E-mail: lowell“at”revlowell.com

  Date:      Second Sunday of Easter, Year A 

Texts:

Deuteronomy 5:12-15

Psalm 2

John 20:19-31

  Theme:      Spirituality is reminding ourselves that the Christ is with us, twenty-four

hours a day. 

  Subject:      spirituality

Title: What is Spirituality?

“Jesus breathed on them and said, receive  the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22).

In this post-Eastertime we all have a sense of waiting.  What is going to happen next?  How  is  this Easter story going to play itself out in the life of Bethel church?  In each  of our  lives, there  is a sense of wonder, What is going to happen in your  life  as you  are caught up in this new life the risen Christ has declared for all of us?  My  text  this morning is found in the 22^nd verse of John chapter 20.  The  two Marys who  had talked with the risen Christ had reported this unbelievable information  about Jesus to  the  disciples.   To  the shock of the disciples  Jesus appeared  to  them behind locked  doors.  The Risen  Christ  first gave a blessing:  “Peace be  with  you”.  Then  he breathed on them and said, RECEIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT.  That act of Jesus triggers  the beginning of our spirituality.

Why  a  sermon on spirituality?  Is not all preaching about spirituality?  Yes  and No.  Preaching  should proclaim God’s will, proclaim what is right, what we should be  doing and what we should not be doing.  But, a lot of preaching gets bogged down in the petty details  of  trying  to help  people  move from eating   spiritual  baby food  to  maybe a hamburger  of  faith. There is far too much psychology, emotion and  ineffective  stories in much of today’s preaching.

And worst of all is the prosperity preaching from many of our TV preachers who  tell you that God will make you prosper if you send dollars, big dollars to their ministry.  In the last few years we have learned how big donations really are spent. Not too long ago, Malcolm Warford, the president of our seminary in Bangor, Maine, said, “We are living at the end of an era.  We have lived of our heritage.  We have dilut-ed  our heritage as much as we can. The well has gone dry.  It is time for us to say  what we stand for.”

Let’s begin  this morning by examining the spiritual content of the Biblical  passages you  heard earlier.  Of the first four commandments, the first one deals with  the nature and  reality  of God.   It stresses that God is one and no other gods  are  to be  tolerated.  The second commandment stresses the spiritual nature of God in that no images can  be made of God—no idols.  The third commandment declares God’s name to be holy and to be honored as such. I feel pain every time I hear swear words which are tossed off  with the flip of the tongue.  To me it is like a needle being stuck into my body! In  the  forth  commandment,  one whole day in the week is  to be  devoted  focusing on God’s holiness.  We frequently refer to these commandments as law but what is the  law about?   This  law declares the spirituality of God.  One God. No image.   Name  is spe-cial, a reminder 24 hours long.

We  don’t grab the spirituality of God with the speed that we use to get our  Big Mac and fries!  It takes time and intention.  That’s why Mr. Warford said our well is dry.  We have  not  been  intentional about opening ourselves to God.  But  a  whole  day?   Let’s think about that.

In three of the Gospels we find Jesus dealing with this problem.  On a Sabbath,  some Pharisees caught his disciples rubbing out some grains of wheat and eating them. Shell-ing out grains of wheat is classified as work and therefore forbidden.  How  did Jesus  handle  this? With some sarcasm, he asked if they  had  never read what  David  and his  companions did.  They had gone into  the  temple  and eaten  the Bread  of Presence which was only lawful for priests to eat.  And the temple did not  fall down!

Jesus declared  that  God had made the Sabbath for humans, not  the  other  way  ar-ound.  God  knew  that it was difficult for human beings to comprehend  all  that God was,  so  the Sabbath was created as the opportunity for human  beings  to comprehend the spiritual nature and power of God.

What have we done with that Sabbath opportunity?  What do Christians and Jews do with  that opportunity?  Do we use the opportunity to worship?  Do we use  the  oppor-tunity  to  pray? to study God’s word? to rest?, to relax and refresh our bodies  and  our souls?  The  Holy Spirit has a tough time getting into a body that is doing six  things  at one time!

When  you go shopping on Sunday, you are forcing others to work.  The days  of  the BLUE LAWS  are gone.  The city or state has no business in telling merchants  they  can only be open certain days or telling us when we must worship or where we must  pray, such as in school.  If we believe that we are the children of God, then our own convictions should force  us  to ask what is necessary for us to have a healthy  spiritual  life.  How much shopping is really necessary on Sunday for us?

This  is what spirituality is all about.  Spirituality is acknowledging that God  is  God. Spirituality  is being open to God.  I am not talking about being mentally or  intellectual-ly  open to  God.   Our spirit, our soul needs to be open to God and  that  cannot  be  the case if we are concentrating on a TV show or arguing with the family or fighting  traffic to get to one more party.

Spirituality is letting God be so big in your life that the mean and petty are  crowded out;  the  feeling you have to get even with someone or be first or make more money  so you can buy another car.

Let Christ be big in your life.

As you heard the Second Psalm read this morning you probably wondered what this coronation of  a  king with all the bluster of rebellion, has to do  with this  first  Sunday after  Easter.  If you do a little hunting around in this Psalm you will begin to find  some clues in  the phrases, “his anointed, Zion, my  holy  hill, serve the Lord with  fear,  with trembling kiss his feet.”

The ancient  Hebrews  thought of their kings as channels of  blessing.   These kings represented  the preference of God to the people.  It is no surprise that the  people  were expected  to  kiss their feet.  These were holy acts.  Sometimes it is hard for  us to  com-prehend  how people two to four thousand years ago experience the spiritual  nature  of God.

Spiritual renewal is simply reminding ourselves of this reality, the Christ is  with  us, twenty-four hours a day while we are living and with us in death.  Nothing  is too  common  to be exalted.  In the course of a day there  are  at least  12 times  when we  need  to remind ourselves God is with us.   We  need to  sense  God’s presence in:

the alarm clock that rouses us from sleep—THANK GOD FOR THE GIFT OF TIME

the cup of coffee or the hurried breakfast—THANK GOD FOR THE GIFT OF FOOD

  The    crowded   subway,    bus,   train  or   highway    where   everyone    does    the

unexpected—THANK GOD FOR THE GIFT OF MOVEMENT

  arriving  at work, same old station but with an urgent note  “Do  this  first”—THANK

GOD FOR THE GIFT OF WORK WHICH CREATES

in  the course of the workday, someone yells, “I’ve had 14 complaints about such  and

such  Don’t do that again.—THANK GOD FOR CHALLENGES

Once  in a while someone says “Just had word from Joe that he really liked what  you

did with that project”—THANK GOD FOR THE GIFT OF SATISFACTION

at  break or lunch time, gossip, jokes, sports or TV reviews—THANK GOD FOR THE

GIFT OF FRIENDS

AT  THE END OF THE DAY—IN SPITE OF UPS AND DOWNS—THANK GOD  FOR

THE GIFT OF ACCOMPLISHMENT

going home—THANK GOD FOR THE GIFT OF FAMILY

fun in the evening—THANK GOD FOR THE GIFT OF LEISURE

when your head hits the pillow—THANK GOD FOR THE GIFT OF SLEEP

in your dreams—THANK GOD FOR THE GIFT OF LIFE

Concern for  spirituality  is showing up all across the United Church  of  Christ and many  other  denominations  too.   This  concern for spirituality  is  not a  denial  of the prophetic witness that our church has borne for many years.  But the truth of the matter is  that some  of  us have been so busy  with the protests  and  demonstrations  that  we have  lost touch  with  the spiritual  power God provides.   Too many  of  us have  just assumed  that we  know  what needs to be done and that God is  blessing what  we  do when in fact we have forgotten that God exists!

I commend a threefold spiritual discipline to you.

1.   Be aware that God exists in your life.

2.   Do specific things because you are thinking of God., e.g., worship, prayer.

3.            Mediate.  At least  once a day—for five minutes; turn off the radio.   Turn  off the

TV.   Turn off the stereo.  Shut the door.  Turn your mind, your thought processes  loose with God.   Acknowledge  that God is in that room, in your body.  Ask God  what  you should do.  Listen for God’s answer.

Spirituality takes takes time and intention.  Spirituality is acknowledging that God  is God.  Spirituality is being open to God. Spirituality is letting God be so big in your  life that the mean and petty are crowded out.

Let Christ be big in your life.

Amen.

--Eugene Schneider

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