We’re not in control of the things that really matter, and that’s freeing to realize, and life-giving to trust our lives into the hands of the God who can bring life even in the midst of death.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
   The Second Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary 9 C
   Texts: Luke 7:1-10; Galatians 1:1-12

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

Have you noticed that the dearer something is to us, the closer to our heart, the more important, the less we have power to control it?

Some of us never thought we could control anything. Life feels beyond control. Others of us spend years trying to control everything, as if we could make life go how we wanted. Lots of us are somewhere in between.

But for all of us, the most important things, the things that matter, are beyond our control. How people think of us. Whether those we love get sick or die, stay healthy and happy. How our life goes, what other people do to us. Evil that happens near us or around the world. We can’t control any of this.

The path of faith Jesus invites us to walk begins with this recognition. When we realize it’s Christ’s path, not ours, that we don’t have the map, and we trust that the Risen One will lead and guide us safely as we journey. When we realize it all begins by letting go of our false need to be in charge. The freedom we find in that path is exhilarating. But letting go isn’t easy.

Our friendly local centurion understood this, remarkably.

This was an officer with authority. He’d risen through the ranks to command 100 soldiers. When he told them to move, they moved. When he told them to jump, they said, “how high?” This centurion was in control.

Except there was this one thing he was powerless over. His beloved servant was sick and dying. He couldn’t command him to live, to get better. He had no authority over this.

Because he was apparently a good man, even though he was an officer of the occupying forces, he’d made friendships with the Jewish locals, had been generous with them. Through them, he heard of their teacher who had the power to heal. A power he did not have.

He remarkably even understood that this healer was outside his authority. He could have sent two soldiers and commanded Jesus to come. Instead, he let go of all his control. He wasn’t in charge. He didn’t even assume he was worthy of such a gift. He let go, against all his training and his office, and asked for help.

In Galatia, some Christians, including Paul, apparently didn’t understand this.

We’ll be hearing from this letter for the next few weeks, Paul’s view of the situation. As best we can tell about the other side, there were Christians, likely from Jerusalem, who had gotten wind of what Paul was doing in what is now northern Turkey. They heard he was welcoming non-Jews into the faith, baptizing Gentiles, teaching them of Christ, without requiring that they follow Jewish law, eat kosher, be circumcised.

So they came up there to try and control the situation. They couldn’t conceive of being in Christ without being Jewish, as Christ Jesus himself was. Their whole lives were shaped by their Jewish faith. The Messiah was a Jewish idea, after all.

These Christians, good people, deeply confused the Galatians, who had trusted Paul when he first came to them. They also, as we heard today and will hear again, deeply frustrated Paul, who also couldn’t control this situation. He was unable to return at that time and fix things, so he wrote this letter trying to bring it all under control.

Both Paul and these traveling Christians didn’t remember that no one can control the Spirit.

What is most marvelous to us, however, is that the Triune God also understood what the centurion did.

The whole plan of salvation in Christ comes from God realizing that the most important things cannot be controlled. Having all the power in the universe is of little help if your creatures choose not to love you or love each other. You could force them to do it, but then it wouldn’t be love.

The coming of the Triune God into our lives is a massive release of control. Being born as a vulnerable baby, living completely at the mercy of other human beings, the Son of God began to teach, to call people to a life of love of God and love of neighbor. What God hopes for from all God’s children.

But even when we rejected this message so much that we threatened to kill the very person of God bearing our body, God would not reassert control. The cross is the ultimate letting go, relinquishing of power and authority. If we won’t choose to love God with all we have, and won’t choose to love our neighbor as ourselves, God will not force us to do it.

The centurion models for us that God’s way of letting go is our way to life.

The first step to finding true life is admitting we can’t control, we’re powerless over the most important things in our lives. Jesus spent years trying to get this across in parables, in healing, in teaching, and his followers still didn’t understand what was happening when he was hanging on a cross.

In the light of the resurrection, they began to grasp what this Roman centurion had figured out long before: the path of faith is one where we let go of all our need to be in authority over our lives, over the world, over others, and open ourselves up to trusting God with our life.

This isn’t easy. For much of our life as we grow into adulthood we are trying to assert control over our lives, our environment, other people. We try to make life work the way we want it to. True wisdom comes from realizing the grace in letting God lead us in this path of letting go, this path to abundant life.

It is the path to life because life is found in love, and love cannot be forced.

All the problems that plague us and our world can be solved by love, but not by forcing others, trying to control them. The injustice that runs through our society, where whole classes and races of people are stuck in systems that oppress them, can be changed to justice, but not by us forcing our will on the situation. When we stop trying to tell others how they should protest, how they should try to work for change, and open ourselves to hearing their story and standing with them, God will lead us and this society to justice.

The problems that we face in our lives, worrying whether others love us, fearing the illness or death of loved ones, struggles to find happiness, frustration with life that doesn’t work the way we want, whatever problems we face can be solved in the love of God. But there is nothing we can do to force them to change, to make life the way we think it should be.

When we find the centurion’s wisdom, we let go and simply ask God for help, for healing. Not because we think we’re worthy, but because we trust in the goodness of God. Even in the face of death, something we never have control over, we trust in God’s power to destroy death forever.

When we finally see that our sense of power and control is just an illusion, we find the abundant life the love of the Triune God is making in us and in the world.

We are able to trust the path of Christ we are invited to walk, not because we control the path or its outcome, but because we are led by the only One we trust for life and grace. We learn the joy of choosing to live in love, even losing our own needs and ego, because we find life on this path.

Jesus was astonished by the faith of this centurion. Probably because he kept running into people like us, who were afraid to trust, to let go.

Why don’t we surprise Christ this once and do the unexpected? We might even surprise ourselves with how freeing life can be down that path.

In the name of Jesus. Amen

Christ’s promise is that the Holy Spirit will continue to lead us into truth, to new things about the Triune God and about us, to new callings. This need not frighten us; it’s the good news that the Trinity still moves in our lives and is with us on the path.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
   The feast of the Holy Trinity, year C
   
text: John 16:12-15
Jesus said to the disciples, 12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, she will guide you into all the truth; for she will not speak on her own, but will speak whatever she hears, and she will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 She will glorify me, because she will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that she will take what is mine and declare it to you.”

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 still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.

When the Spirit of truth comes, she will guide you into all the truth.”

These are frightening words to ponder. So for most of the Church’s life, we’ve refused to ponder them. For 1,700 years the Church has been more interested in codifying the “truth,” weeding out heresy, punishing those who heard the Spirit’s call differently, rather than considering the possibility that the Triune God might have new things to say, things God is waiting for us to be ready for.

These are frightening words to ponder even at the basic level of our love for the Scriptures, God’s written Word. It’s far easier to think the Bible is the end of God’s speech to us, rather than the beginning. But if Christ is, in fact, the Living Word of God, and promises today, in fact, to continue to teach and lead us through the guidance of the Holy Spirit beyond what is written in the Bible, it’s a whole new world ahead.

Christ promises here that as we grow as the people of God, we will be drawn ever deeper into the life of the Triune God, and will learn new things.

“I still have many things to say to you; when the Spirit of truth comes, she will guide you.”

There will come a time when the Holy Spirit herself will lead the Church to realize that arbitrarily assigning a male pronoun to the Holy Spirit, simply because the Church was born in a patriarchal culture, is just that, arbitrary. She will remind us that “Spirit” in Hebrew is feminine, and in Greek, a neuter noun. So there is no particular reason to translate every pronoun for the Spirit as “he” instead of “she.” Except that our forebears usually didn’t imagine God in feminine ways. Nor often do we: many of us wouldn’t have noticed had the Gospel reading included eight male pronouns for the Spirit instead of eight female pronouns.

The Spirit of truth today reminds us how often in the Scriptures she is named as the One who gives us birth, in the waters of baptism, in the life of prayer. That she is the One who births in us gifts, fruits, and draws them into the light of the world like a midwife. Today the Holy Spirit of God reminds the Church, “I am your Mother, the Giver of Life.”

“I still have many things to say to you; when the Spirit of truth comes, she will guide you.”

There will come a time when the Spirit of truth will lead the Church to understand that when Jesus called the First Person of the Trinity “Father,” it was to show us the intimacy the Triune God wishes to have with us. To know our Creator as “Daddy,” “Abba,” so we understood we were loved deeply, not distant from our Creator.

At this time she will also remind us that the Son of God was born into a patriarchal culture, and perhaps knew this new Church couldn’t bear to envision more of God. And in fact, the Church proved we weren’t ready, calling the whole Trinity “Father” to this day, as if God’s wholeness is male.

But perhaps now, as Christ foretold, the Church is ready to bear a deeper, more profound truth, taught us by the Spirit of truth. That the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, whose name we celebrate today, is both beyond all gender and encompassing all gender, that the fullness of humanity, from female to male, is made in the image of God.

The Spirit of truth reveals the truth about the Trinity is so profoundly beyond us we must not limit God to our own categories, but also that the truth about the Trinity is that we, all of us, created in the image of this one, true God, can see ourselves in our God when God comes to us.

“I still have many things to say to you; when the Spirit of truth comes, she will guide you.”

There will come a time, a time which for many began over forty years ago, when the Spirit of truth will lead the Church to understand that all God’s children, women and men, are called to serve in the world, to all vocations for which they have gifts. She will teach us that, though ordained ministry is only one of many vocations for the people of God, both women and men are called to lead as pastors, bishops, deacons, even if for nearly two millennia the Church didn’t believe this. She will teach us that we need to draw from all kinds of God’s children for our leaders.

This time we know is now, for our two bishops, in Minneapolis, and for the churchwide ELCA, are women, and our vicar is a woman, and gifted women and men are leading the Church into new life and new grace in the Spirit, because now we are hearing from the full spectrum of God’s children in our preaching and teaching and leading.

“I still have many things to say to you; when the Spirit of truth comes, she will guide you.”

There will come a time, a time we rejoice is now, when the Spirit of truth will lead the Church to understand that our gender is not the key issue in whether we can love someone and commit our lives to that person, but it is the love we have received in Christ that we then offer to another in marriage that truly matters.

So the Spirit will lead the Church to understand that, even if for hundreds of years we weren’t ready for this as Church, now is that time, and that in marriage between two people, whoever they are, God’s blessing and love for this world can live and thrive and be revealed in the lives of those two people.

“I still have many things to say to you; when the Spirit of truth comes, she will guide you.”

There will come a time when the Spirit of truth will come to each one of us, when she thinks we’re ready, and invite us to deeper life in the life of the Triune God. She will show us that even if we first came to God hoping for what God would do for us, needing something, seeking something, we would be drawn deeper into the love of God we found and be changed. We would come seeking God for ourselves, and leave bearing God for others.

In that time the Spirit of truth will help each of us see the barriers we put up, our mental blocks and blind spots, our tendencies, our sins, all things in us that make us believe we’re the center of our life. She will help us take them down, move them aside, wash them away, until we see at the center of life only the Triune God, the life into which we are drawn, and we seek to draw others along with us into that life.

“I still have many things to say to you; when the Spirit of truth comes, she will guide you.”

There will come a time, a time we pray deeply is now, when the Spirit of truth will lead each of us, will lead the Church, to understand that peace in Christ is for all or it is for none. That the justice of God is for all or it is for none. She will persistently remind us that God needs each one of us to bring about such peace in the world, to bring about such justice. That she has given us God’s power to bear this healing to the world.

In that time the Spirit will plead with the Church, will plead with each of us, to stop always being late to the great battles for human dignity, to stop being last to stand with those who are being crushed, to begin to be first to move, first to cry out, first to stand hand in hand with all God’s children who are in pain and suffering.

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.

When the Spirit of truth comes, she will guide you into all the truth.”

These aren’t frightening words. These are thrilling, hope-filled words. The Triune God walks with us, dances with the Church, and continues to teach and lead and guide. Just exactly what we need as the path gets harder ahead.

And we needn’t worry how to tell if the Spirit of truth is speaking or if it is another. We already know from the written Word of God that if we hear a word saying the Triune God does not love all, or a word saying we are not called to love all, it is not of our Mother the Spirit who bore us into the world in love.

So, there’s even more to come. More things than maybe we can bear today. But when we’re ready – or maybe when our grandchildren or great-grandchildren are ready – the Spirit of truth will, as always, speak up.

Let’s open our hearts and ears to listen with joy and hope, longing for God’s new creation.

In the name of Jesus.  Amen

As we move into the next, quieter part of the year, we also move into the time of contemplating the Holy Spirit’s call and pull on us, and are drawn into the action God needs us to do for the healing of this world.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
   The Day of Pentecost, year C
   texts:  Acts 2:1-21; John 14:8-17, 25-27

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

Today and next Sunday, Pentecost and Holy Trinity, mark the end of the busiest, most intense time in our liturgical year.

The year from Advent to now is packed with festivals, seasons of anticipation and repentance, extra liturgies and devotions. It’s beautiful, fulfilling. But it can be draining.

So, in our life together, the coming of Pentecost always signals quieter, calmer times ahead. Ordinary Time, green Sundays, summer. Fewer meetings, almost no festivals. Just life in Christ, steady, peaceful.

If you’ve been paying attention this morning, that’s a little ironic. We just saw that Pentecost isn’t the end of busy time. It’s the beginning of the explosion of Christ’s life and grace into the world in the lives of believers. We celebrate the beginning of unsettling times today, not quiet times, times of the Holy Spirit burning in hearts, moving people of God to action, to begin the transformation and healing of this world we have broken.

Maybe there’s wisdom in this intersection. Moving into a simpler time right when we receive the promise of the Spirit might help us better hear the Spirit’s call, feel her nudge. Today we realize we’re not heading into a time of lounging around for six months until the schedule fires up again. But this quieter time is a chance to listen, learn, center. So when the Spirit calls, when she begins to give birth to new things, we can hear, and be ready to act.

In these coming weeks and months we can take time, catching our breath, to be open to what the Spirit is doing.

These women and men speaking in languages and proclaiming God’s life in Christ spent nearly two months after the resurrection doing little but listening to Christ. Action came today. But first they listened, learned, began to understand.

Christ’s path we are called to follow isn’t about running forward all the time, never resting. The giving of our lives in service to God, learning self-giving love for all, isn’t a non-stop activity. In fact, our ability to see the road ahead, to help each other navigate the turns, the forks in the road, potholes and threats, is severely reduced if we’re constantly in motion, doing things. We’ll miss exits and risk all sorts of damage if we always drive at 70 miles an hour.

So this coming season can be our time to pull over to the side, check the map with each other. Slow down and look both ways, listening for guidance as to our turns. Allow quiet time that’s hard to find in the busy seasons of life, quiet time for opening our hearts and minds to the Spirit’s wisdom.

This is the ancient way of contemplation, and it’s essential to our clarity of vision, our ability to help each other see and act, our wisdom about the path going forward.

Because we do at some point move forward.

Today the Triune God fulfills the promise that all God’s children will share God’s healing power for the life of the world.

As we heard on Ascension Day, God’s plan all along was not to use power to force the world into love of God and love of neighbor, the way of life God dreams for the world. In Christ, God released the need to use power to dominate, giving it all up and facing death to show us our true way of using power. The power of God’s sacrificial love, breaking the power of death, is the gift the whole world is given in the Spirit. And that gift is so that action will happen. Healing will come to the world. Transformation will begin.

That is, we’ll learn a lot when we pull over and listen, when we slow down and look. But at some point the Spirit comes to us and says, “now it’s time to act. Now let’s move.”

And there are great things expected of us, of those filled with the Spirit.

In fact, Christ says today we will do greater things even than he did.

Somehow, we’ve missed this promise. Maybe because we don’t trust we can do the things God needs. Maybe sometimes we don’t want to. But we act as if we believe things just don’t happen the way they did when Jesus was walking among us. We look at the miracles, the transformed lives, and think, well, that was then, not now.

What if we took Jesus seriously instead?

What if Christ really means that through us, through God’s people throughout this world, the whole world will be transformed and healed? That in fact, what we see happening in Jerusalem on the first Pentecost is only the beginning of what God intends to do through us for the sake of the world?

It’s a little frightening to consider.

It’s daunting to think that the Triune God who made all things actually needs us to be a part of the making of the new creation, that God’s power is only going to work in this world when it is shared through us and all people.

It’s also frightening that we can’t control God’s Spirit. Look at that first day – blowing through 120 women and men, setting their hearts on fire, sending them out of the locked room – they had no vote in the Spirit’s direction. According to Acts, this kept happening. The Spirit moved in people they weren’t ready to welcome, and the Church had to catch up. The Spirit led some to open up the rules for being a part of the body of Christ, and the Church had to catch up.

It’s frightening that we don’t get to tell the Spirit where to go and what to do. We Lutherans like our doctrine neat and tidy and boxed up. But what if the Spirit moves people to do things we’re just not ready for, then what do we do?

Today God is saying, how about be open to this radical gift that my Spirit blows where I want and does what I want and it will be life and grace? Even if you aren’t in control. That’s why once again Christ says today, “Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”

This is the beginning of the completion of God’s plan in coming to be with us.

The transformation of this world begins from within, and in Christ, God-with-us, we see what it looks like when our human life is infused with the grace of the Holy Spirit. Now we see this is to happen to us.

Today we sang with the psalmist that the Holy Spirit comes and renews the face of the earth. That’s what begins today. As we take the time to listen and sense the Spirit’s movement in our lives, we hear the direction, we find the action, we sense what is being born. And when we join in that birth, we participate in God’s renewing the face of this earth.

But don’t be afraid. The Spirit who comes to us brings the comfort and joy of God’s presence to the very center of your being and life. This is the One who moves in us and with us always on our journey, so we are never alone.

This is the One who gives us God’s power to be a part of the making of God’s new creation. And astonishingly, will help us do greater things than even Jesus, help us complete Christ’s mission, until this world is once more blessed to be whole and healed in God’s life and grace.

In the name of Jesus.  Amen