Sermon for Sixth Sunday of Easter

May 13, 2007

Acts 16:9-15
Psalm 67
Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5
John 5:1-9
Year C
I.N.I. (In the name of Jesus)
Pentecost 27 May 2007 Acts 2:1-21 Psalm 104:24-34, 35b Romans 8:14-17 John 14:8-17 [25-27] Year A I.N.I.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia! Praise for the rushing wind, for the tongues of fire, O God; praise for the visions, the sighs, the prayers; praise for the power from on high; praise for the Spirit, blessed gift. Amen -- from Welcome Home: Scripture, Prayers, and Blessings for the Household p 108
What a great Eastertide this has been! This has been a great week of weeks, 7 x 7 + 1 = 50. This has been a Feast of Weeks! This has been one new life event after another, rejoicing in baptism for Paul Thompson, first communion for 9 children, fourteen new to the community of faith at Christ the King, 200 new hymnals, Mayfest raising over $2,000 for the summer youth work camp, Tina Reynolds raising over $3,000 in a half-marathon for LSS Refugee and Resettlement, Farewell and Godspeed for the life of ministry to Judy Converse, the annual Bread for the World Offering of Letters to support the 2007 Farm Bill, a two-week resurrection pilgrimage to the Holy Land for me, and recently hopping on the Pony Express CtK Stewardship Emphasis, where each week we have been hearing testimony on the Miracles of Stewardship. Today is Pentecost, the fiftieth Day of Easter, where we should be full up with the pneuma, the Spirit, as in the account from the Book of Acts in the house where everyone was it was full up with wind, and full up with the Spirit. In the wake of Jesus' tumultuous death on Good Friday, and his bursting of the tomb on Easter, his 40-days' worth of appearances to the disciples breathing peace, helping them to catch loads of fish, surprising them on the road to Emmaus by breaking open the Scriptures and breaking the bread, imploring good old Peter to feed his sheep, and blessing them on the fortieth day, the day of the Ascension, beginning on Pentecost, the fiftieth day, the Spirit ripples out as promised in the Book of Acts beginning in Jerusalem, then throughout Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. The Spirit becomes the added power of God, the connecting tissue that seals the believer in faith, and a kind of force field to call upon in times of great distress to ground the Christian in the mysterious and awesome holiness of God. Can you imagine? Full up with the Holy Spirit? Now, being a pastor has its privileges. My pastor grandfather, during the depression, when cash was tight, still got paid, with chickens when the offerings couldn't support his salary. My pastor father, during the 1970's, had a Macy's card that gave the clergy-bearer and his spouse an additional 5% off purchases. And I, during the 1980's, was an invincible pastor/basketball player. It was during the annual Father-Son basketball tournament. Ward McClelland would recruit me to play on the Father team, even though I wasn't yet a father. I would protest, not because I was not yet a father, but because I stank at basketball. Not to worry, Coach McClelland said. Around me, the invincible pastor/now become Michael Jordan, there would be a holy circle. Two feet of an invisible force field would surround me. If any player on the opposing Son team would even so much as to tap me on the shoulder, or step into the two-foot invisible ring around me, a foul would be called! I was assured my allotment of time on the foul line, even if I couldn't dribble, pass, or make a lay-up. I, the pastor, had a force field called the holy circle. But all have the holy circle around them! All have the gift of the Spirit, poured out at Baptism and spilling out in the life of the believer through rites of passage, burning like fire when faced with trouble and temptation, and producing gifts for the good of the church and society when put into practice and bearing fruit like the list in Galatians 5: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Everyone, pastor and parishioner, child and senior citizen, soldier and member of congress, protester and peacenik, can be called children of God. All can be drawn into the mysterious and awesome holiness of God. St. Paul had such a conviction. In the letter to the Romans, he draws a sharp contrast between a life in the flesh and a life in the Spirit. Life in the flesh is not a slam against the body. It does not mean that all bodily acts are sinful or that somehow the spirit within is more godly than the evil body. In his flesh versus spirit commentary, Paul is simply sketching out with brilliant rhetoric how life in God (which he calls a life in the Spirit) is our highest calling, while we must reject life that calls us away from God (which he calls life in the flesh). This is sealed as we are immersed into a baptismal identify, where we take on Christ's death and resurrection, and thereby die to sin and rise to new life. We live by the cross and in Easter hope, through the gift of the Spirit. We grow into God's promised life by living in Christ. The Eastern Church has a wonderful way of describing this pouring out the Spirit at baptism and growing in us through to all eternity: divinization. It's a helpful contrast to those of us who have grown up with Lutheran or Catholic or wherever you come from guilt, to recognize the call to give witness to the hope that is within us. In the second reading today, Paul speaks in a very Trinitarian way about divinization. You're not sure if he's talking about the Spirit, or Christ, or the Father, because they are all wrapped up in the same bundle of speech and holy living. Our very identity is Spirit-led and Spirit-born. Like an adopted child being claimed by parents who chose her, we who have been chosen through baptism call God by the familiar name that Jesus did, Father, and recognize that we have a share in the kingdom, the royal household that Jesus himself inherited. We are inheritors as we take on the divine life that Jesus led, of which suffering and glorification are part and parcel. It cheers me when I see so many from our congregation taking on risks and challenges for the sake of Christ, daring to speak during this Stewardship emphasis, jumping in activity and conversation where fools dare to tread, assuming their called identity as children of God and anointed with the Spirit. It fills me with hope when I see our Lutheran brothers and sisters in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land taking on risks and challenges for the sake of Christ, building affordable housing on the Mount of Olives to keep Palestinians from having to flee Jerusalem, providing solid education for children in their schools, and speaking boldly for mutuality and shared land among Israelis and Arabs. Bishop Mounib Younan of the ELCJ-HL writes with this spirit-filled identity in this way:
Where politicians see barriers, the Christian church finds companions with whom it can join to oppose the barbarism of death, destruction and demonization. United in its opposition, the church becomes the "axis of hope" created by the Spirit, sharing in God's loving dream for all peoples and the whole creation. Wherever the church finds people truly affirming the sacredness of life, there we find the Spirit of life at work creating an axis of hope. The mercy of God's future appears, creating a spiral-not of violence, but of life-working for justice that alone holds the promise of peace in our world. (from Bishop's Reformation Message, quoted in Water from the Rock: Lutheran Voices from Palestine, Ann E. Hafften, Contributing Editor, Augsburg Fortress (c) 2003, pp 21-22.)
Let us be united in the Spirit with Christians throughout the globe, diverse in language and culture, made one through Baptism and joy in the Gospel. Let us be united in the Spirit with one another, growing in holiness and righteousness as we are full up in the means of grace pouring out through God's Word and the Sacraments. Let us be united in the Spirit, as we cry out against injustice and violence, and seek the peace that Jesus left with his followers, so that the force field of divinization remains strong and true.
Praise for the rushing wind, for the tongues of fire, O God; praise for the visions, the sighs, the prayers; praise for the power from on high; praise for the Spirit, blessed gift. Amen -- from Welcome Home: Scripture, Prayers, and Blessings for the Household p 108


Alleluia, Christ is risen!
Christ is risen indeed. Alleluia!

I.N.I.

The Rev. Timothy J. Keyl, Pastor
Christ the King Lutheran Church
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