Living with Spirit
Spirit hovers and blows where she wills, breathing life into us, offering hope, inviting us to wholeness.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the Spirit in recent weeks. No surprised there, of course, with our theme this month. However, I find myself leaning into trust in new ways. The more I explore the power of the Holy Spirit, God, the more I relax.
I know this sounds weird given the political tension we all face, so let me attempt to explain. The creation stories remind us that the Spirit hovered over the deep, even before the world was formed. The stories also remind us that human beings came alive with the breath/Spirit of God.
Nothing that has been created is without Spirit’s touch and/or breath. This is good news. It means that when we search for it, or when we pay attention, we can find the Holy in and through all of Creation.
When we are at our best, Spirit is there. When we are at our worst, Spirit is there. When we are living our very ordinary lives, Spirit is there waiting to make the next moment extraordinary. Like Psalm 139 tells us, there is no place we can go — literally, emotionally, spiritually, physically, or metaphorically — where God is not already there.
I don’t know about you, but I find the reminders of God’s timeless witness and participation in Creation to be comforting. The Spirit hovers, waiting to reach into the depths and raise us up – individually and collectively.
And she waits patiently for us to recognize her presence so we can recognize our own holiness, and that of our neighbors. She breathes deeply when we are holding our breath. Then she goes places we can only begin to imagine.
Think about the human history God has witnessed. And God’s steadfast love continues. Spirit hovers and blows where she wills, breathing life into us, offering hope, inviting us to wholeness. God has never given up on humanity.
I think God is still waiting for us to realize that love is greater than fear (the them of Regional Youth Event this week). In the meantime, Spirit hovers over the depths and the heights, blows where she wills, and breathes new life into us, especially when we think all hope is truly lost.
The question is, though, are we paying enough attention to notice when the Spirit moves?
Where have you encountered Spirit this week? Did she raise you up? Transform the ordinary into the extraordinary? Plant small seeds of hope in the midst of despair? Ignite a new yearning? Something else?
I look forward to our continued exploration of the Spirit, and I hope you all experience Spirits power and presence in a new way – big or small.
About Rachael Keefe
Rev. Dr. Rachael Keefe is the pastor of Living Table United Church of Christ. She was called to Living Table in 2015 after serving in many varied ministry settings since her ordination in 1992. She holds graduate degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary and Andover Newton Seminary at Yale (formerly Andover Newton Theological School). Her ministry and leadership often center around advocacy and accessibility. Her writing has been published by Chalice Press, The Christian Century, Red Letter Christians, Working Preacher, RevGalBlogPals, and others. She is grateful to be in ministry with Living Table today.
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I would attend the club!
Often I have a sense of Spirit moving in me and through me when I receive gifts of provocative ideas by reading other people’s words. Lately the expansive thinking and theology of Ilia Delio OSF has been moving me as I’m reading her books, “The Hours of the Universe.” She’s playing off core ideas from Teilhard de Chardin and his expansive cosmological concepts about the Universe, God, and the Christ energy. And for years I’ve been convinced I am a heretic because of my understandings and experience of the Christ as not limited solely to the person of Jesus. Heresy being defined as:
“Heresy in Christianity denotes the formal denial or doubt of a core doctrine of the Christian faith as defined by one or more of the Christian churches. The study of heresy requires an understanding of the development of orthodoxy and the role of creeds in the definition of orthodox beliefs, since heresy is always defined in relation to orthodoxy. Orthodoxy has been in the process of self-definition for centuries, defining itself in terms of its faith by clarifying beliefs in opposition to people or doctrines that are perceived as incorrect.” (Thanks, Wikipedia!)
I’ve never bought the doctrinal idea that the only expression of the infinite and eternal Christ energy was in the person of Jesus. I managed to artfully skirt the issue back when I had to state my beliefs in an ordination paper–but now I feel like I can “come out” as one who believes that the historic Jesus never said “I am the one and only”–and when the writer of John’s gospel has Jesus saying things like that…well, that was that one particular view of the Johannine community, sixty years or more after Jesus was dead. But it seems to me, in reading the gospels, that Jesus repeatedly pointed beyond the limits of himself as a person, to a far greater reality: the reality of a God always in the process of unfolding, emerging, showing up new in every moment. The notion of a fixed, changeless deity has never worked for me.
And: my experiences of the sudden and often-surprising in-breaking of the Spirit suggest that (as Delio quotes de Chardin), “God is in evolution.” (Rich with double meaning.) God is not finished with us, or with creation; the Cosmos is not done “baking” and never will be.
Anyone want to start a Heretics Club at Living Table? I suspect it wouldn’t be me sitting by myself in a dark room. I love you people!
You would most certainly not be alone of that I’m quite sure because I’d be there.
Thank you, Doug, for your thoughtful comments. I have also become a fan of Ilia Delio OSF because you shared a section of her book. I think you’d have a lot of company in the Heretics Club 🙂
I volunteered to be part of the New Branches Library Committee. Today was the first meeting I’ve attended. The leader, Mary Sutherland from Spirit Community, energized the team to brainstorm new ideas for connecting the library to the New Branches community.
It felt so good to put a big passion of mine (reading) to use with other reading lovers! I’ve wanted to participate in a New Branches activity and I’ve found my niche!
Thanks for stepping into this role, Char! Sounds like the Spirit moved you…?
Char, I’m so glad this is working out for you! Thank you!