Sermon Title: The Spirit of God Is on You and Me
Sermon Text:
Luke 4:16-21
Sermon Date:
Chris’ Story:
Chris sat in the first pew of his home church, Boonville First. During a silent time as worship began he’d offered a prayer of thanksgiving for this place … these people … and for the opportunity to serve here. He thought about the town. Other than voting down that publicly funded home for women and children living with AIDS a few years ago there were no real controversies here. The town had hardly changed in the eight years he’d been gone. He remembered the faces of the folks he’d grown up with. Some of them had been his teachers. Others had changed his diapers. That thought embarrassed him a little.
The first hymn was one of his favorites. In his mind, it was a classic. Singing about the eternal and loving creator of the universe gave him some comfort. And today, for some reason that he hadn’t totally figured out yet, he needed that comfort.
You see, Chris was sorely tried while he was at Turkey Run. He went there to unwind. He even turned off his cell phone. It was supposed to be peaceful. Oh, there was no doubt he’d intended to bask a little in his accomplishments. But what he really wanted was time to rest and ease into the next phase of his life. A gentle blending of the comfortable rhythms and routines he’d established with the new demands of professional ministry – however that might look.
The last thing he expected was all the doubts and
questions. Wasn’t he beyond all
that? Hadn’t he satisfied himself (and
God) with his understanding of his calling?
He thought he was over it when he left Turkey Run, but now, sitting in
the front pew on the Sunday of his celebrated return he was bothered
again. No, it was worse than being
bothered. Each one of those doubts came
rushing back on him like a
The second hymn was done and Chris noticed he hadn’t been singing. He thought about his sermon. He was an award-winning preacher in seminary but now he wasn’t even sure what to say. His mind wandered as the Moderator led the pastoral prayer.
He didn’t hear choral anthem either… “They changed my diapers,” he thought, “ … What can I possibly say to them?” He tried to refocus himself. “What would be good news to these people I’ve known for so long?” He tried to look around at them. It was hard to do that from the front row. “Now I know why everyone sits in back,” he thought, “can’t see what everyone is doing sitting up here.” That thought just got him frustrated and he felt a bead of sweat forming just above his eye. “Last time I sit up here with my back to everyone …”
And as the last voices of the choir faded, he got it. He knew why he was in Boonville. He knew what the good news was and he knew what he had to say. “Strange,” he thought: as nervous and unsettled as he was a few minutes ago, now, confident in what he would say, he was even more so. He rose, and on his way to the pulpit he offered a brief prayer of thanks to God and for a couple of professors who, he suddenly realized, had prepared him for this very moment.
The congregation had no idea what Chris had been going through right under their noses in the seldom used front pew. But they watched intently as he thumbed through his Bible to just the right place …
Luke 4:16-21
16-21He
came to
God's Spirit is on me; he's chosen
me to preach the Message of good news to
the poor,
Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and
recovery of sight to the blind,
To set the burdened and battered free,
to announce, "This is God's year to
act!"
(The Message)
The Spirit of God
is on me.
Say that with me, “The Spirit of God
is on me.”
Mark Yaconelli is a youth minister
and author of the book “Contemplative Youth Ministry.” One of the things he does is to go to
churches and help them figure out what that means.
He tells the story of going to
Westminster Presbyterian Church, worshiping home of 200 people, mostly with gray
hair. However there were 15-20 teenagers
sitting together.
After the sermon, communion was
served by the elders to the congregants who came forward. One was a lovely woman in her late 70s. She greeted each person with “This is the
body of Christ, broken for you.” When
Mark reached her he saw her tears and her struggle to maintain her
composure. He stepped away after
receiving the bread as the group of teenagers rambled up, whispering, giggling
and nudging each other, causing the usher to say “shush!” more than once.
Her struggle for composure continued
as each teen came forward. She looked up
and said, “The body of Christ was broken for you, Thomas.” Then Sarah and Mike. As each teen came forward she spoke their
names with love.
After the service, Mark was led to
the place where he would meet with the 15 adults who served in the youth
ministry. There in the circle of chairs
was Mildred, the one who served communion.
Mark sat down beside her and they began to talk. When he mentioned that she seemed very
emotional during communion, she smiled and replied. “Yes, it took me by surprise.”
“I could see you have a lot of care
for the young people,” he prodded.
Then she told him that she had never
actually met these kids before “You see, I was asked to serve in the youth
ministry by praying for the kids.” The
associate pastor took pictures of the kids, wrote their names on the back,
along with a prayer concern. All of us
adults trade these pictures each week so that each of us gets time to pray for
each kid. That was three years ago. Every morning, for three years, I have taken
out my photos as part of my prayer time.
I spend time just looking at the faces of those kids. Then I read their concerns and pray for them.
“This morning was the first time
I’ve ever been asked to assist in communion.
I felt so honored. And then
suddenly I see these young faces coming toward me….(the tears welled up and she
stopped.)
“I have beheld those faces for three
years, praying for them and their futures.
And then suddenly they are in front of me, and I’m handing the bread of
Christ to them. It was just too much,
too overwhelming. I tried to stop each
of them and just look at them and hug them with my eyes. I just felt so honored.” (Contemplative Youth Ministry,” Mark
Yaconelli, p. 98-99)
The Spirit of God is on you and me.
Last week I asked what you thought
Jesus would preach to us, what Jesus would say to you. Did you think about it? Wonder about it? Here’s another question:
Are
you content with your life? With your
spiritual life? With your relationships?
I
hope your answer is “Yes and No.”
I
mean that you are enjoying your marriage but not so complacent that you are
taking your spouse for granted.
That
you enjoy your work but you like new challenges and want to grow.
That
you love your friends but wouldn’t mind having more.
That
you are enjoying your time with Jesus, but hunger for more.
When we are in touch with the Spirit
in us, we should always be wanting more.
Think about falling in love. Remember that….when you couldn’t get enough
of looking at your beloved. Couldn’t see
her enough. Talk to him enough. Hold her hand enough. You hungered for more. A little didn’t quench your thirst, it only
made you want more.
That is what God wants in a
relationship with us. God wants us to
want more. Never be satisfied. Never find real contentment. Never take God for granted.
So if you are sitting there
wondering what I am talking about, this is it:
God wants to know you more. God
wants to be able to use you like he did Chris and Mildred. We can barely untap what God can do in our
lives so imagine for a moment how much better your life could be if you let God
have more of you.
Sure, you can say that life is okay
the way it is but God doesn’t want your life to be okay. In fact, an “okay” life is not what God has
in mind for you at all.
For some preachers this would be the
time when they would talk about prosperity theology – that God wants you to
have a big house, great car and lots of money in the bank, which you will in
turn tithe from, because YOU ARE WORTH IT.
(Sorry, that is Loreal!) But I’m
not going there. You see, I think God
wants everyone to have a good job, nice house, car to get around in AND that
God wants us to help each other to have them.
That is why the Bible spends so much time talking about helping the
poor, the widows and the homeless. More
than any other subject, the Bible talks about taking care of the poor.
The prosperity theology I believe in
is that God wants us to live lives that celebrate God’s goodness in which we are
happy. Not just content but happy. Joyful.
Waking up each morning looking forward to our jobs and our day, not
dragging our feet.
Looking forward to
seeing our spouses, children and friends because they add so much to our lives,
not that we are tolerating their presence or counting the days until we can
leave.
Looking forward to
making money so we can take care of ourselves AND others.
Looking forward to
using our time that glorifies God, not wasting time in boredom.
Yeah, that is the prosperity
theology God wants for us. And we get
that by allowing the Spirit of God to live in us. Not vacation there from time to time, but
really and truly live there.
Does the Spirit of God really and
truly live in you? Do you hunger to know
God more? Remember you can lie to me but
you can’t lie to God about this. God
knows if you hunger for a deeper relationship or if your head just believes
that going to church is a good thing.
God knows if you find joy in worship or if you are wondering if Marvin
Harrison will play on Monday for the Colts.
God knows what you are like even if you can hide your pain from the rest
of us. Yeah. God knows.
And wherever you are with God, it isn’t deep enough. Wherever you are spiritually, you can go
farther. Wherever you are emotionally,
you can be stronger if you let God be the core of your existence.
That is prosperity theology.
When Jesus stood up in the synagogue
he knew he was taking on something new. Risking something. Giving something back to God.
“We cannot undergo this
transformation by the sheer strength of our will or intellect. Only by yielding can we even begin to embody
the freedom of God. We have to let go
and allow God to transform our anxiety into love. We have to allow God to show us a new way of
being in the world, a new way of engaging in relationships with everyone. We have to allow the Holy Spirit to teach us
how to live from the heart instead of the head.” (Yaconelli, p. 80)
Don’t insult God by being content
with “okay.” This God we worship has so
much more to give you, if only you will allow it to happen.