I do not very often choose not to preach on the lectionary readings, but this week I have been compelled to do so. God has taken hold of my heart and soul again and set a fire within me, and for that I am thankful!!!
Earlier this week my husband received a letter from wise friend who noted that the Methodist Church once exhibited both intellectual rigour and passion, he went on to lament that over the last century it has slowly replaced passion with bureaucracy! That same morning I had opened my mail to read an article by Andy Atkins entitled "What ever happened to the Holy Spirit?
Andy quoted the evangelist David Watson saying:
"For sixteen years I have suffered from asthma. When you are gasping for breath you are literally fighting for your life. You cannot talk, walk, work or do anything. The church in many parts of the world today is in a chronic asthmatic condition. So evangelist David Watson described the church of his generation- dry, breathless and immobilised, trying by human effort to do what God had only promised to do through his life giving Spirit.
The illustration of spiritual asthma resonated deeply with me, perhaps because I know what it is to see an asthmatic struggle for breath, as both my husband and one of my daughters are asthmatic. Their lives are not blighted by asthma though, they both enjoy the active hobby of sailing; they are able to do so because both preventative and therapeutic medications have been prescribed for them. They use the preventative medication every day, the medication works by reducing inflammation in their lungs and helping them to breathe freely and easily.
If the church is in an asthmatic state, struggling for life and breath it needs treatment, what is crazy is that the God given, life bringing, life filling, life releasing answer to our chronic state was given, God breathed, as Jesus spoke the words over his disciples almost 2,000 years ago "receive the Holy Spirit"!
Receive the Holy Spirit, this glorious third person of the trinity comes to us, to live within and amongst us, to empower, enliven and equip us, and yet somehow we have on the whole missed her! Why?
We cannot see her, but then neither can we see The Father or the Son! There are many symbols which evoke the reality of her presence amongst us, but I fear that too often we have reduced her to being a concept or an emphasis rather than a real presence. She is reduced to the edges of spiritual experience and forgotten in the day to day struggle that we walk as we try to work out how to be the body of Christ together, and yet the church is called to be a community of the Holy Spirit, a people amongst whom and within whom God's presence dwells!
Too often I have heard people when challenged by the works and deeds of the early church recorded for us in the Acts of the Apostles state that that was for then, that the Holy Spirit does not dwell amongst us in power as she did then. But they are only half right, for although the last part of the statement is true the first part is certainly not, in fact it is tantamount to blasphemy! Fortunate for us that one of the Spirit's qualities is gentleness, fortunate for us but not for her, could it be that our stubbornness, coldness and pride is effectively breaking God's heart over and over again as we reject his presence amongst us preferring to keep him at arms length!
To be a Christian is not to ascent to a philosophy to be debated and discussed at an intellectual level only, to be a Christian is not to choose a lifestyle or to make a statement of class, to be a Christian is to live in a live and vibrant relationship with the creator and sustainer of the universe! The lover of our souls! To know that because of Christ's sacrifice of himself upon the cross that we are forgiven- and that he made that sacrifice out of love for us!
John Wesley the founding father of the people who call themselves Methodists discovered this for himself, he is famously quoted as saying the his heart was strangely warmed, but we do him and God an injustice if we say to ourselves that it was nice for Wesley to have such a spiritual experience!
John Wesley was an intellectual, he studied at Oxford and was a member of the holiness movement, he sought to please God, but his efforts left him exhausted and depressed. He could not do it alone!
On 24th May 1735, still in a state of depression John opened his Bible and read at random these words; "Thou art not far from the kingdom of God" later that day he heard Luther's Anthem "Out of the deep have I called unto thee O Lord", and in the evening he reluctantly attended a society meeting where Luther's preface to Romans was being read… He records this in his journal:
"…while he was describing the change in the heart through faith in Christ I felt my heart strangely warmed….I felt an assurance was given to me that He had taken away my sins…and saved me from the law of sin and death."
John Wesley was a changed man, not changed by his intellect although it informed his preaching and teaching well, not changed by his good works, but changed by the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit's living presence in his life! John Wesley was compelled by the discovery of God's passion for not only himself but for every human soul, out of his comfort zone and into the highways and byways of this country, he travelled over a quarter of a million miles and preached over 40,000 sermons!
We sit here in a Methodist Church today; do we know the fire of God warming our hearts and souls? Have we experienced his passion and compassion for us? Do we know that our sins have been forgiven and that we have been set free to live a life of love in the power of the Holy Spirit?
Sadly I do not see much evidence in Methodism today to suggest that this is true, and I find myself challenged and convicted by God even as I write these words, challenged and convicted but not condemned…
for the God who brings the challenge is passionate about each one of us, we are loved with a love so high, wide and deep that it is beyond our comprehension. The God who brings the challenge is the God who goes before us and invites us to step into the wonders of His grace, to know his life bubbling up from within our very souls, and flowing as streams of living water in a dry and dusty land.
God is waiting, and God wants his church back! If you sense a stirring in your spirit as you hear these words then you can respond and He will come afresh and in power upon your life! But be aware of this, this is not about seeking a once and for all experience, this is about entering into the most amazing, most fulfilling relationship you have ever entered into….
Without God's empowering presence the church is simply another institution that will crumble and fade, Jesus is simply another idea rather than the living reality that our spiritually bankrupt generation hungers for. Without the Holy Spirit the Christian life is reduced to duty, a morality and conformity to a life style!
But God desires more for us than that! God's desire is to dwell within and amongst us, transforming and equipping us, empowering and strengthening and inspiring us…
We may call ourselves weak; we may consider that this is impossible, but God reminds us that He is the strength in our weakness and that with him all things are possible. We need the Holy Spirit to teach and direct us, we need the Holy Spirit to strengthen and equip us, and in her we will find wisdom and riches of grace, God's gift to His church. God is calling to us, God is wooing us…
…and he is waiting for our response…..
Come Holy Spirit; breathe life into your church again!
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