Well, friends, here’s a little sneak peek behind the curtain…
I’m still not entirely sure where the Spirit is leading me to go with the text for this week. I’ve been reading and re-reading the passage from Ephesians, praying and studying commentaries…and I have a starting point, the seeds of the sermon, but I’m not entirely sure what it’s going to look like when it blooms.
This isn’t atypical – sometimes that inSPIRation comes more quickly, and other times it’s a breeze that builds slowly. I’ve discovered it has less to do with how the Spirit moves and more to do with how available I am to the movement. You’ve likely heard me use language like this before. And there’s a lot of this idea in what the writer shares with the church in Ephesus – I know the pieces and parts are there, and that you have a strong faith and love for God’s people everywhere; what I’m praying for now is that you have the wisdom and insight you need to grow in your knowledge. I pray that you understand what the Spirit is imparting on you, the hope of Christ, so that you may pass on that message of hope to others.
There is absolutely a temptation, even a tendency at times, to attempt to find within the text a message one is comfortable with or motivated by, something that fits an agenda. But that isn’t God speaking through God’s word; that’s human folly, tampering, twisting, tainting. And it’s not faithful. We have to allow the Spirit to draw out, to reveal, what is good, what is truth, what is hard but worthwhile, what is for us in this time and place. Otherwise, we live and move and have our being in a flailing and faithless and feckless body…a headless body.
There is so much power in God’s word for us, both what we read in the pages of the Bible, and what the Lord speaks into our hearts and minds and shares through the inspired words of others. And there is so much power in what we do in response to that Word, so much responsibility to carry forth the work of the Word in this world. So I covet your prayers, for me and for every other person tasked with interpreting and preaching the word, as we seek to be available. And I join my prayers to yours, that we might all seek to be available to the movement of the Spirit, that we might function as a Body activated and compelled toward love by the Head that is Christ Jesus.
Sam
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