Sunday and Spirit

“The Holy Spirit, huh… Wadda ya wanna know?”          Did you ever wish there was someone to ask about this? 

Last Sunday was Pentecost Sunday and this coming Sunday is Holy Trinity Sunday (the Holy Spirit is one third of the Trinity).    

Do you remember any bible stories about Spirit?

– As the Spirit descended on the disciples on the day of Pentecost, and they all preached in different languages to the people of Jerusalem

– Paul talks about the gifts of the Spirit on the community, that all the gifts work for the good of the body of believers

            – Jesus comes to the disciples after he’s been resurrected and says to them, “Peace be with you.”  Then he says, “receive the Holy Spirit” and he tells them he’s sending them out.  

Nice stories.  

Nice stories about the Spirit.   Nice stories of a by-gone era.   And it’s for sure a by-gone era. 

But what do we hear in these stories?  

History (as in factual)?       

That the stories are made up?   

That maybe the stories were real for their time back then, but they sure can’t be real today?    Or maybe that they’re nice stories to teach a good lesson?  

When you hear a bible story about the Spirit… do  you hear a “make-believe” story?   Sort of like the Rudyard Kipling “Just-so” stories… kiddie stories that explain for example why the raccoon has a mask, or why giraffes have long necks.   Very un-scientific, very “not real”… but nice ways of telling a story.  

   

Or were these stories true for their time… that the Spirit could do stuff like that BACK THEN…    but that kind of thing just DOESN’T happen in our time!   And especially NOT in our country!      

Or… did you hear in the stories a reflection of what the Spirit can do still today?  

I told a few stories about the Spirit in my life – moments where I recognized something bigger than me…

         Like in conversations – where I recognize that what the other person is saying is a bigger deal than what it might sound like, and if I go on with my “schedule” I would miss something important.   I told the story of being at seminary, the tail-end of the year.   I was studying in the library with another student – an exchange student from Slovakia.   They were on the floor with all their stuff spread out in front of them.   They were leaving to go back home after the semester ended.   I’d been a commuter- spent little time with the other students since I had a daily 3 hour round trip, so I spent little time with them, and pretty much most of my other classmates as well.    At a break time, I asked them what they had thought of their US experience.   They said –do you want the answer you want to hear, or do you want the real answer?       

[Screech]                   [Sound of needle scratching across record – (who remembers those?)] 

 Okay…   let’s hear the real answer

Like during a pretty big, out of the norm, event – sometimes those moments can jolt us out of our “normal” way of looking at life.   In December of 1996 I left the semester early – my grandparents were both dying.    At one point we’d been with my grandmother most of the night thinking she’d not make it through.   By 6 AM I was the last one there with her, everyone else had either gone home or to bed.   I stayed with her and watched as she looked up to the upper corner of the room, across from her bed.   She looked up, her eyes widened, she reached up, and started moving her lips like she was speaking.   And then about 20 minutes later she did that again.   Found out later she’d been speaking with her mother – my great grandmother.   She’d come to tell her when it was time for my grandmother to go, that she’d be there to help her.     And when her time actually did come, just a few hour later, it was certainly a sad experience, but boy was it filled with Spirit!  

Like in dreams – Sometimes the Spirit shows up when we’re sleeping.   Sometimes the Spirit comes when the “rational” part of us, the part of us that says things like, “These things can’t happen!”–  is unconscious.   Ever had a Spirit-filled dream?   Ever had a dream that was vivid – real – strong?   Some traditions call these “Big Dreams”.    They certainly do happen when we’re asleep, but they are not the “normal” dream – and according to some traditions, they aren’t dreams at all.       

But the biggest thing that happened this past Sunday is I couldn’t talk about the Spirit and not ask people about their stories of the Spirit!     And it was a little scary because you never know what you’re going to get when you “open the floor”.     Maybe no one would say anything at all!    Maybe we’d all be in a silent room of people just looking down at their hymnals or bulletins.   Nervous coughing, shuffling things around…    – cricket … cricket –   Well, if that had happened, I would have blamed it on the Spirit – so it would have still worked out!         

But actually it DID work out!   A number of people did share about their Spirit-experiences.    I’m a little apprehensive about sharing them here because I don’t want to want to either mess up the stories  or share parts of some stories and neglect to share other stories.    I will share some stories, but please know there were more than these shared, and they were all very powerful – and just because I don’t share every story (or every part of each story) doesn’t mean it wasn’t powerful in its own right! 

One person shared about being at a professional conference where they had to present something, but they were very nervous about it.  So much so that they couldn’t very easily walk into the conference area and hand around until the time to start.   So they went to the bathroom and called someone – I think it was one of their elderly parents – and asked them to pray with them right then and there.   So they did.   The person telling  the story said they felt better after this – more at peace.    So they headed back down the hall towards the main doors of the conference room… and found someone else there – another person presenting… also very nervous.   This other person couldn’t bring themselves to walk through the doors either because they were fighting a bad case of the nerves as well.    They couldn’t walk in by themselves.   So the two of them supported each other and walked in!     I know there’s more to this story – assuming I even got the main parts right.   But the principle thing being the person telling the story knew the Spirit was there with them after this experience.

   

Another person talked about their conversion experience – about how they were in church with their family one Sunday, and at one point in the service Jesus became very real to this person at that moment.    And about a month and a half later, through much learning and praying, they followed through with their Spirit led experience and    were baptized.

There were a few other stories about the presence of the Spirit.   One other one I remember in another context – not Sunday morning – this person was sharing that they were in (if I remember correctly) a hospital room as one of their older relatives was dying.   This was just a few years ago, and the person telling this is in their early 40’s or so.    They said it was certainly a very sad experience, but as their older relative was dying, this person said they felt a hand on their shoulder.  The person right-off mistakenly thought it was their father – putting his hand on their shoulder to comfort them or something like that.    The person actually turned around to acknowledge their father… when the person turned, they remembered their father was in fact across the room, on the other side of the hospital bed.  

But the person said the hand on their shoulder came with a deep sense of calm and peace.    And as sad as the death of their older relative was, they did say it was one of the most spiritual experiences they’ve had.  

Yes the Spirit has multiple ways of showing up in our lives.   But… It’s not unusual to recognize the Spirits presence with us after the fact.   It’s often in retrospect that we see the presence of the Spirit more clearly.  

See – here’s the thing… the Spirit is the Spirit.    Sounds pretty obvious, yes?    

We’re coming up to Holy Trinity Sunday.    The doctrine of the Holy Trinity is very specific – the line of what Orthodoxy is, is very clear – and not very wide at all.     There’s “heresy” on one side of the line, and “heresy” on the other side of the line.   And that thin line between the two sides?... THAT’S Orthodox Doctrine!   Welcome to Theology!

 

And, what most of us learned as children, and what we understand as “the trinity” as we grew up, for the most part falls NOT on the Orthodoxy line… ooops.  

“You mean to tell me what I learned about the Trinity is heresy!?!?!”    Sadly, yes.

“What those nice Sunday school teachers taught me… that was all WRONG?!?!”        …But, they meant well…           It’s nice ideas.  It’s just not Orthodox Doctrine.  

Give me the typical examples you’ve heard to describe the Trinity… and they’re often an example of one heresy or another.   They’re basically NOT the “church”/ doctrinal example of what the Trinity is.  

·         The Trinity is like and egg –                                                                                                You have the shell, the white part and the yolk.  All three put together to form one egg!                                                                       Heretic!

·         

      It’s like… the Shamrock ---                                                                                                 … There are three leaves that together form one plant!                                                                                                                                            Blasphemer! 

·         Like H2O --                                                                                                                         Can come in a solid, liquid  or gas form.   But still the same H2O molecule!!                                                                                                     Call the church police!

·         It’s like a person ---                                                                                                               They could be a child, a parent, and a spouse… all at the same time!!!                                                                                                               No… No… NO,  Mister Potter!

·         

      It’s like… it’s like…  I can’t…   AAAaarrrggghhhh

Demon of Frustration… BE GONE!    

Here’s the doctrine in simplified form… You have a family; you have a parent, and another parent, and a kid!    And each of them has a separate identity, a separate role.  But together they make up a FAMILY.     Ta-Dah… three separate, distinct, persons, each with their own role and gifts     but together form the God-head.       

Capisce?     (pronounced Ka-peesh)      

Not quite sure what the God-head is as distinguished from regular God, but… wadda ya gonna do?    

The early church leaders tried to make sense of this whole “God” thing… they were trying to understand this in the way they knew how.   And there were many… MANY… competing ideas of this “God-thing”.  

So, what do we do?            Whether we “get” it or not, whether we agree with “it” or not, I don’t really think is the answer.  

Truth is, the Spirit will be The Spirit whether we agree with the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity or not, whether we disagree with it or not…. or whether we even think about this or not.              The Spirit will be the Spirit… anyway!  

And this Sacred Spirit does indeed interweave through our lives, making its presence known at some times more than others.   But it is there.    And people DO INDEED experience this Spirit.   We heard some stories last Sunday    

I love hearing people talk about their experiences of God, the Spirit, the Holy – it affirms there is something deeper about life, something deeper than our mental or theological constructs – even though we love trying to construct mental and theological images. 

Well, it’s understandable – images help us make sense of things, so I get it.   But we also need to realize that “the Spirit”… the Divine… the God-stuff…   that doesn’t always follow our constructs.    It is what it is… it does what it does…       

The Spirit is the Spirit!    And we’re thankful the Spirit is there!

Not sure what we’re going to do this Sunday, but I am indeed looking forward to seeing you all at church       and we can explore this together!

We’ll just have to let the Spirit guide us!       Amen?!