Musings on the Spirit.

Okay, I know it is well over a week after the Festival of Pentecost, but I can't seem to stop thinking about how the Spirit moves. Just think of it, there is this amazing thing that blows, speaks, guides and enlightens. But we don't exactly know what it is and have not quite learned to hear it, feel it, experience it -- and yet.

As you read previously on the day of Pentecost twelve young people were confirmed in my congregation, but those were not the only festivities for the day. I attended a wedding. Now for some what I am about to describe as a wedding "may be words that you are not able to bear." At least that is what my intern called them as he preached about the wonderful "Spirit of Truth" that guides us into truth. But back to the point --- my intern, I and a young couple from the congregation traveled to a wedding that took place at the chapel of a seminary. It was the wedding of my former intern and his partner.

It was a beautiful occasion. Both my former intern and his partner are 'worship geeks.' So, their wedding celebration was a wonderful  liturgical feast complete with great music, the Eucharist and preaching. But it was more than that. As the preacher, a young woman newly graduated from seminary, said, ". . . their love was a sign of the move of the Spirit." She also told us how they were a witness to God's love. Yes, for me these two young men's commitment to each other is a testament to love that can cross all kinds of barriers and obstacles. They are each amazing in their own right and an amazing couple.

The ripple effect of the Spirit's movements is still reverberating. This couple and the power of the Spirit so moved my current intern that he preached an excellent sermon on Holy Trinity Sunday.  I alluded to it above. How I witnessed this as a move of the Spirit is that on the morning that he was about to preach, he was not his usual outgoing, effervescent self. He was nervous. He told me that he had written two sermons, one that was about the Holy Trinity; he was not satisfied with it. The other was solely based on the gospel from the sixteenth chapter of John. And he wasn't sure about it. I told him to just preach and we would talk about it between the 8:00 and 10:30 a.m. services if necessary. So he preached.

And then I knew why he was worried. He spoke boldly of the union of these two young men as "words we are unable to bear" but also talked about a commitment to be in a lifelong monogamous relationship as "commonplace."  He lifted up the reality that this event, this union, this new idea had the ability to tear the church apart. But he also stated that the Spirit guides us and helps us to listen and hear the truth of God's love --- that's the implied promise in the text. In our listening and God's loving the church is spared. My intern was invested in this sermon. You could tell as he took deliberate breaths and almost couldn't get the words out. For the first time in his preaching he had clearly let his heart show. He dared to make himself uncomfortable and preach the gospel. And it was good!

This Spirit of God--whether we call it helper, advocate, counselor, Spirit of truth--has the power to change us, take away our fear, and help us act boldly. Two young men who dared to have a wedding, an intern who dared to speak about it out loud; these bold acts are a wonderful testament to the movement of the Spirit.

Where do you see the Spirit's movement in your life?