The Spirit in the Middle
May 10-11, 2008
Feast of Pentecost
John 20:19-23
Beginnings are frequently scary, and endings are often sad. But it is what is in between that is important. It is in the middle that we live.
We experience beginnings and endings with heightened emotions. Beginnings are often a mixture of excitement and fear. How will I be as a parent? Will I succeed in a new city or a new job? Will I be accepted in a new school? Am I ready for retirement?
Endings are inevitable and often sad. Good-bye to fellow classmates at graduation. Good-bye to co-workers in the office. Farewell to a friend who moves away or to a spouse we lose in death. We feel beginnings and endings deeply. In those moments, life has our attention. So does our faith. We know that we need God in beginnings and endings. We need God to be present, and we pray for God’s help. God regularly supports us with strength and consolation. In those moments, our faith is focused and clear.
But we need God beyond beginnings and endings. We need God in the middle of life. This is why Jesus’ gift of the Spirit is so important in today’s gospel. For the Spirit is the one who guides us through the middle, in all those moments of low emotion and ordinary living. The Spirit is the one who calls us to live deeply, in all that day to day routine that comprises the majority of our lives.
It is easy to be the best parent we can be on the day of our daughter’s baptism, or on the day of her wedding. But we need the Spirit to be with us when the kids fight over the video games and when we have to help with homework after a grueling day of work. It is easy to be focused at work on the day that we receive a promotion or when the business is facing a financial crisis. But we need the Spirit of God to sense the sadness of a fellow worker or to remind us to inject some humor in all those ordinary Tuesday workdays of our lives. It is easy to be thankful for our mother on her birthday or on Mothers Day or at her funeral. But we need the Spirit to remind us to call her during the week, to ask “Can I help with that?” and every so often simply to say, “Mom, thanks for everything.”
We remember the beginnings and the endings, but life happens in between. It is there that we invest our time, that we build our relationships, that we become the people we are. So on this feast of Pentecost, we need to open our hearts to God’s Spirit, for God’s Spirit is the one who prompts us to live deeply in all those ordinary moments. God’s Spirit is the one who calls us to live more joyfully, more deeply, more faithfully in all those nondescript days which fill up most of our years.
Now I know that some here this morning are dealing with beginnings and endings, caught up in the peaks or the valleys of living. But most of us are in the middle. Therefore, we must open our hearts to God’s Spirit who helps us to remain focused, fresh and faithful. Come, Spirit of God. Come into the middle of our lives. Come into all the ordinary time which surrounds us. Come, make us joyful, thankful people today.
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