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“Filled with the Spirit”
Ephesians 5:15-20; John 6:51-58; Psalm 111
Rev. Sandy Nuernberg
Oakland-Cambridge Presbyterian Church, Cambridge, WI
20th Sunday in Ordinary Time -
Young People in Church Sunday
August 20, 2006
One of the adult education classes
I’m glad I took part in at my church in Madison a number of years ago (1996) was
Kerygma, an in depth Bible study class which met weekly for a school
year–Sept.-May; actually, the Kerygma program has been around for years.
Kerygma comes from the Greek word meaning ‘the message proclaimed.’ We
studied the Bible from front to back but not just reading straight through the
scriptures. We went back and forth comparing and contrasting themes of O.T., or
Hebrew writings, with those of the N.T. texts; each theme states something about
God and God’s people, perhaps because interaction with God is the literature
that makes up the Bible. God’s people and deliverance, faith, love, and wisdom
were themes.
I think the real reason for
enjoying these classes was our discussions–we were filled with the Spirit to try
to understand the readings, and asked tough questions of Biblical teachings and
especially of each other. I liked it so much that I believe it is how I became
interested in theology, for I became addicted in thinking my faith! And in
thinking our faith, what is the underlying theme but that the Holy Spirit, God’s
abiding presence with God’s people, moves among us to lead us into faith and
faithfulness!
We don’t hear lectionary texts
from the O.T. in worship or sermons (homiletic experiences) much; our texts
today attest to that!! Both are from the N. T. But it seems there is richness in
this kind of study as it affirms that the Bible is one sacred book and as a
whole the Bible can be learned as a kind of foundation or framework with all of
its parts. In the Bible we find our roots as a believing people, and for me this
kind of study helps us squelch thoughts of, ’Oh, the Hebrew scriptures are
nothing but history, empires, fighting, and death.’ Really though, Kerygma
in the N.T. centers on proclaiming God’s saving activities in the life, death,
resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ (Romans 16:25, I Corin. 1:21;2:4).
It was theology (Rudolf Bultmann) that emphasized a starting point of Christ as
the interpretation of the N.T. What is the emerging portrait of Christ, but the
culmination of preaching from the prophets and apostles and from earlier
history?
In our theme of the O.T. and N.T.
likenesses, we think of the bread as the Israelites in the Hebrew scriptures
thought of manna–that symbol that is yes, ‘bread from heaven’, but the manna is
also representative of that substance that came down from heaven to them when
they were in the wilderness. And God sent it to them for forty years!! Can you
imagine? There was no spoil, absolutely no hoarding, because they collected
their manna daily (Exod 16:4-36, Num. 11:4-9).
Manna in the N.T. is a symbol, a
sign, a foreshadowing (beforehand) of Christ as the living bread from heaven and
in the Lord’s Supper ( I Corin. 10:3). The Gospel of John tells us ‘whoever eats
of this bread will live forever’ (v.51), and that ‘the bread is my flesh!’ The
reminder of these symbols is that the bread and the blood of Christ represent
God’s care for them, the Israelites, and for us indefinitely. They and we
believe that “one does not live by bread alone, BUT by every word that comes
from the mouth of the Lord ( Deut. 8:3, my emphasis).”
It seems possible to compare the
manna as our being temporarily filled and being satisfied with the bread
of life from heaven, of receiving Christ Jesus, at the Lord’s Supper, an
indefinite satisfaction for us throughout our lives. Our texts are about
temporary satisfaction and permanent or indefinite gratification (fulfillment)
or contentment. In the Lord’s prayer there is a petition (fourth) about ‘give us
this day our daily bread’ meaning sustenance necessary for life. In today’s
world, we take care of our parents and grandparents, you and I, because it is
what sustains them for this life on earth–to be independent, to be with us as
family. We tell others and ask for prayers for them as they age and are a part
of our life. But you know what? This action is God’s activity in us! This is the
Holy Spirit in us and healing us as we work in ways that give us grace, peace,
and our sense of the living bread, Christ, abiding in us and with us during
these times. I see and hear it here at church often. It is new life in Christ
through the Spirit in us!
Manna is temporary in our church
groups of Women’s Bible Study, Adult Education, and Tuesday Hymn Singing, even
though it may change in time and place. Its in the music we love that is
traditional and familiar, but it may come to include contemporary, faster, and
unfamiliar tunes. Manna is the committees, leaders, pastors from traditions ago
that we’ve always loved, and don’t want changed–the same pastor we loved, the
now saints in the same pews where they were, and the same of everything we
trusted and adored. The seven last words of the church today, it seems, are
related to manna; ‘we’ve never done it that way before!’
But isn’t that why we have the
Lord’s Supper in worship–to renew, to continue to satisfy our fulfillment of
Christ in our life? The manna as temporary satisfaction for hunger, is also
symbolic for the ‘bread from heaven’, the bread of life and the cup of
salvation, which is eternal life–Christ forever and ever. Christ said, ‘I am
the bread of life’, the true giver of life! Christ in us is the Spirit fulfilled
in us, a life-giver, a life-nurturer, a creator of human growth and dwelling in
our personality. And it’s permanent–it stays with us–it’s steadfast like the
love of God!!
Bible writings and our texts
proclaim to us God’s message by the prophets and are the result of the work of
the Spirit that unites believers to Christ and to one another. Biblically in the
early church we know the Spirit was given in a positive manner in numerous
ways–Barnabas, a good man, came to Antioch and was full of the Holy Spirit (Acts
11) and this is where teachings of he and Saul brought the first name of the
early believers as “Christians”; Peter received the Holy Spirit as he was
telling these believers–‘Christ as the ordained by God who forgives sins to all
believers in him (Acts 10:42-48)’; John the Baptizer used water, but Jesus was
baptized by the Spirit ( Acts 19).
‘What is this bread that is my
flesh?’ asked the Jews. It was a very good question. The good news for us is
that here and now the Holy Spirit, permanent and prominent, is the flesh and
life of Christ in us, it is God present in/with the church; God’s Holy Spirit is
God’s continuing presence among us. We may blossom overnight, or we may be
filled by the Spirit over time with a kind of ‘timed release’ in energy and
enthusiasm to grow, to serve. Whatever the process, we can place ourselves
beside the Spirit; along with the Spirit that is free and fulfilled enough in us
with hope and promise to urge our full potential of love, joy, peace, ‘for
everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.’
AMEN.
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