LISTENING TO THE SPIRIT

Researchers have found that, if a child repeatedly hears his mother’s voice while he is in the womb, after birth he is able to pick out his mother’s voice among a host of other female voices. Over time, he also learns to recognize the voices of his other family members.

In his letter to the Romans, Paul urges them to remember that they are members of God’s family, and, as children of God, they are to be led by the voice of God’s spirit. As God’s family, they – and all who come after them – are now bonded to God in a new way. That means

Learning to see God, ourselves, and others the way God sees us,
Listening for God’s voice among all the other voices that clamor for our attention, and
Shifting our alliance from ourselves as No. 1 to God as No. 1.

So,
No longer are we to trust in ourselves alone, we are to trust in God.
No longer are we to follow our own way, we are to follow God’s way.
No longer are we to think only about our well-being, we are to consider the well-being of others. So when we welcome Eve Irene into God’s family today, we will promise her, and God, that we will do all in our power to support her in learning to listen for, and to follow, God’s Spirit.

But there are other members of God’s family who need our support as well – many of whom we will never meet.

Folks like the Sudanese woman who lives with a scar on her upper back – a reminder of the time when the Janjaweed shot her as she was running from them with her baby on her back – the scar that was left when the bullet grazed her, the scar that was left after the bullet went through her baby, killing him.

Or the 85-year-old Hartford resident who called us for help – worried that she couldn’t pay her energy bill – concerned about facing the boiling temperatures that many poor elderly are forced to cope with in the summer months.
Or the parents of the over 9 million uninsured children in the United States – parents who desperately want the best for their children but who often swallowed up by a death-dealing health care system.

Parents like Alyce, mother of Deamonte Driver, a 12 year old, seventh grader from Prince George’s County, Maryland. According to the Children’s Defense Fund, “one day Deamonte complained of a toothache to his mother, Alyce. Alyce, who works at low-paying jobs, didn’t have employer health insurance, and had been focused on finding a dentist to see Deamonte’s brother, who had six rotting teeth. Their Medicaid insurance coverage had been cut off, and Alyce’s efforts to renew the coverage were ensnarled in red tape and bureaucratic delays. After an unsuccessful search for a dentist, Alyce took Deamonte to a hospital emergency room where he was given medicine for a headache, sinusitis and dental abscess and then sent home. But his condition soon took a turn for the worse, and he was back at the hospital - being rushed to surgery where it was discovered that the bacteria from his abscessed tooth had spread to his brain. Heroic efforts were made to save him, including two operations and eight weeks of additional care and therapy, totaling about $250,000. Unfortunately, it was all too late. He died on February 25. The outrage is that Deamonte’s life could have been saved by far less costly health insurance to cover routine dental visits and an $80 tooth extraction.”
You and I cannot go back and help save Deamonte’s life. But we all know that there are other Deamontes out there. So
How can we make a positive difference in their lives?
How can we become vessels of God’s justice, of God’s mercy, of God’s love – when, for many of us, just getting through the day can be demanding enough?

How do we find the courage to speak in favor of the death penalty – not for human beings created in the image of God – but for Poverty, Hopelessness and Death – the weapons created by human beings who forget that all are created in the image of God?

God knows that we can’t stand up for the good of all of God’s children – and keep standing – on our own strength. The pressure is too great to remain silent, to renege on our baptismal promises to stand up for the well-being of all of God’s children. After all, who wants to suffer? And suffer we will, when we try to do what is right – because we live in a world that often favors a few – even if it means injustice to many.

But God asks us to trust that God is at work - even in the midst of suffering, even in situations that seem hopeless. As New Testament scholar, N.T. Wright reminds us, “those in Christ are conformed to the image of the Son, standing between the pain of the world and the love of God, discovering that their own suffering, including the ones that they cannot begin to comprehend, are somehow themselves becoming the vessels and vehicles of God’s redeeming love.”

Because we cannot keep our baptismal promises on our own strength, God – in God’s mercy – gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit –

The Spirit which reminds us that we are children of a God for whom evil and death do not have the last word,
The Spirit which comes alongside our spirit, strengthening us so we do not fall back into fear,
The Spirit which teaches us to imagine a different future for all of God’s children – and we learn to make decisions and take actions to bring that future into being.

Which reminds me of a story of a man, his wife and his mother-in-law who were visiting the Holy Land for the first time. . . On their first Friday there, the mother-in-law suddenly became ill and died. In shock, the man’s wife left the funeral arrangements entirely up to him. Upon consulting with a funeral director, he was told that the cost of burying his mother-in-law in the Holy Land would be $1,500, but the cost of sending her back to the U.S. for burial would be $30,000. To the funeral director’s surprise, the man chose to have her buried back home. He said to the man, “You must really love her to spend that kind of money!” The man shook his head, then looked the director straight in the eye, and said, “No, but on our visit here, I learned about the man who was buried here and then came back to life – and frankly, I can’t afford to take that chance.”

The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is the same Spirit that dwells in each of us. Although we are no longer in God’s womb, that same Spirit still speaks to us – as individuals and as a community. And who knows where that Spirit will lead us in the days and months ahead – if we will but listen and follow? Who knows?