Tagged: Holy Spirit

September 27, 2017

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

This text is used for the Lectionary Year A on October 22, 2017.

The introduction of the first letter to the Thessalonians has a structure similar to many of Paul’s introductions. It follows the typical Greco-Roman format, which begins with sender and recipient information and moves into a greeting and thanksgiving section. In 1 Thessalonians, though, Paul’s thanksgiving section is superlative in every way. “We always give thanks for all of you constantly,” Paul writes. Then he launches into a glowing recommendation of the believers’ faith, love, and endurance. My family jokingly calls me the queen of superlatives and I defend myself by saying, “Well, I just get so excited about everything that I have to amplify my language to communicate my enthusiasm clearly.” Similarly, Paul is very excited in this passage and expresses his pleasure with intensified language. He has probably just received a report on the fledgling Thessalonian church with the arrival of Timothy and is thrilled to hear that the church has survived through the persecution that plagued its members since the church’s inception.

The story of the founding of the Thessalonian church can be found in Acts 17. After considerable trouble in Philippi, Paul and Silas came to the Macedonian city of Thessalonica. Although Paul’s preaching in the synagogue only yielded some Jewish followers, there were “devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women” that were persuaded by Paul’s teaching (Acts 17:4). It is this diverse group that formed the first community of Christ-followers in that city. There was trouble for this church from the beginning. We learn in Acts 17:5-9 that a group of Jews formed a mob against the believers and even dragged one believer, Jason, from his home just for housing Paul and Silas. The believers then sent Paul and Silas away from their city, presumably to keep them safe, but it is likely that the persecution of the Thessalonian Christians continued even after the missionaries moved on.

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May 9, 2017

Acts 2:1-21

This text is used for the Lectionary Year A on June 4, 2017.

The Lord Jesus always keeps his promises in his time and in his ways. He promised after he went away, the Holy Spirit would come to his disciples as a Helper to comfort, empower, and guide them in their gospel witness and work (John 16:5-15; Acts 1:1-8). On the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1), the timing was right for the fulfillment of this eternity-altering promise to unfold. The symbolism intertwined with the fulfillment of this promise is worth noticing while watching this holy moment initiated “from heaven” and instituted “on earth” take place (cf. Matthew 6:10).

Luke tells his readers the effects surrounding the Holy Spirit’s entrance came “from heaven” that included sounds like “a mighty rushing wind,” sights of “divided tongues as of fire” and results of those in the room who “began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:2-4). This promise was fulfilled after Jesus had ascended to heaven. Once Jesus was present in heaven, the creative power of God’s Spirit came down “from heaven” to enable the next phase of God’s redemptive work to be done “on earth.” The presence of God could begin in a new way on this historically significant day “on earth as it is in heaven.”

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May 9, 2016

John 14:8-17, (25-27)

This text is used for the Lectionary Year C on May 15, 2016.

Our text falls near the beginning of the so-called Farewell Discourse in John’s Gospel (chapters 14-17). Just before this, Jesus has washed the feet of his disciples, announced his coming betrayal, eaten the Last Supper with them, given them the “new” commandment that they love one another as he has loved them, and predicted Peter’s coming denial. At the start of the Farewell Discourse, Jesus has promised to prepare a place for them, to come again and take them to himself and to a place where he is going. He has answered Thomas’s question about the way to where he is going by pointing to himself and saying that he is “the way, the truth and the life.” That is, Jesus is the true way of life that leads to the Father.

The first part of what follows in verses 8-14 takes us deep into the identification of Jesus with the Father. This passage lays the groundwork for a more developed doctrine of the Trinity that would take nearly three hundred years to work out. What John repeatedly wants us to see is the oneness of Jesus with the Father. This oneness is a unity of persons, not a singularity. Think of it this way: When we are talking about God being one—and this is a common conversation among the three great monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam—we mean there are no other gods but God. There is one and only one God. That singularity, however, is not the issue of our text. Jesus uses the intimate language of Father to talk about what we would come to understand as the interpersonal inner character of the one Triune God.

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April 25, 2016

John 14:23-29

This text is used for the Lectionary Year C on May 1, 2016.

This text touches on several themes, not all of them clearly connected, so the first challenge for a preacher is deciding which part(s) of it to preach. The farewell discourse (John 13-17), like other extended speeches of Jesus in John’s Gospel, does not always move with a linear logic but in something more like a spiral. Various themes are repeated in different places, and as the text circles back to them, they do not always seem directly related to what immediately precedes or follows. So here in quick succession we find the themes of loving Jesus and keeping his words, Jesus and the Father abiding with disciples, the role of the Advocate, the peace that Jesus gives, the counsel to have no anxiety or fear, the departure and return of Jesus, his relation to the Father, and a call to rejoice and believe. Connections can certainly be found among these verses, but any attempt to treat them all in a single sermon would likely fail to give any of them its due. The text’s assigned parameters in the lectionary seem arbitrary, and we will likely need to be selective, choosing smaller portions of the text to explore.

A helpful device for understanding the farewell discourse was offered by Fred Craddock, who once compared the disciples here to children playing on the floor and looking up to see their parent putting on hat and coat. The children ask anxious questions: Where are you going? Can we go, too? What will we do while you are gone? Who will stay with us? Jesus answers the first question: “I go to prepare a place for you.” (14:2) He answers the second: “Where I am going you cannot come, but you will come later.” (13:33, 36) He answers the third, “Love each other as I have loved you.” (13:34) The fourth question—“Who will stay with us?”—he addresses no fewer than five times. The text before us includes the second of these. He had already said, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth… he abides with you and will be in (or among) you.” (14:16) Now he adds in 14:26: ^“But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.” These words are arresting, and may have useful connections to other parts of our text.

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