Talking to strangers? It might be God’s Spirit working through you!
Sermon on Acts 8, 14-17
There are days when you wake up to the same old pain in your back. Which, you keep telling yourself, is a good thing, because it reminds you, that you are alive. And so, you get up and you go over your day. And yes, it’s an ok day, nothing special, nothing disruptive either. You might even remember to thank God for this day in the morning or at night. It’s good to be alive.
And then, there are days when you really, really feel alive. When the blood seems to run faster through your veins. When you don’t feel tired, just ready to go. Ready for the next adventure. Like jumping up and down, like hugging the entire world. Like screaming your joy into the woods and from the top of the mountains. Like bringing goodies to all of your neighbors. Like hugging everyone during the sign of peace. Like singing and dancing, like eating out and listening to a stranger’s story. Just because you are so glad to be alive. So content, so happy. That you want to share this feeling with everyone. That you want everyone to feel that way.
Do you remember that feeling? That moment or day or time in your life? When things just seem to fall in place, when the world looks bright? Because you can’t stop smiling. And so, people smile back at you. Which makes you feel even better. It’s like a circle of blessings. Like a baptism with life.
Like the absolute opposite to death. When there is no breath, no life, no spirit.
When your spirit is unusually strong, the life in you unusually alive, you can breathe it out into other lives, become literally in-spiring. Spirit is highly contagious. When people are very excited, very happy, or very sad, you can catch it from them as easily as measles or a yawn. You can catch it from what they say or from what they do or just from what happens to the air of a room when they enter it without saying or doing anything. There are lots of different spirits in this world. Some are destructive, help form mobs and spread fake news. Others might be cute and harmless like cat memes on Facebook. Everybody agrees they are cute. They might brighten someone’s day. But they probably won’t change the world. And then, there is the Holy Spirit. The power of God. Moving the world by moving people through other people. It’s like a holy chain reaction.
In today’s readings, the Holy Spirit is really allover the place. Descending upon Jesus right after his baptism. Calling him to be God’s beloved son. Protecting the Israelites in Isaiah’s prophecy. Through waters and fire. Images for baptism and the Holy Spirit. And then, there is this rather strange story about the people in Samaria who got baptized with water in the name of Jesus. Yet, they didn’t receive the Holy Spirit until Peter and John went and prayed and laid their hands on them. Only then did they receive the Holy Spirit.
We know there is a strong connection between those two. We believe that we were sealed with God’s Holy Spirit in our baptism. That water and word are the signs for what God does in our baptism and through our baptism.
Today’s readings offer us a deeper look and hopefully a deeper understanding of what the Holy Spirit does. How she’s intertwined with baptism. And how she’s a force of its own. And, how the image of the Holy Spirit is being used by Luke. To show us what God’s mission is really about.
We need to remember that Luke was a storyteller. And like every good storyteller he had an agenda. Which isn’t a bad thing. It just means that he had good reasons to tell the story just the way he did. And Luke tells us about the people in Samaria, who, in modern terms, heard about Jesus, excepted Jesus into their hearts and got baptized. Beautiful! But, somehow, the Holy Spirit was missing. Which is the only occurrence in any baptism reported in the bible.
So, let’s take a look at the role of the Holy Spirit, specifically in baptism, and generally in our lives.
Jews and Samaritans, as you all know, weren’t on the best terms with each other. They kind of knew that they worshipped the same God. But then, they also had a long history of hostility. We also know that Jesus overcame those barriers when crossing through Samarian territory and talking to Samarian women. And, Jesus called his disciples to do the same. To overcome their traditional and inherited barriers. To invite everyone into their community of grace and peace and love and freedom. Through, yes, exactly, through the power of the Holy Spirit. The great companion Jesus promised his disciples.
Now, Jesus kept his word. The disciples didn’t. Instead of walking into the world and sharing the Good News with anyone they met, they mostly stayed home in Jerusalem. Sure, they Holy Spirit had done quite a show at Pentecost. But they also felt quite comfortable staying where they were. Within the familiar walls and with the familiar people where everyone had their role. Where they knew how to argue with whom and with whom to just wait until something was just dead and buried and they could move on. Familiarity can be so comforting that even the Holy Spirit will have a hard time to inspire changes and new paths. But, the Holy Spirit has her ways to get her way.
And her way is always the way of opening doors. Between God and people, obviously. And, between God’s people. The ones God calls beloved children. And yet, we don’t necessarily feel that way about each other. Or maybe, we do, theoretically. Until we are invited to worship with others in their other ways. And it doesn’t feel like home. I mean, it feels familiar, but it’s not the same. Not exactly the same. The pews might look differently. They might sing the anthem at a different time or pray aloud and long, so much longer than we are used to. They might even say prayers in different languages and sing songs we have never heard. They might look different from us. Eat different food. Good but different. And then, we are tempted to stay in our own places among our own people. Within the familiarity we have come to love.
That’s all understandable, it’s human. But it’s not the way of God’s Spirit. While people might hear about Jesus in other parts of the world, even in Samaria, which back then must have felt like the other end of the world. While people might hear about Jesus and be baptized, the Spirit’s mission is to connect faith communities all over the world. Yes, it’s great that people praise God in their different languages and traditions. That there used to be Swedish and Norwegian and German and Danish Lutheran churches right next to each other. Because, God forbid, would they worship together. Too different did they feel.
Well, it took diminishing numbers to finally and slowly overcome those differences. To integrate music from the different traditions into our hymnals. To eat ludefisk and Lebkuchen and even sandwiches from Costco. We have come a long way among the Northern Europeans who have brought their Lutheran faith to this country. You are even coping with me now, a German pastor with a German accent.
And, the Holy Spirit isn’t done. While the reading from Acts sounds like a story about individual baptism and the mysterious delay of the Holy Spirit, it actually isn’t. It’s about breaking down barriers between two groups of believers. It’s about moving the one group that feels some superiority over the other, the original disciples, to lay hand on the other group. To fully welcome them into their community. That welcome doesn’t change anything about God’s love for the Samaritans or about the Samaritan’s relationship with God. They were loved before and had already manifested that love in their baptism. What changes is how Jesus’ disciples look at God’s people. At all of them. The ones they liked before and the ones they didn’t. Lead, one could even say, forced by the Holy Spirit, Peter and John go and bless people they wouldn’t have talked to a few months ago. Now, they admit their value, their worthiness, their belovedness. And they suddenly see what God had seen all along. The connection between them while embracing the differences.
This story paired with the baptism of Jesus is a great reminder for us that the Holy Spirit won’t let us off the hook in connecting with God’s people. Especially with the ones who don’t look or speak or worship like us. And we will feel the Spirit at work. Making us feel alive while kicking us out of our comfort zones. By making us walk the extra mile to places we never thought we would want to be in. Just to be surprised by the people we will find there. God’s people.
The breath of life be with you all! May you feel so alive that you have enough life to share with the world. To be an inspiration to the world. Through the power of God’s Spirit. Amen.
