Do you know people who say, “I’m just not spiritual” or “I’m just not religious” or I’m spiritual, but not religious”? Well, if they are breathing – and we’ll assume that they are because they are speaking, then they may be wrong.

Easter 6, A

2008

Acts 17:22-31; 1 Peter 3:13-22; John 14:15-21

Do you know people who say, “I’m just not spiritual” or “I’m just not religious” or I’m spiritual, but not religious”?  Well, if they are breathing – and we’ll assume that they are because they are speaking, then they may be wrong. 

In Hebrew the word for breath is Ruach and it can be translated as either “breath” or “spirit.”  There’s no other word for either one.  The same is true for Greek.  The word there is Pneuma – and it also means both breath and spirit.  So if you are breathing then you are also filled with the spirit. 

Interesting thought that --- if you are breathing then you are filled with the spirit. 

That doesn’t leave any one out – not anyone – not the bishop – or the president – or the drunk on the corner.  No matter what you think of any of these people – they are also filled with God’s spirit. 

YOU are filled with the spirit of God – God’s very own breath.  When I think of God in this way it is completely different than thinking of God as being somewhere “out there.”  Jesus tries to explain this when he tells his disciples, “you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.”  Since the disciples were familiar with these two words -- their Scriptures were in Hebrew and they spoke Greek – this concept would not have been nearly as distant from them as it has become for us.

This means that God isn’t somewhere off “in heaven”, but always here – not only in the midst of us, but right here within you and I.  You breathe in the air I breathe out as I breathe in the air you breathe out.  We not only share oxygen, but we share God among us. 

God as Spirit, always among us, has implications that reach even farther.  We pray often the prayer that Jesus taught us.  “Our Father who art in Heaven.”  If God is here within us, doesn’t that also mean that heaven is here among us?  Or, at the very least, don’t we possess the potential for heaven, the Kingdom of God, already here and now. 

God doesn’t sit outside of our world – occasionally choosing to step in and heal one person and not another – or give you the parking spot closest to the door at WalMart.  God is here within us all the time and everything occurs within his embrace.  Humans sit in a unique position – we sit at the junction of the earthly realm and the heavenly one.  We occupy both at the same time.  We can help create the Kingdom of God here and now or we can choose to honor and obey only our earthly citizenship.  

What do we need to do to realize the Kingdom of God, Heaven starting here and now?  Jesus tells us this also, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”  We don’t keep the commandments out of duty or obedience – keeping the commandments is not an odious chore, but rather comes naturally out of the love that we have for Jesus and the love that we share with one another.  Earlier in this discourse of Jesus in the Gospel of John Jesus has told his assembled disciples, “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.   By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (13.34-35). 

Love – is that all that Jesus has commanded?  But isn’t love at the core of all the commandments?  The first four of the Ten Commandments say to love God enough to make him your only God, not to make any idols in your life, not to use God’s name to curse another, and to set one day aside to take care of your relationship with your God, your family and yourself.  The last 6 have to do with our relationship with one another.  Honor your parents, don’t murder, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, lie or covet.  Pretty basic rules for keeping the peace among those you love.  I used to think that the last 6 were the toughies, but I’m beginning to think that we may have more trouble keeping God as the one that we honor above all else - above material goods, power, and prestige.  It may be easier to keep the moral codes of the last 6 commandments than the injunctions of the first four. 

So what makes the difference between the person who has willfully disobeyed the laws of society and the laws of God – murdered her family – or the man who has randomly shot strangers in public places – what is the difference between them and those who are so obviously filled with the Holy Spirit and doing God’s work here on earth?  Mother Theresa comes to mind as an obvious example, but there are countless others who do good works and live good lives every day without fanfare or publicity.  These quiet saints would deny their sainthood.  They would quickly point out all their humanity that in their own minds – keeps them far from their idea of sainthood. 

If we are all filled with the Spirit – then what does separate disciples from all others?  First, we have to acknowledge God as our one and only god.  We have to live our lives not putting anything else in the world above God.  We have to recognize that we are God’s creation and God’s own children.  Filled with gratitude, grace, and praise, we have to love God above all things.  When we realize that everything comes from God – absolutely everything – then it is much easier to love all the rest of God’s creatures and to share the gifts that we’ve been given with others.

It is easier to love the woman who has just blocked the whole aisle at Kroger’s as she searches for some unnamed treasure on the shelves.  It is easier to love the bank teller who has had a bad day and seems more abrupt than usual.  It is easier to love the president, the bishop, or the drunk – even when we disagree with them – when we recognize that we are all – everyone of us – filled with God’s own breath – as God’s own creation. 

We may just find that it is easier to love ourselves if we remember this very same thing. 

God fills our lives with the opportunities to share God’s love.  Have you ever seen the movie “Pay It Forward” or the commercial that begins with the woman stopping the pizza delivery guy from crossing the street in front of a fast-moving car?  We never know how the seeds of love and acceptance that we plant will grow when the people we are in contact with move on.  Like so much in our lives, we just have to leave it in God’s hands.

“Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”  Amen.