Sermon - "Reborn, The Spirit Within Us" - given at Advanced Lay Speaker Class, April 18, 2009

Prayer

Almighty Creator of Heaven and Earth, I pray that You, who gave your Son for our reconciliation with You, would grant me peace and a heart open to Your call this day, so that you may speak through me the words that you would have me share with Your people.

We pray that Your Spirit would grow within us, giving us the strength and faith to persevere though the trials of our lives. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our spirits be pleasing to You our rock and our redeemer, and we pray all of these things in the strong name of the Risen Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Reborn, The Spirit Within Us

Today is Trinity Sunday, so named to celebrate one God in three persons, revealed to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; Creator and Sustainer, Redeemer, and Guide. It is the First Sunday or Ordinary Time, the Season after Pentecost, which ends with Christ the King Sunday, the last Sunday of the Christian year, before the start of the beginning of Advent.

Just as we shout, proclaim Christ’s resurrection on Easter morning, just as we are fired by the Flames of Pentecost, there is nothing Ordinary about the Trinity!
The idea of Father, Son, and Spirit, gives a richness to our faith, to help us to comprehend the infinite in more discernible ways. When we call out to God the Father, it is the Spirit within us speaking, crying out to our Father, and when we invoke the name of our redeemer, the risen Lord, Jesus Christ, we are completing the triangle, because he is our brother.

(How awesome it that!)

The scripture passages this morning include some of my favorite pieces of scriptures.

1. In Romans 8:12-17, in his letter to the Romans, Paul proclaims our adoption into God’s family as heirs to the riches of Heaven, to life eternal, with our brother, the risen Lord, Christ Jesus. With a spirit of Adoption, a loving Father taking us into his fold, calling us by name, as he wished from the beginnings of the earth.

2. In Isaiah 6:1-8 One of the bible’s greatest answers to the calling of God, where he said simply, “Here I am; send me!”, which is the title of a poem I wrote.

A prophet answering
the direct call to action
by the Lord God Jehovah
to bring truth to the people
foretell a trial they must face
Whom shall I send?
Here I am; send me!

Oh that we could be so bold, so confident, so faithful, as Abraham, as Isaiah, as Paul, each called by God, each going where God willed.

and

3. We have the words of our Savior, trying to speak to the deaf, trying to show the blind Sanhedrin Nicodemus the revolutionary thought, that we must be reborn, of the Spirit, that the water and the Spirit are needed for a true baptism into the faith, in the wonderful, magnificent passages in John 3:1-17.

What Nicodemus could not even begin to understand, the living Christ in his presence, Isaiah proclaimed, the glory of God’s heavenly court. Can you see it, can you picture the imagery Isaiah’s song creates? Can you visualize the hem of his robe, filling the temple? (pause) I was gifted with a poem, The Hem of the Robe, which reads,

Like shafts of light, woven together;
sheets of flowing luminous light
like a wall of falling water
a curtain of silent thundering rain
so must the hem of his robe have been
filling His Temple on earth
flowing down from his heavenly throne
down from high above
filling the temple with light

Isaiah was redeemed and reborn, by his answer. He was living by the Spirit. Isaiah was reborn, as surely as any who have followed. He was redeemed, reborn of the Spirit.

Isaiah was transformed, not by his action; but by the grace of God. Not justified by the Law; but by confessing his sin, submitting his body, his all, to the voice of God, an indwelling of God’s Spirit within him.

Unlike Nicodemus, the unwise teacher, this member of the Sanhedrin, Isaiah was able to see the throne room of God, was able to gain even a glimpse of the Creator’s glory. Nicodemus was blinded by his station, by the Law. He spoke with the same unclean lips as Isaiah.

Where Isaiah was transformed, changed, his unclean lips burned away… Listen to the words of this poem, Burned Away

A live coal in the grasp
of a six-winged seraph
a burning ember of
a sacrifice
touched to the seer’s lips
sin scorched away
so truth could pour forth
untainted and pure
for the nation of God

Nicodemus, coming to Christ in the dark of night, could not.
Even with the Messiah, the living Word of God, the Son of God speaking truth to power, speaking directly to him, he would not see. He could not understand the truth, revealed to him in the words of Christ in the lesson in the Gospel of John.
Nicodemus could not offer himself; he was not redeemed. He was stuck in his place, in the trap of trying to live, to measure himself with the Law. He could not understand and did not want to lose his position, his authority. To be reborn, of the Spirit, that meant everything of his past was loss, as surely as Paul proclaimed in Philippians 3:7 that, after his encounter with the risen Christ on the Road to Damascus, all his gain was viewed as loss.

What Christ was telling him, oh if he could have only understood… I wonder if it is like this poem, written when I read this scripture almost 2 years ago.

He is the one who said it

A minor epiphany
at the dinner table tonight,
reading the devotional
the familiar story, the
wondrous words, of God’s love
“For God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten son”
Words that nourish, that uplift
that remind us of the Father,
the parent; But, the context,
the speaker, is the story
This is Jesus proclaiming
the love of God in giving
Himself, to save us
this broken world
by His presence on Earth
without mincing words,
with no sugar coating.
I am here, on his earth
because the father loved, loves
will always love
the living Son,
proclaiming
the Father’s
love

There are so many times in the gospels when Jesus seems to be speaking to “Duh-sciples”. How this conversation must have seemed to him.

Beyond His Ken

Like a professor
explaining theoretical physics
to a wide-eyed preschooler,
so must it have been
the divine and the human
Meaning, full nuanced meaning
lost on the listeners
stuck within the here, the now
understanding only the heard, the seen
Nothing beyond his ken
All of us needing that
singular expert witness,
and repeated instruction

And we, using the scripture from Romans, are each called to be born of the Spirit, to live as Isaiah did, redeemed by the grace of God, our lives turned toward the Father, yoked to the Son, walking, sharing, witnessing, with the power, the authority of those flames of Pentecost that we heralded in worship last week.
Heirs with our brother, to the kingdom of God, called as He was, to listen to the Spirit, indwelling within us.

Oh, I pray that we, that you and I , can answer as boldly as Isaiah when we are called by God the Creator - reborn of the Spirit, living as children of God, as the brothers and sisters of Christ.

Here I am, Send Me!

Amen.

Emptied Himself

He emptied himself,
his Godliness, making himself human
humble, a servant, a slave to the master
even to death
But his skin, was love,
his healing touch, his life in the world
a balm to all,
to being us back to God


March 10, 2009 and March 17, 2009
Philippians 2:7
Philippians 2:5-11
& book, Walking with Christ Everyday:
365 daily devotions for men, Day 67
“Infinite Love” and
quote attributed to Corrie ten Bloom,
“I have a glove here in my hand. The glove cannot
do anything by itself, but when my hand is in it, it
can do many things. True, it is not the glove, but my
hand in the glove that acts. We are gloves. It is the
Holy Spirit in us who is the hand, who does the job.
We have to make room for the hand so that
every finger is filled.”

Changing My Focus

My life, my study, my ministry,
my all, changed forever, instantly
my faith transformed, revealed
all I was, all I am, loss,
until Christ gave me sight
until I came to know my savior
all I was, my focus in life
loss for the salvation, the resurrection
By him alone, by grace saved
works lead to death.
Life alone in the Lord.

October 4, 2008
Philippians 3:4b-14

All is Loss

All of the work, the story,
the steps of my life, my path
all is loss. For I was separated,
fighting with God, not listening
to his spirit, his true call
His son, the Christ, his sacrifice
all that is important
in this fulfilling, this testimony
the truly righteous, sacrificed
for me, for you, for all of us
All is loss, works,
when by grace we are saved
by his life, his witness
Alone, the means of grace
the salvation through the lamb
sacrificed on the altar of the cross
all else is loss

October 4, 2008
Philippians 3:4b-14

All I Have Gained – Loss

All my heritage, my lineage, my works
all my life, my training, all of it,
my pedigree. my proofs of righteousness
All my gain, my life, loss
For I have sinned, fought against Christ
My works misguided, my call
Epiphany on that road
my life turned, by grace
by the gift of Christ, his sacrifice
His disciples, apostles
suffering for Christ
sharing his message
to the ends of the world
that is now my call

October 4, 2008
Philippians 3:4b-14

The Opposite Way

So sure, anointed for that purpose
sanctioned and bless to route them out
He was a zealot, crusader
to stamp out these rabble
But he was to go the opposite way
finding Christ on that Damascus Road
In blindness he would see
his way led to death
In turning the opposite way
our lives changed forever

October 1, 2008
Acts 9:1-19a
Philippians 3:4b-14

With Fear and Trembling

Working out my salvation
humble, as Christ was,
regarding others better than me
humble clay, ever pliable
forever changeable by the potter
with the fear of God,
trembling, the spirit within me
Guide me Spirit growing inside
Conform my ways to yours
Christ the templar, the example
humble, even to death, a servant,
So must I be; the loving response
to God’s saving grace.

September 27, 2008
Philippians 2:1-13
and Alive Now daily devotional, 9/26/08

On the Damascus Road

Blind, gaining sight
persecuting, preaching
converted on the Damascus road
in a blaze of light, a voice from above
changing his life,
the story of our faith
forevermore
Spreading the word
justification, grace by faith
dying to the law,
rising with our brother
his life a libation
poured out in love
each one of us beneficiaries
his conversion
on the Damascus road

August 12, 2008
Philippians 3:7-11,
Acts 9:1-9 and
Upper Room August 11, 2008

Fully Present to Humanity

Christ, son of God, holy, triune
living God, the Word, living among us
fully present to humanity, attentive to our reality
Fully human, crying in sorrow, showing anger,
fear, frustration, growing tired, needing time apart
in ministry a teacher, a servant, fully human
dealing with the disciples, the scribes, Pharisees
rulers wanting him dead.
With people, in their pain, their darkness,
their doubting, even at his death, his resurrection
His triumph, needing to touch
He was there in all of this, fully present to humanity

August 12, 2008
Philippians & sermon by Reverend Huntley Halvorson,
“Lessons from a Poke in the Eye”, 8/10/08,
Suncook United Methodist Church
http://www.suncookumc.org/Message81008.dsp

Use Me as I am

Lord, even now,
when I am cracked, chipped
imperfect, use me as I am,
to do your work, here in the world
use my imperfection, my brokenness
in the work of your son, our savior
put me to work in the vineyard, in the fields,
in the dark places of this earth
Help me to be your servant, now
even in my chipped state
may I be a useful vessel,
even now, for your Glory

March 10, 2008
Philippians 1:3-11 and
Upper Room daily devotional
http://www.upperroom.org/Devotional/default.asp?month=3&day=10&year=2008&x=107&y=6

Walking with Paul

I wanted to call this “walking with the prophet”
Because I feel he was more like the exhorter Elijah
Guiding his path, putting the words in his mouth,
Not the reformed apostle of Christ

Week on week he marched us through
Each lesson crystallized in the living text
Of the epistle to the Romans
Leading to a new trail through Philippians
Starting next week

I could see the power, the joy
Welling up through the text, the common stories
The current times imbued with the ancient ones
Being brought with the unseen congregation in Rome
To a fuller understanding of his message
Then and now
For each of us


September 16, 2005 9:46