People of the Spirit,
There are some days when life just seems too much. Too much. I feel it, do you? From the moment I wake up to the moment I go to sleep, I receive so much negative messaging. Whether it is real and true, it is overwhelming.
And here we are in the San Francisco Bay Area where the sunrise is still around 7:30 am and the sunset around 5:30. Can I just pull the covers over my head and hibernate? Can we not talk about this?
Oh no, wait. This week we heard of the volcano in Tonga, the hostages in the Colleyville, Texas synagogue, COVID COVID COVID. That is just a quick snippet. It can be overwhelming and exhausting. There are stories we will never hear about: black lives and people of color, unjust incarcerations and “oops, we made a mistake” death sentences. And we have our own personal prisons.
Luke 4:14-21 reminds us that “where the Spirit is” we can be set free; there is a call for us to answer. It is not about what we are doing for the church, our church, but what are we doing to answer God’s call?
As a community, we might worry about the life and vitality of the church. It is a very real phenomenon for churches with smaller numbers to large numbers.
Might the answer be to return to the Holy Spirit’s call? What Jesus expressed in Luke 4:18-19?
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim
release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
The Spirit is upon US.
Peace,
Rev. Michael Cronin