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Sermon Written By Rev. Dick Stetler – May 31, 2020
On the occasion of church’s closure due to COVID-19 Virus
Centenary United Methodist Church Psalm 104:24-34; 1st Corinthians 12:4-14
Pentecost This morning we are going celebrate Pentecost by
discussing the many faces of spirit.
One of the aspects of living that drew me into the ministry was
our topic this morning. I
wanted to develop a deeper understanding of spirituality.
Spirit is difficult to define in a way that does not confine it
to religious beliefs. I
found that our spiritual energy did not have anything to do with
specific beliefs but rather it was one of the facts of life for
everyone. We do not have to live very long before we
realize that everyone has an
obvious spirit that influences others.
We can be attracted or repelled by what we experience from
all the individuals that we have encountered throughout our lives.
What was this quality that piqued my interest with a passion that I
had never encountered? This aspect of our lives was completely
independent of any religious orientation. We take electricity for granted even though no one
has ever seen it. We tend to define it by our experience of what it
does. Properly used with a
lamp, it can turn darkness into light.
Electricity has the ability to run many of our household
appliances. This is nearly identical to what spirit does for us when it
becomes the link to all our dreams and pursuits. There is nothing that brings our spirit to the
surface any quicker than what we are experiencing right now on a daily
basis. COVID-19 is an
episode that can bring out the best in us or the worst in us.
This virus can be a rough patch for some people and an
opportunity for others to be of service. After about a month of prolonged closures, my email
in-box became filled with cartoons and jokes from everywhere about what
could be happening in our homes.
The creativity of people brought laughter into our lives while
others found no humor at all in having to stay at home. It was interesting that liquor stores were deemed
essential while churches were not.
Alcohol prices have soared to remarkable levels while many
churches employed technology to continue to send hope to people while
their church facilities remained unavailable. Our confinement placed a mirror in front of
us. What was our
attitude when we realized that the people who were making decisions for
the rest of us continued to receive their paychecks? What happened to us
when our car was in the shop getting repaired when overnight every
business had to shut down?
When our only source of transportation was our buses, how did we respond
to our isolation when they were no longer available?
In spite of the wide variety of responses available
to us, we knew we could do nothing to change our circumstances.
The only thing that we could manage while confined was the
spirit that we were bringing to our daily routines.
It was this realization that drove me to want to understand
spirit more than any other path for my career.
Spirit literally determines the quality of life for
everyone. A man that deeply influenced millions of people all
over the world was Nelson Mandela.
Because of his efforts to bring freedom to all the people living
in South Africa, he was put in prison for 27 years.
So far, we have had several months where our freedoms were taken
from us; how would we respond to 27 years with many of our freedoms
taken away? The political authorities in control of South Africa hated him so much that when his mother and son died in 1968, they would not permit him to attend their memorial services. Nelson Mandela appeared to wear a coat made of Teflon. There was nothing that snuffed out his light. The prison guards befriended him.
He communicated love and respect to everyone as he made The
Golden Rule visible every day of his life. The angel within
him kept showing up during each episode of his life. He was once offered
his freedom if he would give up his political agenda. He refused to do
so resulting in his imprisonment to continue. Mandela had no idea what
his continued confinement was doing to other citizens of South Africa.
He soon found out. In 1994, Nelson Mandela became the first President
of South Africa to be elected by a democratic process as well as the
first black man elected to that office.
He was given honorary degrees from over 50 universities.
He was awarded several Nobel Prizes.
Throughout his life, his spirit was consistently expressing
his desire for freedom for everyone and a smile seldom left his face. We cannot adequately define spirit but we can sense
how developing it served Nelson Mandela with creativity in every
circumstance whether living as a prisoner or being the President of his
nation. He did both in
grand style influencing millions of people in the process.
All of us have been given a glimpse of how we have
dealt with confinement and with the possibility that the virus of
COVID-19 could be lurking on the hands and presence of others.
How did we greet the news that we belonged to the age group that
was most vulnerable to dying from this virus? The Apostle Paul's letter to the church at Corinth
defined specific spiritual outcroppings in life as gifts.
This presence coming from many faces was more than just
gifts. Spirit is who
we are under our skin.
Spiritual knowledge teaches us that we are invulnerable to all
circumstances that we experience in our world. Spirit holds all of our
potential. Spirit is what makes us attractive or repulsive.
Spirit is what enables us to rise above fear, insecurity,
self-doubt, and our reticence to take risks.
Spirit is what allows us to enjoy thoroughly everything that
enters the stage where our drama is taking place. Last Sunday, we discussed one of the most
intriguing metaphors that Jesus used during his ministry to describe
what spirit looks like. He
said: The wind blows wherever it wishes; you hear the
sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is
going. It is like that
for everyone who is born of the spirit.
(John 3:8) Most of us have had moments when we felt that our
lives were completely out of control.
Life was happening to us when we were busy making other plans.
Sometimes people in my churches experienced a string of events
that made them ask questions about God's presence.
Others never equated God's presence to the drama taking place in
their lives. They refused
to be conquered by any person or experience.
These are the people who mirrored a spirit that Nelson Mandela
had mastered. One of the women in a former church lost her job,
her husband left her for someone else, she was in an accident that
totaled her car, and she was recovering from a case of double pneumonia
that almost took her life.
Something about Karen's spirit never allowed her to give up on life. In
fact, I heard her laugh one day as she said to me, "Dick, when
you think about it, my life has been one big mess after another.
I guess I am being groomed to be a female Job." Early in Nelson Mandela's life he learned never to
judge circumstances until he could see where such events were leading
him. He knew about Joseph in the Old Testament who experienced one mess
after another and never stopped glowing in the dark.
A day came in Karen's life when she heard a man say, "Karen, where have you been all my life? I have looked for you everywhere and now you have arrived." She heard these words after she dated a man for several months. It was Karen's highly developed spirit that caused her to recognize that she was bonding with a kindred spirit. I officiated at her wedding ceremony.
The man who recognized the spirit in Karen's body was her
attending physician in the ICU of Holy Cross Hospital in Maryland.
We never know where any experience is leading us. Jesus was
correct in his observation.
Our spirit is often like the wind. How many of us are where we
thought we would be during our temporary experience in the world?
The only thing that we know for sure is that it is our
responsibility to nurture the spirit that will take us to whatever
destiny awaits. Am I suggesting that God had something to do with
this union of Karen and her physician?
Such a conclusion remains a matter of a person's beliefs. It was
her spirit that gave form to her attitudes about life.
She never permitted anything or anyone to block her vision of the
woman she wanted to be. Abraham Lincoln once said, "Rather than striving to
be well-known, it is much better to strive for qualities that would have
made you worthy of being known." This ICU physician had become attracted
to a spirit that was nowhere near giving up on her life. Her string of
mishaps actually made her laugh at how ridiculous they appeared to be.
Such a spirit would be attractive to most of us. All through our lives, the spirit of others became
an inspiration to what we eventually did with our lives.
What was it about others that influenced us?
How can we ever show gratitude for those who believed in us, who
knew that were a late bloomer, or who instilled in us that being
physically attractive was a fleeting quality that no one can hold on to?
Such spirits taught us that it is far superior to build our
inner world than to attempt to preserve the appearance of our
vehicle. The Apostle Paul recognized that spirit has many
faces that appear all around us.
What he wrote is stunning and challenging to understand.
His words do not reflect any particular religious beliefs.
He wrote: Loving energy comes from a single source that has
many different faces. All of us whether Jews or Gentiles, whether
slaves or free people, have been given spirits that will express
themselves in different ways, but they belong to one body from which all
of us draw our energy. (1st
Corinthians 12:12-13) When each of us was born, we came totally
equipped with everything we need to develop anyway that we choose.
We have been given a gift that we can perfect to serve
ourselves and to serve the world.
It is not an either/or tension. Rather it is a dance that
we do to the rhythms of life that allows us to balance to the two worlds
enabling the angel within us to remain visible in all of our
experiences. When anyone influences another person, it is a
silent act that remains unknown to that person. We never fully
understand how other people interpret what they see in us.
Our reputations are always in the hands of others.
We are only responsible for our character.
We do not need to understand creation or how God
works to be at peace with who we are becoming.
Let all of us celebrate life just as it comes.
(1st Thessalonians 5:16-18) From Paul's
perspective, God fills in the blanks long after we have graduated
from this life. This is
how Jesus grew from a humble carpenter, roaming and teaching in one of
the most obscure places in the world, to becoming the Son of God.
CONGREGATIONAL PRAYER
Ever-faithful God, our lives are often inspired to new heights of
awareness because of everyday experiences.
A new baby teaches us the role that we play in creation.
We sense how forgiveness heals relationships.
We learn that love is giving and not confined to our getting.
When we remember that authentic power comes from a place that we cannot
see, we are humbled. Teach us, loving God, that we do not need tongues
of fire, rushing winds, or burning bushes to be reminded that we are
vehicles of your presence.
Let each of us live so that your presence in us will communicate to
others that they are of value and a welcomed part of our lives. Amen. PASTORAL PRAYER We thank you, God, for your moment-by-moment
presence in our lives. We have been trained to look for you outside
ourselves. For some of us you have become a mysterious being that we
talk to during our quieter moments. You are the Creator and we are
linked with you in a way that is a challenge to understand. What is the
unseen part of you and the unseen part of us that we call Spirit? We
have been trained to turn to you when our lives appear unmanageable. We
have been trained to express gratitude when our lives take us to the
heights of joy, happiness, and peace. Yet, some of us find confusion
when we search for truth.
Are you the one, O God, who heals
some of us but not others? Are you the one who inspires the few while so
many of your children remain bored, distracted, and self-absorbed? If we
are made of the same substance as you are, perhaps what happens to us is
only the result of our choices and not because of some mysterious
Will of God. |