| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | | It is not always easy to speak about the Holy Spirit. Moltmann makes it all sound so essential. So what do we experience in the Holy Spirit? In the Spirit we perceive Christ, and the redeeming fellowship of Christ takes hold of us. In this respect the Spirit is quite selfless, and points away from itself to God's Son. But in knowing Christ and believing in him we come under the influence of the Holy Spirit and feel its energies as the powers of the future world (Hebrews 6:5); for Christ is selfless, too, and points away from himself to the Holy Spirit. In the charismatic enlivening of our own lives we experience the coming springtime of the new creation, and we ourselves become a 'living hope.' We must never let this 'living hope' become a mere idea. It is to be who we are. The Spirit that pulls us into what is not yet helps to give shape to that 'not yet' by using us to be the instruments of its coming. We already take on the life of Jesus and we walk around as though that is our life and the world will come to take part in the life of Jesus today as we embody that life by the power of the Holy Spirit. In and through all of this, what will always emerge among us is the image of God. Picking up on that springtime image, it is coming - this life as our life. That is what is promised and that is what the Spirit brings about among us as the followers of Jesus - the church. All of this hopefulness springs forth as we - like the Spirit and the Christ - selflessly give of ourselves and begin to break apart of the rule of exclusion and hatred - fear and anxiety - threat and violence. In such a way, the future - that living hope - shines through us for all to see. Connection: I was wondering if we can each pinpoint a bit of that living hope as we see it alive around us. It would be good to be on the look out to see how it comes alive to inform us of the way to follow. Come, Holy Spirit - without delay. We are not brave enough to be the future so we call upon your saving power to let the future rain down upon us. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | | Moltmann points to the importance of Pentecost - the life of the Church. The Spirit who fills the church is the Spirit of God and Christ. Why did Christ come into this world? So that he might give life. Why did he die and rise again? So that God's eternal Spirit might be 'poured out upon all flesh'. The Word took bodily form so that we might receive the Holy Spirit. 'God became the bearer of a body so that we human beings might be bearers of the Spirit' , said Athanasius. Everything in God's history with men and women and earthly creation draws toward the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. the ultimate meaning of Christmas, Good Friday, Easter and Ascension it Pentecost. Pentecost is the goal of Christ's history, not just an appendix. I never looked at Pentecost in such a way. And yet, it makes complete sense. If the Christ of God brings life to the world, Pentecost is the storytelling of how that life burst onto the scene to become the way this life will take shape. Quite often, the experience of the presence of the Holy Spirit is held within stories that can appear - extraordinary. Just think of the images that come to mind when the word Pentecost or Holy Spirit is used among us. It can lead us to think of 'ecstatic' experiences that comes with specific actions and worship experiences. We must remember that in our storytelling, the Holy Spirit is also the power that creates new life in the midst of the quite ordinary. This Spirit brings us into new life that is outside our vision and borders that can so easily keep us within a limited life experience. I often think that the simple label Pentecostal - rather than being expansive and explosive with life - can be very limiting and restrictive and afraid of the fullness of life around us. Connection: It would be interesting to see how the church year would go if in our worship planning, we put as much or more 'planning' and special attention to Pentecost as we do to Christmas and Easter? Talk about stirring a pot! Spirit of Life, come upon us and shape us again this day. Move us with your breath so that we will be refreshed and able to live with boldness within the Reign of our God. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | | The Word within the life of the Church brings us the life of Christ, Jesus - the very center of our fellowship together. The word of the gospel makes Christ present. It thrusts through the times of history to us because it carries the promise of his presence in the Spirit and his coming in glory. The gospel is the remembered promise of Christ. Through faith it creates a community of trust made up of equal and free people, who in the real presence of Christ wait for his redeeming future and hasten toward it. In this respect the church is called to life by the world of the gospel and is sustained in tribulations. Its heart beats wherever Christ finds an utterance. Once again Moltmann's imagery causes me to pause and wonder about this grand adventure that is the life of the Church. I know that the reading of scripture can be something we simply move through as part of our life together in worship or education. But it is the power and wonderful promise of life that can and is available to all of us who simply hear the old stories. The gap between those stories and our stories is the power of the Spirit - who brings us into the same fellowship as was in the days of old. In the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, we can be and will be surprised and grasped and taken away into the experiences of Christ alive among us. Quite powerful, I would say. Connection: When we can get away from reading the Word literally, we might find that the Word is not in a locked box. It is alive and moving and pulling and always playing with our real, ordinary lives - now. When we hear your Word of Life, O God, you engage us with life that is truly at hand and yet not yet ours to the fullest. We pray for the coming of your Spirit and the unfolding of our lives in you alone. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | | Today we continue with the the Holy Spirit's part in the fellowship of the church. The Church's first relation to the Holy Spirit is the epiklesis, the persevering invocation of the Spirit, with the plea for its coming. This goes along with our opening of ourselves to the coming of its energies into our common and our our personal life. And so when we say "Come, Holy Spirit" in the context of the weekly Eucharistic prayer, we are "making a plea" that the the Spirit will come and shape us and make us the ones that we are - followers of Jesus. Yes, they may be sung or spoken as part of the rest of the "words" of the Eucharistic liturgy, but they are not merely words. They are among us as our desires of our hearts for the wholeness of God's presence that makes from a gathering of ordinary people - a gathering of saints whose lives are to be knit together by this power for life. With this simple plea, the world is tipped upside down because we each become connected to the other - no matter who that other may be. There is in that wonderful "coming" a life full of surprises and joy. Connection: When we pray, we pray with the expectation that our God is present in the midst of the prayers of the people. So, to call forth this power is a vulnerable action. We are saying - bring it on, O God, bring on your Reign. Bring on your Reign and the power of the wind of life that is able to build a life together when could not see how life would make itself available to us. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | | Let's try this again today. Here is more from Jurgen Moltmann on fellowship of the Holy Spirit. The Church has no monopoly of the Holy spirit. Nor is the Spirit under its control. The precise opposite is the case: the Spirit binds the church to itself and has the church under its control. The biblical stories about the Spirit show that the Holy Spirit is not concerned about the church. It is concerned about the church, as it is concerned about Israel, for the sake of the rebirth of life and the new creation of all things. So we shouldn't always stress that 'we don't dispose over the Holy Spirit because the Spirit "blows where it wills"'. We should listen to the gale of the Spirit so as to sense where it is leading, and the direction in which it is driving us. There is a baptismal hymn called "bind us together." It is a soulful piece that really brings out how the community of the followers of Jesus are connected - really connected. That means that even when we see division and feel it and find it hard to relate with others, the Spirit of Christ that blows around our baptism, makes the community - we do not. The building of the fellowship is not dependent on us. Rather it is the power of the Holy Spirit that takes the ordinary you and me and makes us into a new creation. This is what God's Spirit was doing with Israel - making them into a light - a new creation that would turn the heads of the people of the world to a strange and alien way to be human together. The Spirit does that now with us. It is no longer an ethnic story. The Spirit "blows where it will" and makes of us whatever it will. Connection: This is why we are called holy. We are being pulled into a life that is readily available for all. Mix us up with your Spirit's power, O God. Mix us up so that we might see all things with new creative eyes. Amen. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | | One of the great frustrations I am having with these devotions is one that has never haunted me over the thousands of devotions I have written. I write something - I save it - I schedule it - and then, I find out that only part of it was sent off to folks. I'm sorry about that and I now know that my original purpose of writing devotions was for me alone. So, I suppose when it doesn't all make it out to you folks, it is still an important part of my daily routine and reflections. Here is more from Jurgen Moltmann. When we talk about the church in 'the fellowship of the Holy Spirit', we are presupposing that the community between people and God which is the work of the Spirit reaches out beyond the church. It takes hold of people in Christ's church and drives them out into the world of the living; for according to the promises in the Bible, the Holy Spirit is 'poured out upon all flesh'. When the church invokes God's Spirit and claims its fellowship with the Spirit, it is seeing itself as the beginning in history of this event. At the very point where the church confesses its faith in Christ, it experiences itself in the wider cosmic dimensions of the coming of the Holy Spirit for the redemption and transfiguration of the world. On a quick review - all of my writing was once again left off. I need to take some time to breathe through this glitch again. Thanks. |
| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions | | | | | | | Here's a bit more on Fellowship from Jurgen Moltmann. The experience of the rich variety of the Spirit's gifts is a primal as the experience of fellowship in the Spirit. 'There are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit' (1 Corinthians 12:4). The experience of the liberty which gives to each and everyone his or her own (1 Cor. 12:11) is inseparable from the experience of the love which binds people together in the Spirit. The true unity of believers in the fellowship of the Spirit is an image and reflection of the Triunity of God, and God's fellowship in differing personal relations. Neither a collective consciousness which represses the individuality of the person nor an individual consciousness which neglects what is common can express this. In the Spirit, personhood and sociality come into being simultaneously, and are complementary. Anyone who sets priorities here, putting the one above or below the other,destroys life and 'grieves' the Spirit. |
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