Morning Grace

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? ~ 1 Corinthians 6:19 What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we  are the temple of the living God; as God said:  “I will live in them and walk among them and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." ~ 2 Corinthians 6:16 Those in whom the Spirit comes to live are God's new Temple. They are, individually and corporately, places where heaven and earth meet. ~ NT Wright YOUR body is a temple. OUR body is a temple. Individually. Corporately. The Spirit dwells in each of us, yes. We become a living, breathing host for the Spirit at work in the world. But not just in each of us alone. Also in each of us together. The Spirit in me. The Spirit in you. The spirit in US. The church is the church because the Spirit is at work as we are gathered together. But the Spirit continues to work as we leave the church a...

Set me as a seal upon your heart. ~ Song of Solomon 8:6a You have been sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever. ~ ELCA Service of Baptism You anoint my head with oil. ~ Psalm 23:5b But you have been anointed with the Holy One, and all of you have knowledge. ~ 1 John 2:20 We are united with Christ through the Holy Spirit. And we are sealed as God's with the Holy Spirit. In baptism, we mark that with oil, just as oil has been used for thousands of years to anoint kings and those who God has claimed. We use oil in our Healing Services and for the sick as a sign of God presence with them. Mary anointed Jesus feet with the fragrant oil, nard. Oil is a symbol of wealth, whether talking about Black Gold that fuels our cars, the oil that anoints kings, or the fine (and often expensive) Olive Oil we use to cook with. So the Spirit as oil, claims, marks, and showers us with a bountiful presence. With it we know who we a...

The Lord went in front of them as a pillar of cloud by day, to lead them along the way. ~ Exodus 13:21a And as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the Israelites, they looked toward the wilderness and the glory of the Lord appeared in a cloud. ~ Exodus 16:10 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part, then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. ~ I Corinthians 13:12 Whatever you do not know or have forgotten is dark to you, because you do not see it with your spiritual eyes. For this reason, that which is between you and God is termed, not a cloud of the air, but a cloud of unknowing. ~ Anonymous, The Cloud of Unknowing I've said more than once - including in this devotion - that the opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty. We think we know God. We think we've got God's number. But in the part of Paul's most famous passage that isn't the most famous part (the one on love), Paul r...

For in the one Spirit, we were all baptized into one body - Jews or Greeks, slaves or free - and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. ~ I Corinthians 12:13 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.)  Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”  The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? ~ John 4:9-11 Baptism is not simply plain water. Instead, it is water used according to God's command and connected with God's word. ~ Martin Luther, Small Catechism We're one, but we're not the same. We get to carry each other. Carry each other. ~ U2 What is water like? Wet, sure. But what else? Wild? Untamable? Powerful? Life giving? Life destroying? The...

And the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved;  with you I am well pleased.” ~ Luke 3:22 And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. ~ Mark 1:10 The dove descending breaks the air. ~ TS Eliott The dove, on silver pinions, wove her peaceful way. ~ James Montgomery From the moment the dove brought the olive branch back to Noah, the dove became a sign of peace. Of hope. You can just imagine this dove descending gently on the head of Jesus at his baptism, its wings fluttering softly as if came down. You can see this as the dove described by 19th century poet, James Montgomery. But read a little farther in the poem by TS Eliott, and the dove begins to sound anything but peaceful. "Four Quartets" goes on to use the fire image of the Spirit in frightening ways. Other words in his poem are: torment, despair, ...

For he is like refiner's fire and like fuller's soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord  in righteousness. ~ Malachi 3:2b-3 See, I have refined you, but not like silver. I have tested you in the furnace of adversity. ~ Isaiah 48:10 For indeed our God is a consuming fire. ~ Hebrews 12:29 By middle school science class, you probably learned that fire changes things. By high school chemistry you really began to see it. (or for those of us who didn't take chemistry, we rely on the experience of those who did, and our own observations!) Fire changes our food. Fire changes liquid into gases. Ice into water. It changes hard metal into something you can work with to make a tool or weapon. And it purifies gold and makes it something  beautiful.  It consumes and refines. And after that happens, nothing is the same. No ...

As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on.  But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” So he went in to stay with them.  When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.  Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight.  They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us  while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” ~ Luke 24:28-32 When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness. ~ Acts 4:31 Set me as a seal upon your heart,  as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death,  passion fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire,   a raging flame. ~ Song o...

Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.  There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed.  Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.”  When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” ~ Exodus 3:1-4 They set out from Succoth, and camped at Etham, on the edge of the wilderness.  The Lord went in front of them in a pillar of cloud by day, to lead them along the way, and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light, so that they might travel by day and by night.  Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people. ~ Exodus 13:20-22 It was a ...

Hebrews 12:29 For our  God is indeed a devouring fire . ~ NET For indeed our God is a consuming fire. ~ NRSV For God is not an indifferent bystander. He’s actively cleaning house, torching all that needs to burn, and he won’t quit until it’s all cleansed. God himself is Fire! ~ The Message What does it mean for God to be a devouring fire? A consuming fire?  What does it mean for God to torch what needs to burn? Have you see fire destroy something? All that is left behind is ash or scorched earth. It can be scary. But it can also be life giving. When I went on a trip years ago to Tanzania, we went on Safari on the Serengeti. As we rode along in our jeep, we came across a large swath of savannah that was burning, throwing huge billows of smoke into the air. I wasn't surprised as I knew that often forest fires that are highly controlled can be used to actually bring new life to forests: by clearing dead trees and putting the nutrients back in the s...

Acts 2:3-4 And tongues spreading out like a fire appeared to them and came to rest on each one of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them. ~ NET Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. ~ NRSV Then, like a wildfire, the Holy Spirit spread through their ranks, and they started speaking in a number of different languages as the Spirit prompted them. ~ The Message What a visual and auditory feast this must have been! The Holy Spirit rushing in like wind, and coming down upon each person like a flame - a tongue of fire. And boom! Stuff happens! You can feel the Spirit. You can hear the  Spirit. And you can SEE the Spirit. It's lighting up the darkness. It's bringing together that which was apart. All alon...