What Would Happen If We Stopped Being Afraid Of Getting Closer To Jesus’ Love In The Holy Spirit?

Good Morning Friends,

Today we look at Ezekiel’s vision of a time of abundance in the days of conflict that preceded the first destruction of Jerusalem and from the Gospel of John, the healing of a person with paralyzes at the Sheep Gate pool. They combine with today’s psalm in a way that is about what society is missing when we collectively discount the importance of our faith practiced as a body of believers that reflects both trust and love. And maybe we think it does not matter, that we can get by without such a community. For sure many during the pandemic distanced themselves from not just people but God as well. But if we continue to do this, I think we risk the multigenerational impact of our ambiguity. And as I think more about it, I guess we accept a lot of things that we should challenge and one of them might be the validity of the American Dream without God and the other, setting too restrictive limits on how we worship, for things have changed during the last few years and may never return to the way that was. Now I think we should be prudent, and that absence can make the heart grow fonder, but I for one appreciate the power of the Holy Spirit experienced in the music we share that is not just an observation but a participation. So, I am glad that our choir at Moorings is more vibrant than ever have grown out of the pandemic beyond just getting back to singing together as a way of helping to lead worship. I for one think it grieves the Holy Spirit for us not to sing traditional songs in worship. I think it grieves the Holy Spirit for us to have an American Dream without God at the center of it. For the risk is that we fail to dream and sing in concert with God. So, maybe we need to reimagined God as the Dreamer, the Song, and the Singer. Friends, the stakes are too high to let our anxieties rule. We need a more profound response that redirects us to follow Jesus. There is something of utmost importance we need to include in our life that is beyond science and frankly too few see it at all because they deny the spiritual. There is something we are overlooking and maybe even are avoiding individually and culturally. We need the courage to think in a transformative way and imagine…. What Would Happen If We Stopped Being Afraid Of Getting Closer To Jesus’ Love In The Holy Spirit?

Scripture: After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. In these lay many invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.” Jesus said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.” At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk. Now that day was a sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, “It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.” But he answered them, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.'” They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take it up and walk’?” Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared in the crowd that was there. Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you have been made well! Do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.” The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. Therefore the Jews started persecuting Jesus, because he was doing such things on the sabbath.

John 5:1-16 (NRSV)

Then he brought me back to the entrance of the temple; there, water was flowing from below the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east); and the water was flowing down from below the south end of the threshold of the temple, south of the altar. Then he brought me out by way of the north gate, and led me around on the outside to the outer gate that faces toward the east; and the water was coming out on the south side. Going on eastward with a cord in his hand, the man measured one thousand cubits, and then led me through the water; and it was ankle-deep. Again he measured one thousand, and led me through the water; and it was knee-deep. Again he measured one thousand, and led me through the water; and it was up to the waist . Again he measured one thousand, and it was a river that I could not cross, for the water had risen; it was deep enough to swim in, a river that could not be crossed. He said to me, “Mortal, have you seen this?” Then he led me back along the bank of the river. As I came back, I saw on the bank of the river a great many trees on the one side and on the other. He said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah; and when it enters the sea, the sea of stagnant waters, the water will become fresh. Wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish, once these waters reach there. It will become fresh; and everything will live where the river goes. On the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.”

Ezekiel 47:1-9, 12 (NRSV)

Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult. Selah There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved; God will help it when the morning dawns. The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah Come, behold the works of the Lord; see what desolations he has brought on the earth. He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire.

Psalm 46: 2-9 (NRSV)

Message: Oh, we do hope for God to intervene in the troubles of this world. But often something is missing in people’s lives that would facilitate this transformation. Many people have given up on the dream and promise of Jesus in the gift of the Holy Spirit, a gift to experience God without it killing us. Unfortunately, many say the American Dream is gone…the Christian Dream dead…that God is Dead. But really what is dead might be our recognition of the workings of the Holy Spirit. Now feelings of dissatisfaction or emptiness are usually what motivate us to desire a change. But sometimes there is emptiness because we do not trust and do not love. Perhaps we think better health, increased income, a different job, or a new relationship is the answer. Or maybe we cannot quite figure out what is causing these feelings, but we know that something is missing in our lives. And what I think is missing are acts of love glorifying God in the power of the Holy Spirit in worship extending out to the communities in which we live. But too often we fail to recognize divine activity in community, and it is one of the great tragedies of Christianity. We see this same problem in today’s Gospel reading. In the time of Jesus, there was a place in Jerusalem where the sick went to be cured of all kinds of diseases, by immersing themselves in the waters of the communal bath. It appears that they believed when the waters were stirred, special healing was available. But this poor man in the Gospel was paralyzed, so he could not reach the waters when they were healing. It helps here to think about the story as a parable. Think about human beings as those paralyzed by sin, by their bad habits, so they cannot reach the source of grace without aid. And it is Jesus who is both the One who enables us to ask for grace and forgiveness and who is Himself powered by the Spirit…the source of grace and faith and forgiveness for us all. Friends, here is the point, people failed to see Jesus for who he is in much the same way we fail to see the Holy Spirit at work in our daily lives. Then on occasion the light comes on and we see, often in retrospect but hopefully even as we focus forward. That is why my hope for you is that you would see the unseen hand of almighty God and experience the powerful presence of God in your life as a way of reengaging a dream worth having and having a song in your heart worth the singing. But honestly feeling the Spirit can be confusing, for it is not the same as having emotions, feelings of elation or thoughts that are positive. The Spirit is caught up in our experience of Jesus as we learn to know and to love and be loved in the truth of who Jesus is and who He wants us to become in relationship with each other. Friends, it is apparent that we are living in troublesome, turbulent times. But if we look for hope, we may not find it. As today’s psalm points out we need to find a hope that is without fear. We need to seek the Holy Spirit in worship as we would seek the Kingdom of God in the joy and love of Jesus. We need to glorify God, but we also need to enjoy God.

And So, the Holy Spirit it is caught up in each act of faith we do with love…in each act of trust that is culminated in forgiveness. By the Spirit’s very nature, it is witness to our spiritual growth. By its very nature there is some tension in the experience that helps us to learn how to receive, recognize and respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit the more. It is here in the Spirit we join in the dance and grow into a more mature relationship with God and others. Here recognizing the Spirit at work helps us to learn and grow. That is what is missing and why it is so easy to miss being in the will of God.  So,
it is time that we dove into deeper water with the Lord into the fertile stream of holy history. It is time that we started seeing the harvest and know that if we want to see people healed in their relationship with the Lord then we must go deeper. Right now, God is moving all around us.  There is more that follows the longings of our hearts and spiritual healing if we are willing to go deeper into the work of the Holy Spirit and the purpose for which we were born.

Pray we desire to experience God and not die in the process. Pray we anticipate divine activity when we love and when our hearts sing for joy in worship. Pray we long for a change worth having and are thankful for the journey. Pray God birth in us a love that spills over into the world. Pray we realize that when we begin to obey God, we might just increase our chances of seeing God work in our lives too. Pray we accept the uncertainty of it all. Pray we nevertheless choose to glorify God as best we can. Pray we recognize the Holy Spirit at work in our lives. Pray we connect to the power and purpose of Jesus by choosing to surrender to God’s will over compliance to the ways of the world. Pray we have a dream worth dreaming and a song worth singing. Pray we choose fellowship over isolation. Pray we choose honesty over pretense. Pray we invest in the journey of the moment now while not losing sight of the destination. Pray we value transformation more than information. Pray we invest in the corporate body not just the self. Pray we be grace-filled more than judgmental. Pray we take personal responsibility rather than blaming others. Pray we be willing to give away rather than hold on to things. Pray we realize that being powerless rather than controlling allows us to better see the truth of how the Holy Spirit acts in and through us. Pray we discover what is missing in our culture and lives and communities of faith and commerce. Pray we be guided by the Spirit to bring a little of heaven to earth seeing the divine at work each time we discover love. Pray we discover that the sooner we let go of the past the sooner we can embrace the new.

Blessings,

John Lawson