Luke 12:10-12: Essence
Friday, February 1, 2019
Written on January 15, 2010 man posted today as a Favorite . . .
This first verse is one which ought to make us pause when we come across it. We ought to hear more sermons about this. We need to share our thoughts with others on this thinking. We may want to write these verses someplace where we will see them each morning when we rise and each evening when we return home. Our lives will be better lived if we manage to integrate this idea into our being.
Notes tell us that “The sayings about the Holy Spirit are set in the context of fearlessness in the face of persecution . . . The Holy Spirit will be presented in Luke’s second volume, the Acts of the Apostles, as the power responsible for the guidance of the Christian mission and the source of courage in the face of persecution”. (THE NEW AMERICAN BIBLE, 1115)
We are referred to Matthew 12:31-32 where further notes tell us that “Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit [is] the sin of attributing to Satan what is the work of the Spirit of God”. (1027) Where do we see this sort of blasphemy unfold in our lives? When we are at play with family and friends, when we are at work with colleagues and associates, when we are at prayer with our God . . . these are the times when we decide what to do and what to say. When we turn away from our call because we do not trust God . . . when we ignore God’s continued presentation of our learning curve . . . when we think we have a better way of proceeding than we see in God’s plan . . . these are all occasions that lead us to flirt with the devil. These are circumstances that can easily lead us to attribute the difficulties of life to the work of the wicked when really they are lesson plans in our own trajectory of existence.
We must look at how Luke follows this hard saying: When they take you before synagogues and before rulers and authorities, do not worry about how or what your defense will be or about what you are to say. For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that moment what you are to say.
Looking at Luke 11:54 we see why Christ is explaining this hard saying to his followers: for they were plotting to catch him at something he might say. Jesus knows what his enemies are thinking and scheming. He also knows what our enemies are thinking and scheming. We need to trust this one who understands most clearly how the dark world works. And when we are in that precarious, dangerous place of doubt in which all disciples of Christ find themselves, we must rely on this one to tell us what to say and what to do.
I sometimes think that we do not spend enough time praying to and with the Holy Spirit. We imagine God as parent, God as friend, lover or sibling; yet God as essence penetrates our tissues. God as being filters through all that we think, say and do. God as ephemeral reality becomes us.
In recent years it has become starkly clear to me that each of us has control of what we think, say and do. We have the power to hurt and to heal. We need to maintain contact with the Holy Spirit in order that we mend and repair rather than rend and destroy.
It has become clear to me that when we are walking in the way we are to go, that forces of darkness will pull and push at us to disconnect us from the Holy Spirit. We need to dismiss the devil and invite the Holy Spirit in.
It has also become clear to me that when we come together to pray in the name of God, through the Christ, and with the Spirit, that a petition that synchronizes with God’s plan is immediately answered. We need to pray today and all days that the essence of the Holy Spirit pervade our being . . . to make us one with God.
A re-post from February 1, 2012.
Image from: http://mysticdreamz.com/?page_id=398
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