Demons, Jesus, Holy Spirit, Forgiveness – Tough Stuff

Posted on May 28, 2012 by Trinity Seasons

I find this passage of Matthew very hard to rightly unpack.  As I read it, I realize I am distracted, not by what Jesus is teaching but by the way it is reported.  I hear the scribe behind the scenes.  I imagine him trying to record everything Jesus is saying and realizing not but a second into it that he might be in over his head. This is big stuff – demons, Holy Spirit, Jesus, forgiveness.  And try as he might to get it all down just as Jesus taught, when I read the passage today I feel the scribe’s presence.  And this distraction makes it easier  for me to not have to deal  – unpack – what Jesus is teaching here.  It’s a sort of excuse.

I wonder how often that happens to readers.  I wonder how often we just glide over some really big ideas and not spend time to understand the Word’s personal application?  I wonder how many people don’t read Scripture at all because it is just too dense and complicated and seemingly contradictory?

Today’s gospel was unpacked for me by an anonymous contributor to Forward Day by Day some time last year.  I saved the reflection and was grateful to come upon it in my journal this morning, as I turned there to note how difficult I find this passage.

I’m thankful the contributor didn’t encounter the same distraction as I with the gospel story.

The Holy Spirit was present with that scribe who first recorded the teaching, and with the contributor who centuries later unpacked the teaching, and here with me now as I begin another day applying the teaching I glean from His Word.

From Forward Day by Day, October 11, 2011

Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.

Why won’t we be forgiven for speaking against the Holy Spirit when we will be forgiven if we speak against Jesus? That question has always troubled me. After all, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are part of the Trinity. Why the difference? Why this warning?

I think Jesus is reminding us that the Holy Spirit lives in us and because of that, we should know better. Through the inner movement of the Spirit we have been enlightened to know right from wrong, to know what is of Jesus and what is not. When we choose to do what we know in our hearts and minds is not of Jesus, we are speaking against the Holy Spirit that is within us.

If we persist in this, we will not be forgiven. We may think we would never go so far in our rebellion. But all sins begin small. We steal dimes before we steal dollars before we steal thousands. It is a slippery road and we have been warned!

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Whirlwind with the Spirit

Posted on May 27, 2012 by Trinity Seasons

Three years ago on Pentecost Sunday I was being prayed for and over for a real live touch by the Holy Spirit.  I attended worship that Sunday in the church where my formative years as a believer were spent; the church where I came to know the Lord and the Word, where I learned to love liturgy, the Book of Common Prayer, where I began to develop a theological framework that would make church always ‘home’ for me.  I was, three years ago on Pentecost Sunday, at ‘home’ again in a church where I had made connections with God and some of God’s people that had put me on one path and not another – a path of God’s choosing, I believed.

It was  a significant day in worship for me.  I went with the full intention of praying, Come Holy Spirit Come – a prayer I not only had never prayed, but felt uncomfortable even hearing from other worshipers.  Why do we have to pray for the Spirit to come when He is always present?

I had up to that point in my walk believed the Spirit had come to me, that my life had been animated by the Spirit.

I had a more cerebral than an experiential understanding of this.  I thought of myself more like Peter after Pentecost – a slow drip of the Spirit that transformed my heart, my mind… moments, years, of absolute conviction and nearly as many peppered with doubt – than the overnight converted Paul, who after the touch of the Holy Spirit, saw and heard everything with a new, transformed heart and passion for Jesus.

I had accepted that the physical warming sensation so many describe as part of their conversion experience was not going to happen for me.  It wasn’t God’s intention for me to know Him in this way.  And that was okay – for years that was okay.

But on this Pentecost Sunday, I knew God was whispering something quite different and telling me it really wasn’t okay, that it wasn’t His intention that I miss the fullness of knowing Him , that He wanted me to feel His warmth, light, and presence throughout every cell of my being.

For me to be able to trust Him and walk into the broad place to which I thought He was calling me, I had to get way beyond feeling ‘comfortable’ with words Come Holy Spirit Come and into a place where I believed that with my invitation, the Spirit would come.

So, there I was three years ago, intentionally praying for jump start – a kick, a new infusion of the Spirit.

In real time what happened? I experienced no touch, no warmth or real joy.

But I wasn’t without feelings – deep feelings that manifested in tears.  I wept as realized that it was by God’s hand that I was even in this particular church on Pentecost Sunday, alone but for familiar faces from my past.  I was here inviting a touch for a reason.  It was no coincidence that I found myself in these particular pews.   After all, coincidence is nothing more than me working with and not independent or against God or as Albert Einstein is reported to have said, “Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous.”

Point is, I wept as I realized God  brought me here, that day.  He needed me in a safe, broad place to talk to me.  He needed to remind me of from whence I came to know where I was going and where He was leading me.

A whirlwind – that’s the best I can describe it.  Not a warmth or touch of the Spirit in the traditional Pentecost sense.  My life that looked to others as one devolved into chaos was surrounded and grounded in the whirlwind of the Spirit.

And onward I went with and through and on the path that I knew God had put me onto.

The whirlwind continued to work on me.

Two years ago  – just one year to the date I had asked explicitly for a touch – Come Holy Spirit Come – I was preaching in God’s church.  Incredible.  The whirlwind had landed me in a broad place.

Then, last year.   Three years to the date I had prayed – Come Holy Spirit, Come – I was alone, again, but as a worshiper, not a preacher, presider or proclaimer.  And in a church I had never before attended.  Had I come full circle?  Was it not a whirlwind but a tornado that had temporarily lifted me up and out of one home and put me into another only to return me the pews?

And so, this year.  I returned to a small church in my neighborhood.  Familiar but not personally known faces I joined in the pews at peace and yet unsettled, at the same time.

I arrived at worship a bit early, so I prayed the psalm appointed to the Daily Office, Psalm 118.  And I began to cry.

I have such a personal history with the language of this psalm, especially as it connects for me dots about Pentecost, the receiving of the Holy Spirit and the broad place.

It is a prayer of  distress and gratefulness at the same time.  It is a prayer  for light, for guidance, for discernment.

And as I prayed this psalm this Pentecost Sunday in a neighborhood church as a worshiper, as I prayed it on my knees, recollecting the past few Pentecosts, realizing the presence of the Spirit in all of them, seeing the whirlwind that surrounds and grounds me, seeing how God has been working on and in me, praying all this through my tears, I was touched.  This time with the warmth an aching heart and tears can illicit.  A warmth –  joy? – knowing that He  had-has-will always answer me.

Psalm 118:5-9  5 Out of my distress I called on the LORD; the LORD answered me and set me in a broad place.  6 With the LORD on my side I do not fear. What can mortals do to me?  7 The LORD is on my side to help me; I shall look in triumph on those who hate me.  8 It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to put confidence in mortals.  9 It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to put confidence in princes.

Come, Holy Spirit, Come.  Surround.  Ground.

Amen.

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God with me in all times, in all places, in all

Posted on May 21, 2012 by Trinity Seasons

This gallery contains 1 photo.

Joshua 1:9  Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”

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Blazing but not consumed

Posted on May 20, 2012 by Trinity Seasons

I once heard from a head master of a high school that the pursuit of knowledge  – learning for learning’s sake was not enough…that listening and discernment were key to the westernized ideal that ‘knowledge is power.’  He went on to say that the objective at his school was to graduate young people with this latter skill, discernment, and that the former – the acquisition of knowledge – could be gotten anywhere.  What distinguished his school from others was not the pursuit of knowledge, but how to connect the dots of knowledge, problem solve and think.   “What we aim to do here,” he said, “is to teach your children how to ENLIGHTEN a room, a discussion, a relationship, a communication; and not INFLAME.”

He conjured the warmth associated with the soft lighting of a candle or a camp fire vs the heat a raging fire generates.  That’s what the school was  teaching to – the warmth that lighting a room, discussion, relationship, communication with problem solving thinkers can achieve.  No talking heads.  No Teflon leaders.  No self-righteous degree heavy politicians.  The world needs problem solvers, thinkers, he suggested.  Those who can walk into a room with a candle that enlightens, and not a torch – a burning  bone to chew – that inflames.

Enlighten vs. inflame.  What a concept.

But not an original one.  Nope; enlightening and not inflaming – burning up  – is exactly what took place between Moses and the Spirit on that mountain top in today’s Old Testament account (Exodus 3:1-12).

The burning bush and the angel of the Lord in “a flame of fire” within it –  enlightening, if you will, the entire landscape.   Just look at how the Spirit lights up and calls at the same time in the painting depicting the scene, here.  Inviting, warm, and yet awesome and a bit on the frightening side.  But here is Moses listening and the bush burns but doesn’t inflame.  The Spirit didn’t burn things up,  didn’t incite anything but awe and respect.  Enlightened, not inflamed.  What a concept.

The question before me today is how the Spirit within me – God with me – how that manifests in my relationships, conversations, communications.  At any given time, I see moments of enlightenment, and at others, an inflammatory character.  I pray that the balance will tip in favor of enlightenment  – a warmth, not heat – in the end.  Blazing but not consumed.

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Take His WORD at His WORD

Posted on May 18, 2012 by Trinity Seasons

That’s what Jesus is saying in the final parable (Mt 7:22-28) of the Sermon on the Mount – which began, mind you, two chapters before and with the Beatitudes.  Take me – Jesus – son of our Creator, Abba Father, God – take me at my Word.  I am the Word.  Build your life on me, on rock, on brick.  Not sand.

This final parable often reminds contemporary readers of the fairy tale The Three Little Pigs because the consequences of building lives on easy, temporary, cheap foundations results in ruin.  But I am reminded of how each story began to see that few parallels exist.  The fairy tale? The story begins with the title characters being sent out into the world by their mother, to “seek their fortune”.   And Jesus, how does he begin his sermon?  “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Mt 5:3).”  A significant difference.  Fame and fortune seeking sets a person on quite a different path than one that seeks Him.

So rather than those cute little piggies, the Spirit gave me a different ‘tableau’ today as I read the final parable of the Jesus’ longest recorded sermon.  Throughout he’s been telling me, “Take heed, read my Word, read the signs, take me seriously (not literally, as a friend distinguished recently – for heaven’s sake Jesus teaches in parables and imagery all the time to bust open literal readings of the Hebrew Scriptures).  No, take me seriously.  Build your life on me.  There are consequences if you don’t.  This is my Word.”

So this is the thought I am left with at the conclusion of my morning prayer time.  And then, I open today’s newspaper as I do every morning after getting grounded in the Word. I make my way through all the noise in the world to my favorite section, the comics.  And there, lo and behold, is an image that brings me back to the gospel today and it makes me smile. Guy should have taken the caution sign seriously.

Image

Yes, Jesus.  I take you at your Word.

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Breathing Room

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Trinity Seasons

The psalm reading today (Psalm 119:97-120) was not a good way to kick off a morning. For me, Psalm 119 is especially trying with its seeming idol-worship of the Law overall, though I know the Spirit can reach and teach me through it. But today’s section? Not so much.

119:97 Oh, how I love your law! It is my meditation all day long. 98 Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is always with me. 99 I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your decrees are my meditation. 100 I understand more than the aged, for I keep your precepts. 101 I hold back my feet from every evil way, in order to keep your word. 102 I do not turn away from your ordinances, for you have taught me. 103 How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! 104 Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.

My first impression when reading this morning? I hear the scribe-writer and not the Spirit. And the writer sounds like a resolute, life-inexperienced zealot – a young person – in their twenties – maybe a seminarian, not someone I’d be enlightened by. The writer sounds self-righteous, not humble, but tight and bound up, a worrier. And finally, I sense from this almost desperate-sounding prayer just no breathing room for life experience, let alone the Holy Spirit.
Ugh.

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Don’t Wake Up in a Roadside Ditch

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Trinity Seasons

…or “Hear then the parable of the sower.”  Jesus spends a lot of time teaching the disciples the difference between those who hear and understand and those who hear and think they understand.  And as Jesus unpacks the parable of the sower for us a bunny trail of if-then unfolds – consequences to not UNDERSTANDING what the WORD:

Matthew 13:19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart;

What came to my mind’s eye was this television commercial – a ridiculous bunny trail of consequences resulting from an initial clueless, unengaged, not intentional choice of one product over another. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7udQSHWpL88

Don’t wake up in a roadside ditch…here’s how you get there, says the commercial.

And Jesus?  I think it goes like this, “Don’t just pretend to listen to me, don’t imitate me and think its enough, be intentional and engaged.  Otherwise?  Well, you’ll end up falling away (Mt 13:21) or you’ll choke on the lure of wealth and yield nothing (Mt 13:22).  Bottom line?  In a ditch.”

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Longing

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Trinity Seasons

Matthew 13:17 17 Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.

Have you ever longed for something? A thing? A person? Jesus? That word is so, so deep. Longing. Longing to see, to hear, to know and to be known. The word surfaces, for me, a deep ache. It is something like a pit deep within my being – a sacred hole? – that over a lifetime has sought to be filled. There’s a depth and emptiness at one time…and faith, too. I can’t long for something I don’t believe exists.

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Matthew 6:22 – The eye is the lamp of the body.

Posted on May 12, 2012 by Trinity Seasons


Matthew 6:22
I beg to differ.  The eye is the LENS of the body.   Our eyes enable us to see, focus, distinguish.  Light comes to us through our eyes.  Lamp vs Lens.  Both And?  Is there a difference?  If so, is the difference important?  Either way the more OPEN our eyes to the WORD and the WORLD, the more wholly, holy, and healthy we are living.

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Worrier? Not so much…but

Posted on May 10, 2012 by Trinity Seasons

Matthew 6:34 ¶ “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

A worrier I am not and never have been. And because I don’t tend toward worry or anxiety it perplexed me how people of faith – many people – could get so mired in anxiety over things like provision, security, parenting, careers, degrees, and relationships. And, honestly, even more than perplexed, I was pretty judgmental and saw such worry and anxiety as a character flaw and a weakness. In fact, if I was on the other end of a relationship – whether fellow worshiper, family member, business associate, friend, or partner – with a worrier, resentment and judgment reared its ugly head, leaving little room for empathy. The worrier’s tendency towards ‘no’, anxiety over change, burden to perform would butt up right against what they wrongly perceived as my Pollyanna, pipe dream, naive, glass half full, trust in the Spirit, God’s grace-ful intention, worry-free lens and walls erected; barriers to entry to the other mounted. And then, years ago, I heard in a sermon one line that summed up what Jesus was teaching to the the faithful in today’s Gospel story (Mt 6:25-34):

WORRY IS LIKE A MILD FORM OF ATHEISM.

Read that again.

WORRY IS LIKE A MILD FORM OF ATHEISM.

Hearing this forever altered my understanding of worriers and graced me with an empathy towards them that I needed way more than the worriers I knew, needed. It softened my hardened heart. I was able to “feel” for the other in a way I hadn’t before.

I think the Spirit intended for me to be in church that day lo so many years ago in order to begin a process of opening doors in my heart for those inclined towards worry, those ‘with a mild form of atheism.’ How heavy a burden to go through life thinking it was all up to you – that all your success and failure was a reflection of your worthiness, your value, your esteem.

I am a better friend, fellow worshiper, business associate, parent, family member and partner when my heart is open and can feel the burden of the worrier.

Onward in faith and in Him.

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