism for repentance. They didn't know of the Holy Spirit, nor, it seems, of Jesus! Paul corrects their knowledge (Luke gives us a bare bones summary of what Paul told them), baptizes them into Jesus Christ, and lays hands on them. And then the converts speak in tongues and prophesy. This is a sign which we see in the early church whenever a new group, like Samaritans, Gentiles, etc, comes to Christ and receives the Spirit.

The point is that Christianity without the Spirit is incomplete. And yet the mainstream church is leery of the Spirit. And the reason is that you can't predict how he'll act. Other aspects of the faith can be quantified and summarized and institutionalized. The Spirit, as Jesus said, is like the wind and we “do not know where it comes from and where it is going.” And more disconcerting, Jesus says, “So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8) People led by the Spirit can be unpredictable and disruptive.

In the second century there was a movement called New Prophecy started by a man named Montanus. He spoke in tongues and delivered prophecies and said the Spirit was speaking through him. Two women rose to leadership in the movement and Montanists had women priests and bishops, citing Joel 2:28-29, where it says that in the end times God's Spirit would be poured out on all. They emphasized the imminent coming of Jesus and advocated an ascetic lifestyle which contrasted to the laxity they saw in the church. The movement was welcomed at first. It was joined by prominent Christians like the theologian Tertullian. It was not initially condemned by the bishop of Rome. But eventually it was declared a heresy by the church. The frustrating thing is that historians can't find any solid reasons why it was condemned. I suspect it was because such a movement is hard if not impossible to control. Who knows what a person who claims to be a prophet could say or do?

For instance, cults usually have a charismatic leader who says he is God's spokesman. Even if these groups start off as ostensibly Christian, they usually leave orthodoxy, often with a revelation that the cult leader is in fact Christ or God. That happened with Jim Jones of Jonestown and David Koresh of the Branch Davidians in Waco. In the Latter Day Saints, it can cause real problems since, according to their beliefs, all Mormon men are embryonic gods. That means they can, for instance, tell young women whom they fancy that God has revealed that they are to marry. Mormon women pretty much have to take them at their word, since they don't have the same status in their theology. All the leaders of the various Mormon fundamentalist split-off groups claim to be THE Prophet foretold by founder Joseph Smith.

Such abuses and the potential for chaos and schisms are big reasons why organized religions either say that the age of prophecy is over or restrict prophecy to their leader. The interesting thing is that the New Testament churches allowed ordinary believers to prophesy. And, yes, that included women, provided their hair, an object of lust in that culture, was properly covered. (1 Corinthians 11:5) And by prophesying, Paul was speaking of preaching. He writes “But the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouragement, and consolation. The one who speaks in a tongue builds himself up, but the one who prophesies builds up the church.” (1 Corinthians 14:3-4) Usually we think prophesy is all about predicting the future. But it is primarily speaking God's word to others to strengthen, encourage, console and build up the church.

And that's one way to see if someone is actually prophesying or just expressing their own views. Not only should we ask if what someone preaches is in line with what Jesus taught (John 16:12-13) but also does what he or she says help church members? Does it strengthen their faith? Does it encourage them to follow Jesus? Does it console them when life is hard? Does it build up rather than tear down the church? Does it in fact make us better Christians?

The Spirit's immediate actions may be hard to predict but his intentions are always the same: to channel God's gifts to us. And since they are myriad, not all the gifts are the same. As Paul writes, “Now there are different gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are different ministries, but the same Lord. And there are different results, but the same God who produces all of them in everyone. To each person the manifestation of the Spirit is given for benefit of all....It is one and the same Spirit, distributing as he decides to each person, who produces all these things.” (1 Corinthians 12:4-7, 11)

And not all the gifts are prophecy. Paul follows this passage with his metaphor of us all being individual parts of the body of Christ. His point is that unity doesn't require uniformity; it requires everyone having the same Spirit and working together for the same overall goal.

I saw this when I was involved in acting at the Marathon Community Theatre. You need more than just people emoting and saying lines. You need a director to oversee everything on stage. You need a sound engineer, a lighting director, a set designer, a stage manager, a prop master, a wardrobe mistress, makeup artists, a producer to oversee the budget, salesmen to get the sponsors, a graphic designer to do the posters and lay out the program, a publicist to get articles in the media and to place ads, and a business manager to handle that side of things. If you are doing a musical you also need dancers and a choreographer and music director and musicians. Most are volunteers and yet not all of them are performers. So why do they do what amounts to a second unpaid job? Because they love the theatre.

The church should run the same way and for the same reason: our love of Jesus. That love unites us and motivates us to serve Jesus in the church and in the world. Without the love of Jesus in our hearts, we are nothing (1 Corinthians 13:2). And that love is channeled through the Spirit. As Paul put it, “...the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” (Romans 5:5)

Besides communicating God's love to us, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Life. (Romans 8:2) And he is the life of the church. Without the Spirit of Christ animating it, the church is dead. It is lifeless organization, incapable of passing on life or changing the lives of others. It is simply another group of people discussing and doing nice things, like the Elks club or the Knights of Pythias. But Jesus envisioned a church that was growing. Growth is also a sign of life. And the only way for the church to grow is to reach out and bring more people in.

Episcopalians and Lutherans are not enthusiastic about evangelism. And you really can't do much if you aren't enthusiastic. The word “enthusiasm” comes from the Greek and literally means “possessed by God.” If we really believe the Spirit of God is in us, that alone should excite us. If we believe that God is asking us to work with him, that should excite us. If we believe that God is asking us to invite others into his family, that should excite us. If we look at everyone we meet as either someone who is already our brother or sister in Christ or someone who can become our brother or sister in Christ, that should excite us.

I've seen a lot of schemes and programs to help churches revive and grow. But none of them will work without the Spirit. Leaving him out of the equation is a grave oversight, like leaving him out of a translation or out of a baptism. The Spirit gives life. The Spirit gives gifts. The Spirit gives love. The Spirit can make us do crazy things, at least to those on the outside looking in. But we need the Spirit. This group needs the Spirit, the breathing, burning, enlightening, soaring presence of God. Or we're as good as dead.

Let us pray.

Lord God, Heavenly Father, King of the Universe, pour out your Spirit upon us. Fill us with your overflowing love. Shower us with your gifts. Drive us out into the world to share them. Give us the words we need to tell others about your son, Jesus. Send us out on missions to see your son in everyone we meet and then serve him through serving them. Give us the joy of truly living, of making our lives count as Jesus' life did. We ask all these things in the name of your son our savior Jesus Christ and through the power of your Holy Spirit, who live and reign with you, Father, one God forever and ever, Amen.