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The Abiding Spirit Because for many Memorial Day is the first camping opportunity of the season, because several of our Questers have trekked south to San Diego as they have for 20 years on this holiday, because some of us expected to be at Sky Meadows this weekend, a camp story might be appropriate. This old story is often transformed into a skit to be enacted around a campfire. Two or three or four people are lying about, trying to sleep but their slumber is regularly interrupted by the howls of a coyote. Each implores the other to go out and find out what’s causing the ruckus but everyone answers that they are "Just too tired to move." They have had an exhausting day filled with tension and challenge; all they want to do now is rest. But the caterwauling continues as does the simple dialogue, for as long as the campers can stand it: "Go and find out what’s the matter." "Not me" - or if an English teacher is among the group, "Not I" - "Just too tired to move." Finally, one of the weary ones gets up, shambles out, and then returns awhile later. "Well," says one, "What’s the matter?" "Coyote was lyin’ on a cactus" "Well why didn’t the varmint get up?" After a lengthening pause, the appropriate punch line is offered, often spoken by the whole audience: "Just too tired to move." Perhaps the disciples felt similarly after the events of the previous fifty days. A violent, brutal crucifixion was followed by the despair of burial. Frightening discovery of an empty was followed by fantastic news of resurrection. And then appearances took place: along the road to Emmaus, in a locked upper room, along the lakeshore, to a few, to several, to many. Then their Lord, their Master, their Rabbi was gone, ascended. The disciples pulled themselves together enough to select another to take the place of Judas but they could do no more. The promise of God’s kingdom had faded somewhat, the program of living righteously, faithfully, fruitfully was still in place as they remembered the words and way of Jesus, but his followers were without power. But as Jesus predicted, God would send an advocate, the Spirit of truth. And so it comes on the day of Pentecost to those gathered in Jerusalem, suddenly, from heaven, in a rush of a violent wind with tongues of fire. And in the Spirit, there was power, sufficient to coalesce the disciples into a community of faith, enough to energize the speech of Peter and others and on that day 3,000 were baptized and added to their number. The Holy Spirit comes to give power to the people who remembered the promise of God and the program of Jesus. At Pentecost, it is the ability to speak in every language that could be heard. The Spirit’s power is sufficient to bring order out of chaos, lead people through a wilderness, raise up judges, energize prophets, anoint kings, cause births among the old, the barren, and even a young woman from Nazareth and raise Christ from the dead. The Spirit gives courage to the weak, hope to the disconsolate, joy in the morning after a night of darkness, peace to the fearful, instruction to the wondering, and home to the wandering. The Spirit will lead Saul to become Paul, a ragtag, quarrelsome group to become a church, and the church (at its best) to become champion of the poor and outcast. The Spirit will also be a still, small voice of compassion in one who comes upon another in need, an insistent call to justice in one who notes a destroying wrong, a nagging discomfort to one who believes him or herself to be ill-equipped to serve. The Spirit overwhelms and nudges, the Spirit stirs up and calms down, the Spirit empowers and creates, the Spirit moves us from where we wish to be to who God needs us to be. And the Spirit will abide. The Spirit’s power will not depart from us but remain as a presence to us, for us, in us. Jesus’ word in John denotes that God’s Spirit makes its home with us that where we are, it will be. We do not need to seek the Spirit, it will come to us where we are, wherever we are. And it will not leave us. Stan Rother was an Oklahoma farm boy to whom the Spirit came with power and presence. It was the Spirit that sent him to Guatemala where he struggled to learn a Mayan dialect so that he could serve the people of a small Indian village. It was the Spirit that gave him the energy to dedicate his life to the spiritual and physical needs of the people. It was the Spirit of God who supplied him with courage to stand with the people though he knew that in Guatemala "to shake the hand of an Indian is a political act" that would be perceived to be a threat to the rich and powerful. It was the Spirit that led him to hoe a farmer’s cornfield, organize weaving and food cooperatives, and extend friendship and generosity to the degree that the people conferred on him an Indian name: Padre A’plas. A dozen years after he arrived, the raging storm of violence and terror that so devastated Guatemala finally came to the small village where Stan Rother served. The church in Oklahoma warned Rother to return to the United States because of the deteriorating situation. But somewhere, the pastor had heard that "At the first signs of danger, the shepherd can’t run and leave the sheep to fend for themselves." When Rother’s name appeared on a published death list, however, he was persuaded that his presence posed a risk not just to himself but to the church and its people. He returned to Oklahoma. But the Spirit would not rest and the Spirit would not allow him to rest. During Holy Week, Rother returned to his people in Guatemela where the storm had been replaced by a measure of calm sufficient for him to celebrate Easter and Pentecost with his people. It was just a matter of weeks after Pentecost, though, when three masked men slipped into his house in the middle of the night. They came to kidnap but Rother resisted and he was shot. As it did in the life of Stan Rother, and in the lives of many others, the Spirit makes its home in us. It is our task as individuals and as a church to open the doors of our lives to this Spirit of God and to welcome this Spirit, confident that its power will equip us and its presence will sustain us. Through the Spirit God’s purposes will be made known to us and through us, so that this world will learn of grace and love and peace. Thanks be to God. Amen. May 27, 2007 |
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