"God As Spirit, Moving Within Us and Among Us, Making Us Holy" Petecost June 4, 2006

(First read the passage for this sermon: Romans 8:22-27)

Today we celebrate being out of control. Does that sound like a strange thing to say? It’s the theme of the day!

Certainly, there is nothing more frightening to us middle and upper class Americans than being out of control. Our need for control is even reflected in the professional titles we covet. What is the career path, in the manufacturing process, or in the corporate structure? To be promoted so that you’re in management, right? How many here are (or were) managers?

Our great cultural illusion is that we can indeed manage dynamics and processes. And so, this morning’s readings are quite alien to that assumption. In this morning’s story from Acts, Jesus’ followers experience God as Spirit run amuck! (Acts 2:1-21) And in the reading from Romans, St. Paul uses the analogy of human birth. How much are we in command of that process? Has anyone ever heard of a baby coming on what we confidently call the “due date?“ The baby comes when it’s time for her to be born, right?

In the very same way, God’s kingdom comes when it’s time – when it’s God’s time. Listen to how Paul uses the analogy of birth to describe this:

We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.

What evocative poetic imagery – of longing, of yearning – and of being out of control.

Perhaps your groaning happens when you read or watch the news. Barbara Brown Taylor puts it this way: “The world turns and conflict flares up like a struck match. A soccer field fills with fresh graves. Believers are shot dead at their prayers. A thin buzzard waits three yards from a thinner child.”

We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.

Perhaps your groaning happens during personal experience. It could happen during periods of depression, or when a loved one endures despair. Perhaps it is the groaning of grief – over a loved one’s death, or over a lost physical ability that you enjoyed during younger years, or over a broken relationship.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience, writes St. Paul.

It is all out of our control. We wait. We hope.

We have basis for hope! We see evidence of what we hope for!

Sometimes that is as dramatic as the fall of the Berlin Wall, with the scene of jubilant West Germans thumping the tops of those Trabants that East Germans drove through newly opened breaches in the Wall. Sometimes the basis for hope is as extraordinary as the collapse of apartheid in South Africa, without a single shot fired.

More often, the evidence for our hope is a daily thing, easy to miss when we’re not alert. It is those daily sightings of those “first fruits of the Spirit” that Paul talks about. In his letter to the church at Galatia, Paul even offers a list of those fruits (5:22-23): [T]he fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Wherever those appear, in daily experience, there is God as Spirit, moving within us and among us, making us holy, because we grow in those divine virtues.

We see glimpses now. We hope for fulfillment! For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Here’s how Martin Luther put it:

This life, therefore,
is not godliness
but the process of becoming godly,

not health
but getting well,

not being
but becoming,

not rest
but exercise.

We are not now what we shall be,
but we are on the way.

The process is not yet finished,
but it is actively going on.

This is not the goal
but it is the right road.

At present, everything does not gleam and sparkle,
but everything is being cleansed.

Martin Luther
From Defense and Explanation of All The Articles
(Luther’s Works, Vol. 32, page 24)

During our final Sunday evening session, I distributed that quote to our 11 Confirmands and their parents, and asked how God is moving within and among them, making them holy in that way. I commend the same exercise to you!

It is God who takes initiative, moving within and among us, making us holy, simply because God loves us! Here we are deep within the mystery that is God. We have no control over the movement of God. All you and I can do is respond to what God is doing in God’s own time.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.

It’s astonishing what Paul is saying here: that we cannot even pray without the Spirit first moving within and among us, making us holy! Instead, prayer is paying attention to the Spirit’s prompting, and responding to that. Only then is it prayer, and not our own prattling out of our own self-centeredness. We are entirely dependent upon God as Spirit, moving within and among us, making us holy.

That is what Luther is describing in the excerpt from the Small Catechism that’s printed on your bulletin insert: that radical dependency on God as Spirit. Without the Spirit, indeed, you and I cannot even believe in God! Faith is pure gift! Check out the portion of Luther’s long sentence that I’ve printed in italics:

The Third Article (of the Creed): On Being Made Holy

"I believe in the Holy Spirit, one holy Christian church, the community of the saints, forgiveness of sins, resurrection of the flesh, and eternal life. Amen.

"What is this? Answer:

"I believe that by my own understanding or strength I cannot believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him, but instead the Holy Spirit has called me through the gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, made me holy and kept me in the true faith, just as he calls, gathers, enlightens, and makes holy the whole Christian church on earth and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one common, true faith. Daily in this Christian church the Holy Spirit abundantly forgives all sins – mine and those of all believers. On the Last Day the Holy Spirit will raise me and all the dead and will give to me and all believers in Christ eternal life. This is most certainly true."

Our faith is created, as a gift of the Spirit. Our prayer is created by the promptings of the Spirit. Our life of active discipleship arises from that prayer, in response to God as Spirit, moving within us and among us, making us holy.
Hear how this is expressed, in the words of the liturgy we will use this morning, when 11 of our young members will stand before us to affirm their Baptisms. We will pray:

“Gracious Lord, through water and the Spirit you have made these men and women your own. You forgave them all their sins and brought them to newness of life. Continue to strengthen them with the Holy Spirit, and daily increase in them your gifts of grace: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord, the spirit of joy in your presence.”

Thanks be to God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit moving within us and among us, making us holy. Amen.


Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia