The Holy Spirit is active bringing transformation in our lives, our community, and in the world.
Vicar Andrea Bonneville
Third Sunday after Epiphany, year C
Texts: Luke 4:14-21
Beloved in Christ, grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
The Holy Spirit is busy transforming. Do you hear her?
Moving, stirring, breathing, growing, changing.
Challenging, testing, inviting, stretching.
Energizing, motivating, inspiring.
Systems of oppression and structures of power are being exposed, creation is crying out for healing, walls of division are crumbling. God’s Spirit is active in the world bringing good news to the poor, proclaiming release to the captives, recovering sight to the blind, freeing the oppressed, proclaiming the celebration of the jubilee.
Today, Jesus says, today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. Today God’s spirit is filling your life. Today the Triune God is transforming our world. Today, here and now.
And yet many are still trapped in systems of injustice, caught in the sin of the world, living within destructive patterns that are hurtful to their neighbors and creation.
Many can’t escape the noise of fear and shame that lies to us and convinces us that we are not good enough to receive the good news of God’s love and mercy. Many live in poverty, captivity, isolation and experience loneliness, discrimination, and hate.
It’s hard to believe that transformation is happening and that God is active in our lives when we look around us and see pain and suffering and division. It’s hard to trust that change is going to happen when the weight of sin and evil weighs us down. Some days we don’t know if what scripture says God is doing and has done in the world is enough or if God’s promises of abundant love and life will be fulfilled.
But don’t give up on hope. Don’t lose sight of the ways God is active in our lives. Because God, through the Spirit, is transforming you, this community, our neighborhood, our world. With God, transformation is happening, but we know that it doesn’t happen overnight.
When Jesus enters back into his community after his baptism and wilderness journey, people who have known him his whole life don’t notice the transformation that has taken place through the Spirit. And next week we will hear that his community doesn’t respond well to his transformed identity.
But Jesus plants a seed of promise that throughout his ministry he will continue to water and nourish the world bringing healing and justice until God’s promise of love and mercy is fulfilled through his death and resurrection.
And now, as people living in the hope of the resurrection, we take on the task of watering and nourishing until God’s promise can be fulfilled for all of God’s beloved. Day by day change is happening in unexpected ways in unexpected people, and in unexpected places.
When we encounter the word of God, hear the promise of a world filled will love, grace, and justice. And when receive glimpses of God’s promises fulfilled in our lives, we cannot help but open our hearts to the transformation that is happening in our lives through the spirit.
Transformation happens as we hear God’s word through our singing and speaking in our silence and in our prayer. God’s word is being fulfilled today because as we hear God’s word and experience God ‘s word in others, we are transformed by it and through it. This is why it is so important for us to gather in community to worship, read scripture, pray, and serve together, to feast together, to be a part of each other’s daily lives.
Transformation happens when we confront our biases and behaviors that contribute to division and destruction. When we take responsibility for our actions and apologize when we make mistakes. It happens when we check in on a friend or take time to laugh, play, and share joy.
Transformation happens when we serve our neighbor. When we give of our time, money, and resources to help others and journey with them. Like what is happening in our community as we take action to accompany and advocate for an Afghan refugee family. Or when we continue to provide gracious hospitality to all who come to our door looking for support and love.
Transformation happens as we walk out of these doors proclaiming God’s love and justice through our actions and words whether that be in our classrooms or office, around the dinner table, at the doctor office, or in an interaction with a stranger.
When we take time to pause and listen to the Holy Spirit, we are guided in ways that will grow our hope and confidence in God’s word active in our lives. And for now, we are nourished by the promises of God’s love and grace that have already been revealed to us. These glimpses of growth, of healing, of reconciling, give us hope to continue to follow the Holy Spirit nudging us toward transformations we don’t even know are possible.
Moving, stirring, breathing, growing, changing.
Challenging, testing, inviting, stretching.
Energizing, motivating, inspiring.
The Holy Spirit is busy transforming. Do you hear her?
Amen.
