Author: HRPC Office

Wind Power

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Acts 2:1-4/I Cor. 12:1-13                                                                               5.15.16

Gifts given by God are meant to be used for the good of the community, that means not for self preservation or prestige, but so that we can impact the world outside of the church.  Since we are at the tail end of our 50 day attempt to better care for God’s creation, let me share with you an example of using gifts for the good of the community at large:  a community solar system.  That is not a solar system that revolves just around one community.  It is a system of solar panels, a solar panel array, built by and for a community, not just one home or one business.

Community solar is an effort to use economy of scale to make solar energy available to households for whom it otherwise would be out of reach.  We have neighbors who rent their home or live in an apartment, neighbors who cannot afford to install their own solar panels, neighbors who do not have good enough credit to buy solar panels, neighbors who have too many trees or their roof faces the wrong direction.  There are lots of reasons people are unable to access solar energy alone.  Now there is a way to access it as a group.  It is an effort to pull various community players together to do something positive for our environment and to reduce energy costs.  It turns out that Hunting Ridge actually does not have enough flat space to be an effective host for a community solar system.  Our roof is too steep.  The cost of the project goes up if a carport has to be constructed over the parking lot, and the lot is not large enough to be effective.  Hosting the solar panels for a community is not our gift.  But we do pay our bills and have good credit (in general).  Those gifts, or resources, put us in a place where we can potentially be an sponsoring partner with other institutions to help locate the right place to install the panels, and to work together as a team on setting the parameters of who will be able to subscribe to the project.  As a subscriber to the project ourselves, our church would receive the benefits of energy credits on our monthly bill as well.  Our Maryland legislature just approved a bill this spring to make it possible to create community solar projects in our state, and West Baltimore is one of the first locations for pilot projects.  With the right sized solar array, we might be able to service 200 or more households, with a percentage of them being low income neighbors anywhere in the BGE service area.  None of us could do this kind of project alone.  In addition to physical space and good credit, the capital outlay is huge.  Other gifts are needed– investors who will put the money up front in order to get the panels installed, and then subscriber families or institutions who will pay into a fund which will then give them a return on their investment.  BGE is required by the State to participate, serving as the energy supplier, keeping track of the amount of solar energy provided to the grid and giving credit on  the monthly energy bills of subscribers.

Conversations are just beginning.  The search is on for a host for the solar panels and potential sponsoring institutions.  Nothing can happen until the fall when the new law comes into effect.  Hunting Ridge may or may not be a partner, but community solar is coming to West Baltimore, and is a current illustration of what Paul is trying to say to the church in Corinth.

We have been looking for several weeks at this unruly group of Christians in Corinth, Greece.  Throughout this first letter, Paul is trying to rein them in alternately with words of encouragement, words of instruction, words of chastisement and words of praise. That they are a multicultural congregation we have already established.  That they are having some conflicts with one another we have already  noticed.  At this point in his letter, chapter 12, Paul is reminding them of the source and the purpose of these gifts with which they have been blessed.  These same gifts which have caused some competition and resulted in hurt feelings.

Seems like they had forgotten that a gift can never have been yours to begin with, it is always something you receive.  You can’t take credit for a gift you get for your birthday or for mother’s day, even if it is what you asked for.  A gift comes from someone else.  Paul is speaking of the gifts given by the Holy Spirit.  Again and again he repeats, emphasizing that each gift is from the same Spirit.  For Paul, the purpose of the gifts are to create unity in the community, a unity of diverse members, but a unity which becomes visible to others and invites others in.

That was the purpose of the gift of the Holy Spirit on that Pentecost day, when a group of wimpy disciples huddled together in a room suddenly received the gift of being able to communicate, to speak the news about Jesus in a way they had never been able to before.  People took notice that day, for sure.  You took notice this morning, didn’t you, as the languages filled our sanctuary during the reading?  If you read on in chapter 2 of Acts, the church was born that day because the Spirit enabled the story to be told in multiple languages, people paid attention, and at least 3000 decided to join the church.  Some of the crowd were skeptical, and there always will be some of those, won’t there?  If we let skeptics have their way all kinds of amazing projects would never take off.

The Spirit pours out many gifts, because many gifts are needed.  Paul lists nine of them here–wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracle working, prophecy, discernment, speaking in tongues and interpreting tongues.  He has another list at the end of the chapter, and yet another in Romans chapter 12.  Teachers, preachers, helpers, givers, leaders.  And none of his lists are exhaustive.  Like any good preacher, he gives you a few examples so you get the point.  Perhaps recognizing our own gifts is not as important as acknowledging the gifts of one another, finding ways that our gifts can complement one another as we together make up a community of faith.  More important is giving thanks for the gifts of one another, empowering one another to put those gifts into practice.  You received a flame in your bulletin this morning.  It describes a gift given by the Spirit.  Maybe you resonate with it, maybe you don’t.  My challenge to you on this Pentecost day is to identify someone you know who has exhibited this gift and pass the flame along to him or her.  You might see them in person, you might send them an email, or just call them on the phone to tell them about it.  Sometimes you see a gift in another person that he or she totally misses when looking in the mirror!

The gifts from the Spirit are power.  We use the metaphors of wind- power and fire-power, the colors of flames and the rushing sound of a strong wind.  These metaphors are taken from the images we find in the book of Acts from that birth-day.  But all the metaphors point to the gifts as the awesome power of God.  The gifts provide power for the recipient to keep on keeping on in the everyday work of God right here.  The gifts provide power for this community, this family, to attract others.  The gifts are given for the life and health of the community as a whole, not for the individual alone.  If you have the gift of speaking but have no one to speak to, it is kind of useless.  If you have the gift of healing, but are not a part of a community which needs healing, you have nothing to do.  If you speak in ecstatic tongues and have no one to interpret them for you, it is just between you and God, with no meaning for anyone else.

Wind power is nothing special unless it is put to work.  Gifts of the Spirit ignored create a powerless community, or maybe a non-community of isolated individuals who can’t see giftedness in anyone.  Gifts of the Spirit are to be used and shared.  So too, flames burning unattended cause damage, not heat for warmth or cooking.  Gifts of the Spirit always run the risk of becoming an obsession, a weapon, a divisive tool.  Gifts of the Spirit must be attended so that they are used to unite a community of believers.  And, remember, gifts of the Spirit are free.  Happy Birthday, church!

Life is a Gift

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1 Cor. 15:1-26; 51-57

Since it is Mother’s Day, we might note a different translation of v. 51….”We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed.”  It is one of those Bible play on words that seems very appropriate for mothers.  It can be used to describe the life of a new mother (and father).  A new parent quickly learns what it is like when the baby does not sleep at the appropriate times of the day.  And parents change diaper after diaper.  As I am sure you know, when baby does not sleep, parents do not sleep.  And they are changed with the arrival of a child who suddenly commands complete attention and requires care around the clock.  Parents everywhere can agree that we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed.

Paul means we will be changed after we die.  Sleeping is a common euphemism for death in Scripture.  It is a change that is a mystery, a transformation that is beyond what we can imagine.  It is called resurrection of the body.  We know the phrase from the creed..  I believer in the resurrection of the body…we know it and we often struggle with it.  In what sense does our body rise to life?  No rational thinker would think our current set of flesh and bones will live again.  So let’s just take that off the table at the very beginning.

Paul’s teaching is aimed at a group of very rational thinkers in the Corinthian congregation, the ones who have challenged the concept of resurrection of the dead.  They figure, when you die, you die.  It is the end.  Period.   They have stirred up enough confusion that others are now unsure what to believe about what happens after they die.  The Corinthians’ confusion does not sound all that strange to our ears.  There are multiple understandings of what happens after this body wears out in our day and time.  It all depends on your theology, on the way you were taught to view death.  Some watch for some visible sign of a soul leaving the body.  We all like to find comfort in believing that our loved one is in a better place.  Some say there is nothing after death.  Some of us proclaim the resurrection of the body.  Not this particular body, but somehow, a body which  is us.  And lots of us are really unsure. It makes sense that the confusion continues— we are talking about a scenario none of us has ever experienced.  We are talking about life after death.

So how does it work, exactly?  I can’t give you a detailed explanation.  Paul did not know either.  He calls it a mystery, and indeed it is.  His line of thinking is this:  when you get confused on this resurrection stuff, go back to the basics.  Remember what I taught you.  He opens this lengthy treatise on the resurrection with this:  “Brothers and sisters, I want to call your attention to the good news that I preached to you, which you also received and in which you stand.”  This good news is the message of resurrection– Jesus’ resurrection and our resurrection.  Paul points out that Jesus obviously died because he was put in the grave.  He obviously rose from that grave because person after person, and even large groups, saw him alive after he was buried.  Jesus was risen from the dead.  Paul says we have to start there.  Because if he was not raised, then what are we believing in?  What are we preaching?  What value does our faith have?

He attempts to help them sort out the confusion over understanding the resurrection of believers.  For Paul, the two are directly connected.  You can’t say there is no resurrection of the dead because Jesus rose.  Death has lost its sting.  God is victorious.  And God remains victorious.  Life continues.  Not to say we will live forever (although our medical technology continues to make it possible to extend life way beyond what our natural bodies would do on their own).  Not to say it is easy to watch a loved one die or to go to a funeral or to face our own death.  What we can say is that this life is not all there is.  We can say that we too will be transformed into a new life.  We can say that when you believe Christ is resurrected you also believe that you will be transformed when your earthly house is no longer necessary.

He does not describe when that resurrection takes place–is it immediately following physical death, or when Jesus returns (which Paul was expecting momentarily) or at the end of time?  It is left open ended.  Left open ended makes room for countless interpreters to fill countless pages with arguments for being transformed into a new being immediately or for a general gathering of the saints at one time in the future…  Maybe Paul leaves it open ended because it doesn’t matter.  Paul is not a proponent for some disembodied soul floating around after we die.  He doesn’t go for the dualism of a body and a soul that can separate from one another.  He would not talk about moving into a room in the mansion of God which John describes.  He would not talk about meeting up with your loved ones in heaven.  What he does say is this:  resurrection means transformation.  Jesus was resurrected.  We will be too.  We claim this because we know that death does not win.  God wins.  Love wins.

Our claim is our belief.  What you believe today might be different from what you believed or will believe at another time in your life.  Believing is not the same as assenting to a list of facts.  It is based on lived experiences with God, on a relationship with Christ.  It is important to remember that what we believe shapes the way we act.  What we believe about death shapes the way we approach it for ourselves and for our loved ones.  Do we believe it is really the end?  Are we afraid?  Do we see it as a necessary evil or as a “welcome home” from a loving God?  Are we able to talk about it?  Do we try to be too scientific about it and close off the emotions?   Death is a natural end to life, clearly a time for sadness because it is a true loss.  Death itself is not evil.  It is a transition.  Physical death is a time for proclaiming life.  In this lengthy treatise on the resurrection (we skipped over part of it, by the way!), Paul is pushing believers then and now to prepare to live as those who will die and to prepare to die as those who will live.

What does it look like to live as those who are preparing to die?  Not dwelling on the end, but living each day to its fullest.  Not hoarding stuff you can’t take with you and your family doesn’t want to sort through.  It is building relationships with people and with God.  Those who live that way are standing in resurrection faith

What does it look like to prepare to die as those who will live?  Some die faithfully, full of grace, confident of the future–sometimes we say, “he has made his peace with God”.  We all are not given time at the end to think it through.  An illness can surprise us.  An accident will happen.  We never know.  Even when we are in the best of health, there are steps we can take to be prepared to die knowing that we will live.  I encourage you to talk with your loved ones about your wishes, your values, your beliefs around your own death.  Put them in writing and give them to the appropriate people.  Review them periodically to see if your values have changed.

I like the story of the woman who told her pastor that she wanted to be buried with a fork in her hand.  He was kind of confused by that request until she explained.  She had always been told to  “Keep your fork” in anticipation of a rich, sweet dessert treat.  From her point of view, the best was yet to come, so she wanted to be sure to keep her fork!

We did not read the last verse of chapter 15 earlier.  I’d like you to hear it.  Paul ends as he began, exhorting the believers in Corinth:  “My beloved brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, excelling in the work of the Lord as always, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”  Those are words of encouragement for those who are living as those who are prepared to die and those who are dying as those who are prepared to live.  Amen.