Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Being married to a Home Economics teacher as I am, I sometimes get to watch TV programs that I’d never tune into. Debbie records “Supernanny” sometimes for her Child Development classes because the “Supernanny” has such a down to earth, common sense and psychologically sound approach to rearing children. She teaches parents to parent which means she shows them how to discipline their children – including showing them how to set boundaries. She shows them how to discipline with non-violent, non-physical constraint. Her goal is to have the children internalize rules which will support and enhance their life in the world. She also demonstrates love, acceptance, tolerance, forbearance and she knows how to play with both parents and children appropriately.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells the disciples that he is sending a replacement for himself when he leaves them and returns to God. Our translation calls his replacement the Holy Spirit – it also calls this Holy Spirit, the Advocate, the Spirit of truth, who will teach and remind us of all that Jesus has said to us.
Today is Pentecost Sunday and of course, it is a day to talk about the Holy Spirit. We Lutherans believe that it is the Spirit’s job to generate faith within us. The Spirit draws us to God through the immense power that is both available and latent in the proclamation of Jesus. Jesus is the fullness of God. God is love, a passionate irresistible lover who regards us not as creatures that he has made, although we are. He looks upon us not as pets, kind of funny, amusing companions, but as beloved children. Paul in today’s lesson from Romans calls us children of God, and more than children – we are heirs. Our inheritance is eternal life and peace with God. Our destiny is to abide with and in God forever – in perfect peace.
The Spirit’s role is to advocate for us. In the original Greek, the word is paraclete which means the one who stands beside you – advising, consoling, reinforcing, explaining things to you.
The Spirit is always attached to the Word of God when we read the Bible, the Spirit, it come to our aid to help us interpret and understand what God is trying to say to us even though these words were originally addressed to farmers and peasants who lived in the coastlands of the Mediterranean two or three thousand years ago.
For example, “Thou shalt not steal.” This is God’s command. It means do not take what doesn’t belong to you. How are we to understand that today? We have an internet which allows us to download movies, songs, portions of books and play. We have Xerox machines which allow us to make duplicate copies of sheet music and other written resources which if we purchased all of them could be terribly expensive. Some of our worship songs for example, require us to pay a users fee every time we use them. We put them on a bulletin insert. Suppose we want to use a song three times in a given year. What is we pay to print it once but then print enough copies for the whole year. Have we obeyed the law, followed the command? We talk in the church about both the letter of the law and the law’s spirit. We are Spirit driven people – we must obey both the law’s letter and Spirit – hence we pay the user’s fee three times.
What do we sacrifice if we don’t?
We sacrifice our integrity which is also a gift of the Spirit, when we diminish the law’s claim on us. The Spirit’s job is to talk to us. The Spirit pushes our Christian conscience and tells us to stop. Like a Supernanny the Spirit teaches us boundaries. The Holy Spirit helps us to become our best selves.
Yet, if we talked only of sin and the Holy Spirit’s function of teaching us about sin, and convincing us of sin, our discussion about the Holy Spirit would be pretty “down-in-the-mouth”. Yet, the Spirit is “the Lord and Giver of Life” as the Nicene Creed says – a rich abundant enjoyable life. Like a “Supernanny” the Spirit also plays with us. Let me define play. Play is derived from another theological code word we call “grace”. Play is what happens when you are in love with someone. It is spending time with them, enjoying the, rolling around, frolicking. Play is all about expressing joy in being God’s creature and taking delight in being.
The devil and the devil’s most useful minion “death” detests our play with God and wants to rob us of it and make our lives joyless. The devil uses death’s threat of finality to end our pleasure with God. When you are afraid, you can’t have fun. What the Supernanny, the Holy Spirit does is build and deliver faith, so that when Satan assaults us with words like “keep resources for yourself, don’t share you may not have enough” or words like “life ends, there is no God, you have to take care of yourself – you can’t afford to be generous,” the Supernanny, the Holy Spirit says “Don’t be silly, look around you. There is beauty everywhere! God garnishes your world with weeds that bear beautiful flowers. God made the mighty humpback whale – just for sport. Look at the sunset in colors so glorious that you are moved to tears – are you not of much greater value than all of these? Would the God who made all this, and you too – a human being – the crown of his creation – waste all that work. No! You are destined for God forever, eternally. So relax, play, take a Sabbath, relax. God has entrusted your future to Jesus who lived and died for you. There is nothing to fear. Nothing. Be at peace.”
Amen
Who We Are