Home Sermons Spirit People

Spirit People

"Spirit People"

Veteran's Day

Luke 4: 14-21

A white hearse led the way. The procession climbed to the top of a ridge, and we stood looking out across the rolling hills of West Virginia, foliage luminous under a bright blue sky. It was a peaceful resting place, for my relative. We felt fatigue from travel, sadness at loss. It was good, nonetheless, to be reunited with family. On that Appalachian hillside, it was one of those moments when the day to day things that usually distract me melted away to this one question: ‘what really matters?' What really matters, in life? I suspect we have similar answers. Family, friends, community, love, God. When the time comes for each of us, by what will we be remembered? By what we value, what choices we make, what commitments we make; by what we invest in, our energy, our time, our money. What matters is the Spirit that animates us, that connects us with others, with God. We are ‘Spirit people,' and you can tell when that Spirit is set free, and all that's left is an empty shell.

Jesus was a ‘Spirit person.' These are Marcus Borg's words, and I've been thinking about them a lot lately. Who is Jesus, for you? The vision I have of Jesus is of his eyes. Piercing eyes that look right into me, and see me for all that I am. Eyes that contain the depths of the world's sorrow, but also shine with a holy joy. Eyes that pull me in to another level of reality, the world of Spirit, which is all around us, but we don't always see it. I've been re-reading Marcus Borg's writing about of Jesus, from the last 15 years. He says Jesus was a Spirit person, a Jewish mystic. His entire ministry was rooted in an intimate connection to God. In our text from Luke, at the very beginning of Jesus' public ministry, God's Spirit is central. Jesus was "filled with the power of the Spirit." Jesus claims his ministry publicly, in the words of the prophet Isaiah, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, anointing me."

Borg says there is a difference between believing in God, in a rational way, and experiencing God through Spirit. This is the difference between the head, and the heart. A Spirit person has a vivid experiences of God - perhaps seeing visions, hearing a voice, seeing God in all creation, knowing God deep within, a sense of oneness with the holy. When you have such experiences, they change your way of seeing, of living. For a Spirit person, God is not just a supernatural being out there in the universe. No, God is power and energy all around us and in us. As Saint Paul said, God is the One "in whom we live and move and have our being." A Spirit person has moments of connection with that Spirit that creates and sustains us. I believe each of us has this capacity, whether we know it or not.

Early in each Gospel are key events that demonstrate Jesus' connection to Spirit. In his baptism, Jesus has a vision of heaven opening. He hears God's voice, feels the Spirit descending upon him. The same Spirit drives Jesus into the wilderness for a time of testing, of temptation. Jesus fasted in the wilderness. Fasting is a spiritual practice in many traditions; changes in body chemistry alter sense and perception. Marcus Borg describes Jesus' time of testing as a ‘vision quest,' or a wilderness ordeal. In Jesus' public ministry, God's Spirit flowed through him in so many ways. Spirit people share God with the world. They are channels through which the power and wisdom of God touches others. When Jesus healed someone, or cast out demons, it was God's power working through him. When he taught, it was with a spirit-filled authority. He taught wisdom, the kind that only comes from personal enlightenment. He used parables, provocative sayings, to open people's eyes to a new way of seeing. When Jesus prayed, he would escape from the crowds for extended periods of prayer. Contemplative prayer was well known in Jewish mysticism of his day. In silent prayer, there are moments of communion with God deep within, at the center of your being. Jesus' prophetic ministry is grounded in Spirit as well, giving him courage to protest systems of injustice and domination, to envision a different reality.

Spirit people know there is more than the physical, material world we touch and see. There is another layer of reality, charged with energy and power. Perhaps a mystic is someone whose consciousness is more permeable - the Irish speak of ‘thin places,' where the boundaries are more open. Borg says Jesus himself is a ‘thin place,' a person in whom the reality of God is visible, a person who opens hearts. I find Marcus Borg's portrait of Jesus provocative, because it can open us to a new way of seeing Jesus, but also to a new way of seeking God in our own lives. I believe each of us can be in relationship with the same Spirit Jesus knew so intimately. Not all of us choose to develop our spiritual senses with the same urgency ... but we're here, aren't we? We're here because that same Spirit is calling us, to deepen our relationships with God, with community, with the world. We're here because we want to invest in a Spirit of community, of love, of outreach. We are urged to make an investment in many things in life. We invest in education, real estate, stocks and bonds, retirement. We invest in our children's future, our own future. But we must also invest in Spirit, if we are to be whole. If we think of investment only in material or financial terms, we neglect a critical part of our being. We are body and mind and Spirit, and we must invest in all to have fullness of life.

Your Stewardship Committee has taken as its theme this year the words of a song: "We've come this far by faith.'' We are Pilgrims on a journey. This year we will celebrate a key moment in that 50-year journey - looking back and looking ahead. There is a sense of being led by God's Spirit in this journey, trusting ourselves to be guided into the unknown. What kind of Spirit is it, in this Church? A Spirit of engagement, of community. What we find here is counter-cultural. Despite our communication technology, our global village, people are often isolated from each other. Genuine community is increasingly rare. There are divisions in our culture, based on wealth, education, skin color, gender, how we live, who we love. Here, there is a Spirit of inclusion, a striving for unity; we also acknowledge difference. At Pilgrim, there is a Spirit of compassion, of generosity. There is a Spirit of justice and peace, of love. In this place, on Veteran's Day, we are able to hold in creative tension a genuine honoring of those who give of themselves to serve our country, and at the same time, a genuine concern for peacemaking, for nonviolent resolution to conflict. This is an unusual kind of community.

Your Stewardship committee is challenging you to invest even further in the Spirit of this community. There are physical plant challenges, there is the challenge of a pastoral transition. There is the challenge of refining our identity in ministry. Can we be a ‘thin place' - a place that brings people into deeper relationship with God, deepens their commitment to healing and redeeming this world? In considering your pledge, I urge you to look at the whole of your life. What really matters? What do you invest in? Do your commitments of time, energy, and finance reflect a sense of wholeness? Do you invest in that Spirit that creates and animates and sustains us? Do you invest in God, in whom we live and move and have our being? As you pray about these things, may this song echo in your heart: "Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me. Melt me, mold me, fill me, use me. Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me." Amen.