Holy E-coli?
Cross adorned with flowers for Easter
Yesterday, we read about the many dwelling places God has for us, and the one way to get to the Father. In addressing who would be in God's Kingdom, John seemed to be excluding everyone except those who came to Christ, and that was puzzling. Surely we would want others to know the joy and peace we find in knowing Christ, but should we feel compelled to try to change their views? Is it our job to "save" those who follow another faith?
In today's reading, John talks about the Spirit of truth and how we come to know him.
This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you. - John 14:17
This may be the differentiating factor. To receive the Holy Spirit, one needs to come to Christ.
That makes sense to me.
How can one know the Spirit, if one does not know Jesus who had the Father send him?
We receive the Holy Spirit in baptism and become Christ's own. At that point, we belong to him and accept God in a new way.
On Easter Sunday at Christ's Church in Rye, Ted Smith accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior and was baptized. He received the Holy Spirit.
Talking with Ted afterwards, I could see that he was beaming with life and the joy he felt was, at times, overwhelming.
Why wouldn't I want to have others feel that way?
Back when I was a kid, I had no idea what it meant to have the Holy Spirit living within me. It seemed like a weird thing to say or hear, but it wasn't something I dwelled on at all.
It wasn't until much later when I was studying biology in college that I started to question this strange relationship we Christians have with our invisible friend. Was I in some kind of symbiotic relationship with another living thing inside me? If this thing was real, I thought, and it was alive in me, was it like bacteria? Was I living with Holy E-coli?
As living things, we have pounds of bacteria living inside us at any point in time, some are good and some are bad. We rely on good bacteria to digest our food and cleanse our systems. So it isn't so far-fetched to use this relationship as a metaphor for living with the Spirit. Jesus talked about casting out spirits when he cured people, so there was an understanding or belief that something inside us could do us harm.
It could also do us good.
I have experienced the presence of the Spirit in my life, and the more I pray for that understanding and wisdom Jesus talks about receiving from the Spirit, the more I see how it works.
For me, it goes back to that expression, "Let go and let God."
If I find something troubling, or if fear and anxiety start to take hold, causing my muscles to tighten and my doubts to rise, I call upon the Spirit to help me.
Here is how it works for me. I simply stop thinking. I know that sounds impossible, but I am learning how to do it. The situation doesn't need to be earth-shattering either. It could be as minor as giving a talk or accompanying people on the keyboard at a retreat. The harder I think about what I have to do or say, the more nervous I become, but if I let go, if I stop thinking about it, may hands and lips just do their thing.
Oh, you can say that has nothing to do with a Spirit within me, and maybe it is nothing more than having confidence in myself. But when it comes to the big fears and frightening moments that I have to face from time to time, I would rather know I am not alone.
Holy E-coli?
I'm sure there is a much better metaphor. Maybe I'm relying too much on thinking this one through, rather than letting go and letting God take a stab at it. But I happen to like it. It makes me feel like the Spirit is right here, in my gut.