The Holy Spirit’s Groaning

Few sounds capture a groan like birth pangs. It is the raw sound of life and birth as well as of pain. It is the guttural desire for the end of the waiting for what has been anticipated and desired. For any who have been present through such an event, it is difficult to ever forget. It is in equal parts beautiful, stunning, and holy, as well as raw, painful, and horrific.

“Creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves . . . groan inwardly while we wait for adoption,” writes Paul to the church in Rome. He describes aptly that painful wail of our souls for the redemption we know so well, the restoration of all things promised in Christ.

As Lutherans we know this all too well as the “now but not yet” proposition of our faith. We have been told of the return of the Messiah. We prepare for this coming and see how the whole of creation groans for her own restoration. We join this creation waiting for our own hearts, souls, and bodies to be restored. We know this is coming and as in pains of labor groan for this reality. While we wait, we are given a midwife, a Spirit of God to join us in our waiting for the birth of a new world and a new reality. This gift is given this day, the day of Pentecost.

May the Spirit join us in our cry to God, eagerly awaiting the begotten, the Son of God, Jesus.

from Sundays and Seasons

Move in Day

Each fall is the perennial move-in day on or near college campuses. Legions of parents descend with carloads that include tiny refrigerators, Ikea furniture, electronics, area rugs, and posters. They unload the one they have birthed, raised, nursed, instructed, and reproved for eighteen or so, to prepare him or her for independence. Then, just like that, the parents are gone, perhaps wiping away tears.

    

Perhaps their final words were ones they hoped would stick. “Study well.” “Make good choices.” “Watch your time.” “Don’t stay up too late.” But in every parental heart is a simple prayer: “O God, be with them.”

  

In the final portion of Jesus’ great prayer for the disciples (John 17:6-19), he entreats the Father to love and protect the disciples as a parent who knows their time for direct supervision is coming to an end. In this preparation we hear his pleading like a loving parent who wants the best for the ones he has sheltered, taught, loved, reproved, and sent. Jesus begs for God to hold them in the truth that is to do as they have been taught, to follow the model established for them. Jesus asked for the disciples to be protected and surrounded so that they may not be lost. He prays for the disciples to have their joy completed, and to live what they have seen and understood from their rabbi.

     

May we, like the disciples, live in the truth of the gospel, love as we have been loved, have our joy complete, and, above all, know that God is with us.

      

from Sundays and Seasons

Love like Jesus loved

 

 Agnus Day appears with the permission of www.agnusday.org

Connected for Life

A parent stands at the bus stop on the first day of school with a kindergarten student. Another parent lingers in the doorway of a first-year dorm after unloading the final box from the car. These parents are entering new times they will not be present to help their children make some important life choices, and words of advice slip from their lips—eat your sandwich before your dessert, share with others, don’t drink and drive, remember who you are. After years of preparation, their children step toward greater independence.

Jesus lingers with the disciples before his death and prepares them for the time when he will no longer be present day to day to help them make their way in the world. Words slip from his mouth: “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). These are difficult words as the disciples try to make sense of Jesus’ impending death and the promise of his continued presence.

“Apart from me you can do nothing” may also be a difficult word for a self-reliant, individualistic culture such as our own, focused on personal achievement and success. God is the vine grower, Jesus the vine, and we the branches, who, separated from the life-giving vine, can do nothing.

Yet, these are gracious, gospel words from Jesus. He’s been preparing his disciples for years to take this step. These are words that point not toward individualistic, self-reliant independence but toward dependence on the one whose life defies death and whose perfect love casts out all fear. Connected to the vine, these branches are given a death-defying life free from fear. These are gracious, gospel words from Jesus that point to a community nourished by this life-giving vine and bearing fruit for the sake of the world.

from Sundays and Seasons

Life Laid Down

How does faith in the risen Christ call one to live? What shape does one’s life take?

The readings for this fourth Sunday of Easter are rich in their imagery, and at the center is the image of the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. Five times in eight short verses Jesus mentions laying down his life for the sake of the sheep.

The First Letter of John picks up the same theme: “We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?” (1 John 3:16-17). Laying down one’s life for another might take many forms, but it at least means this: extending help, as much as you are able, when another is in need.

A friend tells the story of her grandfather, a faithful man who earned a modest income. Each year when tax time rolled around, he was audited. According to tax records he earned so little and gave away so much. The astounded auditors questioned him, wondering why he gave so much of his income to the church. Incredulous, he responded, “You can’t outgive God.”

The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep, and joined to the risen life of Christ, the lives of the baptized are shaped by generosity and sacrifice. Giving one’s life, resources, gifts, or whatever one holds most dear for the sake of another is both a witness to the love we have first been shown and an act of faith. Hearing Jesus’ words in this Easter season reminds us that laying down one’s life is not an act to be feared; rather, it is an act that defies death, as we trust that, washed in the waters of baptism, we already live in the resurrected life of Christ.

From Sundays and Seasons