Easter 6C
May 16, 2004

Sensing the Spirit
by Michael Phillips

Psalm 67; John 14: 15-29

Spirituality is a hot topic these days.  Everybody seems to have some, 
whether it’s a celebration of nature’s grandeur, or quiet reflection.  
What “spirituality” is, however, seems to be poorly understood and 
poorly defined, even among Christians.  Some confuse it with a belief in something.  
Others confuse it with faith in something. 

Christian Spirituality is “the lived experience of Christian belief… 
distinguished from doctrine in that it concentrates not on faith itself, 
but on the reaction that faith arouses in religious consciousness and practice.”[1]  
In other words, spirituality is a feeling birthed in experience, 
but not the experience itself.  For example, the “oohs” and “aahs” of a crowd 
watching fireworks do not come from the fireworks, 
but from something within – a reaction of awe to the fireworks.  
Yet, Christian spirituality is not just a reaction to something like fireworks, 
or something as grand as nature itself, 
as some brands of spirituality might be described, 
but a reaction stirred by faith in what Christians believe: 
the death and resurrection of Christ.  Apart from this root, 
or core of Christian spirituality, spirituality becomes 
merely an individual reaction to a personal experience, 
while Christian spirituality is entirely dependent 
on a communal response to what God has done in Christ.

Some contrasts between Christian Spirituality and Jewish Spirituality 
suggest the Old Testament concerned the faith and practice of a people 
within community, while the New Testament concerns individual faith and practice.  
The faithful witnesses of the early church in the 
New Testament disagree with that assessment.  
Matthew’s gospel creates of Jesus a new Moses, who overthrows the Pharaoh of 
Sin, Hell, Death, and the Grave to lead us toward the 
promise of redemption together, as a covenant people. 

To follow Christ is an exodus in community from the bondage of the fear 
to be freely ourselves in love – to become something we were not 
before – a covenant people that love one another in the same way 
Christ has loved us, recognizing our faults and failures, 
forgiving the faults and failures of others, and remaining in 
community even though faults and failures are a constant 
part of our experience together in community. 

Together in the Spirit, we act as witnesses to the way of God in Christ 
as the Spirit brings to our communal mind and memory, 
as well as to our communal practice, the deep import and meaning of the 
life, teaching, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  
This last statement is critical.  We ACT.  We ACT as witnesses.  
We ACT AS WITNESSES by living together in the Spirit within a 
community of universal love that attracts others to 
faith, to baptism, to the teachings of Christ, and to God’s love in Christ.

John of Damascus once described God’s creative work as 
one great act of hospitality, a supremely generous 
gesture of making room for others.[2]  In creating the world, 
God took a great risk – greater than any of us may ever appreciate.  
God took the risk of making room for us, which is a 
perfect definition of love – taking the risk to make room for others. 

Ultimately, the church is the fellowship of God’s universal 
hospitality – making room for others at the table of Christ’s feast of love.  
Yet, only in honest and open fellowship does 
hospitality have a doorway to enter.  Only in sitting together at a common table, 
to share a common story, brought to remembrance by God’s Holy Spirit, 
does love have room to enter – the love of Christ that embraced death 
in order that others might live in freedom from fear of death.  
The Spirit moves within and among us, reminding us of Christ’s teachings, 
to recreate in our community the ministry of Christ’s reconciling love, 
which alone is the hope of a world embroiled in conflict. 

Christian Spirituality is a life lived in a shared Spirit, proclaimed in a 
sharing community, that “the abyss of God’s love is deeper than the abyss of death.”[3]  
Freed by love from the fear of sin, death, hell and the grave, 
we live life in the community of Christ, dying to ourselves as Christ commanded, 
to live for others in love, as Christ lived and died for us.

Learning to love is a struggle, and being a Christian in a 
community of love is a very painful journey.  
Frederick Buechner once said, “When somebody you’ve wronged forgives you, 
you’re spared the dull and self-diminishing throb of a guilty conscience.  
When you forgive somebody who’s wronged you, you’re 
spared the dismal corrosion of bitterness and wounded pride.  
For both parties, forgiveness means the freedom again to be at peace 
inside their own skins and to be glad in each other’s presence.”[4] 

He also says, “Peace has come to mean the time when there aren’t 
any wars or even when there aren’t any major wars.  
But, in Hebrew, peace, or shalom, means wholeness, 
completeness in all of our relationships. 

Jesus called himself the Prince of Peace, yet he uses the title 
in two radically contradictory sayings.  Once, he told the disciples, 
“Don’t think I’ve come to bring peace on earth; I’ve not come to bring peace, 
but a sword” (Matt. 10:34).  Later, the last time they ate together, 
he said to them, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you” (John 14:27).  
The contradiction is resolved when you realize that for Jesus peace 
is not the absence of conflict, but the presence of love,”[5] for 
“Each of us are Christians with only one wing, and we can 
only fly embracing each other.”[6]

References:

 Christian Spirituality, Origins to the Twelfth Century, 
Editors:  Bernard McGinn, John Meyendorff, and Jean Leclercq, 
Copyright 1992 The Crossroad Publishing Company, New York, NY, pp. xv - xvi

 Norman Wirzba, "Lethal Lawncare," The Christian Century, May 18th, 2004

 John M. Buchanan, "Stacked Up," The Christian Century, May 18, 2004, p. 3

 Buechner, Listening to Your Life, Copyright 1992 by Frederick Buechner, HarperSanFrancisco, p. 305

 ibid, pp. 239-240

 Luciano De Creschenzo, A 4th Course of Chicken Soup for the Soul, 
Copyright 1997 Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Hanock McCarty and Meladee McCarty, 
p. 254 (adapted)

(Comments to Michael at mphillip@epix.net.)
First Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 
Berwick, Pennsylvania (Susquehanna North Branch)