Let us pray. Come, Holy Spirit, set our hearts on fire. Come, Holy Spirit, set our church on fire. Come, Holy Spirit, and fill us so that we may bring the world alive with the love of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Pentecost is the birthday of the Christian Church. On that day, the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit which came upon them, and on that day thousands of believers believed in Christ and Christianity was spread like wild fire around the world. On that day, there was the gift of languages, and everyone understood the message being delivered in his or her own language! At our new members lunch, one of our church members said that he envisioned heaven being like KUC – people from many nations, races, backgrounds and traditions all united in worshipping Jesus Christ together. This is like Pentecost! Pentecost is 50 days after Easter Sunday and the Greek word for Pentecost means “fiftieth”. It is believed to be the oldest church holiday and for me, it is my favorite church holiday because we learn about the experience of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not something to be believed intellectually but to be experienced. It is like a powerful and dynamic flow of life and love which is why often the images of the Holy Spirit during Pentecost are images of movement such as descending fire, descending dove, flowing water and blowing wind. These are not stagnant images but movement. As you look around at our church banners and our church this morning, you will see some of these images as well as the fire-colors of Pentecost. (Take a look around.) On the day of Pentecost, the disciples found themselves filled with the fire of the Holy Spirit! They had been obedient to Jesus’ command to wait for the power of the Holy Spirit and had gathered together in continual prayer. Then on Pentecost, the Holy Fire fell down upon them, and their eyes, ears, tongues, hearts and minds were ignited by flames that continued to spread and that fire of the Holy Spirit is still here and still spreading and still transforming lives! I’d like to share with you a William Blake poem for Pentecost. William Blake lived from 1757-1827 and is well known for writing poems, some of which were turned into hymns like the hymn “Jerusalem” which is sung in the UK in many churches as well as for special events. Here is this Pentecost poem. Unless the eye catch fire, The God will not be seen. Unless the ear catch fire The God will not be heard. Unless the tongue catch fire The God will not be named. Unless the heart catch fire, The God will not be loved. Unless the mind catch fire, The God will not be known. ----William Blake (1757-1827) from Pentecost How can we saturate our eyes, ears, tongue, heart and mind with God’s Holy Spirit? We can do this through prayer. We can do this through humility, confession, reconciliation, and love. When we do open up to the Holy Spirit, we receive God’s grace and forgiveness. We are given the gift of the Holy Spirit. We can ask the Holy Spirit to set our hearts on fire for God. And, when we do this, we become a church on fire. Fire or a flame that represents the Holy Spirit is always moving. Like in the making of pottery, the fire in the kiln is what changes the clay to make it stronger. In some cases, it may even burn away what is not needed and a transformation takes place. Like pottery, like clay pots, we are also changed and transformed by power and fire of God’s Holy Spirit. We have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. -- 2 Corinthians 4:7 Something else about fire. Fire assay is the technique using intense heart to isolate the precious metals. determine precious metal or content of silver, platinum, or gold ore. God is like the fire assayer at times purifying and refining us so what is precious inside of us shines through. The Holy Spirit transformed the apostles and filled the apostles with enthusiasm, replacing their fear with the courage to go forth and share Christ's story. How about us? Today happens to be AGM Sunday and Pentecost should remind us that we need to find a way to go out and share Christ's story and bring more people to have a faith in God! Let that fire burn within us! Here are two scriptures of fire burning inside. If I say, “I will not mention him or speak any more in his name,” then within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot. -- Jeremiah 20:9 Like Jeremiah, we are called to action with the fire of God burning within. We have an annual general meeting after worship. Who among you are members of KUC? Raise your hands and keep them up. KUC members, did you wake up this morning excited about our church annual meeting? Keep them up. Our church moderator, Devin and other council members, please write down those who have their hands up as they could be potential future council members! ☺ People join for many reasons. If you are a member, think about why you joined KUC? To be part of an international church family? To grow spiritually in an international environment? To make more Christian and international friends? What specifically attracted you to KUC? The Holy Spirit may have nudged you somehow to join for whatever reasons for being here have changed. That is ok because our faith is not stagnant but changes and grows. Once you join, then we do make a commitment to help the church as disciples of Christ. We took in four new church members last week int our church family and we took in one more today. Pray for them and we will support each other as we grow as disciples of Christ. We will share God’s love and be part of doing God’s work in this world. This is done by allowing the Holy Spirit to transform us and our church. What would KUC look like if the spirit descended on us all at once? This why we really come. Together, we want to be part of doing God’s work. We want the Holy Spirit to transform our church and be part of that transformation! The disciples had their hearts warmed before Pentecost. As it says in scripture during the walk to Emmaus, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” -- Luke 24:13-35 NRSVUE Are your hearts burning? I hope so. Come, Holy Spirit, set our hearts on fire. In closing, I’ve been blessed to be part of KUC church family since 2011 after I moved to Kobe from Tokyo. I have seen many experiences of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit move through people at KUC. I have seen joy and pain, tears and laughter. I have seen people leave and people come. I have seen people disappointed and also seen miracles. The Holy Spirit continue to evolve and change us but only if we open our hearts to allow the Spirit in. Together we are creating a space in which the Spirit can move and speak among us, a space in which we can honor the fire within our hearts, support each other, and encourage each other. In these coming days of transition, we have a chance to acknowledge how much it means for us to follow Jesus, how much this community means, and how much we have to offer people. God’s Holy Spirit will inspire us and our church. Inspire is from Latin inspirare ‘to breathe or blow into’ so we, KUC, all of us, will be inspired to do new things! We won’t be able to contain the Holy Spirit if we truly are on fire for God! We can be inspired by the Spirit to be a church on fire. The fire will spread as we love one another and love our neighbor and we can do this through the Holy Spirit and by allowing the Holy Spirit to burn so brightly within us that we cannot contain the fire of the Holy Spirit. Let that fire erupt forward. Let that fire spread in our church. Let the divine fire of the Holy Spirit shine through us. Let sparks from that fire flow into our community and the rest of Japan Let the fire of God fall afresh on you as it did on that day of Pentecost and let the fire melt, mold, and transform all of us so we can be a church on fire. Amen.
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Today, I will be speaking about prayer. We just read John 17, which is Jesus’ prayer for himself, his disciples, and the world. It is Jesus’ longest recorded and most intimate prayer as he prepares to go to the cross. However, instead of focusing specifically on this prayer, I will be discussing prayer more broadly. My hope for this sermon is not to guilt you into praying more, as guilt and prayer do not go well together. Rather, my goal is to inspire you to spend time in prayer, following Jesus’ example of praying for yourself, those close to you, and the world.
Next Sunday is Pentecost, the birth of the church. In Acts 1, as Jesus ascended to heaven, the disciples were left to run the church. You could imagine them running around like chickens with their heads cut off, or to use a biblical example, running around like Martha. However, these flawed people started acting and leading like spiritual giants. Why? Because they committed themselves to the Word and to prayer. Out of prayer flowed their leadership, service to others, and preaching. Prayer was not an afterthought but the main thing. The prayer in John 17 is the closest prayer to Jesus’ betrayal and crucifixion. Have you ever heard the question, “If you had only one meal to eat before you died, what would it be?” Or “If you had only one day to live, what would you do?” Jesus knew that the end was near, and he prayed. Sure, Jesus hoped, as in the story of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22, where at the last minute, God provides a ram to sacrifice instead of Isaac. Jesus prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Jesus was ready for the betrayal and sacrifice, and he took time out to pray with and for his disciples and for us, the future church. Jesus’ first request was that we would be unified. My school just held its Sports Day, and whenever I think of how Jesus prayed for us to have unity, I think of the group of 22 people jumping rope. If the kids are unified and together, it is amazing, but all it takes is for one person not to jump to stop it. Don’t be that person. I have been praying for you this week, but MUCH MORE IMPORTANTLY, JESUS IS PRAYING FOR YOU. So let’s jump together, serve together, love together, and work out our differences together. It can only happen if the Holy Spirit leads us. If you ask any Christian what the top 5 things to do as a Christian are, prayer will most likely be in the top five, and it better be. However, if we exclude the prayers for our food ("Thank you for the meat, let's eat" type of prayers), we find that prayer is one of the areas where Christians are truly deficient. Sure, we pray when we find ourselves in a bind or face troubles, but on a day-to-day basis, do we want open communication with God? Most of us will plug our phones in at night because we do not want to end up with no power in our phones, but many of us are spiritually running on empty without the real power sources. Stay connected. Jesus prayed for a connection to God. We often think that Jesus' sacrifice was only at the cross, which is true, but that was not Jesus' only sacrifice. As part of the Trinity, separating himself from the Father and the Holy Spirit and living fully as a human with all human limitations was as much of a sacrifice as going to the cross. Therefore, Jesus, the Son in the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), connected to God in the only way that we humans can: through prayer. We have a record in the Scriptures that Jesus went away to pray or prayed at least 27 times in the Gospels (that we have a record of). I have heard people say that the reason why they do not pray is because they are not good at it. I am not either if a good prayer is eloquent words like those found in The Book of Common Prayer by the Anglicans. However, the most important thing you can do is to start. In my previous church in the US, there was a woman who had Down syndrome. She would come to our weekly prayer meetings, and her prayers were the most honest and loving prayers. They were not eloquent, complicated, or always understandable, but they were sincere, and I know that God heard her. In the parable in Luke 18, Jesus compares two men going to pray. One takes center stage and boasts. Interestingly, it says he stood by himself, maybe because he felt no one was good enough to stand in his presence. With pride, he tells God how good he is and how much he suffers for God because of his own goodness. He fasts, he gives to the church, and his character is beyond repute. Not only that, but he is also thankful that he is not like other people. (It is more than a little sick). I tell you this man and men like him (some women too) went home with everyone’s admiration, except one (God). This reminds me of a joke between the bus driver and the pastor. Do you want to hear it? The man did not go home in God’s grace. People like him do not even think they need God’s grace. But the other man was morally suspect at best. He knew and everyone else around him knew that he was a sinner. Yet, in his humility (and that is the key word), he poured out his heart to God, recognizing his sins and begging to be forgiven and transformed. And Jesus said he went away justified or made right with God. In 1 John 1:9, it says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (Just like the tax collector.) Following the Lord’s Prayer, there are five basic elements of prayer: • Adoration - simply praising God. • Consecration - surrendering to God his Kingdom goals. • Supplication - praying for our needs and the needs of our family and community. • Intercession - praying for forgiveness and a heart to forgive others. • Protection - protection from evil. Lord, you tell us that,“All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16.)” We pray that your Word will shine out in truth for us this morning, so we can better understand and follow your teachings. Please help us, loving God, through the advocacy of your Holy Spirit, as we will listen to your Word this morning.
In your holy name we pray, Amen. In our home, we have a little tradition that happens most Friday nights. One of the things we like to do as a family, on Friday nights, is to put on a fun movie, and eat dinner together while watching TV. Of course, the kids really enjoy this, because they get to do their two favorite things at the same time; eating and watching TV! So this past Friday, as we often do, we sat down for dinner and a movie. I think it was one of the Star Trek movies this time, so you can probably guess who’s turn it was to pick! But, as it turned out, one of our kids had come down with a bit of a stomach bug and, since I was scheduled to preach today, I was concerned about hanging out in a room with a sick kid. So instead of joining everyone, I decided to eat my dinner in the kitchen, which meant that I got to listen in to the conversation that was happening between Don and the kids about the movie they were watching. And as I was sitting there, I started hearing that all-too familiar sound which every parent knows so very well; “Oh dad, what does this mean? Wait, what happened? Who is that? Why is it this way? What’s going on?” As I sat there listening to Don get question after question, non-stop for what sounded like the entire duration of the movie, I found myself just sitting there in the kitchen grinning. And do you know why? It was because this is exactly how I speak to Don when we go watch a movie in the theaters! Obviously, we can tell which parent this child gets their inquisitive nature from! But this isn’t just a funny little, “my kid is just like me!” story, because after I enjoyed a little chuckle, I had a moment of enlightenment. I asked myself why it was that both my kid and I would be driven to constantly ask questions. And I realized that it is a fundamental truth of us all as humans that we really want to know what is going to happen next. Don’t you agree? We all desperately want to know exactly what is going to happen next in our lives, and exactly when it’s going to happen. Think about any conversation you might have had this past week, with your family, friends, or co-workers. Didn’t you find yourself thinking, at any point while you were listening, “so…what’s next?” It’s ok to admit it; we all did, at one time or another. And this very human tendency to always be thinking, wondering, and asking about what’s next was just as present during the time when Jesus was on earth too. Let’s look at today’s reading. This takes place in the period just after Easter, just after Jesus’ resurrection. And do you remember what exactly happened just after Jesus rose again from the dead? That’s right. He appeared to the disciples. Of course, the disciples couldn’t really believe that Jesus had come back from the dead, but Jesus spent time with them just like he used to anyways. He walked around, taught, even ate meals just like he used to. And the disciples, sensing the familiar pattern of life with Jesus, began to get comfortable again, falling back into the rhythm and routine of their discipleship. And just as they’re getting comfortable, Jesus says something that breaks this illusion of normalcy. While the disciples used to travel with Jesus all around the region, taking every opportunity during their travels to heal, teach, feed, and liberate people, Jesus now orders them to stay right where they are in Jerusalem and wait (Acts 1:4.) Wait for what? What did Jesus tell the disciples to wait for? The Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5). It’s important to realize in this moment here that Jesus doesn’t specifically tell the disciples to wait for the Holy Spirit. If you read verses 4 and 5 carefully, what we do see is Jesus telling them to wait for the promise of the Father. Think about that word “promise,” for a moment. It is a word that is filled with the expectation that a promise made will be fulfilled. When we make a promise, we’re thinking about what’s going to happen when that promise comes true. Otherwise, it’s not a promise at all; it’s just words. So here, in this moment, Jesus is telling them to wait for that promise to be fulfilled. And the way in which it will be fulfilled is to be by the Holy Spirit. Right away, in verse 5, Jesus explains how the Holy Spirit is coming as a fulfillment of God’s promise; through the baptism of the Holy Spirit. An immersion in the Spirit, soaking in the very essence of God; an outpouring of the Spirit, so complete that it can only be called baptism. So Jesus tells them to wait for that, for the fulfillment of the promise in the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and for all the powerful work of the Spirit that is yet to come. But in this moment, what Jesus is saying is really quite confusing. Earlier, Jesus breathed on them, inviting them to receive the Holy Spirit, but now Jesus is saying that they will later receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit? What is that? Jesus has never mentioned this until now. Until this point, the only baptism the disciples have received is in water; how is that different from the baptism of the Holy Spirit? Obviously, this is a confusing moment. So what did the disciples do? They did that very understandable, very human thing; they wanted to know what was going to happen next. They wanted to know when, exactly, this next thing was going to happen. And this desire in their hearts for more information came out of them as guesses, questions, and requests for confirmation. Naturally, the disciples’ first questions after hearing about this “baptism of the Holy Spirit” set to occur “not so many days from now” are “when” and “what exactly is going to happen?” (Acts 1:5). In Acts 1:6, the disciples ask Jesus “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” Here we see the desire of the disciples clearly expressed. They wanted Jesus to do what they’d always expected the Messiah would do; to restore Israel, make it into its own independent nation and kingdom, under the leadership of the Messiah rather than the Roman Empire. They wanted to know what the baptism of the Spirit would be, and like so many of us, they didn’t want to hear the answer. They just wanted it to be what they expected it to be. We all desperately want to know what happens next, but we don’t always want to listen to what God is telling us about what is going to happen next. When I was in my early 20s, my dad would often ask me, “So what’s next? Are you going to settle down?” As a typical Japanese man, with no particular faith or religion of his own, he was worried about me, Don, and our future as any loving father would. In those days, just after we had gotten married, Don was teaching at a Christian high school in Tokyo, and I was working as a guidance counselor. We were highly involved at our church of course, and seminary had just started to be an idea we were thinking seriously about. So my father would ask me, “What’s next? What’s coming after this job? Are you going to buy a house and settle down? Do you have enough money? What are your specific, concrete plans?” Now it’s easy to write this off as the concerns of a Japanese father but, believe it or not, this kind of thinking creeps so easily into our Christian mindset too, and even into the life of our church as well. Once, just after I started serving a new church, someone in the congregation approached me and asked whether I was going to be serving the church for a long time. “Well, I don’t know,” I answered them. And, as I often do in a situation like that, I used one of my favorite answers and said, “I really don’t know. It’s up to God!” I know it sounds like a fun, non-serious answer, but it’s actually an important thing for us to wrestle with. KUC Family, are you really comfortable saying,“I don’t know. It’s up to God!”? Because honestly, “I don’t know,” isn’t something I often hear people say in the church community. I often hear people talking about what they want in their church. I hear people wondering about what’s next for our church. I hear people speaking with strength and conviction about the ways in which they want the church to be operated. All these things I hear, but are we really understanding before we speak? Do we really listen for God’s desires, wrestle with understanding God’s plans, before we speak? Or are we just speaking the desires of our own hearts? But here is my point for us all today. If we don’t actually know what it is that God wants for us, I think it’s perfectly OK for us to say, “I don’t know,” or “I am spending time asking God.” We can say, as a church, “We don’t know, so let’s ask God together.” Because everything starts from there, from the authentic revelation of selves to God in God’s community. Are we doing that as a church? Are we comfortable saying that we don’t know yet, when we truly don’t know? As most of us well know, this year will be a year of transition in our church leadership. And as we make our way through, my question is this; are we speaking with prayerful understanding, in the knowledge of what God wants for KUC? Or are we just advocating for the desires of our own hearts? Are we seeking the Holy Spirit, who can tell us the mind of God, or are we comfortable in our convictions that our way is the right way? And if we are still in that place of discernment, still seeking the guidance of the Holy Spirit, are we secure enough in ourselves to say, “We don’t know yet. We are still yearning to hear the voice of God?” And this question might get even harder still If I say; Are you comfortable hearing church leaders stand before you and say, “I don’t know, so let us seek God together?” Are you comfortable setting aside the expectation that your leadership will boldly set a certain path, and seeking the path of the Spirit together in humility and vulnerability? The thing is that no matter how hard we might try, we are still human after all. We still want there to be some kind of an answer, some kind of direction, right? And God knows this, and won’t leave us hanging. Just look at today’s Scripture; Jesus’ answer for the disciples, in their moment of uncertainty and unknowing, was quite simple: “Wait for God’s time.” (Acts 1:4) We have to know, and have to accept, that God’s outpouring of the Holy Spirit comes only in God’s ordained time. It isn’t our job to know the timing God has set by divine authority (Acts 1:7). So don’t try to answer. Don’t try to guess. Don’t dedicate yourself to looking for answers, or setting goals, or seeking out a vision. Just wait. Wait for the power that only comes from the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8). As we can see in today’s scripture, that power of the Holy Spirit which was promised to be poured out over the disciples, didn’t come through their own vision or planning; it was initiated in God’s timing, and by God alone. We have to remember that it isn’t up to us to invoke the coming of the Spirit. We can pray in the name of Jesus for the Holy Spirit to fall afresh over us, to come and fill our church, but only God determines the time and ways in which the Holy Spirit is made manifest among us. In our Christian faith, there are seasons of waiting; times where we need to be comfortable not knowing what’s next, being comfortable not being active, or pushing ahead, but just gathering and worshiping together, waiting for the power of the Holy Spirit to come upon us, inspiring us to do what God wants us to do. And I could go on and on about the Holy Spirit, and the importance of waiting for the power of the Spirit to come upon us, but I believe the power of the Holy Spirit, the importance of waiting for the Spirit to come upon us, is something we need to experience ourselves in order to understand it better. So I want to invite you to share in this space with me, to join in that time of waiting together. Madoka and Yasuko are going to lead us in a song about the Holy Spirit, and instead of what we might pray when it comes to the Holy Spirit, saying things like, “Come, Holy Spirit; fill us,” why don’t we say instead, “We wait for you, Holy Spirit.” “We wait for you to give us power.” Let us lift our voices together now, in patient expectation, as we wait for God’s Holy Spirit together. Last week Dr. Joe Ozawa talked about the Holy Spirit and love. They go together. The Holy
Spirit can fill us with God’s love so we can love one another. The Holy Spirit is like the bridge that connects us to one another. Dr. Joe Ozawa talked about how difficult it can be to love others. He told us that when he first became a Christian, he tried to love everybody, but he said it was not easy. Maybe some people are really just too difficult to love! Maybe they are just annoying to be around. Maybe they just rub us the wrong way. Maybe they hurt our feelings or hurt some else in some way and we just don’t feel like loving them. My friend Carol Sack plays her harp at the Fuchu Prison in Tokyo. She said some of the people did truly horrible things but she prays to love them and does not love what they did but to just let the love of God shine through her. I know of a case back in the US where a married couple had fallen out of love and their pastor was trying to help them. Of course the pastor asked them to listen to each other - something we all should and can do. Some of us just learned some Counseling First Aid (CFA) skills last week from Dr. Joe Ozawa. Dr. Joe taught us we can use CFA with our family, friends, neighbors, and actually with everyone. Listening is very important. Anyway, this pastor also asked the couple how he could pray for them and they said to help them to love one another as they did not feel in love anymore. So, he prayed for them. They didn’t change right away, but the next day, the husband vacuumed the house without the wife even asking! Vacuuming, the fact that he did something, can be an act of love. The wife made some cookies for her husband as a surprise. The husband complimented the wife on her new haircut, and so on… Gradually they came to love each other again through these little acts of kindness, care, and respect. As we become more Christ-like, the Holy Spirit fills us and guides us. There are many ways to express our love. Have you heard of Dr. Gary Chapman’s book “The Five Love Languages”? He writes that there are five ways for couples (or anyone for that matter) to express and experience love - acts of service, words of affirmation, quality time, psychical touch, and receiving gifts. All may be used, but it seems most people have a primary one love language. I think Pastor Akiko taught this once at our Women on Wednesday group (WOW) years ago. These ways can also be applied apply to not just married couples but to fellow Christians and how we show live love to one another. CFA (Counseling First Aid) is a way to show love by truly listening to someone, meeting their basic needs in situations where they may have need, and praying for them. Sometimes love is hard to explain.There are three words for love in the Greek language used in the New Testament. Eros, means sexual love of one another. Philia refers to the kind of love one has for a brother, sister, or a close friend. Agape love means a self- giving, self-sacrificing love that desires only the welfare of another. Agape love is the love that desires only the best for one another. Respect, kindness, sharing, helping, giving, forgiving, appreciating are all examples of Agape love. Jesus said, in Matthew 22:37-39 ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ This is agape love. It is the Holy Spirit filling us with love so we can love one another. The Holy Spirit helps us to love and be more like Jesus Christ. God’s love is perfected in the believer. God’s love is made perfect in you and me, sinners saved by the grace of God. God reveals God’s love through us. “God is love, and whoever dwells in love dwells in God, and God in that person.” (1 John 4:16) The apostle Paul wrote words of encouragement to believers saying, “the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Romans 5:5). I love that image of pouring the Holy Spirit into us. Powerful. Let’s try something. Hold your hands open and visualize God’s Holy Spirit pouring down on you. Close your eyes, focus on your breath (Ruah- God’s breath) and visualize the Holy Spirit filling you. It is God’s will for us that we be filled with God’s Spirit. Surrender to God’s Spirit so you can experience more of God’s presence, more of God’s power and more of God’s purposes in your life.. Breathe the Holy Spirit into your head, your heart and all parts of your body. Come, Holy Spirit. Amen. Now open your eyes. I hope you feel more relaxed. You can try this when you pray, before reading scripture, or before meeting someone or when you feel you need to invoke upon the Holy Spirit. We can call upon the Holy Spirit to pour love into our hearts. You can pray this prayer – even as a short breath prayer –“Holy Spirit, fill us with your transformational love.” Galatians 5:22-23 tells us, “The Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility and self-control.” Love is the most well-known fruit of the Spirit. Love given by the Holy Spirit is shown when we love others the way Jesus would. Jesus used the word ‘love’ often in his preaching. If you Google it, you learn he used ‘love’ 51 times! In John 15:17, he used the word ‘love’ in a command, “These things I command you, that you love one another.” An important trait of a Christian is love. Love is powerful and transforms people. As said in scripture, God’s love through the Holy Spirit gives us strength. When I am tired or discouraged, I evoke on the Holy Spirit to help me. In today’s scripture in Ephesians 3:16–17, Paul writes these words “I pray that he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit.” Paul was in prison when he wrote these words and times were tough as it was during the oppressive Roman Empire’s rule. Paul was writing to people who had placed their hope in the gospel he had been preaching. Paul may have been worried since the people he had been preaching to about God’s love could have been losing hope. So what does he do? Paul prays. Paul prays for them and prays that God would strengthen them. How does he pray? Through the Holy Spirit! There is so much happening in our world, our relationships, and personal lives that can traumatize us or has traumatized us. We need the Holy Spirit to give us strength. I know that when life seems challenging, knowing that Christ dwells in my heart through the Holy Spirit strengthens me. Paul knows that God can grant his prayer for strength. But what was Paul actually expecting God’s Spirit to do? If you read earlier on in Ephesians, Paul has focused on the fact that we are living with Christ. God has raised Jesus Christ from the dead and God has also “raised us together with Christ, and seated us together with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he could demonstrate the outstanding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” ( Ephesians 2:6 ). We are living with Christ and our hope in Christ is not just that we will die and go to heaven. It is much, much more. Paul’s prayer shows us that the great truth is through the Holy Spirit, Christ comes to live with us. Christ dwells in us. How does Christ dwell with us? God dwells in our hearts through faith. “Faith” is a word that Paul uses in relation to the gospel. Faith is about believing and trusting in what God has done for us through Jesus Christ. God loves us and has brought forgiveness of sins through Jesus’ death on the cross and raised us with Christ. Paul reminds us when we read Ephesians 3:17 that all those who have come to trust in the gospel, have “been rooted and founded in love.” Paul uses the words “rooted” and “founded” to show us how our faith should be. God’s love is the ground or the soil and the Holy Spirit is the water that nourishes us. As Paul goes on in Ephesians, we see that God’s love for us also makes us into people who love others. This prayer of Paul’s also helps us to pray for others – not just ourselves. A church that has become ingrown and only prays for itself will not grow. We need the Holy Spirit to help us to reach not only inward to help ourselves and our church but also outward as well. We pray and reach out to love our neighbors whomever they may be and whether we like them or not. We The Holy Spirit cannot be contained and we must let it out and share God’s love. Jesus calls all of his followers to live life in a way that is pretty hard to do on our own strength. But when we are filled with the Spirit, we find ourselves loving in ways we may have not thought we could, knowing that God dwells with us even in suffering and injustice. The Holy Spirit forms the image of Christ in us. God gave us the Son, the Son gave his life for us, and the Spirit gives us life and faith in Christ. Today we will take communion and it is through communion, through the work of the Holy Spirit, we know that Christ dwells within us. We know this by faith. We are reminded in taking communion of how Jesus died for us because of God’s great love for us. When you eat the wafer and drink the juice we remember: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16). As we partake in Holy Communion today, may we also remember the gospel of our salvation. It is God’s Spirit at work who strengthens us, and Christ lives in us. May our lives be a constant testimony and demonstration of the Spirit of love abiding in us. Amen. Questions for reflection: When life seems weak and hard, how can truths about Christ dwelling in your hearts by faith strengthen you? How might Paul’s prayer help you to pray for others? |
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May 2024
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