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June 11, 2000
An old word is SERENDIPITY meaning "a happy discovery by accident." It was coined by the British statesman and essayist, Horace Walpole in l754, based on the fairy tale of the three princes of Serendip, who "were always making discoveries…of things they were not in quest of." What we now call the nation of Sri Lanka was for a long while referred to as the Kingdom of Serendip.
Serendipity is a fitting synonym for God's Holy Spirit. Our two scriptures of today illustrate how God's Spirit came in unexpected visits: the early Church had absolutely no expectation of Pentecost and the blessing of the Spirit until Jesus promised to send the Advocate or Councilor. And he delivered what he promised.
The wondrous image of the valley of dry bones coming to life was given to the Jewish nation at a time when all were dispirited and broken by years in Babylonian exile. The last thing the exiles expected was a new purpose for living and to return to their beloved Israel.
Both of these powerful examples of God's Spirit, help us to come to several conclusions:
…We can expect to experience the Spirit coming to us in surprising ways, and often when we are least inclined to believe there is hope. God does surprise us with joy. . …This however does not mean that God is inconsistent: The Divine is always offering his presence for his children but God exploits some circumstances to our benefit and that is when we are wowed over by a sense that God is with us. And we often foreclose some circumstances to God's activity.
…We also can conclude that the Spirit is a universal experience. Many peoples are blessed with God's Spirit. Christians do not have a monopoly upon the Divine Spirit. That is why the Spirit goes by many names: in the Gospel of John, Jesus called the Spirit the Advocate, the Comforter, and the Helper; the prophet Ezekiel prophesied about the Spirit of God who was the Spirit known and loved by Jesus through his Jewish spirituality.
…Later the Church formalized and set in the doctrine of the triune God, the name Holy Spirit as the overall and encompassing reference to this serendipitous experience of the Divine effecting change among people.
Christians enjoy the Holy Spirit in some ways special to our community and in some ways shared by others. There is one God and there is one creation, and all peoples are blessed with the serendipitous experience that God is with them to help and reassure them. The Spirit breaks forth throughout the history of humankind whenever people are on the edge of despair and death and then are pulled back to new life and hope.
The special link of Christians to the Divine Spirit can be only through Jesus. The Spirit we celebrate is the Spirit that Jesus promised; the Spirit upon whom we wait for surprising blessings to stir us and turn us is the same Spirit which was in Jesus Christ. That is why through the eras of Christian piety many have referred to the Living Christ as the Spirit with them.
In Acts l0:38 the disciple Peter gives the first "official" presentation of the Good News to the gentiles and he says: YOU KNOW (he is speaking to the Roman soldier Cornelius "OF JESUS, THE ONE FROM NAZARETH. AND YOU KNOW HOW GOD ANOINTED… WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT AND POWER. HE WENT ABOUT DOING GOOD AND CURING ALL THOSE UNDER OPPRESION BY THE DEVIL, BECAUSE GOD WAS WITH HIM. (Acts l0:38)
The most central expectation that we can have when we join the church, no matter through what ritual &endash; baptism, or confirmation of baptism, or becoming Serving Members is to expect to be blessed by the Spirit of God, the same Spirit which was in Jesus Christ.
This gives a new slant, I suggest, to these ritual vows and ceremonies of church membership. Without hope in the Spirit our actions will remain on only one level of the duties and obligations we undertake to be better church people. That is fine and useful but that is only the first step in discipleship. Indeed, if this is the only dimension on which we operate, our vows may still smack of legalism and of the fear that we are not quite worthy to be part of Christ's family and so we must keep on striving to demonstrate that we are without sin.
But these same rituals open us to the expectation that now the Spirit will bless us so that we can live as disciples, that is as persons apprenticed to Jesus Christ. A disciple of Jesus is anyone who commits to living the life that Jesus would have us live.
We are not asked to live the life of Jesus, for he has lived his own unique life. But Jesus has promised to give us His Spirit for our lives.
The important place for waiting for the Spirit to empower us is not in the church but in our daily lives. The majority of our living takes place in our daily rounds of family and personal relationships, in our workaday weeks, in our recreational and rest periods.
To be a disciple means we put these inclusive areas of our living under the instruction and guidance of Jesus Christ. What a wonderful expectation that we will receive something special from God, not on Sundays, but on Mondays and Thursdays and Saturday nights.
Discipleship means we are willing to learn from Jesus how to live our lives, not only our religious lives, but our whole lives.
This, I hope, helps you who become Serving Members today to clarify exactly what you are doing: You are asking God to help you live your lives more as Jesus lived his one, wonderfully transcendental life. You are not promising to become more religious or more spiritual. You are promising to become more centered in the example and the power of Jesus in your whole lives.
This relieves you of several of the hang-ups of conventional Christianity: one is that those who do full time ministry, something which none of our Serving Members can do, are somehow more blessed than those, like you, who at best can aspire only to part-time ministry.
Being a Serving Member has little to do with the number of hours you spend in worship, working on church programs, or helping with various tasks in running the church. These are relevant to your duties as Serving Members. But they are not the ultimate blessings which God will give you as you invite him to be part of the rest of your lives.
The serendipitous and added dimension of Christian discipleship is that you are now open to the Spirit influencing your whole lives.
The medieval monk, known as Brother Lawrence, was a kitchen worker and cook, who wrote:
"Our sanctification does not depend upon changing our works, but in doing that for God's sake which we commonly do for our own…It is a great delusion to think that the times of prayer ought to differ from other times. We are as strictly obliged to adhere to God by action in the time of action as by prayer in the season of prayer."
What Brother Lawrence was getting at, I believe, is that disciples or apprentices of Jesus are persons who try to be Serving Members of the whole community by inviting Jesus to be present and an influence in their daily lives; whatever one's business or profession or work, disciples are Serving Members there and they can expect the Spirit to empower them and to counsel them.
I caution you, however, that you to not make your job or your private lives primary places of discipleship with Jesus by becoming the Christian nag-in-residence, or the rigorous upholder of all propriety, or the dead-eye critic of everyone else's behavior. This is abundantly clear from Jesus who took life naturally and easily and without judgmentalism.
This does not mean that we turn pious faces away from obvious denials of the Spirit: Christians do not engage in the profanity now common in the work place, in our schools, and in our entertainment. Christians have little time for the silly and sometimes dangerous preoccupations of the work place like gambling, gossip, excessive drinking, and loose sexual attitudes.
Of course the Christian will witness a gentle and firm noncooperation with things that everyone knows to be wrong, together with a sensitive non-officious, non-intrusive, non-obsequious service to others. This overt manner should be combined with inward attitudes of constant prayer for whatever kind of activity our workplaces requires and genuine love for everyone around us.
As circumstances call for them, disciples tend to special points we receive from Jesus' teachings and example, such as nonretaliation, refusal to press for financial advantage, standing apart from the silly and profane language and pasttimes of non-believers, consciousness of and appropriate assistance to those under special handicaps. But in all situations we are mindful to meet any obvious spiritual need or interest in showing forth our relationship with Jesus in words that are truly loving, thoughtful, and helpful.
We try to live the Gospel but there are often occasions when we need to rely upon the power of words, beautiful and instructive words, to speak the Gospel. Words about Jesus, and the Spirit, and the serendipity of the Divine, are capable of bringing life and joy to others. We cannot assume that everyone knows what is going on in our discipleship if we live merely humbly but quietly among them as Jesus' person. They may just regard you as one more version of peculiar humanity.
Our intention with our job should be to expect the highest possible good in every aspect of our daily existence, and we should pursue with conscious expectation of a constant energizing and direction from God. Although we must never allow our job to become our life, we should expect, within reasonable limits, to make sacrifices of our comfort and pleasure to enhance the quality of our work.
We do the job well not because we await approbation from others, but because we know Jesus wants us to do our jobs well, and we love Jesus. As Colossians puts it: "WHATEVER YOUR WORK, PUT YOURSELVES INTO IT, AS DONE FOR THE LORD AND NOT FOR YOUR MASTERS….YOU SERVE THE LORD CHRIST." (Col. 3:23 and 25).
An episode at a World Olympics for the Handicap may illustrate the extra, serendipitous dimension which God gives us when we do the ordinary and remain open to the extraordinary assist of the Spirit with us.
Ten physically handicapped youth were competitors in a l00 yard dash. They all had physical infirmities which meant there race would be slow and laboured and as all were disadvantaged any one might expect to win.
When the starter gun sounded all enthusiastically set out for the finish line. But one of the competitors stumbled badly at the very outset. Several of the other contestants looked back and saw the kid sprawled on the ground. They stopped and hurried back to him. Then others noticed the interruption and they, too, paused. The race ended with all nine helping the fallen youth to his feet and hobbling with him toward the finish line.
God's ways are not necessarily the ways of the world. God's blessing upon as we strive to be Jesus' men and women in the world will often surprise us, and then others.
Of course, there is this one further point. We must decide to enter the race. Whatever the vast reaches of the Holy Spirit, we must decide that we want to run the race with God, if God is to move within the circumstances of our lives.
You Serving Members have counted the costs of discipleship and decided you want to go on with the race of your lives and with God present with you.You have decided to become disciples. Which means you have decided that you want to please God. And your intention will make all the difference in how the Spirit of God will now reach you.
The words which Ezekiel reported from God still pertain to us: "I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live."
Pastor Gene Preston
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The Rev. Gene R.Preston14th Floor, Blk 36, Lower Baguio Villa Tel : 25516161 Fax: 25512114E-mail : gpreston@netvigator.com |
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