RESURRECTIONS, MOMS, AND THE HOLY SPIRIT

The Seventh and last Sunday of Easter in 2016 is Mother's Day, May 8, in American culture.  The next Sunday after that is Pentecost, a day in history that rocked the world, the day God poured out His Holy Spirit on His Church.  Resurrection … Mothers … Holy Spirit. 

Quite a combination, don't you think? But then, the story of Jesus' earthly days begins with His mother giving birth to Him in the little town of Bethlehem.  It was a supernatural conception, a very natural delivery, and a bewildering and staggering event, gone unnoticed in a world that didn't yet have social media.  Did I say "staggering?"  Martin Luther said, "The mystery of the humanity of Christ, that He sunk Himself into our flesh, is beyond all human understanding."  Maybe "staggering" isn't a strong enough word. 

Yet, this is our story.  God came into His world and initiated a journey that would lead to the death of the child whose birth we celebrate at Christmas.  But babies don't stay babies, and little boys grow up.  Thirty years later Jesus takes His place in the world of the Middle East, and inundates the life of God into the very fiber of humanity.

As the Church moves through the Easter season on Her way to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, we do well to remind ourselves that what God does He does in our very real world, and of His own initiative.  He was born in a very real manger, to a very real mom.  He suffered on a very real cross.  He was placed into a very real tomb.  A very real rock was moved away on the morning of His resurrection.  He revealed himself to a very real and bewildered woman at the tomb.  He drew near His very real disciples and showed them His very real wounds.  When He ascended back to heaven He poured out His very real, and Holy, Spirit.

Now we are called to live in our world, filled with Holy Spirit.  We take what has been given us in our times and we yield it all back to God.  The life of God takes up residence in us, and forever after this indwelling begins, we live and move and have our being in God.  The natural stuff of our lives is baptized in the Holy Spirit, and we offer up our lives to live in light of the magnificent and life changing grace of God. 

The world is still real, life is still dangerous, and suffering still finds ways to raise its ugly head in a thousand ways.  Yet, God's lavished grace comes into our stories and establishes a stronghold in our lives, a stronghold built upon the cross and resurrection of Jesus.  A thousand times the mountains may slip into the heart of the sea, a thousand times the waters of the sea may roar and foam, and a thousand times the devastation may be so real that it can be said, "the mountains quake."  Still they do not destroy us because, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble" (see Psalm 46:1-3).  How safe a refuge?  How strong a strength?  The kind of refuge and strength revealed when Jesus was raised up from the dead, and then shares that resurrection power with His people, in the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit.

He is risen and He is Lord of all.