A Double Portion A Sermon

A Double Portion
2 Kings 2: 1-2; 6-16/ Galatians/ 5: 1; 13-25/Luke 9: 51-62
5th Sunday of Pentecost/ Year C/ June 27. 2010

This is one of those Sundays when the chosen texts for the day seem to be unconnected, disjointed, and downright strange. The story of Elijah being taken up to heaven seems, to our 21st Century minds to be an episode from Star Trek or Raiders of the Lost Ark. Paul’s discourse on freedom seems to be a harangue on the behavior of those in the church in Galatia with his listing of the various vices of the flesh that ensnare us. And The Gospel text is a strange mélange of images and sayings of Jesus on being a disciple or follower of the way. They don’t, on first look, hang together with some overarching theme. They seem to be random statements or selections just thrown into the list by the creators of the Lectionary to fill the hot summer Sundays in the weeks following Pentecost. As I read and reflected on these texts over the last week, I felt frustrated and at times angry with myself that I couldn’t find or hear what the texts were saying to me or to the church. I gave up late last night and went to bed with literally nothing on paper for today. As is my custom at bedtime, I picked up the current book I’ve been reading, “The Lord and Giver of Life” edited by David J. Hansen, professor of theology at Austin Seminary in Texas. It is a series of essays on pneumatology. Pneumatology is a fancy word for words about the Spirit. As I was reading Jansen’s essay on “Discerning the Spirit,” It suddenly hit me why these texts were placed in the lectionary at this particular point in time. The key was the request of Elisha for a double portion of his mentor’s spirit. They all deal with the presence of the Spirit; the presence of God in the life of the people of God. Elijah was a great prophet called by God, filled with the Spirit to call not only the King and Queen, Ahab and Jezebel, to account for their sins against humanity and God, but also to call the people to account, to repent and return to God, to turn away from the things of the flesh, form the things that this world offers to us, and abide in the presence of God.
Holy Spirit needs bodies. The Christian faith from the very beginning has recognized that the incarnation means Word embraces flesh. Our confessions about Jesus Christ, the church, the Lord’s Supper, are all embodied claims; God’s son comes in the flesh. God’s people are the body of Christ in the world; the Eucharist remembers and celebrates Christ body broken for the world. But when we say Holy Spirit needs bodies we are confused, the phrase rings strange in our ears. How can something invisible be a body or need a body. For many of us Spirit implies distance from bodies and opposition to the flesh. God, as Spirit is wholly other than our embodied selves. Hovering over the waters of Creation, but not resting upon them, Spirit animates the life of bodies but does not become a body. To make the Spirit a body causes the Spirit to vanish in a mound of flesh. When we try to separate the Spirit from the body we loose the sense of God’s presence. We tend to focus on the two main aspects of our faith God and Jesus and give short shrift to the Spirit. But when we do that we loose a valuable asset in our understanding of God and of Jesus. The presence of the Spirit is the presence of God. It was present when God created the heavens and the earth. It was present when God blew God’s Spirit into Adam and Eve. It was present in the Burning Bush that called Moses to lead the people from captivity into freedom. It was present in David as he ruled the people of Israel and in the prophets as they called the people to account for their sins. It was this Spirit that Elisha asked Elijah for as his inheritance. And it was within Jesus when he came to proclaim release to the captive, restore sight to the blind, cause the lame to leap like a hart, and the dumb to speak. It is God’s spirit that seeks out bodies to bring the very presence of God to life in human form. The presence of the risen Lord is a presence of the Spirit, showing us that God does love us and wants to bring us finally into loving relationship with God. It is this wild and welcoming Spirit that we encounter in the closing pages of the Bible, stirring up prophecy and vindicating the righteous.
The Spirit of God is the main focus of all three texts today. It is Spirit that calls individuals to faith. It is Spirit that welcomes us with open arms. It is Spirit that gives us the gifts we need in order to live lives of true freedom. The Spirit gives us the gifts of life vision, hearing, understanding, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. It is the Spirit that guided Elijah as he sought to return Israel to a right relationship with God. It is the Spirit that came upon Elisha and allowed him to bring and end to the evil reign of Ahab and Jezebel. It is the Spirit that filled the prophets with forecasts of doom and gloom and then gave them the vision of the true world that God desired for all of creation. It is the Spirit that makes possible the living and hearing of the Scriptures as pathways to righteousness. It is the Spirit that gives breath and life of all of God’s good creation. The Spirit is the very presence of God in our lives, guiding, comforting, convicting, forgiving, and empowering each and every one of us. The Spirit gives life to bodies, the life of the church, and the world. It is by the Ruach, the breath of God, that the world is renewed. The Spirit blows where it will, carrying us to new places, breathing fresh insights into the dusty corners of supposed comfort, reminding us even in the darkest moments, when all seems bleak and despair knocks at the door, that God is with us, that we are never alone in the world.