Unchanged Lives

 

Read Acts 2

OK, it’s Pentecost Sunday. We have read the words that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. That’s Peter proclaiming words from the prophet Joel.

Those are words of assurance, but you know all too well that Tom is going to find the message for those who already believe and have taken the yoke of our Master and are seeking to learn from him.

So, take comfort in the assurance of your salvation but don’t unbuckle your seatbelt as we continue down the road of discipleship. I will invade some comfort zones.

Last year we began working our way through Psalm 25 as our memory verses.  We took one verse per month. The fourth verse set the tone for much of the rest of the psalm

Show me your ways, Lord,

    teach me your paths.

These words should be in our daily prayers. They are in mine, but how do we learn his ways and walk his paths?

Obviously, prayer and study and the counsel of other believers help. Is there anything else?

How many times have you heard me use the phrase, put his words into practice? How do we manifest that?  Obedience, discipline—a word that is close to discipleship, ritual and mantra?  How do the words of the Lord manifest themselves into action in our lives?

Some of you have probably had your fill of me saying, take his yoke and learn from him.

Is that more study and discipline? What’s the trick that gets us to do things God’s way instead of our own.

Do you remember Nicodemus coming to see Jesus at night?  It was the first episode of Nick at Night. Jesus told him that he had to be born again—born anew.

Nicodemus was Israel’s teacher—a Pharisee on the ruling council—but his response was so pedestrian that he could have been mistaken for a pagan.

How can anyone do that? You think that I can climb back into my mother’s womb? I’m kind of sticking my neck out here coming to see you. You teach some interesting stuff, but this talk is crazy.

That a bit of a paraphrase, but how did Jesus address Nicodemus’s ignorance?

Consider the wind. You can’t see it but you know it’s there. It’s the same way with God and his Spirit. If you want to please God, you must be born of his Spirit.

How does that work? You must believe in Jesus. He is the Son of God and once he has made the atoning sacrifice for our sins and goes to the Father in heaven, the Spirit of God will come to those who believe. We can say all of that in the past tense. It happened just that way.

Do you remember the encounter between Jesus and the woman at the well in John 4? She does not want to talk about her life, but she knows that Jesus must be a prophet or someone holy, so she decides to talk about religious things. That might get him off his game and examining my life.

Where do we worship? I heard the Messiah is coming. Let’s talk about anything but me and my standing with God almighty.

Again a paraphrase, but how did Jesus answer her?

God is Spirit.

A time is coming, in fact, the time is already here, when true believers who want genuine worship will worship in spirit and in truth.

How do we learn the ways of the Lord and walk in his path?

How do we take his yoke and learn from him?

How do we put his words into practice?

How do we live out what we say frequently in our worship warmups?

I am crucified with Christ. Christ lives in me.

How?

By the Spirit that lives within us.

Consider the apostles who were staying close to Jerusalem as they were instructed by the Lord after his resurrection and before his ascension.

He commission them to go into the world with the gospel but knew they were not sufficiently equipped yet.

But they would be. The Day of Pentecost is not a New Testament thing. Pentecost occurred 50 days after the celebration of the Passover. But on this day, the Spirit of God—the Holy Spirit—was manifest upon and within these believers who were gathered.

The gospel author Luke described this as tongues of fire coming upon those gathered. We don’t have any accounts of burnt or roasting flesh, but the Spirit that came was noticeable in a unique way.

The Spirit of God that came upon them empowered them. These men who huddled together, often in fear of the Jewish leaders hunting them down, were given power from above.

They emerged from the building and began talking in languages not native to them but in the language of those around them who had come from near and far to celebrate Pentecost.

The natural explanation was these guys are drunk. It’s only 9 in the morning, but it’s 5 O’clock somewhere, right?

Let’s follow the science. In college, my German class was 5 days a week. I worked 6 days a week, often out of town and missed quite a few classes. I had a test one Friday morning and hadn’t studied, so I went out for a few beers, thinking that was the best I could do in the time allotted.

My science experiment failed miserably. Alcohol consumption does not equate to foreign language fluency. Who’d a thunk it?

These apostles were not drunk. That presumption didn’t make any sense. They were filled with the Spirit of God. His Holy Spirit took up residence in each of them.

Peter, bold but suffering from recurring Foot-in Mouth Disease, launched into the most cogent discourse of his life.

The Spirit had come and had taken up residence in the Apostles.

Don’t you wish that God’s Spirit lived in you?

Some of you are thinking, but he does, right?

Then where is our boldness? Where are our incredible acts? Where is the evidence that the Spirit lives within us?

Not quite a century ago there was a man named Clarence Crane from Cleveland, Ohio.  He made chocolates for a living.  A century ago, that was something of a seasonal line.  Refrigeration wasn’t quite what it is today.  Melted chocolates didn’t sell. 

So, Crane decided to sell a line of mints to keep his business afloat during the warmer months.  He didn’t want to re-tool his factory so he contracted this line of mints out to a pill maker.  The first batch arrived but they were defective.  The candies had a hole in the middle.  The pill maker was very apologetic but Crane decided to give these defective candies a try. They looked like little life savers.

Enter onto the scene a man named John Noble from New York City.  He sold ad space on trolley cars.  One day he tried one of these mints and knew that he had to sell Crane some ads so he headed to Cleveland.  Crane wasn’t the least bit interested in advertising, but he offered to sell the rights to the candy for a few thousand dollars.  He said that he would even throw in the defective pill machine for free.

Noble negotiated a price of $2,900.  He only had $3,800 to invest from his savings, so now he was left with $900 to produce a run of this new candy and market it.  And he did just that.  He made a batch of Life Savers and put them in every candy store in his area.

But the candy didn’t sell.  In fact, it grew stale on the shelves because it was sold in a cardboard roll.  The candy store owners were not happy with Noble.

Noble solved the problem of keeping the candies fresh by means of a foil wrapper, replenished the stocks of store owners at his own expense, but the candy still did not sell.  And so, a few years after the invention of the Life Saver, it died a slow death and was never heard of again.

Or at least that’s the way the story should have ended.  Noble had spent all of his money.  Everything that he made in advertising was now going into his Life Saver Company but the little candies did not sell.

He decided to give it one more try, but not in the candy stores.  He went to restaurants, bars, barbershops, and other establishments.  He met with owners and they agreed to place the candy next to the register and always make change that included a nickel.  The price of the candy was a nickel and there was a box set in front of each display.

People would get their change from the cashier or bartender or barber and impulsively throw a nickel into the box and take a roll of candy.

Whether you like Life Savers or you don’t, most of us probably don’t have much love for John Noble.  He was the father of impulse buying and selling.  Take a look at the checkout lines at the grocery store or Walmart or Target or the counter at the convenience store that sells you gasoline.  All of this comes from the story of the Lifesaver.

The story that I want you to remember is that John Noble saw value in these tiny mints and he kept trying. He succeeded. I don’t know how many billion Lifesavers have been sold over the past century, but it’s a bunch. The number was 55 billion before the turn of the century.

Now, know this. The Spirit of God came to live inside of you when you believed in Jesus and professed him as Lord.

The Spirit is within you. Now, stop throwing in the towel every time something does seem to work.

Know the Spirit of God is within you. Know that the Spirit gives you power in this world. Know that you will do greater things that Jesus did. That’s what he said.

But, I don’t see any results yet.  I’m frustrated.

John Noble could have thrown in the towel as well, but he didn’t and he became very successful selling little candies with a hole in the middle.

But, I don’t see any results yet.  I’m frustrated.

The Lifesaver story is not a story of the Holy Spirit. It’s just a story of trying one more time.

But, I’m not seeing it. I think God skipped me with his Spirit. Does he expect me to keep trying even when I can’t see the results?

That’s insanity, right?

Let’s try this definition instead.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

When you believed, God’s Spirit came to live inside you.  Will you trust him?

Or do we trust the Spirit of the world?  Do we rely so much on our own understanding?

God’s Spirit is living in you. Trust God. Seek that quiet voice within you that is of God and will lead you to great things and step out in faith.

Do you think that Peter had been spending all of his time preparing what was a masterful sermon? Had the other apostles been sequestered in an immersive language study program?

The Spirit prompted them and they acted.

Grow deaf to the spirit of fear and doubt.

Ignore the voices that say, stay in the boat.

That’s some good figurative language there, Tom, but how about something more tangible.

My Dad or my Mom always did it that way.

It just runs in the family.

Me and Hank Jr. are going to sing Family Tradition here in a moment. Yes, I know it should be Hank and I, except in country music.

I’ll just wait until I have some more information.

Let’s not jump into anything.

Have I talked about inertia before?  I know I have, and you might be tired of hearing that a body at rest tends to remain at rest.

God loves me just the way I am.

There are plenty of people in this world to do God’s work. It doesn’t have to be me.

While both statements may be true; they both serve to make us deaf to the voice of the Spirit that lives within us.

Our own understanding and our desire to hold on to it over the voice of God’s Spirit makes us ineffective. It is a drug that numbs us to the Spirit that lives within us.

Reject all that doubts the word of God.

The Spirt of God lives within you, and you will do the great things that God has called you to do.

Some of you might say that I know that God’s Spirit is within me because I can have peace in a tumultuous world.

That’s good but not sufficient. That’s being a consumer of the benefits of God’s blessings but hardly ventures into discipleship. God’s Spirit is within you so that you may do the things God has called you to do and bring glory to his name.

Imagine those Apostles having received the Holy Spirit on Pentecost saying, “At last, I can have peace.”  Then just going about their lives business as usual.

The curse of modern Christianity is to acknowledge God, acknowledge Jesus died for our sins, and acknowledge that the Spirit lives within us and then live unchanged lives because we hold our own understanding in such high esteem.

God’s Spirit lives within you. Stop selling the Spirit short.

Do the work of an evangelist!

Put the words of our Master into practice.

Be known by your love!

Bring glory to God!

Know that God’s Spirit lives within you!

The book of the Bible from which we get this account of the coming of the Spirit is titled, Musings of the Apostles. It’s about their thoughts, meditations, and things they considered doing.

Right?

Actually, mine is titled, The Acts of the Apostles, for once the Spirit came, these men who followed Jesus for three years suddenly stepped into action.

We have attached some words to our little body here. They are God’s Love in Action. Is there any fidelity between that motto and who we really are?

Does the Spirit prompt you to action?

Don’t remain a body at rest. Take action based upon the leading of the Spirit that lives within you.

Give eviction notices to the spirits of fear, doubt, and inaction that are living rent free in your hearts and minds.

The Spirit of God that lives within you prompts you to action. We are called to continue the acts of the apostles.  We are to do even greater things!

 

Amen.

The Holy Spirit comes at Pentecost

Read Acts 1-2

This morning we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.  We mostly take our scriptures from Luke’s second chapter in Acts, but the story begins in the first part of the first chapter.  It’s something of a prologue to what happened on that glorious day.

In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen.  After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.  On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.  For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

In Johns gospel, we see and extensive discussion of Jesus leaving this world and the coming of the Holy Spirit.  Those who listened to Jesus were not yet ready to hear.  In fact, even the resurrection left the disciples stunned and struggling.  Only the coming of the Holy Spirit would take them from confusion to clarity.

These followers whom would soon be called apostles, were obedient but still not quite sure what was coming.  They were familiar with the Holy Spirit.  Who wasn’t?  This Spirit of the Living God hovered over a formless earth at creation. 

They knew that it was the Holy Spirit that spoke through the prophets and even from perhaps their most revered king, David.

But how would this Spirit be known to them?  How would the Holy Spirit impact their lives? 

What could they do?  They could stay together and hang out in Jerusalem as directed. They could pray all the time and they did. Oh by the way, while they were just chillin’, they selected Matthias to replace Judas. 

Then the Day of Pentecost would come.  Pentecost is not a New Testament revelation.  Pentecost goes back to the Passover, Festival of the Unleavened Bread, and the First Fruits offering, sometimes called the Wave Offering.  

There would be worship services on the first day and last day of the week. 

There would be food offerings all week.   Nobody is eating of their new crop until this First Fruits Offering.  It is this wave offering—the first part of the First Fruits—from which we count 50 days.  The Wave Offering begins on the day after the Sabbath and so we count seven Sabbaths—seven full weeks—and then the next day begins a series of offerings from grain and bread to live animals for sacrifice.

All in all, it was a period of 50 days that the Hebrew people knew as the Feast of Weeks.  The Greek language provided a modern name for this 50^th day, Pentecost.

By all that had been given to God’s Chosen People in the law, Jerusalem should have been a very busy place.  The town should have been full of Jews from all over and it was.

These followers of Jesus were all in one place and there came a sound like a violent wind.  Imagine hearing the sound of a tornado encircling you without getting picked up and blown to Kansas.

Now imagine this fireball with flames—tongues of fire to keep the original description—that separate and go to rest on each believer.

They were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in languages that they did not know.

Evidently, they went outside because a crowd had gathered, perhaps in response to sound of a violent wind.  It sounds like there were a bunch of Okies in Jerusalem.

That sounds like a tornado over there.  Let’s go check it out.

We don’t get the whole logistical picture but we know that these men filled with the Holy Spirit started speaking to people from all over the region in their native languages.

We know that there were Jews from all over.

Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs.

We know that there were a bunch of people.  How do we know this?  Because without a change in geography, at least 3000 would come to believe in Jesus as the Christ and as their Lord.  So later when Peter gave his first ever altar call, we don’t’ know if everyone responded or just 10% but we do know that there were 3000 who did.

These apostles had 40 days with their risen Savior.  Jesus comforted and affirmed what he had told them before, but they were not ready for what he had in store for them.

They had another 10 just waiting to see what was next.  Then came Pentecost.  Then came the Holy Spirit.  Then there was no delay.

The church based upon the profession that Jesus is Lord, that he is the Christ, was being constructed.  The church began in Jerusalem just as directed by the Lord. 

At first, some tried to dismiss what was happening.  Galileans speaking in languages that they did not know could only be because they were drunk.  That must be it.  I know that I speak other languages so much better if I am inebriated.  Not!

But this explanation turned into a provocation and Peter stepped forward and responded. 

First, he said that they are not drunk at this hour of the morning.  Come on guys.  Be real.  This is what the prophet Joel prophesied.  God’s Spirit has been poured out.

Then he said, let’s talk about this Jesus.  He had some good credentials.  You should have recognized them as being from God—miracles, wonders, and signs.

But you didn’t.  Instead you handed him over to wicked men to be killed.  This happened to be necessary but Peter did not dwell on this part at the time.

He jumped to the fact that God raised him from the dead.  He appealed to the crowd’s biblical knowledge of David.  David had long since passed but his descendant would sit on his throne forever.  David’s body had long since turned to dust but Jesus was raised from the dead.

Peter made sure the people understood where they stood.  This man called Jesus whom you killed was the Messiah that you have waited for so long.  You killed him.  God raised him from the dead.

The people responded, “What do we do?”

Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

With many words that we do not have and with these that we do, Peter beckoned the people to be saved.

Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.

Many came.  The Covenant Community was formed.  The family of faith was formed.  Believers took care of each other.

We could use that same altar call today.  Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.

As directed, the gospel was witnessed to many in Jerusalem.  By the witness of the many who had come from all over and by the apostles who would soon go out in so many directions, the mission to call people out of the world to follow the Christ would begin.

Do you know the word ekklesia?  It means being called out and gathered in an assembly.  We are called out of the world, set apart from the world and made holy, and sent back into the world with good news.

The coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is a story that bears repeating, at least once a year.  People were being called out of the world to be one people in God’s name.  It was indeed quite the kick off event for this new church.  These apostles belong to the same church that we do.  They lived the same commission that we have—take the good news to your neighbors and then start working outwards.

We have the same commission that they did but it seems that we don’t have the same passion.  It seems that we have grown comfortable with being surrounded by the lost and the disconnected.

It might be that we have never had flames dancing on our heads.  It could be that I had to learn a foreign language the old-fashioned way.  It could be a lot of things.

Today, I will proffer that we are not quite ready to surrender to the Spirit of the one true God who dwells within us.  We are not quite ready.

There is nothing in this world that is holding us back.  It’s all us for God’s Spirit is living within us.  So, what do we do?

We have repented.

We have professed Jesus is Lord.

We have been baptized.

What do we do?

We get out of the way.  We let God’s Spirit start the day.  We let God’s Spirit prioritize our lives.

We make time just to be in the presence of God.  Remember, Be still and know that I am God. 

We pray and pray some more.  We maintain an ongoing conversation with God.

The Day of Pentecost was described from the outside.  Powerful sounds and fiery images.

Our spiritual growth comes from within and may not be instantaneous, but we must surrender to God’s Spirit if we are to live to the full and our lives are to be pleasing to God.

If we don’t back off and we don’t give into fear, we will realize the power of the Spirit that lives within us.

We probably won’t preach to a multitude and see 3000 come to profess Jesus in a single event, but we each may reach 3000 people with the good news.  One here.  Two there.  Three at the ball game.  Four in Walmart.  Another on the phone.  Another with a short conversation while delivering a bag lunch full of love.

We don’t show up with a script.  We travel with the Holy Spirit who will gives us words when we need them.

We don’t have to give people a card or wrist band but these are good tools for this century when people forget so easily.

We do need to have a heart ready to surrender to God’s own Spirit.

We do need a teachable spirit.

We do need to have daily and intimate conversations with God.

We do need to trust God.  Trust in the Lord with all of our heart.

We do need to live by faith.

We do need the desire to obey God and his commands are not a burden.  We need to want to do what he wants us to do.

We do need love to govern our choices.  We must not be dissuaded by our own understanding.

We must desire none to perish.  God’s heart must overwhelm our heart.

We must long for inclusiveness for those who are lost.  We must have a heart to call them home.

We reach out to the lost not to join them but to call them to the abundance of living in community.  Think of the community that emerged so quickly after the coming of the Spirit.  We are not all going to live in Jerusalem or even in the same town, but we are all part of the same covenant community.

God’s Spirit is alive within us.  We don’t need tornado sounds and images of fire.  We just need to be the new creature that we have been made in Christ Jesus.

We should not compare ourselves to the apostles with fiery heads but to those with whom Peter taught.

And you will receive—today I will say that we have received—the gift of the Holy Spirit.  The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

We have received God’s Spirit!

We just need to get out of the way.  We just need to live by the Spirit within us.  We need to quit resisting the Spirt that lives within us.  We must do the work of the church rooted in our profession of faith and propelled into the world by the Holy Spirit working in us.

Let God’s Spirit take charge of your life!

Amen.

Parable: The Growing Seed

Read Mark 4:26-29

I think that I am still in Parable of the Talents withdrawal.  It’s like going from driving a Cadillac to driving a Volkswagen Bug, ok a Beatle.  Both have their value, but there was just so much in the Parable of the Talents and this parable is:  Bam!  Here it is.

Jesus had many parables and they likely didn’t register the same with everyone.  The Bible is like that.  Some verses just attach themselves to us.  I don’t know that I have lived a day in the past decade where Proverbs 3:5-6 didn’t pop into my head.

I like the Parable of the Talents because it’s one where we should be motivated to do something.  Now, we look at a parable that’s about things happening whether we do anything or not between point A and point B.

A man scatters seed on the ground.  Did he till it first?  Did he burn off the old vegetation?  Did he turn some goats loose on it?  What did they do before Roundup was invented?  Did he truly just scatter or did he use a first century drill?  It couldn’t be that.  The seed drill wasn’t invented until 1700, by none other than Jethro Tull. 

We don’t know how much preparation was involved if any at all.  He scattered some seed.  That’s what we know. 

And then because he followed a precise ritual of watching the seed, going through many sleepless nights of worry, and consulting daily with the agricultural extension, the seeds sprouted.  No, that’s not it at all.

What the man did next had no bearing on what transpired between the seed and the ground.  It sprouts, it grows, the stalk shoots ups and forms a head, and the head fills out with grain.

What’s next?  The man comes and harvests the crop.  He harvests the crop.

The parable doesn’t say if it was a good crop, average crop, or the bumper crop of the millennia.  It grew and the harvest came.

This parable is unique to Mark’s gospel.  It complements the other agrarian parables nicely.  The Parable of the Sower or of the soils if you will and the Parable of the Weeds make analogies with things that people knew well.  So too, does the Parable of the Growing Seed.

You have a seed and some dirt and though not mentioned, a little water and sunshine come in handy; and the next thing that you know is that you have life—plant life—but life nonetheless.  This mysterious process eventually produces a harvest.

I want to go back to Proverbs 3:5-6.  Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your path straight.

I don’t plant a big garden these days.  It used to be that I supplied the north end of town with squash whether they wanted it or not.  These days I have scaled back a little but the same thing happens with whatever I plant.  I’m not talking about putting in tomato plants.  I am talking about seeds.

What happens is that I can’t sleep very well the night that I plant seeds in my garden.  It’s not that I am too tired to sleep.  It’s that my mind races in anticipation of what will happen.  I know that nothing is going to sprout by the next morning, but the mystery of the seed sprouting and growing and producing something that will be harvested has begun. 

Things that I can’t really comprehend have begun in my presence.  I can go out of town or camp out right next to where I planted the seeds and the outcome is the same.

I have watched videos of plants growing overnight and I can see and know what happened, and have some understanding of how it happens.  I know the why of such things—it perpetuates life.  I get that.

What is so amazing is that it happens.  God in his infinite wisdom and his precision design of things so small and intricate that we need extreme magnification to start to visual processes designed before the creation of the world.  It just happens.

Sometimes it happens incredibly fast.  I am talking about okra, of course.  I don’t plant much okra anymore.  When I did, I would check for a harvest and find a bunch of little thumb-sized offerings.  The next day I would go to check and I would have two rows full of 18-inch-long pods.  How did they go from way too small to harvest to too large and fibrous to do anything with?

Maybe I was supposed to talk to my plants?  But who wants to talk to okra?

Let’s understand this parable in terms of our lives instead of okra.  So many things happen over which we have no control.  I am not talking so much the rotation of the earth or gravity or when Diet Coke goes on sale.

We have accepted the wonderful gift of grace and live as God’s children and live in his favor and know that there is so much more life ahead of us; yet there is so much that we just can’t figure out.

There is stuff that we just don’t know and sometimes continues to be a mystery to us; yet, somehow, things seem to work out.  We go from scattering seed to harvesting a crop with little comprehension of what happened between point A and point B.

Realize that we are talking about life now and not crops.

We have a neighbor who just won’t come worship with us.  We have invited a hundred times and feel sad that our invitation has fallen on deaf ears.  Then, seemingly out of nowhere, he has professed his faith or she is on fire for the Lord.  We are not really sure what transpired.  What happened?

We don’t always get the answer, even if you talk to the person.  Sometimes he only knows that now he sees the truth.  All she can tell you is that Jesus is Lord and that’s enough for her.

What happened?

When the Pharisees were questioning the man born blind from birth that Jesus healed.  We find the account in the 9^th chapter of John’s gospel.  The Pharisees are frustrated because it appears that Jesus might be legit and they don’t like that very much.  They try to discredit the man who can now see.  This man doesn’t try to make any fancy theological arguments.

All he can say is this man who healed me must be from God.  All I know was that I was blind and now I see!

Paul wrote that we walk by, live by faith and not sight.  The world says that seeing is believing.  Our biblical witness tells us that believing is seeing.

Our analytical minds want all of the details that go in between.  In proverbial terms, we will call this our own understanding.  But we are a people of trust, of faith, and who can take a little mystery in stride.

Let me fill in a little of what’s happening just to satisfy a little of our own understanding.  I am talking about what is happening in our lives, not with okra.  I still can’t explain okra.  God’s own Spirit is at work in the world today.  The Holy Spirit is alive and well in moving all over the place on this planet and within hearts that some have classified as too hard to penetrate.

This same Spirit that we know well and lives within us, moves like the wind across the street and across the globe and does not feel obligated to send us progress reports.

We have seedtime and harvest in agriculture and don’t always comprehend everything that comes in between. I understand that being a graduate of the finest agricultural university on the planet, we know a whole bunch; but still there is mystery. 

We all get that sunshine and rain and hail that lands somewhere else are good things and there is a good mix of those good things that seems to be just right; but what goes on between the seed and the soil happens whether we sleep all night or binge watch the new season of Orange is the New Black.

We need to understand that God’s Spirit is at work without respect to what we do or do not do.  That does not mean that we can hang up our cleats and say, “The Spirit’s got this.”

We have been given our part—a very important part.  We are commissioned, full of gifts and talents, and expected to produce a return for our Master with our time, talents, and treasure.  We are expected to take the gospel to the ends of the earth and deliver it as passionately as is possible.  It is good news after all.

But what happens in between belongs mostly to the Spirit.  That doesn’t mean that when we have invited someone to come worship with us three times, given them a blue GOD LOVES YOU – LOVE ONE ANOTHER wristband, and every member of their family has been given at least two Gospels of John that we write them off.

Do we say, “OK Spirit, we have done our part; you’ve got it from here?”

No, we continue to share and invite and witness to the lost in the world, but we accept that what happens in between mostly falls into the realm of God’s Spirit.

God has gifted us.  Our Master has commanded us to love and commissioned us to share the gospel, but it is the Spirit who is at work in the world.  We are to live by faith and be able to live with a little mystery as the Spirit goes where the Spirit goes.

Sometimes that is difficult, especially with folks who like to think they are in control.  Control is largely an illusion, at least our control is that way.  I have a very small circle of things that I control.  Other things I might have some influence on, but there is just a whole bunch of stuff that is way beyond what I can control.

Remember that this parable once again makes comparison to the Kingdom of Heaven, in this case the term Kingdom of God is used.  This is a kingdom that grows in the world and which grows inside of us.

Trusting in the Lord, I am just fine with the fact that I am not in control of much of anything.  I can decide to obey my Master, love my neighbor, and share the gospel; but what happens on the other end of these things is out of my control most of the time.

Today, we celebrate Pentecost.  Today we celebrate that the Holy Spirit is living inside of us and walking along side of us, and at work in so many places in the world. 

And I am OK with the fact that the Holy Spirit doesn’t have to check in with me every time someone professes Jesus as Lord and enters into life.  You would think that a tweet here and there wouldn’t be too much to ask, but I can accept that I am not on that distribution list.

I am going to be content to do what I have been gifted to do and commissioned to do and ordained to do, and do these things to the very best of my ability to please my Master and bring Glory to God.

I will do these things with joy in my heart and without the burden of response.  I pray that people receive the wonderful gift that we know in Christ Jesus, but my heart is not encumbered by a response that belongs to them and the Holy Spirit.

I am going to be content that I don’t always get situation reports as to what is happening between seedtime and harvest.  God’s Spirit is at work and that’s good enough for me.

I am going to move beyond just being content to being thankful that God didn’t reveal everything to me at this time because sometimes it seems that I am running my race as fast as I can and I don’t know that I could handle knowing the everything of everything right now.

I am thankful that I get a good dose of mystery with my God.  I am not frustrated about it.  I am thankful that my God is so much bigger than I can comprehend.

Paul would later write that we do have the mind of Christ.  I can handle that.  It is still challenging, but I can handle following my Master and trusting that God’s own Spirit is always at work in me and around me.

I am blessed not to know everything about everything but to live in God’s favor and grace and do those things entrusted to me.

Amen.