Eastertide May 20, 2015

Scripture Reading: Psalm 104:24-34

These all look to you
   to give them their food in due season;
when you give to them, they gather it up;
   when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.
when you hide your face, they are dismayed;
when you take away their breath, they die
   and return to their dust.
When you send forth your spirit, they are created;
   and you renew the face of the ground. –Psalm 104:27-30

The imagery of always being in a state of re-creation seems appropriate at this time of year when many graduations are happening. My nieces, both pre-school educators, are currently celebrating the advancement of their students into first grade, many grade schools acknowledge the move from elementary school to middle school, then high school, college or tech school, and work. Learning does not stop there. In many ways it just begins. And so it goes with most aspects of life.

Our life in the Spirit it like that also. There may have been one grand aha experience in some people’s lives like is described at Pentecost when all were filled with the Spirit, but for most of us, our gifts from the Spirit are accrued gradually with perhaps some great awakenings, but most often with small nudges and insights that occur every day. Each time we are touched by the Spirit we are changed. I believe those changes are gradually helping us fully realize the talents and skills God instilled in us at our beginning.

More importantly, we are called to community to live and grow and be re-created together as a part of the whole body of Christ. Bringing together the diverse offerings of each person not only brings to fruition the wholeness of individuals, but becomes the oneness that Jesus indicted was so essential.

As I watch the news, I fear we are failing at spreading this good news about God and God’s ever present Spirit striving to make us one. We seem bent on divisiveness from bullying to war, from declaring exceptionalism to outright racism, and from materialism to flagrant greed in a world of people starving for love as well as food. I do not know a time in my life when we have needed the gifts of the Spirit more to make us confident Disciples of Christ spreading love and justice throughout the lands.

Prayer: Holy Spirit, rest on me, give me the strength and courage to spread your love and justice throughout the lands. Place within me the connective tissue that reaches out to form bonds of love with others so that Christ’s desire for us to be one is realized. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.