“In the stillness within the action sits the Beloved who is not distracted by many things, but only wants to sit awhile with you.” (Steve Garnaas-Holmes)

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Sixth Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary 16 C
Texts: Luke 10:38-42; Amos 8:1-12; Psalm 52

Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Don’t pit these sisters against each other.

Both love Jesus, and both have the unspeakable joy of having Jesus in their home with them, loving them in return.

But the two sisters are important to us. For many of us, Martha’s experience is our own. We are busy beyond belief in our lives, anxious and troubled about many things, not having enough time to do what needs to be done, or even knowing what needs to be done. Having a few moments to sit quietly and listen to the voice of Christ sounds wonderful; but for many of us, it feels unrealistic to expect it.

So what is the “better part,” that “one thing” Mary chose that Jesus encourages Martha to choose?

In a poem for Martha called “One Thing Is Needed,” pastor and poet, Steve Garnaas-Holmes gives us a glimpse.

There will be the clutter and clatter of pans
the rumble and jumble of traffic and trains
the brambles of papers and lists and calls
the beaten paths, the errands, the chores.

You don’t have to rattle and run with them.
You can do one thing at a time.

You can stop
and sit at the feet of the moment,
pay reverent attention to whatever it is,
and listen to the silence beneath the hum,
and simply be
in the presence of the presence.

In all your doing that you surely must do,
you still can just be.
And your being
will become what you do.

In the stillness within the action
sits the Beloved
who is not distracted by many things,
but only wants to sit awhile with you. ¹

This is what Martha’s missing: Jesus’ presence in her busyness.

She’s doing what she must do: hospitality demands the guest be served, cared for. Jesus just sent out 70 women and men in this very chapter and invited them to seek hospitality, to be open to people welcoming them into their homes and feeding them. Martha is doing the right thing, the good thing.

But she’s “pulled away” from Jesus by her work, Luke says. She’s anxious and troubled. She’s doing the thing the poet says she “surely must do.” But she’s unhappy.

Jesus invites her to see that in that doing, in that “clutter and clatter, rumble and jumble, beaten paths, and errands, and chores,” she can find Christ with her by listening to the “silence beneath the hum.”

Martha was missing where her spirit was in that good work she was doing. She missed the presence of Jesus in her home. She missed listening to God’s voice in the midst of her busyness.

In the stillness within the action
sits the Beloved
who is not distracted by many things,
but only wants to sit awhile with you.

This is God’s gift: in the stillness within the action your beloved Christ is waiting. And we need this.

We hear Amos today decrying the destruction of the poor and the needy by the powerful, and we share his anger.

What our nation, founded on the values of freedom and justice for all, is doing to our siblings, to God’s own children, at the border, is a crime against humanity, a sin against God, and a horror that future generations will pale at hearing.

Amos speaks what we sometimes wish would happen, what we shouted with the psalmist we wanted to happen: God’s utter judgment against the perpetrators of this, and the ruin of all who trample on the vulnerable.

But if you and I do nothing, we know Amos would say we are complicit. But what can we do? All we know how to do is be angry and frustrated, while feeling powerless to effect change.

What if in the midst of all that we could find the one thing Jesus offers Martha? Listen in the midst of our impotence and frustration, for the still voice of Christ calling to us? Find the silence beneath the noise and hear God?

In the stillness within the action
sits the Beloved
who is not distracted by many things,
but only wants to sit awhile with you.

This is God’s gift: in the stillness within the action, your Beloved Christ will give you answers, and guidance for your loving service.

It’s not just the terrible things happening in our country, either.

Today, being busy is the new status symbol, not how much money you make. In social media, among friends, everywhere in this country, people are running themselves ragged and bragging about it. People are filling every hour of every day with activity, working overtime, barely finding any rest, drawn away and troubled by all that needs to be done. As if their value comes from being overworked and overdrawn.

Just as Jesus loved Martha in her stress, so Jesus loves you in yours. But Jesus also suggests that if your life is keeping you from hearing God’s voice, you’re missing the one thing you need.

Whether it’s taking fifteen minutes a few times a day to sit and be quiet, without phone or internet or television, or saying “no” to some things simply to give yourself the gift of time, there are places in the midst of the frenetic busyness where you can stop and listen for God. And even in the middle of the busyness that you have to do, you can, like Martha, keep your eyes and ears open.

In the stillness within the action
sits the Beloved
who is not distracted by many things,
but only wants to sit awhile with you.

This is God’s gift: in the stillness within the action, your Beloved Christ will give you rest.

And notice, part of Martha’s problem is anxiety. We know about that, too.

On top of the world’s pain and our hectic lives, many of us also are anxious about many things. Whether it’s depression, or clinical anxiety, or a general dread, it’s hard to find peace when you’re carrying such burdens. Some of us struggle with grief over missing loved ones, fear of future problems, sadness at broken relationships. Sometimes those voices are so loud you can’t even hear yourself, let alone God.

In the stillness within the action
sits the Beloved
who is not distracted by many things,
but only wants to sit awhile with you.

This is God’s gift: in the stillness within the action your Beloved Christ will give you peace.

We do get Mary moments, too.

Every Sunday here is a respite of a few hours apart from whatever brings anxiety and troubled hearts. Here we literally sit at Christ’s feet and are blessed and filled and loved. We remember we are forgiven. We remember we are not alone. And we remember that together we hear answers for how we are called and sent to be God’s love in this world of suffering and pain.

But Martha is often our everyday life, and that’s your joy today: in the stillness within whatever overwhelms you, causes you anxiety and fear, God only wants to be with you. And in that stillness, help you find your way forward.

And either way, Martha or Mary, Jesus is for you. Jesus is in your house. That’s the one thing, the only thing, worth knowing.

In the name of Jesus.  Amen

¹ Steve Garnaas-Holmes, “One Thing Is Needed,” published in the Shalem Institute’s 2017-2018 annual report, page 9. https://shalem.org/about-us/annual-report/ 

 

You are sent with specific tasks of evangelism to prepare people for the Spirit’s coming: God does all the rest of the work.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Fourth Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary 14 C
Texts: 2 Kings 5:1-14; Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

Sisters and brothers in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

The most important person in Naaman’s story is also the most insignificant person to everyone else in it.

This little Israelite girl, torn from her family by war, like so many children today. Not a refugee, she’s a captive, living apart from her loving family, in a foreign land, with foreign customs, and foreign gods, and a foreign language. But she sets in motion the movement of kings and prophets and even the God of the universe.

All she does is see her master’s suffering from a horrible skin disease, and quietly say to her mistress, “The God of Israel could heal my master.”

That’s it. And the ripples of her witness changed the course of her master’s life, and very nearly the affairs of nations.

Maybe she opens a door for us into this sending Jesus does.

Jesus sending out seventy women and men to proclaim God’s reign causes us a lot of anxiety. In our pluralistic society we just don’t know what to think about our call to be evangelists anymore.

It’s good many Christians are no longer comfortable with the centuries-long arrogance of the Christian Church claiming that those who do not know Christ are condemned forever. For more than a millennia and a half the call to share Christ’s Good News with the world has been warped by our need to control others and dominate them. The Church endorsed war, colonization, appropriation of indigenous lands, and destruction of rich, beautiful cultures all over the world in the name of “making disciples.” It is good, wonderful, that some of us at least have moved past that.

But if we aren’t doing evangelism to save others (because only God saves), or to control them (because Christ says we must not), how do we know what to do? With neighbors who are Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, atheist, and any number of other positions of faith or spiritual paths, we know our job as the love of Christ is to be gracious and kind neighbors. To respect differences, honor other peoples’ faith, seek dialogue between faiths.

But is that enough? Do we run from this Gospel story just to be good neighbors? A better question is, can this little slave girl help us hear Jesus’ call better? She knew the God of Israel could heal her master, so she told her mistress. She had no other goal than sharing the grace of God.

And if you look at the four things Jesus actually asks the 70 to do, it’s pretty much the same.

The first thing they are to do, every time, is speak a word of peace.

To greet the people in whatever house they enter with “Peace to this house!”

Isn’t that beautiful? Our Muslim friends do this. They greet others with this instinctively: “Salaam-alaikum,” “Peace be upon you.” And they respond: “Wa-alaikum-salaam,” “and peace be upon you, too.”

Why have Christians abandoned this key part of Jesus’ instructions? How might Christian witness in the world have been different if our first words wherever we went were “Peace be with you”? At the very least, maybe it would have prevented the Church from killing millions of people over the centuries.

What would it mean for you? Begin there with your neighbors. Offer the gift of peace to whomever you meet. Jesus says sometimes it will be returned, and that’s a blessing. Sometimes it won’t, but Jesus says the peace of God will still be with you, even then.

How do you be an evangelist? First offer peace.

The second instruction sounds a little strange as an evangelism tactic.

When you go anywhere, Jesus says to eat what is set before you. Receive your neighbor’s hospitality. Don’t bring anything, he says. Don’t have money, or you’ll be tempted to offer to pay, and act as if you’re the benevolent one. You’re not in control. Receive whatever you get. Receive their customs, their blessings, even if it’s strange for you.

That alone would be a new thing, for us to literally let our neighbors feed us, love us.

But it also is true figuratively. Take what is given you, and don’t bring anything, Jesus says. So, set aside your prejudices and pre-conceived notions and just let your neighbor be who they are. Set aside for now the theology that feeds you, and just receive what you’re given.

We’re so used believing evangelism is having something to give others. What if the Church had done what Jesus says here instead of triumphantly bringing in our culture and ideas and teachings as if we were the benefactors of all? It would change the world today if we could set aside our own stuff and simply let our neighbor offer us kindness and hospitality. Sometimes you won’t be welcomed or given anything, and Jesus says that’s OK. Keep going until you’re offered sustenance, and then stay there. Live in relationship. Let the love of your neighbor be a blessing to you. That’s evangelism, according to Jesus.

So, speak peace. And receive love. Next, Jesus says, heal and drive out evil, where you can.

This must have been frightening to these women and men. They’d seen Jesus heal and drive out evil. Now he expected they would be able to do such things.

But imagine if this had been the goal of evangelism for the whole Church throughout the years: to be the ones who offer healing. To be the ones who stand against evil. Now, many Christians in history did exactly that, and changed their world. Far too often, though, the official approach was domination and control. What kind of a witness to God’s love in Christ could we have made if everyone had done what Jesus says here, not just some?

This is such a clear place for us to work. Whether it’s working with all our neighbors of all faiths to dismantle systems of oppression and violence, or standing individually against evil or embracing our neighbor with healing kindness, there is no end to work we can do. Evangelism is being out in the world as God’s love, both as communities and individuals in Christ, bringing hope and courage to face evil, bringing love and grace to heal the hearts of those who suffer.

Finally Jesus says, say, “God’s reign is near to you.”

This is the last piece of the disciples’ evangelism task. Say what the little girl said: “God is near and can heal. God’s reign is real and will make a difference.” Say, God has come to this world of evil and war and hatred and grief in person and is offering life and hope and grace.

The first three things are how you do this. Offer peace, receive hospitality, work against evil and bring healing: these are visible, real signs of God’s reign being near. In your body and life you witness in this way. Just as Jesus witnessed in his body and life – teaching, loving, even dying and rising.

And it doesn’t matter if you’re rejected, Jesus says. He will be. Even in rejection, you still do all these things and always declare this good news: God’s reign is near. God’s love is near. God’s peace is near.

That’s it. these are your instructions as an evangelist. The Triune God will do the hard work.

You see, Jesus sent these 70 to places he himself intended to go, to prepare people for his coming. Now it’s the Holy Spirit who’s going. But you’re still sent ahead to do those things to prepare people for the Spirit.

Naaman actually ends up converted from his former faith, and worshipping the God of Israel exclusively. It’s lovely. But the slave girl never intended that. She just said God could heal him.

Likewise, your job is not converting. It’s not making any theological assumptions about anyone’s eternal status. Your job is to be part of Christ’s advance team with all of us, someone who by your grace and love opens a door for the Spirit to enter and bring people into the resurrection life of God.

Now that’s evangelism that’s not only faithful to Jesus’ calling and to the hope of God’s love we know in Christ, but one that’s respectful and gracious to our neighbors of all kinds as well.

Funny, isn’t it, how Jesus always knows how best to do things, if only we’d listen?

In the name of Jesus.  Amen

 

Paul’s miraculous claims are too often not our reality, but God in the Spirit is making it happen; pray that it happen for you, for us, and then go, tell others about it.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Second Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary 12 C
Texts: Galatians 3:23-29; 1 Kings 19:1-15a; Luke 8:26-39

Sisters and brothers in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Here’s what’s not startling today: how people reacted to demonic or evil powers.

The king and queen of the northern kingdom, Israel, want Elijah dead. They’ve been systematically killing God’s prophets, and Elijah’s target number one. So he runs away. The Gerasenes have this strong man who is possessed and violently lashes out. So they chain him up, guard him. Running away from evil or locking it up, that makes sense to us.

What is startling is how people react to God’s evident power over demonic and evil forces. Ahab and Jezebel have just seen the God of Israel’s power on Mount Carmel. Fire from heaven consumed Elijah’s waterlogged sacrifice, even the wet wood and stones. All the people there acclaim the God of Israel is the true God, not Baal. But the king and queen would rather kill Elijah than acknowledge the true God. The Gerasenes witness their neighbor freed from his possession, fully clothed, in his right mind, and they beg Jesus to leave. How do these responses make sense?

But given the history of the Church, what the Church looks like today, we shouldn’t be startled by this. They’re not much different from us.

Paul’s proclamation today of God’s miraculous action makes this clear.

These words from Galatians are breath-taking words of inspiration to believers for two millennia. Paul claims that God in Christ has broken through all human barriers and divisions and created one Body from these diverse parts.

Paul’s communities include people of different cultures, people who are both enslaved and free, people of all genders. These communities thrive with the conviction that they have a deeper unity in Christ that transcends all divisions. There are still slaves and free people. But it’s not their core identity in Christ, Christ is. Men and women are still men and women. But their deeper truth is their oneness in Christ. Greeks don’t need to be circumcised or eat special foods, and Jews are free to practice their Jewish rituals and traditions, because the thing that joins them is not their cultures but the love of God in Christ.

And unlike Elijah’s miraculous heavenly fire, or the healing of the demoniac, Paul’s miracle is not only repeatable, it’s expected. This is God’s new reality. We’re supposed to expect this among us in the Body of Christ.

But look at our response to this marvel God has done: Two thousand years later these are still pretty words. But meaningless, too, judging from our reality.

Paul didn’t advocate the end of the institution of slavery. But his claim that within the community of Christ, the slave and the free person were equal and one together planted seeds that even bore fruit in Paul’s life. He called his friend Philemon to recognize his runaway slave Onesimus as a freed brother in Christ and welcome him as such. Yet it took over 1,800 years for the Church to take that insight and begin serious opposition to slavery.

Paul shared Jesus’ radical view of women as equals. He had female co-workers, leaders of communities, missionaries. But by the end of the first century the Church embraced the old standard of patriarchy, and pretty much eliminated women in leadership. It took 1,920 years for even a fraction of the Church to restore what Paul and Jesus did at the beginning. And we’re still a significant minority: maybe a couple hundred million among the world’s 2.2 billion Christians have women in leadership. It was easier for the Church to agree on ending slavery than equality among genders.

Paul’s cross-cultural unity is astonishing. Paul assumed multiple cultures could co-exist and thrive in congregations, find their oneness in Christ while still living with their diversity. But the vast majority of Christian history has been Christians siloing into their own cultural reality and claiming that’s the true Christianity. Ethnic and cultural groups promoting their way of being, speaking, dressing, doing worship as the only true way, that’s been the norm for most of the Church’s life.

In truth, Paul’s proclamation never became the norm and still barely exists 2,000 years later. We’ve rejected God’s healing oneness.

Paul says today that before we learned to trust God in Christ, we were imprisoned, locked up in fear of the law, in fear of the other, in fear of everything. The tragic thing is, Paul thought this was a past problem.

But we still live in the same fear. It took 1,900 years to agree that Christians were opposed to slavery because we were too afraid of the economic and social impact of freedom. We’re still rooted in patriarchy in the Church because we’re locked in our assumptions and thoughts and won’t envision a new way of being Christ together.

And the cultural divide, whether it’s black-white, rich-poor, north-south, Lutheran-Pentecostal, Christian-Muslim, will never be crossed if we’re the ones to cross it. It’s just too frightening to let go of the way we think things should be and admit others have equally legitimate ways of thinking, being, doing.

We may not be possessed by demons, but the chains that bind us, the prison we’re stuck in, can only be opened by God.

And good news: that’s what God offers.

God says today you need not be captive to your fear. God can break any chains that bind you or others, knock down any dividing walls, even the ones you secretly want to reinforce. The Triune God has come to the world in Christ Jesus, and shown the power of the Spirit to break through all these barriers and create a new reality. A body of Christ, a community of God, that transcends all our divisions.

Yes, it’s frightening to think of losing some of your security blankets. But with security in God’s love, and in the embrace of billions of siblings in Christ, who needs blankets? Yes, it’s frightening to feel the ground shaking as the wall protecting you from others starts to crumble. But if you let God break through that wall, you’ll find a loving family across this planet.

Paul’s words are the only reality worth living. A reality where there’s neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, but all are one in Christ Jesus. A reality that reveals a path to the healing of all nations. God is already doing this. But as Luther reminds you, you want to ask that God do this in you.

Because then you find your true place in these stories.

Once you are freed from these chains of fear, you’re sent back out into the darkness, into the brokenness, into the pain, to witness to what God has done. God told Elijah he couldn’t stay hiding in his cave, he needed to go back, face the evil, keep telling what God was about. The healed man wanted to stay with Jesus, the one who gave him life. But Jesus sent him back to his frightened neighbors, who wanted to be rid of him, to tell them what God had done.

That’s where you come in. As Paul’s new reality becomes your truth above all others, you’re sent out. To go into the world of fear and chains and walls and declare in your body and life what God has done.

But first, like Elijah, have a bite to eat. Let God refresh you in this meal that is prepared for you. Be graced by God’s forgiveness in Christ, be fed by God’s meal of life. As the angel said to Elijah, it’s going to be a tough journey. Eat up, so it’s not too much for you.

Then go, and tell others what God has done. For you. For the world.

In the name of Jesus.  Amen

 

We know God because God has come to us, invited us into the life of the Trinity, to be changed into the radiant love that we find there.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Holy Trinity, year C
Text: Romans 5:1-5

Sisters and brothers in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Look closely at the picture. There’s a place for you.

Nearly 600 years ago the Russian iconographer Andrei Rublev wrote an icon depicting the visit of three heavenly strangers to Abraham and Sarah. The Bible claims this was a visit of God, that they actually spoke to God in these beings.

In time, the Church wondered if this was somehow a vision of the Trinity. So this icon, printed on our service folder, is often called “The Holy Trinity,” as well as “The Hospitality of Abraham.”

But look closely. The figure on the right, representing the Holy Spirit, holds her hand out toward the open space, inviting a guest to the meal. You. The one looking at the picture. Some believe a mirror was originally attached where that square is on the front of the table.

Isn’t that lovely? Looking at this visitation of God, you see yourself invited to join God’s presence.

This is the only way you can know God.

We now have 1,600 years of theological reflection since the Nicene Creed on how God is One God, yet Three Persons. None of that reflection actually lets you know God.

It’s God’s invitation to come, enter God’s life, that lets you know God’s truth, God’s reality, God’s essence. You can only really know another person by having a relationship with them, talking with them, loving them, and you can only know God that way.

In fact, our whole idea of the Trinity began with the invitation of the Incarnate One, Jesus, not with theological constructs. Jesus showed us in person the face of God, the heart of God. In Jesus, God came to you, to the world, and said, “Come, let’s know each other better.”

This is where the Church first met God’s deepest truth. It’s where you will.

Today Paul says we have access to God through Christ Jesus. Jesus welcomes you into the life of God.

Look first to Jesus, then. Hear his teachings, listen to his voice proclaiming God’s unlimited forgiveness and love for you and for all creatures, for the whole creation. Eat his meal of grace and life for you and for all. Wonder at the signs of utter welcome, the crossing of human boundaries of law and exclusion, the breaking of taboos of culture and religion, that you see in God’s Son.

And stand in awe at the inexpressible mystery of God’s love on the cross, dying to bring you and the cosmos back into God’s life. Rejoice, as we have this past Easter season, in God’s destruction of death and hatred and evil.

Jesus is the face of the Triune God for you, so you know God is good, God is loving, God is for you. Paul says today you have been declared righteous by God in Christ. God looks at you in person in Jesus and sees good, and holy, and blessed. And always says, “Welcome, beloved one. Come, know me.”

Meeting the Trinity first in Jesus then leads to a deeper joy.

You’ve heard for weeks Jesus’ promise that the Spirit of God would come to you, fill you. So, you are not alone, Jesus says, God is in you. You need not be confused or lost, God’s Spirit will guide you. And Paul says today, God’s love is poured out into you through the Holy Spirit.

Jesus, the Incarnate One, sends you God’s Spirit to make you filled with God, too. To make you an Incarnate One. To intertwine your life into the life of God forever.

How many times has Jesus said in these weeks that he and the One he called Father were one, united, and that in the Spirit of God you would be united with God yourself? Coming to this world in human flesh was the first step in God’s plan to bring you, and me, and all creation into the heart of God’s life.

So listen for the voice of the Spirit in you. As Jesus promises today, the Spirit will teach you what you need to know when you’re ready to know it, just as the Spirit teaches the Church in the same way.

This is the grace of the Holy Trinity: you are welcomed to join the Triune God’s life forever, to take your place in the circle, and the Spirit makes that happen.

That means a couple wonders, Paul says today.

First, you now have peace with God.

When humans try to imagine God it’s usually a distant, powerful, often judging god. At least in the patriarchal cultures in which we’ve spent the past 3,000 years. So when suffering and pain and evil happen, it’s easy to blame this imaginary god we’ve created, or fear this god is our enemy.

But you know God intimately now, you are filled with God’s Spirit. So you can be at peace with God. When you face suffering, you know God has suffered, too, and knows your pain. Because God’s Spirit is in you, you know that God is with you always, no matter what. And as Paul says, that’s where your hope comes from. Not that all suffering ends, but that when you grow closer and closer to God, filled with God’s Spirit, you have God’s love and strength to face it and thrive.

And as the Spirit fills us all, we together can even face the great suffering and pain of others, bringing God’s hope and love ourselves, trusting that God is working in us to bring life, even if we can only seemingly take tiny steps at a time. We are one body in Christ, across this planet. So we trust that God, working in all the body of Christ, is moving this world toward justice and mercy and peace.

And, Paul says, you also share in the glory of God.

Freed from following a god made in your own image, now that you see you have a place in the Triune God’s life, Paul says you also will share in God’s glory. In the radiance, the brightness of the life of God. In the beginning, God said, “Let us make humanity in our own image.” And now, in Christ, as you take your place in God’s life and heart, that promise begins to be fulfilled in you.

You start to look like God in your love and grace. Your heart begins to beat as God’s, in compassion and love for all who struggle. Your hands become creative like God’s, embracing like God’s. And together, as Christ’s body, we bring God’s life to this whole world.

“Come in,” the Trinity says to you, “come join us in our life. There is room for you in our dance.” So come. Enter into the life of God and be changed, be healed, be made new.

In the name of Jesus.  Amen

 

This is the great surprise of Pentecost: the Spirit is in you, in me, making us the body of Christ, to do the ministry of Christ in the world. It’s us now.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Day of Pentecost, year C
Texts: John 14:8-17, 25-26; Acts 2:1-21

Sisters and brothers in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

I think the Holy Spirit was a great big surprise for the disciples.

Not just what happened on Pentecost, though that must have been quite the eye-opener. And not what they saw in Jesus, either. In his first sermon in his hometown, Jesus declared the Holy Spirit was within him.

But on the night before his death, Jesus promised to send them the Holy Spirit, that God’s very Spirit that was in Jesus, would be in them. Would teach them, remind them of Jesus’ teachings, too.

I doubt they were expecting that at all. We forget, we read the Scriptures after the fact, and through the narrator’s eyes. We know from Acts that the Spirit who filled Jesus filled the disciples, sent the Church out into the world. The disciples couldn’t know all that. Nothing prepared them for the idea that the Holy Spirit would be God’s gift to them.

What those women and men did up till this was pretty common. They followed a teacher who spoke truth.

This was normal. A teacher would attract disciples by their teaching, and show them a way of living, reveal insights, help them understand their lives, and often God. Jesus drew these disciples to believe and follow. He showed God to them. So they focused their lives, their faith, their hopes, their dreams, on Jesus. When he was crucified and raised, they found new understandings, believed more than ever he was God as well as human.

What they didn’t realize was that Jesus was just the start. God’s plan now was to send the Spirit into them. God’s plan now was that they would do Jesus’ ministry. Be what Jesus was. Pentecost was the first evidence of this promise being fulfilled. It just exploded from there.

We, at least, should expect this. Today Jesus says something we’ve heard often: that we will, in our faith, and with the Spirit in us, do greater things than even Jesus did.

Let’s be clear, though. Jesus is talking about more than miracles.

We turn Jesus’ promise into an endless loop of conversation with little insight, talking about whether we can do healings like Jesus, and if we can’t, how can he promise greater things? We realize miracles happen every day in hospitals and clinics, that we see great things even our grandparents would call miraculous.

But if Jesus is only talking about miracles, how is it possible that we could do greater things than he? Even if we count modern medicine, even if we have stories of prayer ending someone’s disease, that’s not greater than Jesus, it’s exactly the same. Something else is promised here.

But what can we do that’s greater than Jesus himself?

Well, this surprising gift of the Spirit has made us into the body of Christ ourselves. Made you Christ. God’s anointed. Me, too. And billions more, all one body of Christ. Christ is no longer just one person who lived 2,000 years ago. Since God’s Spirit is poured out into you and me, into the world, Christ’s body is infinitely greater than just Jesus.

That means God can reach more people than Jesus did on earth, through the billions of Christs the Spirit has birthed over these 2,000 years. God can directly love more people in the flesh than Jesus did on earth, touch their lives, embrace them, feed them, heal them.

That means this body of Christ, born of the Spirit across this planet, can offer its life to the world with the same sacrificial, vulnerable love that God showed on the cross, and transform the world. This body, in such love, can dismantle systems of oppression and hatred, break down destructive patterns of racism and sexism, lead peaceful revolutions, alter the course of history, effect change that lets all God’s children live with the same rights and privileges, in peace and justice, well-fed and educated, productive and happy.

There’s nothing small about feeding thousands with two fish and five loaves. But what God can do in us, the body of Christ in the world, is so much greater, so much more transformative, so much more planetary, you can understand why Jesus says what he does.

Maybe we don’t expect this Spirit gift, either.

We can fall into a pattern of worshipping Christ Jesus and praying and focusing all our energy on what Jesus did long ago, and miss the very point of this Pentecost we now celebrate.

But the Spirit is wise, and patient, and has been working in you and in me all along, planting calls to serve, giving insights, making us into Christ’s body. You are being born into a new creation, ever more visibly a child of God, to be a part of these greater things God will do in this Body.

If Pentecost reveals anything, it’s that you are needed, you are anointed, and God’s Spirit is in you, giving birth to this Christ that we are called to be together in the world.

So don’t be surprised. Expect this. Be open to the Spirit’s moving. That’s when great things, amazing things, really start to happen.

In the name of Jesus.  Amen