Spirit-fed, Spirit-led Acts 2:41-47 06-07-09

Joy! An unmistakable sign of the Spirit alive in a life or a community! Joy! An experience that grows out of the assurance that -all evidence to the contrary- God is good - all the time! All the time -God is good! Joy! Something I lived without for far too many years without even realizing that it was missing from my life! Joy!

Let loose the Spirit!

Let loose the joy!

Let loose the Spirit!

Let loose the joy!

With one another

Sister and brother

Let loose the Spirit!

Let loose the joy!

I grew up in church -literally! The first place my parents took me, after I came home from the hospital was to church to be baptized. And, from that day on, unless someone was sick, I was in church every Sunday morning. Since my parents were very active in many ministries of the church, including being youth group leaders, I was there many other times as well.

Church was a good place, a safe place, a place where I heard about God's love, but also a place of rules where I felt like I never quite measured up to what I was supposed to be doing.

Fast forward through the death of my father, my graduation from high school and college, my marriage, a brief period where I experimented with sleeping in on Sunday mornings and the birth of my children. I was now once again very active in church, not the Lutheran Church of my childhood, but a Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) congregation -a place where I began to experience God in a whole new way. I taught Sunday School, led youth group, served as a deacon and was even elected chair of the Church Council; you name it and I had probably done it.

During this time I attended a number of different events outside of our congregation where different women gave their testimony which always included something about the sorry state of their lives, how knowing Christ had saved them and the transformation that followed in the wake. Although their particular stories were different as I listened to each one there was something they all seemed to share: JOY! After several of these events I said to my closest friend, "Sometimes I wish I hadn't been raised in the church, maybe then I'd have some of the joy that so obviously fills their hearts!"

About that same time a woman in our congregation -who like me had been raised in the church- came home from a Workshop talking about her powerful experience of transformation and exuding the same joy I had seen in the others. I wanted what she had, so when she called together a group to study and pray together I quickly said "yes". For several weeks each time we met we simply talked, shared some scripture and prayed together, asking God to guide us. Then our pastor -who was part of the group-, suggested that we use a book called the Edge of Adventure. Through it we were invited into a relationship with Christ, which was -believe it or not- a whole new concept for me. Oh I believed in God and I prayed -or at least I said prayers; I knew about the Bible and could tell you many stories it contained; but a relationship with Christ- well, that was something I had never heard of before. I remember as clearly as if it was yesterday the night when we were invited to go someplace in the church to meditate and if we were ready to pray this prayer: "Lord, I want you to be Lord of my life -my whole life."  It was a prayer of surrender that I couldn't quite make. The most I could do was to say, "Lord, I want to want you to be Lord of my life! Help me!" It was enough.

Our small group stayed together for the next several years. We explored prayer as both talking and listening and we covenanted to pray with and for one another, not just when we gathered, but daily, if possible. We studied scripture not just as an ancient document but as real and living words through which the Spirit could guide our very real lives. We shared together our celebrations and our sorrows, our successes and our failures in deep, honest and open ways. We ministered to one another in real and tangible ways, listening, caring, praying, serving, comforting loving and helping -becoming with and for one another the body of Christ. In valleys of despair and on mountaintops of delight, in the good times and the challenging times, Christ was present, the Spirit moved within and among us and joy filled our hearts and our lives!

Let loose the Spirit!

Let loose the joy!

Let loose the Spirit!

Let loose the joy!

With one another

Sister and brother

Let loose the Spirit!

Let loose the joy!

On Pentecost the mighty winds and dancing flames empowered the disciples and moved over 3,000 people to surrender their lives to Christ. Together they were invited to step into an undreamed of future. But it was only as they prayed together, ate together, worked together, cared together, worshipped together, and studied together that they experienced the power that allowed them to step into that future and the joy that God intends for all of us. Through the community their spirits were fed. Through the community they learned to recognize the movement of the Spirit leading them step by step and day by day. Such is the purpose of the community we call the church. But it doesn't happen simply by coming to church once in awhile or even once a week. Just as we must take in nourishment each day if our bodies are to be healthy, we need daily times and places where our Spirit can sink into the ever flowing stream of God's love and be fed.

What about you? Do you know the joy that Christ came and comes to bring? Have you found the ecstasy that flows from a life fed and led by the Spirit?

For the next few minutes, I invite you to pray. If you already know Christ in a deep and personal way, if you have already surrendered your life to God and know the joy of living in deep communion with the Spirit, offer a prayer of thanksgiving. If, for you, faith is still a set of intellectual beliefs and you have yet to open your heart and give your whole life to Christ, I invite you to ask the Spirit to come and feed you and lead you; Ask Christ to take charge of your life or simply ask for the desire to want that kind of relationship. Wherever you are, whatever step you can take today, I invite you to take it right here, right now..... [pause for prayer]

Let loose the Spirit!

Let loose the joy!

Let loose the Spirit!

Let loose the joy!

With one another

Sister and brother

Let loose the Spirit!

Let loose the joy!

Amen