Make Way! Come, Holy Spirit!

Along with Advent songs of hope and lighting candles in the dark, I found another encouraging connection to this time while sharing with our Tuesday Bible Study this week. We were talking about how we have entered the “Year C” of the Lectionary cycle, and that means that from now until Christ the King Sunday (Nov 2022), we will mostly be reading from the Gospel of Luke in Sunday worship services. And one theme the book of Luke intends to lift up is the work of the Holy Spirit. You’ll notice the activity of the Spirit through speaking to, and blessing, Zechariah, Elizabeth, Joseph, Mary, John the Baptist, and others! It will be an Advent theme. Make Way! Come, Holy Spirit! And as much as we might be used to celebrating great faith in the life of people in the church, or in the Bible, the way Luke tells it: these are ordinary people. Sure, they are devout, and they are listening to God. And they know the covenant and they have high hopes (at least, their hopes are re-ignited in this spiritual, transcending moment). But they are folks following God — saints and sinners at the same time. And the light of God’s love, in Luke, is shining in dusty, forgotten places. And it’s shining in dusty, forgotten people too. Where we least expect it. Luke’s gospel is a spirit-centered gospel. Remember, he also writes the book of Acts? That’s the story of the disciples gathered and (in Acts chapter 2) what seems to be tongues of fire comes down and rests on each of them. Those disciples, too, were ordinary people. So Luke is telling a story of salvation and it is a generous out-pouring of God’s love. That is what God’s Spirit does—finds us, blesses us, beyond our measuring. In Advent we pray, “Stir up our hearts, O God, to prepare a pathway for your Christ.” And guess what? The Holy Spirit has the stir stick. Advent prayers are like Pentecost prayers and they’re all Christian prayers! This whole, faithful walk is an embodied prayer that God’s Spirit would speak and move among us. And Luke’s gospel tells it clear. So let’s listen. Like the shepherds in fields—keeping watch over their flocks by night—,God give us ears to hear! And God bless your advent. + Pastor Shaun