A Fourth Church Sermon by Joanna M. Adams

January 12, 2003 | 9:30 and 11:00 a.m.

New Spiritual Conditions

Joanna M. Adams
Pastor, Fourth Presbyterian Church

Acts 19:1–7
Mark 1:9–15

“And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven
‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’”

Mark 1:10–11 (NRSV)

Holy Spirit, Lord, and Giver of life, we praise you for your presence in our lives
and in our worship. We ask that you would anoint us afresh,
that we may hear the good news with open ears
and be strengthened in our call as servants of the gospel.
For the sake of the world and for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Offering predictions about future events has always been a precarious exercise, but one that many have found irresistible, nonetheless. You are perhaps familiar with some of the incorrect prognostications from the twentieth century. There was Wilbur Wright saying to his brother Orville, “I am convinced it will be fifty years before man will fly.” There was the Yale economics professor, who on the eve of the collapse of the stock market in 1929, was possessed of a particularly sunny outlook: “Stocks appear to me to have reached a permanently high plateau.” One of my favorites is a comment made by the president and founder of the Digital Equipment Corporation in the year 1977. “There is no reason at all,” Mr. Kenneth Olson said, “for any individual to have a computer in their home.” (1)

As usual, a flurry of predictions is emerging at the beginning of a new year. Some assert that Western culture is in descent and that non-Western cultures are ascending. Some speak of the inevitability of war, others of an awakening of resolve among the American people to prevent war. What do you think will happen? It is impossible to know; yet some predictions do seem to hold more water than others. I am intrigued by what scholars and observers are saying about the future of Christianity and spirituality in the twenty-first century. Some years ago the predictors were sure that religion was on the way out. Now respected organizations such as the Princeton Religious Research Center are saying that the twenty-first century will no doubt be the most spiritual and religious century of the last 500 years. (2) Perhaps this will turn out to be a misguided prophecy, but trends certainly point in the direction of increased commitment to matters of faith.

Is this good news? Is this bad news? Certainly it is bad news if religion leads to violence, self-righteousness, and mean-spiritedness. It is complicated news for mainline Protestantism in North America. Let me give you an example. As 2003 begins, Pentecostalism, a religious movement that emphasizes speaking in tongues and spiritual healing, is sweeping across Latin America, the continent of Africa, and southern Asia. It is already being said that the locus of Christianity has decidedly shifted away from Western and Northern Hemisphere churches into the South, that the balance will never again shift back, and that this is the most important development in Christianity since the beginning of the church. (3)

It is certainly true that mainline Protestantism is in decline in Europe and North America as far as numbers are concerned; yet I am reminded of Mark Twain, who read an obituary of himself, written by a misinformed newspaper man at the London Times. (The obituary was written in 1897, and Mr. Twain lived until 1910.) Twain responded, “The report of my death has been highly exaggerated.”

What the future will hold insofar as the church is concerned, no one can say. I take comfort in the fact that God knows and that God will use the church in whatever shape or form God needs for the church to bear witness to the reality of the new life released into the world through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Whether any particular part of the body of Christ thrives or fails to thrive, this much is sure: the life-force in the church of Jesus Christ has always been the power of the Spirit of God; it is the Holy Spirit, the generative force behind all the faith and all the mission in every church in every age.

I heard a lecturer several years ago explain that Christianity thrived during its beginning years because of two factors: first, the brilliantly designed road and highway system of the Roman Empire; second, the language of the New Testament, which was Koiné Greek, the language of the common people. Both things are crucially true, but there is a deeper truth: the church grows and the gospel spreads because of the Spirit of the living God.

By the time Constantine became emperor early in the fourth century, there were still only 200,000 followers of Christ. They were a seemingly unimportant minority, with no economic or political power, but what power they had from another realm! If the days of the Christian establishment in the West are drawing to a close, then so be it. We will have a wonderful opportunity, one that we have not had since the days of Constantine, to be the church, an intentional community of prayer, discipleship, and service; a movement of faith empowered by the Spirit of the living God. (4)

Here is a question for us at Fourth Presbyterian Church, a congregation marked by growth and vitality, an anomaly in North American Protestantism: How shall we find the energy and the perspective to be brave and to follow Christ at this particular time, when spiritual conditions are different from what they were in 1871, when the church was founded, or in 1971, when the church celebrated its one hundredth anniversary?

In 1971, to be ecumenical in Chicago was to have a friend who was a Catholic or a Lutheran. Today, there are still plenty of Catholics and Lutherans with whom we can share friendship, but there are also 350,000 Muslims, 80,000 Hindus, and 160 followers of the Buddhist faith. (5) How can we be faithful, vital disciples of Christ and join with people of other faiths in working for the common good of our city and our neighborhoods?

Thirty years ago, and certainly 130 years ago, children were brought to church by their parents, and it was expected that they would grow up and be Presbyterians if their parents were Presbyterians, or Methodists if their parents were Methodists, but now one’s denomination has become almost entirely a matter of choice, not birth or heritage.

People are drawn to what is called “New Age Spirituality,” where they assume they have no need for the faith tradition. They go to Borders and pick up a few books from the shelf and put a little bit of this in their spiritual pot and a little bit of that, and then taste and say, “Well, this works for me.” I remember a woman who came to see me just a few years ago, who was a member of the congregation I was serving at the time. She said, “Can you tell me what Christians believe about reincarnation? I believe in reincarnation.” I explained, respectfully, that Christianity was based on an entirely different notion, which is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. She looked at me with utter incredulity. “Well,” she said, “I guess I don’t belong here.” With that, she got up and walked out and that was the last I ever saw of her.

The spiritual question we all ask is where can we find meaning and a sense of authentic life, grounded in something larger than ourselves. Many left the church completely because of the closed-mindedness and rigidity of the churches they were raised in, others because of banality and irrelevance. In light of all of these new conditions, how can this congregation be a vital, spiritual community today? Today’s scriptures suggest where we might find an answer.

In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus is baptized in the Jordan River, and after he is baptized, the Holy Spirit descends upon him like a dove. (Don’t get hung up on the literalism of the image. The Holy Spirit is not a dove; the Holy Spirit is like a dove.) A voice from heaven speaks, “This is my beloved Son, with him I am well pleased.” Baptism and the Holy Spirit: they come together in Jesus Christ. It is in this coming together that we find the meaning of our lives and the mission of our faith community.

The expression “This is my Son” is a direct quotation from the Second Psalm, which was to be spoken at a king’s coronation, or crowning. What kind of king is this that goes under the water and comes up dripping like a baby from his bath? What kind of king is this upon whom the Holy Spirit descends? Clearly this will not be a ruler who goes for power and prestige, lording it over other people. The second half of the powerful, majestic affirmation is this: “This is my Son with whom I am well pleased.” That is a quotation from one of the suffering servant passages in Isaiah. This is a king who will suffer. This is a king who will serve, who will lay down his life for many. This is the servant who will bring justice to the nations and open the eyes of the blind and release the prisoners who are unjustly held.6

What shall be our spiritual direction today? Exactly in the direction that the servant went. This Son in whom the Lord was well pleased went into the world, into the heart of the suffering of the world. There is no custom that is more meaningful around here than that after every Sunday worship service, all of us are invited to go into Anderson Hall, where there are displays offering so many opportunities for us to put our faith into action. This week, the emphasis will be on responding to the pandemic of hunger and starvation in Africa. Did you know that there are 28 million people on that continent who are suffering from hunger and starvation today? Years ago, this congregation joined hands with other people in organizations and helped start a movement to initiate a moratorium against the death penalty in the state of Illinois. That is spiritual activity of the highest order.

Some of you know that I live a couple of blocks down the street. On these cold mornings when I get up, I go to the window and look out to see if I can see the trees moving along the Avenue. If the trees are still, I know there is no wind blowing off the lake, but if the trees are moving, I know it is time to button up and throw my shoulders back, because there is a force to be reckoned with. That is how it is with the church and the Holy Spirit. We cannot be still. We are to be the signs that God is alive and active, bringing new life into the world.

It is wonderful to read the book of Acts and to realize that God gives God’s own Spirit to every group of people who want to follow Christ. The twelve in Ephesus did not even know there was such a thing as the Holy Spirit. That did not matter to Paul. He proclaimed the Word to them, offered them the Sacrament of Baptism, and the Holy Spirit descended with astonishing gifts for every one of them.

Perhaps you came into church today not sure yourself that there was such a force for life and wholeness let loose in the world. I do not know why you are here today. Perhaps you are here because the materialism and frantic pace of the world have not brought real meaning to your life. Presbyterians believe that there is no need for drama and emotional manipulation to access the Spirit of God. Through worship and through the sacraments, the Spirit of the living Christ still comes close to us today.

In November, we received word at the church that one of our members had died. Because she was ninety-nine years old, I assumed that she had been a member for many years, but she had not. Starr Crump had joined the church at the age of ninety-three through the Sacrament of Baptism.

As the poet has written, “There lives the dearest freshness deep down things. . . . Because the Holy Ghost over the bent world broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings!” (7) What the future will hold, no one can say for sure, but this much we know: the dove will descend and its wings will never be still.8 Thanks be to God. Amen.

Notes
1. Newsweek, January 27, 1997.
2. Emerging Trends, April 2000.
3. Philip Jenkins, “The Next Christianity,” The Atlantic Monthly, October 2002, p. 55.
4. Douglas John Hall, The Awkward Church, Theology and Worship Occasional Paper No. 5, Presbyterian Church (USA).
5. Chicago Sun-Times, “Chicago Is Lab for Mixing Faiths,” April 22, 2001.
6. Fred B. Craddock, “Attending a Baptism,” Cherry Log Sermons, Westminster/John Knox Press, 2001, p. 10.
7. Gerard Manley Hopkins, “God’s Grandeur,” The New Oxford Book of English Verse, Oxford University Press, 1972, p. 786.
8. A thought found somewhere in Frederick Buechner’s writings on the Holy Spirit.