A Fresh Perspective

Jesus is becoming known throughout Galilee as a healer and exorcist. Luke, however, wants us to know that while Jesus heals all manner of sickness and casts out demons his first priority and foremost work is to announce the good news of the kingdom of God and teach about the ways of God in the world. At the end of chapter 4, as a prelude to our text today in Luke 5:1-11, the people of Capernaum tried to prevent him from leaving. But Jesus says, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to other cities also: for I was sent for this purpose.” Jesus had an itinerate ministry, going from place to place, and he knew that he needed to train disciples who could continue the work when he was gone. I think early on he sensed that he himself would not have long. He knew that the powers that be would find his work offensive. So he calls disciples, whom he will train, and to whom he will leave the work when he is gone. Our Gospel story today is the call of the first disciples. Luke’s ...

Our story begins with Nicodemus, a Pharisee and a religious leader, coming to Jesus by night. He comes by night possibly to avoid being seen in the day. He is a Pharisee, and the official Pharisaic position about Jesus is very negative. I suspect he doesn’t want to risk his reputation and position and standing with his group, where he is recognized as a leader, where he has status and clout. The power of the group to tell us who we are and keep us in the dark, in the night is powerful. In his book, Letters to a Young Doubter , the late William Sloan Coffin says that when he was chaplain at Yale, he would sometimes get requests from seniors to write a letter of recommendation to some highfalutin school like Harvard Law or Columbia Medical School. He mostly wrote about their character and integrity rather than their academic achievements or potential, which to some students was not totally satisfactory. Coffin describes it this way: “Never mind that I enumerated some sterling extra...

According to John’s Gospel, when Jesus appeared to the disciples in an Easter epiphany, he said, “As the Father sent me, so I send you.” Then the text says that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Only a literal reading of the text would regard this as the first connection the disciples had with the Holy Spirit, who is also called the Advocate or Comforter and the Spirit of Truth in John’s Gospel. The language of “Holy Spirit” is just another symbolical way of talking about God and God’s relationship to the world. One of the key things the Gospel of John teaches about the Holy Spirit, I believe, is that present day disciples of Jesus experience the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Christ. The Christ image is the Christian’s dominant image of God. We understand the Spirit of God as the Spirit of Christ. When John says that Jesus breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” he wants his readers to recall the creation story where God breathes into the human ...

How do you imagine the Spirit? The creeds speak of God in three persons, and the Spirit is often referenced as such. Some scholars note that the creeds meant something different than what we mean when we use the word “person.” Perhaps, but it was a terrible choice. The reason it’s not helpful to identify God or Spirit as a person is because it’s too reductionistic — too narrow and confining. God is so much more. A human person is a unique combination of body and soul, flesh and spirit, material substance and immaterial reality, brain and mind/consciousness that is confined to a particular point in time and space. The divine Spirit is not. Identifying the Spirit as a person is extremely limiting. On the other hand, it gets no better by thinking of the Spirit like the force in Star Wars, which can be manipulated for good or evil, a kind of non-living, non-personal power that is a part of everything. God is a part of everything, but God relates to us personally. So thinking of the Sp...

A common theme in both the passage in Acts and the one in 1 Corinthians is the togetherness and unity of the church that coalesces around the gift of the Spirit. Luke tells us that the disciples who experienced the Spirit in such a dramatic way on the day of Pentecost “were all together in one place.” Paul explains to the Corinthians that while there’s a diversity of gifts and though members have different capacities and abilities, there is one body and one Spirit. This oneness extends beyond social status and nationality: Jews or Greeks, slaves or free – all are made to drink of the one and same Spirit, says Paul. In a society infused with the Spirit there is no patriarchal dominance or favoritism. The Spirit is given to all – sons and daughters, slaves and free, Jews or Greeks – all get baptized in the Spirit. The Spirit breaks down social and cultural barriers and divisions commonly upheld in one’s culture. The Spirit creates a different kind of community. And we kn...

When Jesus appears to the disciples they are huddled together in a locked room in fear that the Jewish authorities will come for them next. Jesus had said that when the shepherd is smitten the flock will scatter. They had scattered and now they are together again, I suppose, because misery loves company. Jesus has every right to be angry and confrontational. But Jesus doesn’t scold or rebuke them does he? Jesus speaks a word of peace, a word of acceptance and hope. Crushed, no doubt, by the weight of their betrayal, full of fear and guilt, it’s what they desperately needed to hear. I’m sure they at first wondered, Could this be true? Is God this forgiving and full of grace? Can we really trust this? He tells them again, a second time: “Peace be with you.” It is true. Jesus wants his disciples to know that their betrayal, their breach of covenant loyalty, did not dissolve the covenant, did not result in their rejection. They are loved and accepted. This is where we all ...

The radio stations I normally listen to are playing all Christmas music; one can handle “White Christmas” and “Frosty the snowman” only so many times. I turned 55 last week and decided, less I get stuck in old ways, to broaden my music appreciation (after all, Bob Dylan and James Taylor are older than I am). So, I have been listening to different types of music lately.   I came across the song called “Demons” by the group “Imagine Dragons” which is currently listed at #6 in the Hot 100 Billboard charts. It’s kind of dark, but speaks to the human condition.  Some of the lyrics are: I want to hide the truth I want to shelter you But with the beast inside There’s nowhere we can hide This is my kingdom come This is my kingdom come. When you feel my heat Look into my eyes It’s where my demons hide It’s where my demons hide Don’t get too close It’s dark inside It’s where my demons hide It’s where my demons hide. Another verse reads: No ma...