The Faith of Abraham

Genesis 12:1-4; Romans 4:1-5, 13-17

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As you may have guessed from the reading today this sermon is going to be about Abraham and his faithful response to God’s call.  I question the appropriateness of this kind of sermon for the congregations to which I preach.  The topic is more fitting for groups of younger people who are looking forward in life with career choices and starting a family etc. and encouraging them to seek out what God is calling them to.  I think for the congregations to which I minister it would be more context appropriate to preach on the story of Abraham and Sarah childless for decades then suddenly getting pregnant when he was 99 and she was in her late 80’s in fulfillment of God’s promise to make their descendants into a great nation.  With that passage I could preach that regardless of age, energy, health even, God still is involved in our lives taking us somewhere.  There’s always room for growth.

We encounter this story of God’s call to Abraham differently in our later years than when we are young.  The older we get the more we tend to look back on our lives. Looking back, we are more apt to be asking “Did I do what God called me to do?  Did I go where God was sending me?”  To avoid being presumptive, I’ll speak for myself.  I’m 60 and I’m a minister.  I’ve got four major life events coming up.  When to and where to retire, what to do in retirement, preparing for when I won’t be able to care for myself, and death and all within the realization that at any point death could make any or all of those events into moot points.  And in the midst of all that, continuing to be the best father I can be.

Reflecting on Abraham’s story I can’t help but look back over the last 40-odd years from when I first sensed the call.  Being a minister, I’m reasonably sure I’ve thus far gone where the Lord has sent me and done what he sent me to do as best as I could do it.  I have avoided to the best of my ability the Frank Sinatra “I did it my way” approach to life.  I learned at age 19 that life lived my way wasn’t something I could pull off nor was it worth the pain, and so I said “Jesus, I’m yours.”  Ever since, God has been faithful.  He’s made a home for me everywhere I went among good, solid, caring, kind people who’ve been a blessing to me and me, a blessing to them.  Life has still been life.  There have been hurts along the way, but Jesus himself has been with me and I’ve done my best to handle the hurts and setbacks as faithful to Jesus and the others involved as I could discern what is the faithful thing to do.  

Looking back over the last 40 years I have learned God is faithful.  I just need to listen, go, and live, and not worry.  As the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 8:28 God truly does work all things for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose.  I would add to Paul, even when the feathers have hit the fan and even when it’s “my own damn fault”, to add a little Jimmy Buffet.  I’ve learned it is better to be loyal and to serve than to simply look out for myself, trying to make a name for myself, getting for myself, increasing myself.  It is better to be a blessing than, quite literally, a curse.

  Well, I guess I should deal with this passage a bit.  God called Abraham by telling him “Go!” I like the way this command is written and sounds in the Hebrew language.  It’s a command, the imperative form for the verb “to go” in Hebrew is “Lek” and there’s a prepositional phrase tacked on to it: leKah – le meaning “for” and Kah meaning “you yourself” in the sense of being to one’s advantage.  All together it’s “Lek-leKah” meaning “Go! For what’s best for you.”  It’s like if you’re laying in bed awake at night and hear a voice say “Lek-leKah”, you better get up and get on with it because it’s going to be good.”

And notice this isn’t a conditional statement where God is saying “If you go, I will bless you.”  I’m very inclined here to say that Abraham did not have a choice here.  What God wanted Abraham to do was going to happen.  I learned from years of marriage that if your spouse says “I need you to (I don’t know) LISTEN!”, you listen because if you fail to, the fabric of spacetime begins to disintegrate.  So it is when God speaks.  Like on the first day of creation in Genesis God spoke to the primordial chaos of darkness and water saying “Let there be light.”  Then, there was light.  God would have made it so that Abraham and his descendants made it to that land to become that great nation and be a blessing.

Something else to note here, Abraham was in essence just going with the flow.  He was the oldest of three sons of a man named Terah.  They lived in a place called Ur which was where the Euphrates River ran into the Persian Gulf in what is Kuwait today.  As a family they packed up and became part of a huge migration of people traveling up the Euphrates River to Syria and then heading down through Israel to Egypt.  Terah had them stop in northern Syria to settle.  God’s call to Abraham was that he needed to go further.  Against the social convention that the oldest son stayed close to the father to take over the family when the father died, Abraham went against his family and moved a little further down the line to what God had in mind for him.  He went through Israel down to Egypt then turned around and came back to Israel to settle.  All along the way God blessed him and his family and he was a blessing to the nations around him.  Abraham was not out to make a name for himself.  God did that for him and he was well respected.  Abraham just wanted what God wanted for him.  

The faith of Abraham, or rather the faithfulness for there’s no such thing as faith without faithfulness – the faithfulness of Abraham was to listen, go, and live and God would work things to the good.  God is faithful.  God blessed him and made him to be a blessing.  Being a blessing is found in being loyal and serving God and others.  Loyalty and serving is what love is.  There is no such thing as love if it is not expressed daily in fidelity and putting oneself aside to serve.  It’s when people, ourselves included, get selfish that things go bad.  Wars are not caused by religions or ideologies.  They’re caused by selfish idiots deluding people with religion and ideology so that the selfish can get power and wealth for themselves.  Marriages don’t fall apart because a couple was expressing their love for one another through loyalty and serving one another, i.e., being a blessing to each other.  They fall apart because somebody got selfish.

To end up where I started with speaking about how the story of Abraham’s call is heard differently by us depending on our age, whether we are young and starting out, in midlife re-evaluating, or elderly and looking back the question of blessing applies to us all.  If you’re young and looking forward, strive to be a blessing and make choices about work and marriage and family that will help you be that.  In the middle of life and re-evaluating, same thing except you may have some amends to make for when you chose poorly.  Elderly and looking back, same thing but don’t let looking back consume the responsibility you still have to be a blessing.  Age robs us of darn near everything.  Don’t let pain and grief narrow your vision down to seeing only your own suffering.  God has not abandoned you.  Continue to be a blessing.  Amen.

Hiding from the Seeker

Genesis 2:16-17, 3:1-9

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I am the youngest of four.  I was also the youngest in the neighbourhood we lived in until I was 7.  Back then if you can imagine it, all the kids in the neighbourhood would go outside and play together all day.  That proved problematic for me.  I don’t know why it is but when you are the youngest among the kids, it seems you have a sign on your back that says “Pick on me.”  That, of course, did happen to me both from my siblings and the other kids in the neighbourhood.  It has its effect.  

I remember the first time I prayed something that wasn’t like bedtime prayers.  I was five.  I had been up the street playing a game of Red Rover with my siblings and the rest of the neighbourhood kids.  They started making fun of me which resulted in me running home in tears.  They just kept on playing as if nothing ever happened.  At home there wasn’t anybody around to comfort me.  I don’t know where the parents were.  So, I stood in the living room looking out the window and for some reason I prayed, “God, what’s wrong with me that other kids don’t want to play with me?”  There was no still small voice or wave of peaceful assurance or sense of God being present.  God was predictably silent.  But, a month or two later a boy my age moved in across the street and we became best friends until well after high school.  You could say God delivered me from having to go play with older kids if I was going to play with somebody.  I also find it remarkable that at five years old I was turning to God for answers.

Looking back on that day, the answer to that question is obvious, “There’s nothing wrong with you per say, Randy.  You’re likable and lovable.  Kids can be mean.  There’s a reason for that.  It’s a sickness everyone has called Sin.  Even adults suffer from it.  Try your best not to be mean too.”  But, I was too young and the bullying happened too often for me to hear anything from God so I kept believing there was something wrong with me that people don’t want to play with me and that false belief persisted most of my life.  It was part of the “Stinkin’ Thinkin’” that fed alcoholism in me years ago.

Well, a couple months after that little boy moved in across the street, I decided I was going to exact some revenge on my siblings and it was devious.  While they and my parents were all elsewhere around the house doing their thing, I went and got the stapler and took the stables out of it and then I stealthily worked them into the cushions of the living room couch.  My plan was that at least one of my siblings would sit on the couch and get a healthy dose of staples in the bum.  They wouldn’t know I did it because I was going to hide in plain sight over at my new best friend’s house.  One of them would get staple-bum and I would just lie and say, “It wasn’t me. I was at Ronnie’s.”  They would believe me because I was the good kid. 

Well, my buddy and I were playing in his room when the knock came at his door.  It was my sister Jan and she said, “Mom says to please send Randy home.” There was no reason given, but I knew what it was.  My devious plan which I hadn’t even divulged to Ronnie was figured out.  Fortunately, it didn’t result in me getting a sore bum.  I just had to remove all the staples which had done a lot of damage to the upholstery on a very nice all but brand-new couch that we had gotten from the Grand Piano Furniture Store.  Then, I had to go to my room for a couple of hours, and I couldn’t go to Ronnie’s for a few days.  

I can’t say that my mother was over the top angry.  It was “Why Randy, would you do such a thing.  You’re usually such a good kid.”  It disappointed her.  I’d have fathered that she just be angry.  But in this moment of uncharacteristic behaviour on my part, she was bewildered, disappointed, and scared.  She didn’t know where I was at.  If you’ve been a parent, then you’ve had those kinds of disappointing and scary moments with respect to your children and not knowing where they are at.

Well, looking here at Genesis and Adam and Eve I could go on for hours on this story.  It helps that we don’t get bogged down in whether this historically happened or not.  The real power in it is how brutally accurate it is in describing how we humans are.  In our inner world we have these things called core values, what we know is right and what is wrong.  We will betray these core values and there are characteristic patterns of behaviour that we go through when we set about betraying those values mostly it's rationalizing, self-justifying, and we finish up with blaming.  We deceive ourselves in order to betray ourselves.  When we betray those values we break trust with and hurt ourselves and others and God.  

When Adam and Eve ate the fruit, they didn’t suddenly gain the ability of knowing right from wrong.  That had been spelled out already when God told Adam what tree not to partake of.  What they gained is the knowledge of good and evil.  That’s when it seems good to do evil and evil to do good.  They’re mixed in together.  Have you ever had it happen that when all things are considered the best thing to do is the evil thing so that good can result?  Assassination and war can appear good when you’ve got to get rid of a cruel tyrant.  Have you ever done the right thing and all it did was hurt people?  

This story says that there is something wrong with us.  What’s wrong with us is that we twist the truth, concoct false narratives, and accept misinformation as fact so that we can rationalize our way into doing what we know in our cores to be wrong.  We deceive ourselves into believing that what we know to be wrong is actually good for us and we wind up betraying ourselves and others.  We then hide behind our rationalizations and self-justifications to keep from having to accept responsibility for our actions.  Like back at my childhood, the kids who bullied me were just having fun, right?  I thought the staples were a fair means to justice.  And, that’s just kids being kids.  We don’t outgrow it when we become adults.  We just get better at it…especially the hiding ourselves because we feel that there’s something wrong with us…and you know what?  There is!...and we die from it.

Well, this story isn’t just about us.  Notice how God is.  God doesn’t appear as an omnipotent Judge here.  He doesn’t show up knowing exactly where Adam and Eve are at and what they had done so that he could exact a verdict of “Die and go to Hell!”  Oddly, God doesn’t seem to know what’s happened.  God’s just strolling in the Garden in the cool of the day looking to catch up with his Beloved ones to hear what they had discovered that day in the Garden amongst the trees.  But God can’t find Adam and Eve.  They’ve hidden themselves from him because they are ashamed of their nakedness.  The trees of the Garden which were supposed to be discovery places are suddenly hiding places.  The Seeker can’t find his Beloved Ones, the apple of his eye, the crown of his creation.  Like my mother, God doesn’t know where they are at.  So, God asks, history’s most powerful rhetorical question, “Where are you?”

And so it is with each of us, “Where are you?”  What rationalizations, self-justifications are we deceiving ourselves with so that we can betray ourselves and God and one another.  What tree are you hiding behind?  Come out from behind it.  Your Beloved is seeking you.  Amen.

 

Entering the Cloud of Jesus Praying

Luke 9:28-36

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Atop the Blue Ridge Mountains not far from where I grew up in Waynesboro, Virginia there is a tourist attraction known as Humpback Rocks.  It is a rather large outcropping of rocks that delivers a spectacular view of the Shenandoah Valley.  The climb up is one of the steepest and most strenuous one-mile hikes you will come across, but it’s worth it.  If you get out on the edge of the rocks, you can have that Leonardo DiCaprio in the movie Titanic “King of the World” sensation.  Unfortunately, since my 20’s I have found being out on the edge of anything just a little too terrifying.  If you fall off, it’s about a fifty or more-foot drop just to get into the tree tops below.  It’s a place you need to be careful, but the view is worth it.  It’s “good”.

I’ve been up on Humpback a couple of times on rainy-ish days when the clouds are blowing by.  It’s awesome to watch a cloud coming at you, billowing its way along the ridges, engulfing everything along the way and then…it engulfs you.  I have been up there when you couldn’t see but a few feet in front of you.  If you’re not familiar with the rocks, you’re best to just sit right down and wait it out.  In those fogged-out moments it is not “good” on Humpback.  It’s terrifying.  

I think of those experiences on Humpback when I read this story of the Transfiguration.  Peter, James, and John go up on a mountain with Jesus to pray and it’s good.  But then comes the cloud and they find themselves engulfed by it.  It’s terrifying.  Yet in their case, it’s not the fog that terrifies them.  It’s that they have found themselves in the presence of God.  What shall we say about that?

Well to start, what we have here in this story of the Transfiguration is one of those rare moments in the Gospels when God fully reveals himself and to the consternation of many, God reveals himself as Trinity.  There’s Jesus the Son, the voice of God the Father, and the Holy Spirit showing up as the terrifying cloud.  Something similar happened at Jesus’ baptism when he began his ministry.  Jesus, the Son was in the water.  God the Father spoke from heaven.  The Holy Spirit came on him like a dove.  That was the beginning of his ministry and now it happens again this time as Jesus begins his journey to the cross.

Well, I’m going to apologize to you for what I’m about to do next.  I’m going to get a little theologically heavy on you and talk about the Trinity and what prayer is.  To do that it’s best we don’t start by trying to do the math: you know, 3-in-1, 1-in-3.  It’s better to think of Trinity as the relationship in love of the persons of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  They are three persons who are in a relationship of mutually giving, unconditional love and this relationship of love is what they each are in themselves.  It’s like me saying “What makes me “Me” is all the significant relationships I’ve had in life.”  Sure, I’m uniquely me, but I am not “me” without those significant and formative relationships.  As persons, we aren’t islands to ourselves.  We are persons in relationships.  The Father isn’t the Father without the Son and the Spirit, nor the Son without the Father and the Spirit, nor the Spirit without the Father and the Son.

 Since Trinity is this eternal relationship of love, we must note that communication is always happening between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  In essence, this is prayer.  We ask what does a Triune God in all eternity do in his very self?  Well, God talks among himself…God prays.  God in God’s self as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is always praying.  The book of Hebrews says that Jesus is ever-standing before the Father in the Spirit praying interceding on our behalf which also implies that the Father in the Spirit is always listening and answering.  Jesus is always praying for us and the Father is always listening and answering for us and the Spirit carries it out.  

Now here’s one more to wrap your head around.  The Holy Spirit due to his abiding in us and bonding us to Jesus the Son, he brings us as God’s beloved children into that eternal praying of the Son to the Father and the Father’s hearing and answering his beloved Son.  The Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 8 that the Holy Spirit is always in us praying and when we don’t know what to pray, especially when we are deeply hurting and cannot put words to it, the Holy Spirit is in us praying with sighs too deep for words.  Our praying is participating in the praying that God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit does within Godself.

I bet you never thought of prayer that way.  We are inclined to think of prayer as our talking at God from a vast distance and God from a distance hearing and maybe from a distance answering at us.  But the truth is, prayer is our participating in the communication that goes on within the Trinity in such a way that by the work of the Holy Spirit our prayers become Jesus’ prayers and his ours.  When we pray Jesus is in us and us in Jesus.

Well, your theological moment is done, but let me make use of that basic thought about prayer – that prayer is our participation in Jesus’ own praying in the midst of the life of God the Trinity – let me use that to set the stage for what is going on here in Luke.  You see, what we have here in Luke’s account of the Transfiguration is a moment when certain of the disciples entered into the “cloud” of Jesus’ praying.  Matthew, Mark, and Luke all tell this story of the Transfiguration, but Luke tells it from a different perspective.  He is the only one to put the Transfiguration into the context of prayer.  It happens while Jesus is praying and his disciples are attempting to pray with him.  

So, we have Jesus heading up the mountain to pray.  Peter, James, and John are with him and as he begins to pray, of course they begin to fall asleep.  Prayer would not be prayer if we didn’t have a good nap.  Do I hear an amen?  Oddly, they manage to stay awake and suddenly they find themselves engulfed in the “goodness” of pure light.  Jesus’ face has changed and his clothes have become dazzling white.  Jesus, glorified, unveiled before them in his relationship with the Father in the Spirit.  

Then, they see two more people with Jesus, Moses and Elijah who are themselves no strangers to talking with God on the mountaintop.  On Mt. Sinai, Moses heard the voice of the LORD and received the Commandments.  Moses was also a great mediator.  Up on the mountain he talked the LORD out of destroying the Israelites for their idolatry in the Golden Calf incident and convinced God not to abandon his people but to continue on with them; and not just from afar, but present with them dwelling in their midst in the tabernacle, and leading them as a whirlwind by day and a pillar of fire by night.  Moses intercedes for God’s people, so does Jesus for us his beloved sisters and brothers.

Elijah also had a Mt. Sinai experience. On Mt. Sinai he, the greatest of the prophets excepting John the Baptist, heard the “still small voice of the Lord” while hiding there in a cave.  Elijah was on the run, afraid for his life for he had slaughtered the prophets of Baal and offended the very wicked King Ahab.  Elijah thought he was the only faithful person left in Israel, but by that still small voice God assured him he was not the only one and told him to go back to Israel for there were 7,000 still faithful waiting for him.  Likewise, Jesus was the only truly faithful one and yet he would die a death akin to the one that Ahab threatened Elijah with and yet be raised and ascend into heaven from where we await his return.  In a way, Elijah’s presence here is the still small voice of assurance from the Father to Jesus that though the cross lay ahead, he will live.

Peter, James, and John find this experience of praying with Jesus to be “good".  Peter’s remarks about its goodness reminds me of the Creation story and God saying at the end of each day of Creation “good”.  There is something “Creation-y” in the order of New Creation going on here in this experience of being with Jesus in his praying.  

Well, the moment is good and they want it to go on forever but reality sets in, if I might say it that way.  We could say that Peter, James, and John were suddenly awakened from a dream-like state and confronted with God in God’s very self.  The cloud of the Holy Spirit overshadows them. Things become darkened as they enter into the cloud.  Their feelings of “good” turn to outright terror.  “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.”  Then, God the Father speaks to them just as he spoke to Moses and to Elijah.  “This is my Son, my Chosen One.  Listen to him.”  And…and there’s silence.  It’s time to go to Jerusalem.  They kept this one to themselves.

This moment leaves us with having to balance the goodness of being with Jesus in his praying with the daunting task of actually listening to him and doing what he says.  In the cloud of Jesus praying, we discover that God is with us and experience the “good-ness” of his living and life-giving presence, the Holy Spirit, with us.  In the cloud of Jesus praying, we discover that Jesus is praying for us, that he is praying for things to work together for the good for us.  It is in the cloud of Jesus praying that we meet Moses, so to speak, where we are awakened to our idolatry and discover “forgiveness”.  It is in the cloud of Jesus praying that we, like Elijah, hear the still small voice of assurance, that God knows our faithfulness and has a plan for us.  This is especially “good” when we feel alone and even abandoned in our faithfulness.  In the cloud of Jesus praying, we find the strength and direction to go on with Jesus’ ministry, his mission for us.

Being with Jesus in his praying is very good but…we still have to listen to him and do what he says.  Jesus tells us we have to deny ourselves and pick up our crosses and follow him.  He tells us we have to love and pray for our enemies.  He tells us we have to forgive rather than hold grudges.  He tells us we have to love one another as he has loved us…unselfishly, without condition…to name a few.  These are difficult things to do and not only to do but to have them become who we are at the very root of who we are.  Impossible tasks if we were simply left to them, but here’s your word of grace for the day.  As prayer is our participation in the Trinity’s life of prayer, the more time we spend in prayer the more God’s nature just naturally rubs off on us and we become more able to listen to Jesus and do what he says.  Entering the cloud of Jesus praying is where and how we become more like him, where his “Me” shapes the “me” we each were made to be. Amen.

 

Spiritual People

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1 Corinthians 2:12-3:11

My best friend throughout seminary was a graduate of West Point Military Academy who came to seminary straight from his first enlistment as a captain with the United States Army.  He was very black and white in his view of the world due to his military background.  In his world, it was “These are your orders.  Carry them out.”  “This is what your commanding officer says.  Do not question.”  He had a difficult time with the liberal atmosphere of seminary which gave room for questioning particularly when the questioning seemed to be just about “me”, “my” rights, and “my” agendas and particularly matters of political correctness.  Often in our private conversations after classes, he would offer a commentary on the “me” focused agendas of some of our fellow students, a commentary which almost always included “Oh waa.  What a bunch of babies.”  It was always my job (and his wife’s) to bring him down off the pedestal and remind him he needed to be more understanding.

But anyway, that thing he always said, “O waa. What a bunch of babies.”  It’s the sort of thing you can say to your platoon when they are whining and complaining about things in the field.  But, it’s not the sort of thing you can say like when you’re a minister and addressing a church conflict.  (Incidentally, he had two shortish pastorates and then reenlisted to become a career Army chaplain and did two tours in Iraq.)  You don’t say that, but it seems in our reading today that Paul did just that to the Corinthian churches.  “You bunch of babies.  Drink your milk.  You’re not ready for solid food.”

The reason Paul calls them a bunch of babies has to do with their spirituality.  “You’re not spiritual people.  You’re a bunch of babies.”  If I ever said such a thing to a group of people in one of my congregations, I have no doubt that I would soon be looking for another church.  You just don’t do that, but Paul did and he had his reasons.  And of course, I need to take a few minutes to explain what those reasons were.  So…sit back and settle in.

According to the Book of Acts, Paul was in Corinth for about a year and a half and he planted several small churches that gathered in people’s homes which were most likely the homes of people wealthy enough to have a space large enough for a gathering of twenty or more people.  Judging from Paul’s two letters to the congregations, congregational life in those churches was very much on the Charismatic side and likely what we would call Pentecostal today.  People were speaking in tongues and prophesying and singing praise songs.  The early church was also very empowering for women and so there were women speaking in tongues and prophesying, teaching, and leading worship.  So, small, lively fellowships meeting in people’s homes.

Interestingly, there is nothing in Paul’s letters or the Book of Acts to indicate that when Paul left he had appointed leaders in any of the congregations.  It may have been that as active as the Holy Spirit was there, Paul either expected that the Spirit would make leaders obvious or things were so egalitarian and spontaneous that Paul didn’t think they needed them.  The lack of appointed leadership proved problematic.  Groups of people need leaders. 

Feeling the leadership vacuum after Paul left, individual people and cadres in the churches began to compete over who would be in charge.  There were the wealthy patrons who owned the houses.  There were wise philosophical types who thought that the intelligentsia should run the show.  There were “spiritual” women who thought that since they spoke in tongues and prophesied so much they should be in charge.  There were also the name-droppers – “I follow Paul.” “I follow Apollos.”  “I follow Peter.”  “I follow Jesus.”  They thought that being students of a particular teacher should hold sway.  The jealousies and quarrellings that ensued damaged the fellowships.

In Paul’s opinion, the arguing that ensued over who should run the show made them look like babies.  And not only the arguing, but more so when they celebrated communion, which they did as part of a meal, it was nothing more than a party at which the rich were feasting and getting drunk while poorer people had to stand back and watch.  There was a man who was playing husband to his own stepmother and nobody called him on it.  They were taking each other to court and suing each other.  Worship was developing into a spectacle of incoherent tongue speaking.  The resultant disunity and immorality that arose from certain members seeking to run the show is why Paul called them babies and blatantly noted that they were not spiritual people.

But…what does Paul mean by “spiritual people”.  What is it to be “spiritual”?  Well, due to the breadth of the topic, it’s kind of hard to nail Paul down on this one but then again, it’s not.  In the two chapters leading up to our reading Paul has talked about personal weakness, the cross, ministering according to giftedness that the Holy Spirit gives, and having the mind or mindedness of Christ.  Later in the letter he talks about love, unconditional and sacrificial love.  Love…you can speak in tongues and prophecy, and understand mystical stuff and be knowledgeable in the faith, but if you don’t have love, you’re a banging gong or clanging cymbal. 

At almost every church wedding these verses get read from 1 Corinthians 13:4-8: “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable; it keeps no record of wrongs; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth.  It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.”  This love is what being spiritual looks like.  Marriage is a huge spiritual exercise when this love is practiced. 

In 2 Corinthians 5 Paul talks about our being entrusted with a ministry of reconciliation.  This ministry of reconciliation involves working on our healed relationship with God and striving to heal our broken relationships with each other.  And, being that counter-cultural presence in the lives of people that encourages them to do the hard work of forgiveness and working things out.

In Philippians 2 Paul tells us to have among us the mind or mindedness of Christ which he describes with the words of a popular hymn in the early church.  The hymn was about how Jesus emptied himself of his divinity and became human, like us in every way, not to rule over us but to serve us.  This emptying of self even led to Jesus dying on the cross but God raised him and exalted him above all others.  So also, in love we are to empty ourselves of our desires to rule over others and to self-serve and rather serve one another making sure those around us get their needs met.  Self-emptying and serving in love is being a spiritual person.  That’s spirituality in Paul’s book if you can actually tag a definition on that very vague word.

Paul also talks about prayer, praying without ceasing really.  As we are to have the mind or mindedness of Christ, what we do with our own minds and mindedness is important.  If you are anything like me, then your mind is your worst enemy.  By mind I mean that part of us that worries and quite frankly just won’t shut up.  It tries to mindread other people and figure out motives and explanations for things that are usually just self-destructive babble and not the way things are in reality.  Getting control of the mind is hard.  Some spirituality people talk about emptying the mind, turning it off, and becoming nothing.  Paul goes a different direction and tells us to dwell on the good, pray, meditate on Scriptures, sing hymns and psalms to ourselves.  Also, take time to bring what’s on your mind, what’s troubling you before God.  Focusing our minds on God-things will change the things we’re minded on.  To be minded on something is to be focused if not fixated on it, driven by it.  To have the mindedness of Christ is to be focused on his Presence and seeking to be driven by his love.

The continual praying of the Lord’s Prayer is a fruitful spiritual practice.  And not just praying it according to rote memory, but rather learn to desire what you’re praying for in it.  How does it apply to me and my life, our lives?  When we say “hallowed be your name” that’s an invitation to think about what we truly think and feel about God.  What does “Thy will be done” look like for our lives?  Who do we need to forgive and who needs to forgive us.  From what trials do we need saving?  From what evil do we need to be delivered?  Another way of thinking about that evil thing is to ask "what lies am I believing that are causing hurt to myself and to others?"    

Being spiritual, a spiritual person, is to let God be the one who unconditionally and sacrificially loves us and then be that way to the people around you.  Being this spiritual person brings healing, reconciliation, and hope into the world.  Spiritual people are mindful of the Presence of God, prayerful, and minded on unconditionally loving and serving others.  One last thing to mention, spiritual people will suffer.  This is the way of the cross after all.  Sacrificially loving others that they might find Christ and find healing and life in him does not come without ambivalence being directed towards us.  But he is with us.  God’s Presence is our comfort, our assurance, our peace, and sometimes joy even arises; joy in the midst of some pretty painful circumstances.  Amen.