Grace and Peace to you from God, our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
One of the courses all seminary students are required to take is called Systematic Theology. It is based on what the Bible says about God, but it is more abstract. It tries to synthesize into a logical system what we can say and know about the God who rules the church. My first exam in the class had only one question. It was “Who or what is the Holy Spirit?”
It is a good question for Pentecost Sunday, when we celebrate the outpouring of the Spirit, 50 days after Jesus’ resurrection. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, according to the Nicene Creed. The Spirit has a kind of complex job description. Please remember that because we believe in a Trinitarian God anything we say about the Spirit can be said about God or Jesus as well. It gets a little complicated, but that only adds to the mystery.
The Spirit’s task is to create life. In Genesis we hear how the Spirit hovered over the waters and life was born. We think of matter in the material world as solid, as substantial. Yet, modern physics tells us that all matter is essentially energy that at some level is in actual motion. At the most basic level, reality and materiality can be compared to thought or consciousness. God speaks, things, like the world, you and me, come into being.
We Lutherans are in love with the idea that the Spirit creates faith – which of course the most precious of all the gifts God gives to us. In his explanation to the 3rd Article of the Apostles’ Creed, Martin wrote: “I believe that I cannot by my own understanding or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him but instead the Holy Spirit has called me through the gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, sanctified me, and kept me in the true faith. “In other words the Spirit creates or generates faith in you and me when God’s profound work of love, forgiveness and peace in Christ is preached. Faith is not something we do, it is what we receive as a gift from the Holy Spirit.
One lesson from Romans this morning is one of my favorite sculpture passages in the whole Bible. I guess that is because I have had periods of doubt when God seemed terribly distant and far from me. St. Paul talks about how all of creation has been groaning in labor pains. I love that image. I’ve obviously never endured labor pains, but there have been times in life when God seemed to be absent from my life.
My brother-in-law experienced something quite similar. Glenn is one of those hardworking, honest, decent, creative employees that any business ought to give its eye teeth for. Glenn was downsized from a major pharmacy corporation. The security people were present when he was brought into the manager’s office. They escorted him to his office where he was told not to touch his computer, and get his personal effects. He was given 2 months severances pay and told that they would give him a glowing recommendation and to feel free to use them as a reference. The boss apologized but justified it all “Sorry, business is business”.
Glenn went into a tail spin. What was the point of being hardworking and honest? Why try hard? Why put in extra hours and think about the job at home doing problem solving? The world of cause and effect seemed assundered. How could you trust people? The world became chaotic. It provoked a faith crisis in him that took years for him to work through because all of us need our orderly world that has some measure of predictability.
Yet it is when we are our most vulnerable at times like this of sudden, devastating loss that the Spirit unites us to God. Look at verse 27. It says “And God, who searches the heart, know what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Sprit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God”.
Even when we are so down and so alienated from God that we can not pray, the Holy Spirit prays for us. How can God pray to God? Good question; answer “I don’t know!” But that is exactly what these words mean. God, the omniscient God who knows everything, who reads our thoughts doesn’t condemn us for our doubts, but instead sends encouragement and sort of wraps the “Divine Hands” around our mind and heart to hold us in peace. God send protective caring love when we need it most and are our most estranged.
Isn’t that good news? Even when God seems silent, distant and absent, God is desperately knocking on our “door”, head and heart wanting to be let in with reassuring words and comfort.
Spirit, come Holy Spirit. Come and get me!!! Especially when I’m lost, forlorn and in doubt!
I know you will!!
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Who We Are