The Spirit and the Messiness of Worship

Text: Joel 2:12-13, 28-29

            Last Wednesday the Nativity Scene at Grace blew over. It was so perfectly poetic I had to take a picture of it lying there flat on the ground. Jesus is not in the manger yet; we still have a few weeks of Advent. So I’m OK with subtle divine hints that maybe that nativity scene can wait. And besides, it was particularly appropriate that it was the wind that knocked it over, since the Hebrew word for “wind” (ruach) also means “spirit.” It was as if the Holy Spirit were saying, “No. Not yet. Slow down. Wait.”
             Lo and behold, now we have the prophet Joel this Sunday, again preaching on the Spirit. Joel is probably one of the least familiar books in the Bible, so I’ll forgive you if you aren’t Joel experts. Still, some of what we read today should be familiar. There’s that Lenten refrain: “Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.” Lent and Advent share some commonalities. They are both about reflection, they both involve turning or returning to God, and they are both times awaiting God’s in-breaking into the world. We understand that this is the season where we are anticipating Jesus, but God's in-breaking into our daily lives requires also the Holy Spirit. We don’t really talk about it much—because honestly we don’t talk about the Spirit much ever—but in this time of the year when we’re completely fine with angels and heavenly choruses it's astounding that we still manage to ignore the Holy Spirit.

             Our problem is that without the Holy Spirit it is almost impossible to talk about God working in the world today. If we have issues talking about the Spirit and what it’s doing with us, then it’s going to be awfully hard to believe that God is anything more than a God of history. I can understand why we’re cautious because each of us has heard somebody claim on the television or on the internet or in a newspaper that some event was a message from God, often to repent of our sins. Some of these people are so vehemently not-Christ-like that we are right to be cautious, but on the other hand we can become too cautious about talking about the Spirit to the point where we don’t actually believe in a God who enters into our lives. We may become too scared to say: “There. God was there. God was changing me. God is changing me.”

            Advent doesn’t work very well when we make it all about history. Now, don’t get me wrong, Jesus born in a manger to Mary and Joseph is the “reason for the season,” but the God who is active and alive today, still speaking to us, is just as critical. The only way we can justify what we do as the church is through the Holy Spirit. If we are only meeting every Sunday to remember some events that happened long ago, as we might on Memorial Day or this past Friday on the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, then this message I’m preaching is nothing more than a eulogy for times gone by.

            That is often how preaching is treated . Whether it’s me, or somebody else in a funny robe talking from behind a pulpit, you listen, you go home, maybe you think the message was nice—maybe you don’t—but it hardly matters if you don’t see or feel a God who walks alongside you out those doors and into the rest of your lives. The Spirit is what gives credence to everything that we do here. We can hardly be surprised that it is Joel who is concerned with the Spirit, since he is a rare prophet who actually likes worship. He’s not only fire and brimstone and repentance and “Go wear sack clothes” and that whole bit; Joel is also a prophet who understands the importance of worship as a place where the Spirit is particularly present.

            Every once in awhile I talk with somebody, often around my age, about why they don’t go to church. Sometimes they start the conversation, but I’m more than willing to be that obnoxious pastor who brings up those awkward questions as well. So, why don’t they go to church? It’s the stock answers. It’s not entertaining; it doesn’t mean anything; it’s not relevant (or insert another buzzword here); it’s my grandparents’ church, not mine. Have you heard something like that before?

            Here's what I tell them; feel free to do the same. You look them straight in the eyes—and you can even start by saying, “My pastor told me to tell you” if you want to blame me; I’m OK with that. Either way, tell them, “You’re right, and it sounds to me like the Holy Spirit is calling you to reform the church.” They’ll probably laugh. That’s fine. They might also start thinking. The Spirit is in the business of getting people thinking.

            The truth is that we continuously underestimate what God is doing in our lives. It’s not because we are so wise or so diligent in our studies of the scriptures that we worship as we do. We worship as we do to allow the Holy Spirit the freedom to move in our midst and to change us. The most boring examples of worship I have ever seen are always those places where the Holy Spirit is practically barred at the door. There’s no creativity, no space for joy; when somebody messes up a reading they get the death stare; when the music isn’t perfect the musicians can feel peoples’ eyes on them; when children start making noise, well, you get the picture. Children are a great indicator of the Holy Spirit in worship. There is this myth that the only reason we want children in church is because of the future, but to be honest we need children around because the rest of us are too ornery and set in our ways to actually see the Holy Spirit working. Children don’t have that problem. Places that aren’t inviting to children are places that don’t want to be messy, but the Spirit is messy!

            The Spirit is always causing us trouble. It’s always changing things, because God is not some stoic, unmoving force. When the Spirit is active and alive, what happens? Your sons and your daughters start speaking prophecies, says Joel. Your old people dream dreams (possibly during the sermon), and your young people see visions. A church that has people prophesying is a messy place, but it’s also exactly the place God is calling us to be. Now, just in case you think I’m beating you over the head because nobody is prophesying, please know that this is not the case.

            When a group of women come together and decide to start up a new ministry serving food to the hungry that is prophecy; that is the Spirit at work. When a church decides to do something new and go out on something of a financial limb to bring in another staff person to work with our young people that is the Spirit at work. When we gather together Sunday after Sunday not only out of a sense of duty but also out of a desire for something more and something deeper that is the Spirit at work. You know how you know when the Spirit is working? When you think to yourself, “Man, this would have been easier not to do,” and you go forward and do it anyway; that is the Spirit bursting through your comfort zone. Many times I have thought that this past year; and I heard the same thing from Pastor Melodi as they were considering an internship program; and I heard it from several of the people pioneering the Cornerstone Food Pantry.

If it’s not scary then the Spirit probably isn’t involved.
           So, be scared, be messy, allow the wind to blow over your nativity scenes without freaking out, and through it all remember that this is how the Spirit works. This is how the Spirit is bringing peace.

Amen.