OPEN TO THE SPIRIT

Scripture: Psalm 139:1-12; Colossians 1:9-14

INTRODUCTION

Some years ago, a bishop of the United Methodist Church in West Virginia stood before the ministers of his Conference at their annual meeting and asked them how many souls had been converted in the local congregations during the past year.

The temptation to exaggerate was more than most of them could resist, so the numbers grew larger and larger as each of them gave their report. Halfway through the roll call, the bishop stopped, looked around the room and said, “I see by the count that you have already converted all the people there are in the entire state of West Virginia.”

The room was silent for a few seconds, until one preacher in the back row stood up and exclaimed, “Well, Bishop, in our region, you’ve got to convert these people several times a year!”

At this time of year, during the Lenten Season, we are concentrating our hearts and minds on what it means to be and to become “A Community of Grace.” This morning, we’re going to look at the next affirmation in our Statement of Purpose, and talk together about how each of us as Christians and every one of us in this church can be “Open to the Spirit.”

And with all due respect to those Methodists up in West Virginia, I believe that being open to the Spirit leads us to an authentic and life-changing conversion.

The idea which gave birth to this sermon came from something I read a long time ago in a book by Fr. Henri Nouwen entitled “Making All Things New.” These are the words that caught my attention and I hope that you have read them too, on the front cover of our Chimes newsletter this week:

“Living a spiritual life requires a change of heart. Such a conversion may be marked by a sudden inner change, or it can take place through a long, quiet process of transformation…What is new is that we are set free from the compulsions of our world and have set our hearts on the only necessary thing…Our conflicts and pains, our tasks and promises, our families and friends, our activities and projects, our hopes and aspirations no longer appear to us as a fatiguing variety of things which we can barely keep together, but rather as affirmations and revelations of the new life of the Spirit in us.” (From “Making All Things New” by Fr. Henri J.M. Nouwen, Harper and Row Publishers, 1981, Page 57).

I first read those words during a dark and difficult period in my own life. Five years later, when I met Fr. Nouwen and spent several days with him and a close friend of mine in Toronto, I discovered that the author had written that book during a traumatic time in his life as well.

And so it is with many of us. When the sun is shining and there are no clouds on the horizon, when our health is good and our relationships are secure and the stock market is rising, we seem to get along rather easily and take most everything, including faith in God, for granted.

But when the sky turns dark and the storm strikes – when the x-ray shows a shadow spot, when a marriage falls apart or we lose our job or a loved one dies and suffering and sorrow invade our lives – it is then that we realize how fragile we are, how precarious life can be. And at that moment, more often than not, a conversion can happen, when we are “Open to the Spirit,” and ready to receive God’s help and to rely on His amazing grace.

That’s what King David discovered during a painful time in his own life. The final verses of the 139^th Psalm tell us that he was surrounded by enemies who threatened to destroy him. So he got down on his knees and prayed to the Lord: Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend to heaven, Thou art there! If I make my bed in Sheol (the place of the dead), Thou art there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Thy hand shall lead me…and hold me. If I say “Let only darkness cover me and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to Thee, for the night is as bright as the day. (Psalm 139:7-12)

Over the past 12 years, as I have served here as pastor of this church, that is the recurring theme of what so many of you have said to me, and that has been my own experience too. In good times, but especially in the hard times, when we are open to the Spirit, God comes through – helping us to hold on in the storm, walking beside us in the valley of the shadow, transforming the darkness into the light and healing our hearts from pain and sorrow.

King David was right, you know. God’s Spirit is always present and available to us, just as He promised it would be. And all that we have to do is to open our hearts and minds and lives to Him, to let His Holy Spirit dwell within us.

On the wall of the study where I work at home, there is a framed poem written by Annie Johnson Flint which reminds me of that promise every time I write a sermon:

“God hath not promised skies always blue,

Flower-strewn pathways all our lives through;

God hath not promised sun without rain,

Joy without sorrow, peace without pain.

But God hath promised strength for the day,

Rest for the labor, light for the way,

Grace for the trials, help from above,

Unfailing sympathy, undying love.”

My friends: if we are Open to the Spirit, God will come through. And in good times, but especially in the hard times, we will discover that His promise is true.

II.

Now just as that is so for each of us as Christians, we can know and affirm that the Holy Spirit has been given to all of us in the church.

Ever since that first Pentecost Day, recorded in the second chapter of Acts, when the Spirit came upon those early believers with the rush of a mighty wind and sparks of fire, the church down through the ages has been inspired by, enlivened by, stirred up by the Holy Spirit in a powerful way.

We can’t define it and we surely don’t control it. But when the Spirit moves among us, if we are open to it, we need to go with the flow wherever it may lead us.

Sometimes, the Holy Spirit challenges us to make changes in the church. I’m told there’s a sign on an old muddy road up in Tennessee which says: “Choose your rut carefully. You’ll be in it for the next ten miles.” Not so with the Holy Spirit, because when we are open to it, we are often taken in directions that no one thought possible, and the seven last words of the church – “We’ve never done it that way before” – are completely forgotten.

Sometimes, the Holy Spirit challenges the church to change. At other times, the Holy Spirit helps us to bring order out of confusion and controversy. There is a legend which says that during an ecumenical gathering of church leaders, someone rushed into the room and shouted, “The church is on fire! The church is on fire!” And what did the people do?

The Methodists met in a corner to pray. The Baptists cried out, “Where’s the water?” The Christian Scientists agreed among themselves that there was no fire at all. The Fundamentalists decided “It’s the vengeance of God!” The Lutherans posted a notice on the door declaring that the fire was evil. The Quakers quietly praised God for the blessings that fire brings. The Congregationalists exclaimed, “Every man and woman for themselves!” while the Episcopalians formed a procession and marched out in grand liturgical style.

And the Presbyterians? You guessed it – they appointed a chairperson who called together a committee to look into the matter and report back with some recommendations in the future!

Now being somewhat partial to the Presbyterians, I believe that we do need to clarify carefully some of the issues that we face. And even though our deliberative process takes longer than others, it gives time for the Holy Spirit to bring us together as sisters and brothers in the faith, seeking and praying that we will be open to the way that God wants us to go.

Sometimes the Spirit challenges us to change. Sometimes the Spirit helps us to find order in the midst of confusion and conflict. And sometimes, sometimes the Holy Spirit brings us together in the church with people who are very different than ourselves.

Dr. Will Willimon, Dean of the Chapel and Minister of Duke University, tells this story about his arrival in Durham, North Carolina:

“When I first moved into this neighborhood, my next door neighbor, upon learning that I was a preacher, promptly introduced herself as being a ‘charismatic.’ She said she had received ‘the baptism of the Spirit.’ I responded by saying ‘That makes two of us.’

But I could tell from her expression that she was skeptical of my claim. A few conversations later, she became downright incredulous of my assertion. ‘I’m praying for you’ she said one day leaning over the hedge, pointing her hedge clippers at me…I thanked her and asked if she was praying for anything specific…She said, ‘Yes, I’m praying that you’ll receive the gift of the Spirit.’

I thanked her and told her that she need not bother God with that request, since the Lord had quite graciously given me the Spirit already…’Really?’ she asked. ‘I’d be interested to know how and when it happened.’

‘I can tell you that’ I answered. ‘I was a few months old at the time. A preacher named Forrester took me in his arms, poured water over my head, and told me I had received the Holy Spirit.’ ‘That isn’t baptism of the Holy Spirit’ she retorted.

‘Well, the preacher said I got it, and everybody else said I got it. And if that didn’t take, when I was about ten years old, another preacher named Herbert stood me up in front of the church, put his hands on my head (during Confirmation) and said, in effect, ‘You’ve got the Spirit. Now use it.’ And as if that were not enough, a bishop named Tullis put his hands on my head one night in my mid-twenties and said ‘You’ve got the Spirit, now get out there and preach the gospel!’

So about the worst you could say for me is that I don’t use the Spirit’s gifts, or I don’t always live by the Spirit, but you sure can’t deny that I’ve got it.’

All of this so thoroughly baffled my neighbor, that she shook her head in dismay and began furiously clipping her hedge while muttering to herself, ‘Dear Lord, dear Lord.’” (From “Remember Who You Are” by William H. Willimon, The Upper Room, Nashville, Tennessee, 1980)

I like that story, except the way it ends. What I wish would happen between that chaplain and that next-door neighbor is that they would get together and realize that they are not the same. They are different, just the way God made them, just the way God brought them into the faith and just the way it is described in the New Testament as the body of Christ with different parts – the hands, the feet, the eyes, the ears. We are not all supposed to be exactly the same.

I wish that story could end with the two of them literally crossing the hedge and getting together! And to remind me that’s what I need to do myself, since 1972 I have carried this card in my diary every day. It’s the clergy card for Neil Chadwick from the Assemblies of God, a Pentecostal church, a charismatic minister who is somewhere in this world today knowing that a Presbyterian is praying for him, just as I know that he is praying for me.

Why? Because in the church, God has given the gifts of the Spirit to every one of us – all of us – and no one is left out.

CONCLUSION

But when all is said and done, whether we are working and moving toward change in the church or trying to find order in the midst of confusion and conflict, we need to be open to receive the gifts of the Spirit which God offers to each and every one of us.

In writing to the Colossians, Paul identified those gifts with a prayer on his lips, saying We have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, to lead a life worthy of the Lord…May you be strengthened with all power…with endurance and patience and joy, giving thanks to the Father…Who has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption and the forgiveness of sins. (Colossians 1:9-14)

Christian people: if we want to be and to become a community of grace that is truly open to the Spirit, then the apostle Paul has told us all how to do it. Instead of thinking that we alone can make it happen by the work that we do or the programs we develop or the money we raise or the doctrines we write, we need to open our lives to the gifts of the Spirit which come through the love and grace of Jesus Christ. And the gifts are these: spiritual wisdom, power, endurance, patience, joy, gratitude, redemption and the forgiveness of sin. So may we open our hearts, open our minds, open our arms and open those doors to let the Spirit come in!

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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