Hey!
This is long.
And it’s not a picture or a video.
Hope to see you Sunday!
8:15 and 10:30!
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Where is the Holy Spirit?
There was a little known Pentecostal Minister in the late 60’s named Robert Theobald. There’s no wikipedia page about him. I seriously doubt if any one reading this has ever heard of him. His church, The Friendly Apostolic Church, was located in Southern California. He believed strongly in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, especially tongues and prophecy. And he believed strongly in the coming apocalypse. He prophesied the coming destruction of California by a massive earthquake, probably no later than 1970 . So, on October 12, 1968 he and his congregation packed up and moved to Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
Was that the Spirit? Where is the Spirit? How does he work in our lives?
Another question: do you know why the Episcopal Church is often small? One reason is because people no longer feel “moved” by the liturgy. Saying the same prayers every week feels like mindless ritual. But if you go to a church with a praise band and have a “worship experience” then it feels as though the Spirit is moving in you. And I’m sure that sometimes he is! When you’re praising God with all your heart, surely the Spirit is there! What you then take to be the work of the Spirit can happen in the fullness of a moment on one Sunday with a great praise band. To have that moment is to feel the fullness of the Spirit.
A great worship experience can be like an explosion. We are fascinated and drawn to explosions. If you’ve seen fireworks once, then you’ve seen all the fireworks. But you keep coming back, because the explosion is compelling. It all happens in a moment. And to experience the fullness of that moment is what you want.
The liturgy is not an explosive moment. In the Episcopal Church we are emphasizing a way the Spirit works which has been largely lost in our culture. We are emphasizing the agrarian movements of the Spirit. Your soul is a field and the Spirit is tilling and sowing, pruning and cutting, watching and waiting. Year after year after year. In a “worship experience” type church, you can experience a type of fullness of the Spirit in a moment, in one Sunday. In the Episcopal Church I need you to come not for just one Sunday, but for a year, 5 years, 15 years. We are emphasizing not just “fullness” but “formation.” And formation takes time, discipline, and consistency.
Perhaps this work of the Spirit has been lost, just as farming and the cycles of life have themselves been largely lost in our culture. Explosions are great. But you can’t live off explosions. If you want to feed yourself and others, then you’ll have to dig in and plant seed. And what I’m suggesting is that the liturgy is an experience of the Spirit working in you, not as explosive, but far more profound than you may imagine.
Tom+