If you are just joining us
for the first time today, we are in the middle of a series of messages called,
“What Do We Believe, Anyway?” This is a
four-part series of messages, and today is the third in the series. I invite you to take out your sermon notes
from your bulletin and grab a pen or a pencil so that you can jot down anything
of interest to you. If you want to go
back and take a look at this or any other sermon, I post them online each week,
and you can see where on the top of your sermon notes.
All along, in talking
about believing, we have maintained that believing in something is more than
having certain thoughts or opinions about it – rather, believing is a matter of
trusting it and leaning into the convictions that are most critical and crucial
to the life of faith.
We began by affirming our
belief in God the Father. The Scriptures
clearly teach “God is love” (1 John 4),
and so we begin with the belief that God is much more of a loving parent than a
strict judge, and that no matter who we are or what we’ve done, God loves us
unconditionally because that’s simply who God is – God is love, Amen? Last week, we affirmed our belief in Jesus
Christ, who we said is the perfect embodiment of God’s love on earth. Jesus is the love of God with a human face,
and we who believe in him are to believe in him so much that we become like
him, Amen?
That may sound all well
and good, but maybe you’re sitting there thinking, “Be like Jesus? How is that even possible?” Not only is it
possible, but in John 14, Jesus tells us that we will do even greater things
than he did when we receive the Holy Spirit, who is God’s active presence in
our lives. Whatever God wants to do in
the world, whatever God wants to do in and through us happens through the Holy
Spirit. Believing in the Holy Spirit is
so important because that’s where the power is.
I have a friend who is also a United Methodist pastor,
and one day he was receiving some good-natured ribbing from some Pentecostal
friends, who were wondering out loud if the Holy Spirit showed up at a
Methodist church, would we even know it?
My friend replied, “The Holy Spirit, does, in fact show up at the Methodist
church; he just knows to mind his manners when he’s here.”
The most common place we
hear about the Holy Spirit is in the story of Pentecost, in Acts 2. Pentecost takes place 50 days after Easter
Sunday, and it commemorates the story of the Holy Spirit being poured out on
the first disciples of Jesus, such that they became bold witnesses of all that God
had done in Jesus Christ, going outside themselves, outside their comfort zone,
out into the world to share the good news of God’s salvation, inviting people
into new life in Christ.
One of the ways the Holy
Spirit showed up that day was as a mighty, rushing, violent wind. In Hebrew, the words for Spirit, wind, and breath are nearly the same. The same is
true in Greek. In trying to describe God's activity among them, the Biblical
writers were saying that the Holy Spirit is like God's breath, like a holy
wind. It could not be seen or held: "The
wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know
where it comes from or where it goes" (John 3:8). But the effect of God's Spirit, like the wind,
could be felt and known.
Wind can be a powerful
force. The many wind storms we’ve
witnessed just this summer remind us of that!
At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit showed up among the first followers of
Jesus as the rushing sound of a violent wind.
Not a gentle breeze, not a pleasant zephyr - but a violent, hurricane,
tornado, typhoon sort of wind. The Holy
Spirit is not a slight stirring of air that makes the windchimes on the back
porch sing on a summer evening; the Holy Spirit is a mighty, powerful, take the
roof off and blow your shed into the neighbor’s pool kind of wind. And when the Holy Spirit blows into our
lives, it is strong enough to rearrange our priorities and line up our will
with God’s will, empowering us to bear witness to the love of God in this
world.
We say the church was born
on Pentecost – this movement of Jesus followers was spun into existence through
the wind-powered testimony of witnesses who were filled with the Holy Spirit,
and on that first day alone, the fledgling church grew from 120 people to over
3000. But the Holy Spirit wasn’t done in
one day; The Holy Spirit is still guiding, growing, and gifting the church.
The scripture we’ve read
today from Ephesians tells us that perhaps the most distinguishing and
recognizable aspect of the Holy Spirit’s work is that the Holy Spirit is always a unifying spirit. If God is love, and if the Holy Spirit is
God’s enduring presence among us, does it not follow that the Holy Spirit’s
prerogative is to unite us in love? When
we are filled with the Holy Spirit, God’s love just radiates from us, spilling
out of us in every possible direction, our behaviors and attitudes reflecting
those of Christ our Lord.
Funny story on that. I was preaching on the Holy Spirit one
Sunday, especially how the Holy Spirit works and transforms our hearts to make
us more Christlike, and a lady
came out with a scowl on her face.
Nothing newsworthy there – she usually had a scowl on her face, being a
rather sour, disagreeable person, with a reputation for a quick temper and even
sharper tongue – let’s just say “Christlike” is not the first descriptor that
came to mind about her. She said, “I
don’t believe in all that Holy Spirit business,” and it took every ounce of
self-control I could muster to not say, “Lady, tell me something I didn’t
know.”
Friends, it’s not hard to
tell if someone has the Holy Spirit in their lives. If something is truly of God, it will build
people up and draw us closer in God’s love, not tear others down and split us
apart in fear and hostility.
Today’s text from
Ephesians is a reminder that the Holy Spirit is always a unifying spirit. To be clear here: unity is not the same as uniformity. So, there are differences and
there will be differences. But, being
filled with the Holy Spirit ushers us into a reality where the ligaments of
love and peace that unite us in Christ are strong enough that we not only
withstand, but embrace our diversity, celebrating the many ways in which we are
fearfully and wonderfully made.
John Wesley, the founder
of Methodism, put it this way: “Though
we cannot think alike, may we not love alike? May we not be of one heart,
though we are not of one opinion? Without all doubt, we may. Herein all the
children of God may unite, notwithstanding these smaller differences.”
God’s design is not to
make us all exactly the same, but that the Holy Spirit unite us with the
ligaments of love and peace.
Here’s a question to
consider: how many churches are there in the world? If you were to add up all the congregations
of every denomination and non-denomination, what would be the total number of
churches – any guesses? There would be
exactly one. There is only one
church. The one church expresses itself
in a variety of ways, but through the Holy Spirit, we believe in the unity of
God’s church – that there is only one.
It’s one of the things we affirm in the Apostles’ Creed.
You know that line, where we say we believe in the
holy catholic church? I’ve known some
folks who crinkle up their nose and cross their arms and say, “I don’t say that
part because I don’t believe in that,” which only goes to show that this is
perhaps the most misunderstood line in the creed, at least among Protestant
Christians.
A lot of Protestants don’t
understand what the word “catholic” means.
They think it refers to the Roman Catholic Church, that Christian body
headquartered in Rome headed by the pope.
It only means that if we use the word “Catholic” with a big “C.” However, when we use the word “catholic” with
a small “c,” as the Apostles’ Creed does, it means something altogether
different. The word “catholic” with a
small “c” means “universal,” describing a church that is comprised of all
believers, of every time and place, a church that is bigger than any one nation
or tradition or denomination. The church
of Jesus Christ bridges all of those potential divisions. The unity of the Spirit is a bond that’s
stronger than all those differences – it’s something I believe because I’ve
experienced it.
During my seminary years,
my greatest support system was a group of 11 of us who met every Wednesday
morning for breakfast, Scripture study, prayer, reflection, and
accountability. The members of our group
were United Methodist, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Baptist, and Roman
Catholic. Every Wednesday, I experienced
God at work in my life through these friends, and the Holy Spirit bore witness
with my spirit that we were, all of us, united to each other because we were
united to Christ. The body of Christ,
the church universal that is bigger than each of our respective tradition, was
built and strengthened in love.
The Captain and Tennille were on to something when they
sang, “Love will keep us together.”
Perhaps a teaching on Christian unity is not quite what they had in mind, but the sentiment is
still applicable to us as people of faith – the bonds that hold us together are
ligaments of love, and we believe that we are held together in the power of the
Holy Spirit.
 |
Why is it, then, that so
many Christians are
prone to argue with each other? Can you
imagine such a thing? Christians – church
people arguing, even fighting about something!
In your wildest imagination, could you ever believe such a thing to be
possible?
Here’s what I have come to
realize – 99.9% of the arguments that Christians have amongst ourselves are
over things that don’t really matter.
Amen? Most disagreements between
Christians are not over essential beliefs, but over personal preference. I will go so far as to say that the things
that divided Christians into one denomination or another, fights between
Catholics and Protestants, East and West, conservative and liberal, issues that
have splintered congregations, whatever – all the ink and blood Christians have
spilt back and forth in wars both actual and ideological has been a colossal
waste of time and energy. Further, such
divisions have testified something about God that is quite the opposite from
the unifying bonds of peace and love to which we, as people of Christian faith,
are called. If the effort that has gone
into winning fights had instead gone into loving others, how much better off
might our world be? If we believe what our faith claims, if what we say is true, if grace really is
so amazing, then Christians need to be the ones leading the way in love and
peace and reconciliation, not the ones creating dissent and division,
Amen? Though we cannot think alike, may
we not love alike?
We believe in the Holy
Spirit. Today we give witness to the
reality that the Holy Spirit is a unifying spirit. The Holy Spirit equips and empowers us to
share God’s love with the world, starting with each other.
Supplemental Material
Supplemental Material
When We Say
the Apostles’ Creed, what are we really saying?
The third clause
of the Apostles’ Creed says, “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic
church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of
the body, and the life everlasting.
Amen.”
The Holy Spirit
Along with the Father and
the Son, the Holy Spirit is one of three persons who make up the Trinity, or
God. We have already said that God the Father
loves us unconditionally: no matter who we are, what we’ve done, or where we’ve
been. God in Jesus Christ embodies
unconditional love on earth; Jesus is the love of God with a human face, and we
who believe in him are expected to follow him so closely that we become like
him. But how can we do that? The Holy Spirit: God’s enduring presence on
earth. The Holy Spirit empowers every
believer for Christlike living – being full of the love of God and neighbor.
Everything that
follows? The Holy Spirit is the agent
that makes all of that possible:
The holy catholic church
This is probably the most
mis-understood aspect of the creed among Protestant Christians, and it has to
do with the word “catholic.” Did you know, “catholic” with a small “c” means “universal?” It reminds us that there is only one Church –
comprised of all Christians
regardless of denomination. When
“Catholic” is used with a big “C,” it refers specifically to the Roman Catholic
Church – that Christian body headquartered in Rome led by the pope. In the creed, we affirm our belief in the
small “c” catholic (universal) church – meaning we believe that, regardless of
denominational expression, there is only one Church, and Jesus is the head of
it.
When Jesus prayed in the
garden on the night before his crucifixion, his prayer was that his followers
would all be one (John 17). Being filled
with the Holy Spirit, naturally breaks down our suspicion and mistrust of other
individuals, congregations, and denominations.
The Holy Spirit helps us look for and recognize the activity of God in
places and traditions that are different from our own. When you find yourself suspicious or
untrusting, pray for a fuller measure of the Holy Spirit.
The communion of saints
In the New Testament,
“saint” is simply one of many ways of referring to a Christian believer. “If anyone is in Christ, new creation!” (2
Corinthians 5:17). Certainly, anyone who
is in Christ, anyone who is participating in God’s new creation, is a saint.
Death is not the end of
the story; even death shall not separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus
(Romans 8:38-39). Death shall not separate the saints, who are in Christ, from
each other. We have unity (communion)
with the whole body of Christ, whether saints on earth or saints who have gone
on to the Church Triumphant.
The forgiveness of sins
The Bible, in its broadest
terms, describes sin as a “condition of separation from God.” The early church fathers described our human
will as curvatas, meaning curved away
from God. This is our sin condition,
which leads us to commit “sins” – things that are damaging to our relationship
with God others, and ourselves. The
Greek word often translated “sin” is hamartia,
meaning “to miss the mark.” You can see that a sin is way of missing the mark.
The Holy Spirit makes
possible the forgiveness of sins. “Forgive”
means to make things right, to restore, to reconcile. The Holy Spirit first corrects our curvatas and lines our will back up with
God’s will. The result is that we no
longer miss the mark because our lives are lined up with God.
The resurrection of the body
This has less to do with
believing in the resurrection of Christ than in the firm conviction that what
God did in the lifeless body of Jesus, God will do in us, as well. We serve a resurrected Lord, and we are
called to live resurrected lives. We
expect the Holy Spirit to work a real change within us, to transform something
of us from death into life, from despair into hope, from a dead-end into a
brand-new beginning.
The life everlasting
It is a myth, a popular
one but a myth nonetheless, that eternal life begins at death. The truth is you don’t have to wait that
long. Jesus said he came that we might
have life, and have it to the full (John 10:10). Full, abundant, rich, glorious, eternal,
everlasting life is available now, and it begins when the Holy Spirit comes in
and dwells within us, re-arranges the furniture of our hearts (our priorities),
and begins the process of transformation at the depth of our being to make us
more like Christ, living lives that forever reflect the glory of God.
Amen
One last word on the
Apostles’ Creed, and it’s actually the last word of the Creed. “Amen.” We say this word all the time, but did you
ever think about the word means? It’s a
declaration of affirmation, it literally means, “so be it.” When you say, “Amen,” you are signing your
name for all to see, offering your will for God to do whatever God wants with
you and in you and through you. You
should take saying the word “Amen” as seriously as you do before you sign your
name to a contract. God will assume you
meant it, and place the Holy Spirit within you to further align your will with
God’s heart of unconditional love, to empower you for Christlike living in the
world, and to continue the work of transformation that only the Holy Spirit can
do. Amen, and Amen!
No comments:
Post a Comment