Summer of the Spirit // 2 Stories

 

sermon notes from the Vineyard Church of Milan 07/06/2014

video available at www.sundaystreams.com/go/MilanVineyard
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Ugandan anti-homosexual legislation introduced in February, carrying harsh penalties for homosexual activity (up to life in prison, having recently dropped the provision for the death penalty after international pressure), as well as a 7 year sentence for aiding and abetting homosexuality, which includes renting property or housing a homosexual. In the time since its passage, there has been an increase in reported cases of persecution of homosexuals of between 750-1900%. Things like violent attacks, arbitrary arrests, blackmail, and evictions.

For example, this letter from landlord to a tennant: "You are a wonderful woman as well as a tenant who hasn't given me any trouble over rent whatsoever," but added that "[d]ue to what is going on in the country ... I am sorry but I think you are a depraved person who I can no longer tolerate in my house. I also cannot fight against the government."

Regardless of your particular moral convictions or your interpretation of biblical sanctions regarding homosexuality, imagine that you are the parent of a gay child living in your home, and feeling compelled to ask your child to leave your home for fear of prosecution from law enforcement agents. Or a doctor to whom a gay person has come seeking medical attention. Or a server waiting on a gay person. What do you do? Follow your conscience, your best sense of what Love is calling you to do, perhaps risking imprisonment? Or say I am sorry, I cannot fight against the government.

Now imagine that you are Pepe Julian Onziema, a transgender human rights advocate living in Uganda, being interviewed on Ugandan television.

[full program on YouTube here]

Two things stood out to me as I watched him (and really, you get a better sense of it throughout the whole hour long program, which you can find on youtube). First, he seems to have extraordinary emotional maturity. He’s so calm, emotionally level, and focused on his primary goal, which is advocating for his country to treat homosexuals with dignity and respect, as human beings. He’s this way despite the ignorant questions and statements made by the moderator. Despite the tirades launched at him by opponents who call in via phone and show up in the studio. Despite the threat of arrest from the government. And secondly, he stays. He stays in the studio, and he stays in Uganda. Despite every kind of pressure, internal and external to disconnect, to leave it behind, to say, enough of this, he remains. It almost seems, as you watch him, that despite being essentially powerless and on the wrong side of all kinds of circumstances, he’s well. He’s in charge of himself. He’s alive and experiencing life.

What gives a human being this remarkable capacity?

My answer is the Holy Spirit.

I suppose it’s possible some combination of other environmental and internal factors in Pepe Julian’s life could produce a similar capacity.

But my money would still be on the Holy Spirit being at the heart of it all.

Because the witness of the scriptures is that what we see in this Human Rights Advocate is precisely what the Holy Spirit makes possible for a human being to set them free from the dis-couraging clutches of an anxious system, and allow them to become a non-anxious presence in that system, and ultimately an instrument of transformation.

That’s our thesis, in fact, for our Summer of the Spirit series. That the Holy Spirit is the gift of God that allows us human beings to grow in our capacity to experience the life Jesus invites us to, makes possible for us, gives us, and leads us into, despite the anxieties and fears rampant in our world. That the Holy Spirit is the personal, favoring, enlightening presence of divine Love that drives out fear and establishes a beachhead for the kingdom of God, both in us personally and in our world’s systems. True emotional maturity can only develop in the context of that kind of Love.

Last week we began to look at the way the Holy Spirit transformed Jesus’ disciple Peter from a shadow of Peter – afraid, insecure, posturing, violent, lying, betraying his best friend and his best intentions – into the real Peter. Secure, confident, standing up without shame, paying attention to others, authoritative, alive with full life because of the favoring presence of God present to him through the Holy Spirit.

This week we’re going to see a scene where we see Peter acting a lot like Pepe Julian Onziema. Except that Peter’s not advocating for the opportunity to live free from persecution. Peter’s advocating for the right to bear witness to reality. And as we’ll see, Peter demonstrates that same kind of emotional maturity, calm collected, that same focus on his goal, and that same commitment to stay, to remain, despite persecution, as long as it’s possible to stay.

Background…healing of cripple, response of the crowds…

4 The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people. ²They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people, proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. ³They seized Peter and John, and because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day. ⁴But many who heard the message believed; so the number of men who believed grew to about five thousand.

⁵The next day the rulers, the elders and the teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. ⁶Annas the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander and others of the high priest’s family. ⁷They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: “By what power or what name did you do this?”

⁸Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people! ⁹If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, ¹⁰then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. ¹¹Jesus is

“ ‘the stone you builders rejected,

which has become the cornerstone.’

¹²Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved.”

¹³When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. ¹⁴But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say. ¹⁵So they ordered them to withdraw from the Sanhedrin and then conferred together. ¹⁶“What are we going to do with these men?” they asked. “Everyone living in Jerusalem knows they have performed a notable sign, and we cannot deny it. ¹⁷But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn them to speak no longer to anyone in this name.”

¹⁸Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. ¹⁹But Peter and John replied, “Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges! ²⁰As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

2 stories happening here. One in its middle chapters, in full stride; the other just being introduced.

Story one: transformation of Peter through the introduction of the Holy Spirit.

He’s arrested, jailed, placed at the center of power, questioned.

He doesn’t posture, he doesn’t pull out a sword, he doesn’t lie.

He’s free, confident. Alive.

This is the work of the Holy Spirit.

As miraculous and supernatural as it might be, it’s not magic. It’s Divine Creativity working through powerful loving presence to restore a human being to the fullness of an image-bearer.

God’s Holy Spirit is his personal, favoring presence with Peter. Making Peter aware that he belongs with God, that he shares an identity with Jesus as a beloved child of the living God. The Holy Spirit brings Peter into an awareness that God loves him, and perhaps even more than that, mediates to him an experience of God’s loving presence. Producing a confidence that God will provide for him, whatever he needs to thrive in this world. Whether it’s food or protection or affection or rest or understanding of the world around him or a worthwhile task that fits his longings and passions or the gifts and empowering he needs to succeed. Whatever Peter needs, the Holy Spirit reminds him to ask, and waits with him for God to address his needs.

That’s the work of the Holy Spirit in you at work, facing a looming quota. Or a glory hogging co-worker. Or an upset customer. Or dysfunctional boss. That’s the work of the Holy Spirit in you at home, with your kids at their worst, or you at your worst, for that matter. That’s the work of the Holy Spirit with you in your ministry, teaching or serving or leading or bearing witness through words or actions or art to the goodness of God.

It’s miraculous, and supernatural. But it’s not magic. It’s Love. Right here. Right now. With you. Helping you grow in your capacity to experience Life.

Story two: transformation of the world’s anxious systems.

This is a story that’s still in process, even today, so here in Acts 4 it’s just the beginning of the story. But like any great first chapter, all the makings of the story to come are present in it.

And again, although it’s a miraculous and supernatural transformation that’s happening, it’s not magic. Here in story two, its divine creativity working through the powerful loving presence of spirit-filled, self-differentiated, non-anxious people.

Remember, the Bible is bearing witness to two worlds in conflict, two kingdoms at odds with each other. The first the kingdom of the prince of this world, the world under the rule of fear, the second the kingdom of God, the world under the rule of love.

World under the rule of fear is an anxious system. Anxious systems organize themselves around the least emotionally mature members. Those who throw the biggest fits.

Leaders in anxious systems, in spite of their best intentions and big dreams early on, usually end up spending most of their energies managing the emotional outbursts of the least mature members. Edwin Friedman calls this a “failure of nerve.” And it happens because the leaders themselves are subject to the same fundamental anxieties of everyone else in the anxious system.

Priests, captain of the temple guard, Sadducees are such leaders in an anxious system. Perhaps at one time in history they were actual leaders, in the true sense of the word, as in leading people some good where for some good purpose. But now they are pre-occupied with keeping their power and privilege. They’ve got to keep Rome happy by keeping the peace among the people. They’ve had a failure of nerve. They are caught in spiderweb upon spiderweb of anxious systems causing them to perceive Peter and John as threats.

What’s the threat?

Firstly, the people are excited about Peter and John (because they healed the cripple). This is always a threat to a leader caught in the web of an anxious system. The leader imagines that his or her power is a function of the favor of the people they lead. Which is why they respond to the fits of the emotionally immature. So, if someone else has favor, it feels like a threat to their power. (Parents!)

Secondly, Peter and John seem to be responding to the authority of someone outside the anxious system. This is always a threat too, for a leader caught up in the anxious system, since someone outside the anxious system is unresponsive to the system and therefore unpredictable to those in the system, who have come to organize all of their actions around the rules of the system. This kind of unpredictability is always dangerous to power players in the system.

Thirdly, Peter and John are announcing the resurrection of the dead. The Sadducees believed that there was no afterlife, no reward, no punishment. This justifies their “just try to survive and get what you can” approach to their position of power. But if there is something more than this life, something that may include reward or punishment for the actions in this life, it changes the equations they depend on to maintain power in the anxious system. What if someone isn’t motivated by rewards here and now? What if someone becomes less concerned about punishments now? This disturbs the system, and thus also disturbs the leaders in that system, who have been trained to spend all their energy maintaining equilibrium.

Now here’s the interesting thing about anxious systems. The only hope for them is self-differentiated leaders who maintain a non-anxious presence in the system and stay connected. People who have a clear sense of themselves, who are motivated by an internal passion, a dream, a vision, something they are going after, and who stay connected to the people in the anxious system. When anxious systems are led by self-differentiated leaders, the least emotionally mature members actually grow in the direction of the leaders, rather than the leaders losing their nerves and organizing around their immaturity.

It takes two things to be a self-differentiated leader who maintains a non-anxious presence and stays connected. First, it takes remarkable security – a sense of belonging independent of the favor of the anxious system – the kind of security not provided by or achievable from within the system. And secondly, it takes the ability to see. To see who oneself is, what is included in the self and what is not, to see where oneself ends and where another begins, to see the thing, the vision, the passion that one is going after, spending one’s life on, to see the anxiety in the system and the immaturity of its members, to see them for what they truly are beyond, or under, their immaturity and anxiety.

This is the miracle of the work of the Holy Spirit in Peter, and in every human being. The Holy Spirit brings the security a vulnerable and flawed human being needs to be free of fear.

We’re vulnerable, meaning at the end of the day we all have needs we can’t meet on our own, so security can only come in the form of promised provision from someone more powerful than we are who has favor towards us. And we’re flawed, so security can only come from someone who has demonstrated that our flaws cannot threaten his favor towards us. The Holy Spirit is the perfect love of God made personal and present, fulfilling the promise and demonstrating unrelenting favor, driving out fear.

 

And the Holy Spirit helps people see. See in the word’s fullest metaphorical sense. As in perceive, understand, notice. We’ve talked about this before; it seems that this is in fact the primary work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy spirit helps us see ourselves, see God, see one another, see reality around us as it really is.

Isn’t this beautiful!?

How it is that God goes about rescuing humanity from evil, from sin, from death, from fear, from violence, from oppression, from slavery? God enters our anxious world as a self-differentiated, non-anxious presence, and stays connected. He incarnates himself as the most self-differentiated, non-anxious leader in human history, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus, secure, fearless, filled with the Holy Spirit, seeing himself as messiah, seeing God as the favoring, forgiving Father, seeing people as lost, anxious sheep without a shepherd, seeing the good news of God’s kingdom coming, present, arriving, spending his life on that mission, regardless of its cost, confident in the possibility of resurrection and therefore immune to the fundamental anxiety of our anxious system. And Jesus trains a community around him, to whom he gives his Holy Spirit so that they too might become self-differentiated, non-anxious leaders who would spread throughout the world, penetrating every anxious system with the announcement of good news and offering the gift of the Holy Spirit to every person who came to desire the life that Jesus offers. Thereby undoing the anxious systems and replacing them with the kind of system only love can work out.

And it works. It works because people actually want something more than a system organized around their emotional immaturity. They want life. It’s just that they settle for less than life – when it seems like life is impossible. (again, toddlers! Parents!)

The healing of this cripple is a sign of life. It’s a sign of the life present in Peter through the transformation the Holy Spirit has done in him. It’s a sign of the life of the risen Jesus, by whose authority this healing happened. It’s a sign of real life available to a cripple, who represents all of us living limited capacity lives, begging for what little we have, and then getting more than we ever thought possible from Jesus.

It’s a sign of life that signals the end of anxious systems and their fear-based leaders, and the beginning of the reign of the risen Jesus and his kingdom of love taking hold through the Holy Spirit.

Practical Suggestions:

1. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you see the anxious systems you are part of.

2. Receive the Holy Spirit, intentionally. Before you go to bed, say to yourself: “Tomorrow I will receive the peace of the Holy Spirit when I am _______________, and I will ask God for what I need, trusting that he will address my needs.”

Summer of the Spirit // Will the Real Peter Please Stand Up

 

sermon notes from the Vineyard Church of Milan 06/29/2014

video available at www.sundaystreams.com/go/MilanVineyard
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or via iTunes here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/vineyard-church-of-milan/id562567379

Riding bike at night, cool wind against skin, music, stars, road rushing under wheels, body alive, sense of connectedness and love, free. Aware of needs, but not angry or distressed in that moment. Peaceful. Joyful. Content. Lucky. Life. Not all of it, of course – not even close. But a slice, a bite, of life. The good stuff. Being alive.

So much working together for me to have that experience of life. Thought about the kind of growth that had gone into that even being possible for me. Thought about how much more was needed to have that experience in a way that wasn’t dependent on my external circumstances. The people I’ve known for whom that’s the case. Jesus in particular.

Isn’t that what we all want, really, at the end of the day? To grow into the kind of people who can experience the reality of life, more and more, day after day, in a way that is independent of external circumstances? Sure, we want leisure, or protection, or belonging, or a meaningful outlet for our creativity, or food on the table, or better understanding of confusing or troubling things, or a more rooted sense of identity, or affection, or the freedom to pursue our own passions, or whatever it might be in any particular moment. But at the end of the day, don’t we want all of those things because they are part of getting to the experience of life?

Here’s my theory. Faith – our lives in trusting, intimate relationship with God - is meant to make a transformative impact on us at every level of human need. And God’s gift to us, the Spirit, is at the center of that transformative impact.

In other words, our experience of trusting, intimate relationship with a God who is as near to us as our next breath, with whom we can have some kind of personal interaction and communication, whom we come to know as Love, and as revealed among humanity in Jesus of Nazareth is the only sure way to life in the most meaningful sense of that word.

And when we look at the full spectrum of human experience - from anger and envy and selfish ambition and jealousy and hatred and hopelessness and desperate meanness on one end, to love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, generosity, self-control on the other – the catalyst changing the script from one to the other is what Jesus’ first followers understood to be the Holy Spirit, the breath or wind of God. (for a primer on the Holy Spirit, consider listening to or watching our series called “Life After Easter” that we recently concluded.)

So we’re kicking off a series to run through July called “Summer of the Spirit.” The Holy Spirit is our topic. In particular, the role the Holy Spirit plays in the growth of our capacity as human beings to experience the life Jesus came to give to us.

Today we’re going to look at how the gift of the Spirit brings about transformation in Jesus’ disciple, Peter.

First, though, a brief primer on our needs as human beings. Because faith – and the Holy Spirit, who is so central to faith – makes a transformative impact on us right at the level of our needs.

If you google “fundamental human needs” you’ll come across a taxonomy of Human Needs developed by Manfred Max-Neef and his colleagues. He’s a Chilean economist and researcher who spent much of his life working on problems of human development in third world countries. Max-Neef argues that the needs we have because we are human beings are few, finite, classifiable, and constant through all human cultures and across historical time periods. Here’s the list of needs:

Subsistence

Protection

Affection

Understanding

Participation

Leisure

Creation

Identity

Freedom

His theories are interesting on their own merits, but what’s important for our purposes is how the faith of Jesus – his life in trusting, intimate relationship with God – has a transformative impact on his needs. Take subsistence. He brings his need for food (and our need for that matter) to God, and God addresses it. Protection, same thing. Affection? Check. Understanding. Participation. Leisure. Creation. All the way on down the line to Identity and Freedom. Nothing lacking. He even tells his disciples, look, your Father knows what you need before you even ask. Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, fully incarnated as a human being, brings every one of his human needs to God, finds them satisfied through the Spirit, and has all the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, generosity, self-control one could ask for. Jesus’ life, day in, day out, in the midst of the pressures and the struggles and the persecution, has the chock-full-of-life quality of my midnight bike ride.

That strikes me as incredibly attractive. I want some of that. As much of that as I can get.

The witness of the Bible is that the Holy Spirit is what makes that possible. The personal, non-material, energetically animating, favoring presence of the living God as near to Jesus as his indrawn breath.

We see the Spirit at work in that way in a powerfully relatable way in the life of Peter. The fisherman who joins Jesus’ ragamuffin band of followers and later goes on to be a hero in faith.

We pick up in Luke 22, during the famous Last Supper, Jesus’ last meal with his students before his arrest and eventual crucifixion. (Peter is also called “Simon.”)

²⁴A dispute also arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest…

³¹“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. ³²But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”

³³But he replied, “Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death.”

³⁴Jesus answered, “I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me.”

The implication here is that Peter was part of this “greatest” debate, and that Jesus identifies him as one having a special place among them – and yet warns him that his strength is not what he might think it is. In the middle of it we see Peter asserting his commitment and faithfulness, saying “I’m ready to go with you to prison and to death!” The point is not that he’s wrong, it’s that he’s doing it all. It shows something about what’s happening inside of Peter. He’s insecure. And it leads to posturing.

All bragging, posturing is a form of insecurity, and it reveals deep down anxiety. We want people to think highly of us. Because if they think highly of us they will include us, we’ll belong. We’ll have help surviving. We’ll receive their protection, their affection. We’ll be given opportunity to participate. Our identity is tied up in others’ perceptions of us.

What would have given Peter life in this situation? Maybe listening to Jesus’ words about the difficulties coming. Maybe taking them seriously, asking for help, advice, direction. Embracing reality, and his vulnerability in the face of it, engaging the world as it really is, as he really is.

But no, his insecurity and anxiety get the better of Peter. So he postures, brags. Doesn’t really hear what Jesus is saying. Has his weight on the wrong foot, so that when the real world blows against him, it’s that much easier for it to knock him off balance.

Peter’s heart is warm towards Jesus, though, which is part of the tragedy here. He does love him. He wants to be ready to go with him. But that gets twisted by anxiety into this spectacularly useless posturing.

It’s a nice sentiment Peter offers – I’m ready to go with you – but it’s not actually true, is it? Peter isn’t ready. But he can’t see that about himself, because he can’t see what’s coming, and he can’t see his own vulnerability in the face of it. Why not? Anxiety, insecurity. Run of the mill stuff we all experience every day. We can relate to Peter here.

Minus the insecurity and anxiety, maybe Peter embraces his vulnerability. Says to Jesus, “Jesus, I want to be helpful to you. I want to go with you all the way to prison and death if I have to. But I’m not sure I’m ready. What should I do?”

And maybe Jesus says to Peter, “Peter, this road leads to a place I have to walk alone. As much as part of me wants you with me, the truth is it’s more than you can handle. It’s more than I can handle, in fact, but I’m called to go there, so I know I’ll find the grace I need when I get there. You, you’re calling is different. Listen to your calling, be faithful to it, there will be grace for it. Have no fear; ask God for the help you need when you find yourself alone. He loves you, as he loves me.”

A little later on, that night…

⁴⁵When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. ⁴⁶“Why are you sleeping?” he asked them. “Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation (enter the trial).”

⁴⁷While he was still speaking a crowd came up, and the man who was called Judas, one of the Twelve, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him, ⁴⁸but Jesus asked him, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?”

⁴⁹When Jesus’ followers saw what was going to happen, they said, “Lord, should we strike with our swords?” ⁵⁰And one of them struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear.

⁵¹But Jesus answered, “No more of this!” And he touched the man’s ear and healed him.

Peter is at the center of this story, too, as other accounts tell us. He’s the one who cuts the ear off the servant of the high priest.

What are Jesus’ instructions to Peter? Pray that you will not enter the trial. That’s supposed to be Peter’s weapon. Bringing his needs to God, in his vulnerability, for God to address them. That’s the protection he wields in his vulnerability.

But that’s not what Peter does. He pulls out a sword. It looks like courage in the face of a terrible threat, but it’s not. Not truly. What it is is abandoning his trust in Jesus and putting his trust in a sword. And once again it’s because he is afraid, anxious, insecure. As we’ll see, even the most heroic looking courage, when it springs from fear, is less than the kind of confidence that comes later from the Holy Spirit.

And now one more scene with Peter before the Holy Spirit comes on the scene…

⁵⁴Then seizing him [Jesus], they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance. ⁵⁵And when some there had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them. ⁵⁶A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, “This man was with him.”

⁵⁷But he denied it. “Woman, I don’t know him,” he said.

⁵⁸A little later someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.”

“Man, I am not!” Peter replied.

⁵⁹About an hour later another asserted, “Certainly this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean.”

⁶⁰Peter replied, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. ⁶¹The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.” ⁶²And he went outside and wept bitterly.

Now Peter’s courage has failed entirely. This is always what happens to courage that comes absent the awareness of God’s presence. Peter is separated from Jesus, alone, and he’s acting fully out of fear and desperation, like a cornered animal. Peter’s fear is especially visible in contrast with Jesus, the one who’s been arrested and is facing trial and torture, who looks Peter full on in the eyes, unafraid, unangry. Jesus, seeing clearly in peace, looking at Peter running blind in fear.

Now, let’s fast forward 7 weeks or so. Jesus has been raised from the dead, forgiven Peter, restored him, and slipped into the heavens to rule over the new creation that has begun with his resurrection. Peter and the other disciples have been waiting in Jerusalem, as instructed by Jesus, for the promised Holy Spirit. The Spirit is dramatically and powerfully poured out on Pentecost, and the disciples start giving thanks to God in all kinds of foreign languages that they’ve never studied or learned before. Which creates, as we might imagine, quite a scene.

²Amazed and perplexed, they [the crowd] asked one another, “What does this mean?”

¹³Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”

¹⁴Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd:

“Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say….

Zoom in on Peter for a second. Peter, taking his stand… raising his voice… declaring...

All in the face of a mocking crowd.

And then going on to give a speech without defensiveness, but confident, eloquent.

Is this the same Peter we saw 7 weeks ago?

Well, yes and no. Yes, it’s Peter – the Peter we met on his fishing boat, laying it all down to run after Jesus, and the Peter we saw walking on water, and announcing that Jesus was the Christ; we’ve known he had this in him – but something’s changed. He’s not acting like a person acts when he or she is insecure and anxious. Not at all.

You can only give the kind of speech he gave here, unprepared and impromptu, when you aren’t battling anxiety. This is Peter, secure, peaceful, unafraid.

Next chapter, it continues.

3 One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon. ²Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. ³When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. ⁴Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” ⁵So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them.

⁶Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” ⁷Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. ⁸He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God.

"...what I do have, I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene - walk!"

What Peter had to give was authority.

Authority can only be exercised effectively when one is secure. (Seizing the man’s hand, raising him up...)

And what Peter had also was that he could walk after having been a cripple himself, metaphorically speaking. The transformation we’ve seen already in Peter is mirrored in this beggar. Begging, crippled to standing upright, walking, leaping, entering the temple, praising God. Peter is giving away what he himself has received from God. Who gives away what they’ve received? People who are secure and unafraid do, confident that they will be provided for.

We’ll stop here in the story, for now. There’s one more bit of it that we’ll get to next week, but for now, I think we can already see what an incredible difference the Holy Spirit makes in Peter.

Which Peter is more likely to be experiencing life as Jesus is training and inviting him to experience it? Which Peter is more likely to be growing and thriving?

Which Peter is more likely to ask God to address his needs for

Subsistence

Protection

Affection

Understanding

Participation

Leisure

Creation

Identity

Freedom?

The Peter with the Holy Spirit, that’s which Peter.

Which Peter is the true Peter?

Peter, like any one of us, is this extraordinary mix of personality and experience and dreams and passions and hurts and strengths and weaknesses, and like all human beings, vulnerable and flawed. Before the Holy Spirit he’s all those things but he’s also profoundly alone, anxious, afraid, and insecure in the face of a dangerous and sometimes cruel world. With the Holy Spirit he’s all those things – including vulnerable and flawed – but he’s also profoundly not alone, secure in his belonging with God, confident that he is beloved and cared for and provided for. And that changes everything.

God desires and offers that for each and every one of us through the gift of the Holy Spirit made possible in Jesus’ saving work on the cross.

This kind of transformation we see in Peter is the work of the Holy Spirit, in cooperation with the person. It’s not like a magic pill or some kind of hypnotic spell – we’ll talk about that more, next week. It’s, at the most basic level, what happens when God himself is present to a person who receives and cooperates with him. And God is presenting himself to us through the Holy Spirit.

Practical Suggestions (a 3 minute guided exercise, to try now and practice each morning):

1. Remember a Life experience. Bring to mind the time you last experienced life.

2. Consider your Life strategy. Think about the ways you’ve been trying to get more of it, the ways you’ve been trying to either get your needs met yourself (the posturing or the sword or the lying) or insulate yourself from the pain of not having them met.

3. Consider Jesus’ approach. Decide whether or not you trust Jesus’ approach that the way forward is actually bringing your needs to God to address.

4. Take stock of your fear. Consider the role fears or anxieties or insecurities play in keeping you from trying Jesus’ approach.

5. Ask God for the gift of his Holy Spirit, for him to make himself present to you in a new way for you to receive and cooperate with.

Alive // Life After Easter / Father’s Day

 

sermon notes from the Vineyard Church of Milan 06/15/2014

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Father’s Day.

For some of us, that’s a happy thought. You have, or had, a great dad, one that’s easy to celebrate and honor, one you’re thankful for. Or perhaps being a dad is rewarding and a source of life for you.

If that’s you, may you experience great joy and blessing today.

Others of us have conflicted or negative feelings about Father’s day. Your dad was distant, or absent, or abusive. It’s no easy task to celebrate and honor and be thankful for your dad. Or perhaps if you are a dad yourself, things aren’t good between you and your kids for some reason; there is pain around the subject of fathering for you. Or maybe you want to be a dad, but aren’t, or can’t be, for some reason.

If that’s you, may you experience comfort and hope today.

I want to focus on something else this Father’s day, however. I want to talk about the gift that Jesus’ Father loves to give, maybe more than he loves to give anything else. The gift of the Spirit. The Spirit we’ve described as the energetically animating, non-material, profoundly personal presence who is part of the three-in-one God revealed in the scriptures. So that this Father’s day, we can all have something to celebrate and be thankful for.

Listen to what Jesus says:

“If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

Luke 11v13

I remember hearing this passage the first time and thinking this is classic religious lameness. Like, if I were God, I could think of all kinds of cooler gifts than that. Not that the Holy Spirit isn’t cool and all, but it just seemed, at least to me, then, to be so religious. So spiritual. Like, I know the Spirit is spiritual, duh; that’s the definition, after all. But I mean, we’ve got lots of real, concrete needs. And the Spirit, well, when it comes to gifts, the Spirit seems like a birthday card with nice words, but no cold hard cash in the envelope.

That’s not what I think now.

I think the Spirit is what we need to actually have really good life. To set us free from anxiety, from shame, from fear. I think the Spirit solves problems that all the cold hard cash in the universe can’t make a dent in. I think the Spirit can put an end to violence, oppression, slavery, hatred, racism, sexism, and all the other isms. I think the Spirit is the only hope we have of seeing reality clearly, ourselves clearly, one another clearly. I think the Spirit can make peace possible at the deepest level of the human being, and at the deepest levels of human relationships. I think the Spirit is the difference between misery and joy on planet earth.

We talked last week about Pentecost. About the event that began in the upper room in Jerusalem, 50 days after Jesus’ resurrection when his followers experienced the beginning of the Holy Spirit’s invasion of the cosmos. I call it an invasion, because the way Jesus talked about it, our world has been under the authority of what he called “The prince of this world.” The way Jesus painted the picture, the Father sending his Spirit would displace the prince of this world, and open the door to a whole new world, a world ruled by the Father, with Jesus seated at his right hand, his Spirit blowing everywhere, dwelling in the hearts of each person under his authority. Everyone set free, in other words, from this “Prince.”

The way Jesus told it in John’s gospel at one point goes like this:

⁷But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate [the Holy Spirit] will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. ⁸When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment… because the prince of this world now stands condemned.

John 16

Here’s the 50,000 foot view. The world we know has been, for most all of recorded human history, been under the grip of fear. That’s the way the prince of this world has ruled.

In a world ruled by fear, here’s the experience and the ground rules:

1. We are on our own.

When the prince of the world has his way in this world, this is the thing we feel to be true most profoundly. We are on our own. Maybe that’s not even the right way to say it. Not “we.” I. I am on my own. You. You are on your own.

2. There is not enough for everyone.

Scarcity is our experience of reality in a world ruled by fear. Some will get plenty, but only because some are getting little or nothing.

3. Scarcity means we need to fight for our own survival.

Love and generosity are beautiful ideas, but at the end of the day, they have their limits. At the end of the day, you’ll need to make sure you do what it takes to get what you need. Even if that means someone else doesn’t. And if you really want to play it safe, you don’t wait for the end of the day; you get started at the crack of dawn.

4. Belonging with others is the key to successfully surviving.

As a species, we know this deep in our bones. Together we are stronger than we are on our own, so it’s important to forge deep bonds with others – family, tribe, company, nation – for sake of surviving and thriving. On our own we are easy pickings for predators, the likely victims of natural disasters. At the very least, on our own we are likely to get less than those who are favored members of the successful communities.

5. We are therefore careful to win the approval of others, and deeply afraid of negative judgments which threaten our belonging, and therefore our survival.

It’s this dynamic that makes it so difficult to be the same person, everywhere, all the time, because what wins approval and what subjects us to judgment is different in every social group. We are constantly doing the approval/avoidance of judgment dance – exhausting and dis-integrating our selves.

6. We are vulnerable to not belonging, to being excluded by the negative judgments of others because of our flaws; vulnerability itself is therefore terrifying.

Our flaws are numerous, starting with the basic fact that we are mortal. We are vulnerable to death, and so every weakness or biological reality that reminds us of that is potentially something others will not approve of, and therefore exclude us from belonging. Add to that our own unique flawed mortality – our personal brokenness and sin – and we’ve got a massive vulnerability problem. We’ve got to hide it all. We may even try to hide it from ourselves.

7. We feel this viscerally as anxiety and shame.

This is how we know we live in a world under the grip of fear. Anxiety and shame all around. We only aren’t aware of it when we are at the center of the best surviving groups that the prince of this world has herded us into. The powerful. Or the rich. But you can only really stay at the center if you keep acting in such a way as to keep anxiety and shame at bay. In such a way as to maintain the approval and avoid the judgment of that group.

If you’re not in one of those groups, though, you’re probably all too aware of your anxiety and shame. Unless you’ve numbed yourself one or another as a coping mechanism. Busyness. Substance abuse. Adrenaline. Lustful pursuits. Etc.

8. Violence is at the center of a world ruled by fear.

No matter how well intentioned we may be, we find ourselves trapped in systems of violence in a world ruled by fear. Maybe we become comfortable with violence, and adopt it as a strategy to fend of scarcity. Or we have so much violence done to us that we use it to defend ourselves or get revenge. Or maybe we participate in violent systems because non-violent systems are so few and far between it seems impossible to survive and not participate. Or maybe we only use violence soberly, somberly, and with grief that it has come to this, in order to defend the defenseless. We can be a victim or a victimizer. But there is no escaping the central role that violence plays in the world under the authority of its prince.

I mentioned the book “A Long Way Gone” by Ishmael Beah last week. I’d like to read you a section to illustrate the reality we all live in, because his experiences show it in great relief. Ishmael was 12 when he fled attacking rebels in his home country of Sierra Leon. A gentle boy at heart, he was conscripted into the government army at the age of 13. He became a warrior, a soldier, capable of terrible acts of violence. He and his friends were given cocaine and other drugs to numb them to the trauma of war and hype them up for fighting. Eventually, he and some of his child squadmates were released into a UNICEF rehabilitation center. He was so confused as they drove him away from his military commanders, wondering how he had failed as a soldier to make them reject him. He was so distressed he looked for opportunities to steal the guns of the civilian guards who drove him to the rehabilitation center, kill them, and make his escape back to the army.

[read cafeteria fight scene from “A Long Way Gone”…]

I don’t think it’s an accident that Jesus calls the ruler of the world under the grip of fear a “prince.” It suggests a world in which no Father is around. Those boys in a Long Way Gone were fatherless too. They’d had to make their own way in a horrible world, and they couldn’t understand that there might be another way to be, that there might be another world.

A world where fear wasn’t in charge. A world where Love is in charge.

The Holy Spirit’s entrance signals the end of the reign of the prince of this world. It signals the beginning of a world where the Father is giving good gifts to his kids. A world where Jesus, the beloved son, who knows no fear, and only Love, is in charge.

[read Poppay’s story from “A Long Way Gone”…]

How could Poppay suffer their blows, and then return with a smile, seeing everything clearly, no concern for belonging, no value in violent strength, free to be vulnerable?

The Holy Spirit is how. Poppay lived in a world ruled not by the prince, but by Love.

Here’s the experience and the ground rules in a world ruled by Love:

1. We are not on our own.

The Holy Spirit is with us in the most profound way. We have the experience of not being alone, not just the announcement.

2. Enough is true; scarcity is an illusion.

Remember, one of the primary functions of the Spirit is to help us see. It is one thing to believe the promise that God will provide, it is another to look at the world around you and see that what God has been showing you is his faithful provision, day after day. This is the work of the Holy Spirit.

3. Because there is enough, trust (expressed in waiting) is what we need to successfully survive.

How often do parents say to anxious kids – hold your horses, there’s plenty, relax, wait, I’ll bring it to you when it’s ready. The Holy Spirit is God himself with us, waiting for the time to be right for his provision. The Spirit within us waits, his timing impeccable, teaching us to trust.

4. Belonging matters still, but it starts with God, and God alone.

The human being filled with the Holy Spirit has a profound awareness of the sufficiency of God alone. I know of no other way to describe this, except to invite you to ask God to experience it in a way that is true for you. It is a profoundly freeing experience.

5. God has forgiven our flaws, so our belonging is secure.

Exile is always the opposite of forgiveness in the scriptures. The presence of God within us through the Spirit is the truest evidence of forgiveness. Again this is a security that can be believed through trusting, but is more potent when it is an experienced reality.

6. Our shared vulnerability connects us to each other and is the context in which we experience provision from God; Vulnerability is therefore embraced.

Jesus told his students to not leave Jerusalem until they had been “clothed with power from on high.” The gift of the Holy Spirit is God’s response to our vulnerability. He meets us in our nakedness and weakness and clothes us with his Spirit, with himself. He clothes us with an invisible Spirit that is power from on high. It’s God’s way of bonding us to himself and to each other in our nakedness, robbing nakedness of shame and robbing vulnerability of weakness. Vulnerability is therefore made beautiful and holy.

7. Therefore we have nothing about which to be anxious or ashamed.

The Holy Spirit is described by Jesus as a comforter and as a defense counselor. Comfort is what we need to be healed of our anxiety, and a defense counselor is what we need to be healed of our shame. The Father knows what he’s doing in the sending of his Spirit. He’s not a rookie at rehabilitation like the UNICEF team might have been for Ishmael Beah.

8. Shalom (Peace⁴) is at the center of this world. Peace with God, peace with ourselves, peace with others, peace with all of creation.

This is why Jesus enters that locked room after his resurrection and says to the disciples, twice, “Peace be with you.” And then breathes on them and said, “Receive my Holy Spirit.”

The prince of this world creates disruption in every relationship – with God, with our selves, with others, with creation itself. A disruption that always leads to violence.

But the Son of the Father, the newly anointed King, brings peace. The Spirit says It’s Ok from the God whom you just murdered. Says it’s Ok about you who see only your flaws. Says it’s Ok about others who threaten you. Says it’s OK about a creation that seems wild and scary on the one hand and unwilling to give up its provision unless you take it forcibly on the other. A peace mediated through the Holy Spirit, through his breath breathed on them, through a fresh wind blowing through a new creation.

This is what Alive – Life After Easter is all about. The Spirit of God poured out on us so we can say, as brothers and sisters of Jesus, the beloved Son, “Abba, Father.”

¹⁴For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. ¹⁵The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” ¹⁶The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. ¹⁷Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

Romans 8

So let us ask, wait, listen, go and do. Filled by the Spirit. Led by the Spirit. Born again into a new world where Love is in charge, displacing and making new a world previously in the grip of fear. Let us see reality as it really is, as the Spirit helps us see, and let us awaken one another to the activity of God’s Spirit, everywhere, all the time, in everyone.

Practical Suggestions:

1. Receive a Father’s day present from the Father.

Invite the Spirit into your anxiety and/or shame. Very specifically, tell God what you are anxious about or feel ashamed about, and ask him for the gift of the Spirit. Do this today, at the end of the day, before you go to sleep, as a way to celebrate Father’s day.

2. Secure your kids’ belonging.

(for parents of children): tell your kids before the day is over that they are a great son or daughter. Regardless of their behavior or affections towards you. As a way of imaging the Father who breathes his Holy Spirit on us; as a way of imitating Jesus who announces peace to us. Consider making it a regular habit.