I'm already holy? Are you sure?

     The book of Romans is a fairly important one when it comes to our Lutheran theology but if you've ever tried to sit down and just read through it, you may find that it is a bit overwhelming.  Paul uses a very systematic, logical argument in his letter, but he also uses a lot of big words like justification, sanctification, and righteousness, not to mention the opposites he uses: law/grace, slaves of sin/slaves of righteousness, death/life, etc.  It is a confusing book!  So, over the next few weeks I hope to be able to shed some light on our readings from Romans.
     Our reading this Sunday comes from Romans 6.12-23.  Unfortunately we don't have the benefit of hearing the first half of the chapter, which is pretty central to Paul's argument, so if you get a chance, read 6.1-11 before Sunday.  Verses 1-11 deal with our new identities in Christ once we are baptized.  Paul reminds us that in baptism our sins are forgiven and we are washed with God's grace (justified) and made pure and holy (righteous) in God's sight.  The result of this is that we are no longer responsible for securing our own salvation, because we are quite unable to do so.  Christ lived a sinless life, and since we are united with Christ in baptism, his sinlessness is granted to us as a free gift, our salvation.  That is where our reading for Sunday picks up.
     Paul begins with the question about sin - since, in Christ, God forgives our sin and we no longer have to follow the law but are free in Christ's grace, does that mean we should keep on sinning on purpose?  Of course not!  Paul then goes on to argue why we shouldn't keep sinning even though God forgives us.  We have all witnessed or heard stories about people who call themselves 'Christian' but whose lives don't look like what we think a 'Christian' life should look like.  Those hypocrites, we say.  And, unfortunately, in my own life I have been one of those hypocrites - I judge others like I rule the world, I rarely give people the benefit of the doubt and think ill rather than nice things, I am the queen of excuses, and most of the time, I, me, and my comes first. 
     Even so, Paul says, we have already been saved and our sinfulness is dead so that God can work on raising up in us a new, better, Christ-like person.  Now, this is what we call sanctification - the living a Christ-like life here and now, where we sin less and do God's will more.  This doesn't mean that the older I get the better I will be at not sinning.  On the contrary, we Lutherans believe that sanctification is a daily process.  Each morning when we awake we are granted a new opportunity to say 'no' to sin so that God can work good in us.  I don't know about you, but I made it about two minutes (if that) before I sinned this morning, so even more than a daily process sanctification is a moment-by-moment process in which the Holy Spirit works in us to produce faith so that God can conquer our sin. 
     And this is the free gift Paul talks about in verse 23 - the consequences of sin is death.  Not only the big DEAD death, but the little deaths that we die every day: the regret we feel when we say something we shouldn't have, the distance we feel when we have an argument with a loved one, the speeding ticket we have to pay because we forgot about those speed cameras...  But, because God loves us, and because Christ gives us his own sinlessness in baptism, the gift we get is life.  Not only the big ETERNAL life, but the little life we live every day: the love we feel for our family when we put them first, the knowledge that even on bad hair days we have value and worthiness, the satisfaction of having that little break in your day...  That is life, and that is what we gain in exchange for our sinfulness when Christ died for us.
     So we don't keep on sinning, but we do strive to say 'no' to sin - not to win our own salvation or to prove to others that we are saved, but because the Holy Spirit works in us so that God's will might be done and so that we are made Christ-like through the moment-by-moment process of sanctification. Now, this is a complete and total mystery to me.  The fact that God has already made me holy sits in pure tension with the reality that I am still a sinner.  But that is the promise of God in Jesus Christ Jesus through the power of the Spirit.  And it is the mystery we live every day.  I'm already holy God?  Are you sure??

If the Holy Spirit makes us fossils, what does the Trinity do?

     We heard last Sunday, Pentecost Sunday, how the Holy Spirit works in and through God's people on earth to help us leave our mark on the world, much like fossils leave their mark.  We know from studying fossils how those organisms lived, what they ate, what their purpose was, and what role they played in the larger ecosystem.  We, as disciples of the living Jesus, leave our marks and we pray that the Spirit would help us to leave our marks so that in generations to come, people can look back and see what God was doing in the world through us by the fossils we leave. 
     Still in the midst of trying to comprehend how the Spirit is working in us, living, moving, and breathing in the world since the day of Pentecost, we come to Holy Trinity Sunday.  These two celebrations come in rapid succession, one after another, and because of the sheer greatness of these celebrations it feels as though our heads are left spinning, held on only by the thin thread of faith that somehow manages to comprehend the incomprehensible.
     So if the Holy Spirit makes fossils out of us, what is the role of the whole Trinity?  Our gospel lesson comes from Matthew 28.16-20 and we get a front row seat to Jesus' final words to his disciples.  The text has three specific pieces: the disciples worshiped and doubted, Jesus gives two commands, and Jesus makes his final promise.  The Trinity is explicitly mentioned in Jesus' first command, to baptize disciples in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Other than that, Jesus leaves us pretty clueless.  He gives us a command but very little guidance on how to carry it out. 
     I think that it must have something to do with the nature of the Holy Trinity, and that the Triune God is the source, power, and even completion of the commands.  But the question remains, how?  How does the Holy Trinity work to help us fulfill Jesus' last command?  How does the Trinity grant the faith we need so that even when we are doubting we can worship?  What role does the Trinity play in how we remember Jesus is with us always?  Or aside from remembering, just simply trusting in the first place? 
    Yes, the Holy Trinity remains one of the greatest  mysteries of the Christian faith and we, as people of that faith, continue to worship and praise our Triune God even when we don't fully understand.  But there is that part of me that strives to understand everything there is about a faith that cannot be understood, and so I continue to ponder: if the Holy Spirit makes us fossils, what does the Trinity do?

Where is the Spirit?

     This Sunday is Pentecost, the day in our church year we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit.  The primary story of the coming of the Holy Spirit is found in Acts 2.1-21, although there is also a much more abbreviated version in the gospel of John.  The Holy Spirit is something that, for a long time, I found hard to understand.  I knew what God the Father did - created, sent Jesus, loved/judged us, etc.  It's all in the Apostles' Creed.  I knew what God the Son did - came to earth as a baby, did some amazing things, and then died on the cross for our sins before he was raised by the Father, as it says in the creed.  But the Holy Spirit...it only gets one line in the creed - I believe in the Holy Spirit.  Trying to describe the Holy Spirit was kind of like trying to describe... well...
    This is such a tragedy because as people of faith, we read in the Bible that the Holy Spirit is who Jesus sent to us as our helper, guide, comforter, teacher.  We profess that we are sealed with the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever in the waters of baptism.  In fact, in John 20 Jesus actually commands that we receive the Holy Spirit, so as his disciples we don't have much of a say in whether we receive the Spirit or not.  It is God's gift to us, and we have the Spirit whether we acknowledge it, know it, or like it.
     So back to the original question - what is the Holy Spirit?  Some people describe it as intuition, and I have experienced the Holy Spirit in this way at times, although I know it only in retrospect.  Others describe the Holy Spirit as a constant, quiet companion.  Martin Luther describes the Holy Spirit in this way:

     I believe that by my own understanding or strength I cannot believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to 

     him, but instead the Holy Spirit has called me through the gospel, enlightened me with gifts, made me holy,

     and kept me in the true faith.  Daily in this Christian church the Holy Spirit abundantly forgives all sins - 

     mine and those of all believers.  On the last day the Holy Spirit will raise me and all the dead and will give 

     to me and all believes in Christ eternal life.  This is most certainly true.*

According to Luther we wouldn't even be a church without the Holy Spirit, and from reading in Acts, it seems this is most certainly true.  It also occurs to me that instead of describing what the Holy Spirit, perhaps we ought to be describing who or where the Holy Spirit is. 
     Many have said in the past few months, myself included, that the Holy Spirit is in our faith community of St. John, doing some amazing things, including working in our confirmation youth, bringing people to worship, creating a spark of excitement, helping our Sunday School kids grow and learn in faith, spurring adults to volunteer in new and different ways, giving people courage to share about their faith and how St. John helps them in that faith, etc.  I have heard story after story about the Holy Spirit working and doing amazing things. 
     The exciting part is that the Holy Spirit is just as active in each of our daily lives.  From giving us breath each moment, to helping us remain patient with a child who just isn't behaving properly, to taking the extra minute to listen to a coworker.  That is all the work of the Spirit but we rarely give the Spirit any credit.  The Holy Spirit is such an integral part of our lives we take for granted where it is.  In a lot of ways the Holy Spirit reminds me of the women who actually make the world run.  You know who I'm talking about - it's those women who show up early to make sure the coffee is on, the women who spend hours cutting out crafts for their child's class, the women who are always busily working behind the scenes, rarely getting credit, but always there, always working to make sure the world runs.  But even that doesn't quite get at the Holy Spirit.  Yes, trying to describe the Spirit remains quite the mystery, so for now I will ponder:
Where is the Spirit working?

*From Luther's Small Catechism, A Contemporary Translation.  Augsburg Fortress 1996, p 23.