This week, we pair Luke 13:31-35 and 1 Corinthians 12-14 with the Charismatic Stream - the Spirit-empowered life. Where holiness centers on the power from God to be something, the charismatic stream focuses on the power from God to do things. Those who are centered in the charismatic stream are infused with and guided by the Holy Spirit in their work in the world. They feel the immediacy of God’s presence around them and act on that power in their lives.
This work of the Spirit in the lives of people can take many different forms. In the Gospels, we find examples of the Holy Spirit driving Jesus into his times apart, including in last week’s text. In the narrative of the temptation, Jesus not only relies on God for the strength to hold firm, the text also tells us that he was full of the Holy Spirit as he left the Jordan and the Spirit was the one to guide him into his time of preparation and fasting.
Looking again to our saints, the man that would become St. Francis of Assisi had a vision of the cross speaking to him and ordering him to rebuild the church. With this vision from the Spirit and in the strength of the Spirit, he turned his back on his family’s wealth and started the order known as the Franciscans. They lived on little and traveled the countryside preaching and serving others.
Today there are Pentecostal and other charismatic traditions that focus on the work of the Holy Spirit. Many of these movements focus on the gifts of the spirit as found in the writings of Paul. Paul gives us several lists of spiritual gifts in Romans, 1 Corinthians, and Ephesians. While these lists are not exactly the same, the gifts we find in the writings of Paul tend to fall into three distinct areas - gifts of leadership, like evangelism, preaching, and teaching; ecstatic gifts, like speaking in tongues, prophecy, and discernment of spirits; and community-building gifts, such as wisdom, faith, and healing.
When we turn to Luke 13:31-35, we see Jesus exercising several spiritual gifts all at the same time. He speaks prophetically in his interaction with the Pharisees, calling out the powers that be for their deviousness. He also expresses his need to continue the work of exorcism and healing, two gifts that are intimately mixed in the story of Jesus. He continues in his ministry of teaching and preaching in the countryside.
One of the things this little snippet into the life of Jesus makes clear, is that no single gift or type of gift is necessarily more important than another. Paul also makes this clear in 1 Corinthians 12-14. Just as the passage from Luke shows us more than one gift at work in the life of Jesus, Paul speaks to the way that multiple gifts are found and necessary to the continuing body of Christ in the world - the Church. In these chapters of 1 Corinthians, Paul starts by laying out the various types of gifts and how all are needed, and then he ends with a discussion of how the various spiritual gifts are meant to build up the body of Christ that is the Church.
In the middle chapter of this section in Paul’s letter, we find familiar words related to love that are often heard at weddings. But these words are not about romantic love and are instead related to the purpose of spiritual gifts. No matter what gifts a person might have, no matter what the Spirit has empowered them to do, if it is not done in love it is not serving its purpose.
Looking again at today’s text in Luke, this is what continues to drive Jesus in his ministry. He could have fled from Herod, gone into hiding perhaps. Or, filled as he is with the power of the Creator, he could simply make the problem go away. Instead, he continues to do the work of love, all but ignoring the suggestions that he flee. This is the primary mark of a gift from the Holy Spirit - love.
The Holy Spirit blows where she will, empowering people with various gifts. But the purpose of these gifts is always to build the community up in love. The gifts themselves are not the focus.
Nor should a focus on the work of the Spirit lead us to reject reason or planning. Someone thoroughly grounded in the work of the Holy Spirit in their life will feel the Spirit as much during times of planning and study as at other times. Too often we use the Holy Spirit as an excuse not to plan ahead.
Part of the reason for this is that the work of the Spirit can be a bit scary. The Spirit has a tendency to jar us out of our complacency and to reject our urge to place God in a box of our design. But God cannot be domesticated and the Spirit shows us this over and over.
When the Spirit moves in our lives and in the lives of those around us, it can make us uncomfortable, particularly when the ecstatic gifts come into play, such as speaking in tongues or discernment of spirits. Sometimes the gifts of the Spirit are expressed in bodily ways that our ordered minds cannot understand. But this is one of the strengths of the Holy Spirit in our lives and our community - she helps us move in ways we had not considered.
Normally by this point in one of my posts, I would already have brought in some sort of movie reference in hopes of expressing the theme in a more accessible way. I admit, I struggled this week. At first I thought maybe I could talk about Star Wars and the ways in which the Force is present in all living beings and that there are those that are particularly strengthened by the Force in a way that gives them abilities that set them apart from others. Then I thought maybe I could use the Avengers movies as a way of showing how each person in a community has a gift that is needed for the good of all and how all the gifts have to work in unison for the greater good.
But as I was discussing this theme with my wife, April, she said I needed to use the movie Chocolat. Though I had watched it years ago, I didn’t really remember it. But as she refreshed my memory, I knew this was a much better example.
The movie is set in a French village in 1959. The town mayor is a rather overbearing man, staunchly Catholic, and firm in his belief that he knew better than anyone else how they should be acting, even to the point of rewriting the local priest’s homilies.
The film is set during Lent and the whole town is observing the Lenten fast - no meat, no pastries, nothing pleasurable at all. Everyone goes to mass. Everyone observes the sacraments. And anyone that doesn't is considered an outcast.
During mass, the wind literally blows open the doors of the church. Along with the wind, a woman arrives in town with her daughter. She rents the pastry shop in town that has obviously been disused for some time and begins to clean it out to set up her own shop. But instead of a pastry shop, she actually turns it into a chocolate shop. She has a knack for guessing a person’s favorite chocolate and soon befriends some of the outcasts in the small town - her landlady who is diabetic but refuses to live in a care home, a woman in an abusive marriage who feels powerless to leave because of the sacrament of marriage. Later in the movie she welcomes a wandering group who travel up and down the river doing odd jobs in the towns they come to and otherwise living off the land, even as the rest of the town organizes to keep them out based on their perceived immorality.
In the end, the community becomes a place of love instead judgement, a place of doing good rather than avoiding bad. This is what sometimes scares us about the work of the Spirit in our lives. We become so certain we are right, that our way of doing things is the only way or the best way or the right way to do things. We limit God to our own experience or perception of God. We forget that God is beyond definition and beyond our control. This does not mean we do not strive to do the best we can as we seek to understand God, but we must also be open to the prompting of the Holy Spirit.
Do our actions lead us into acts of love? Do our actions support the life of the community? If not, what are the changes the Spirit might bring?
I encourage you to listen to the places where the Spirit is calling you to do the work of love in the world. Find others that hold on to the Holy Spirit in their lives. Look to those that hold to the simplicity of loving God and loving others.
Look for the Spirit nudging you to dance with joy before God.
Listen for the Spirit encouraging you to reach out in love to hold others up.
Feel the Spirit guiding your words and your actions.
What might we become if we open ourselves to the power of the Holy Spirit in our midst?
This work of the Spirit in the lives of people can take many different forms. In the Gospels, we find examples of the Holy Spirit driving Jesus into his times apart, including in last week’s text. In the narrative of the temptation, Jesus not only relies on God for the strength to hold firm, the text also tells us that he was full of the Holy Spirit as he left the Jordan and the Spirit was the one to guide him into his time of preparation and fasting.
Looking again to our saints, the man that would become St. Francis of Assisi had a vision of the cross speaking to him and ordering him to rebuild the church. With this vision from the Spirit and in the strength of the Spirit, he turned his back on his family’s wealth and started the order known as the Franciscans. They lived on little and traveled the countryside preaching and serving others.
Today there are Pentecostal and other charismatic traditions that focus on the work of the Holy Spirit. Many of these movements focus on the gifts of the spirit as found in the writings of Paul. Paul gives us several lists of spiritual gifts in Romans, 1 Corinthians, and Ephesians. While these lists are not exactly the same, the gifts we find in the writings of Paul tend to fall into three distinct areas - gifts of leadership, like evangelism, preaching, and teaching; ecstatic gifts, like speaking in tongues, prophecy, and discernment of spirits; and community-building gifts, such as wisdom, faith, and healing.
When we turn to Luke 13:31-35, we see Jesus exercising several spiritual gifts all at the same time. He speaks prophetically in his interaction with the Pharisees, calling out the powers that be for their deviousness. He also expresses his need to continue the work of exorcism and healing, two gifts that are intimately mixed in the story of Jesus. He continues in his ministry of teaching and preaching in the countryside.
One of the things this little snippet into the life of Jesus makes clear, is that no single gift or type of gift is necessarily more important than another. Paul also makes this clear in 1 Corinthians 12-14. Just as the passage from Luke shows us more than one gift at work in the life of Jesus, Paul speaks to the way that multiple gifts are found and necessary to the continuing body of Christ in the world - the Church. In these chapters of 1 Corinthians, Paul starts by laying out the various types of gifts and how all are needed, and then he ends with a discussion of how the various spiritual gifts are meant to build up the body of Christ that is the Church.
In the middle chapter of this section in Paul’s letter, we find familiar words related to love that are often heard at weddings. But these words are not about romantic love and are instead related to the purpose of spiritual gifts. No matter what gifts a person might have, no matter what the Spirit has empowered them to do, if it is not done in love it is not serving its purpose.
Looking again at today’s text in Luke, this is what continues to drive Jesus in his ministry. He could have fled from Herod, gone into hiding perhaps. Or, filled as he is with the power of the Creator, he could simply make the problem go away. Instead, he continues to do the work of love, all but ignoring the suggestions that he flee. This is the primary mark of a gift from the Holy Spirit - love.
The Holy Spirit blows where she will, empowering people with various gifts. But the purpose of these gifts is always to build the community up in love. The gifts themselves are not the focus.
Nor do any particular gifts mean any particular person is more important that any others. All of the gifts are needed in order to build the church. And the gifts must be centered in the love of others. One gifted with leadership should not be leading for their own well-being only, but for the good of the entire community. One gifted with prophecy should be seeking the well-being of all and not themselves alone.
Nor should a focus on the work of the Spirit lead us to reject reason or planning. Someone thoroughly grounded in the work of the Holy Spirit in their life will feel the Spirit as much during times of planning and study as at other times. Too often we use the Holy Spirit as an excuse not to plan ahead.
Part of the reason for this is that the work of the Spirit can be a bit scary. The Spirit has a tendency to jar us out of our complacency and to reject our urge to place God in a box of our design. But God cannot be domesticated and the Spirit shows us this over and over.
When the Spirit moves in our lives and in the lives of those around us, it can make us uncomfortable, particularly when the ecstatic gifts come into play, such as speaking in tongues or discernment of spirits. Sometimes the gifts of the Spirit are expressed in bodily ways that our ordered minds cannot understand. But this is one of the strengths of the Holy Spirit in our lives and our community - she helps us move in ways we had not considered.
Normally by this point in one of my posts, I would already have brought in some sort of movie reference in hopes of expressing the theme in a more accessible way. I admit, I struggled this week. At first I thought maybe I could talk about Star Wars and the ways in which the Force is present in all living beings and that there are those that are particularly strengthened by the Force in a way that gives them abilities that set them apart from others. Then I thought maybe I could use the Avengers movies as a way of showing how each person in a community has a gift that is needed for the good of all and how all the gifts have to work in unison for the greater good.
But as I was discussing this theme with my wife, April, she said I needed to use the movie Chocolat. Though I had watched it years ago, I didn’t really remember it. But as she refreshed my memory, I knew this was a much better example.
The movie is set in a French village in 1959. The town mayor is a rather overbearing man, staunchly Catholic, and firm in his belief that he knew better than anyone else how they should be acting, even to the point of rewriting the local priest’s homilies.
The film is set during Lent and the whole town is observing the Lenten fast - no meat, no pastries, nothing pleasurable at all. Everyone goes to mass. Everyone observes the sacraments. And anyone that doesn't is considered an outcast.
During mass, the wind literally blows open the doors of the church. Along with the wind, a woman arrives in town with her daughter. She rents the pastry shop in town that has obviously been disused for some time and begins to clean it out to set up her own shop. But instead of a pastry shop, she actually turns it into a chocolate shop. She has a knack for guessing a person’s favorite chocolate and soon befriends some of the outcasts in the small town - her landlady who is diabetic but refuses to live in a care home, a woman in an abusive marriage who feels powerless to leave because of the sacrament of marriage. Later in the movie she welcomes a wandering group who travel up and down the river doing odd jobs in the towns they come to and otherwise living off the land, even as the rest of the town organizes to keep them out based on their perceived immorality.
As the movie comes to an end, the coldness in the town, the completely domesticated sense of what it means to live a life of righteousness, is totally upended by this woman who was blown into town by the wind. She brought with her a simple refusal to act in any way other than love towards others. Her only desire was to bring the small joy that her chocolates could offer. But it is her insistence on accepting not only the upstanding people of the town but also those on the margins, her constant speaking out against the hypocrisy of the actions of those in power, that leads to love and reconciliation in the town, and a fine Easter sermon directly from the priest without any input from the mayor.
Do our actions lead us into acts of love? Do our actions support the life of the community? If not, what are the changes the Spirit might bring?
I encourage you to listen to the places where the Spirit is calling you to do the work of love in the world. Find others that hold on to the Holy Spirit in their lives. Look to those that hold to the simplicity of loving God and loving others.
Look for the Spirit nudging you to dance with joy before God.
Listen for the Spirit encouraging you to reach out in love to hold others up.
Feel the Spirit guiding your words and your actions.
What might we become if we open ourselves to the power of the Holy Spirit in our midst?