Meditation

Can You Believe It?

Some years ago, people in Ohio marked a milepost of sorts with the passing into glory of Ms. Charlotte Benkner. Ms. Benkner, at the time of her transformation to new life, was the second-oldest person in the world. She died at the age of 114 years. It was reported that shortly before she died, Ms. Benkner was asked how to live a long life. With insightful good humor, she replied, "Don't die."

With so much bad news on the pubic airwaves, in print and emerging daily from cyberspace, it is sometimes difficult to stay focused on the good, the healing, the transformative, the justice-rooted good news of the Christian gospel...and to do so in a way that reflects something beyond a concern for personal salvation. Today, there is a growing chorus of voices raising concern about social, political and global salvation. As people committed to the healing and service ministry of Jesus Christ, it might be time for us to say to our faith lives, "Don't die!" For amid the challenges and clamor, we are called to affirm life and its possibilities, to bring health and wholeness into human interaction, and to trust that God has a plan for both personal and communal redemption.

Before going to Jerusalem and submitting to the cross that awaited him, Jesus took time to assure his disciples that they hadn't wasted their time following him, an itinerant rabbi who had, in three short years, managed to stir the wrath of both the public and religious authorities. In responding to their questions, Jesus promised things to come....to the disciples and to us.

Believe me that I am in God and God is in me, he said, or else believe because of the works I do. The truth of the matter is: anyone who has faith in me will do the works I do – and greater works besides. Jesus goes on to say, Anything you ask in my name, I will do. And then, because doubt can debilitate so many aspects of human possibilities, he made another promise: he said: I will ask the One who sent me to give you another Advocate, another helper, to be with you always – the Holy Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot accept since the world neither sees her nor recognizes her; but you can recognize the Spirit because she remains with you and will be within you.

This is the wonderful, disturbing, empowering promise of the God who has called us to the ministries we do every day. The Holy Spirit lives within each of us. It does not die.

So in this season between Easter and Pentecost, I invite us to see life in the Spirit as legitimate territory, fertile ground, for exploration and inventory - our lives as individual Christians and our life as a staff committed to the imperatives of the Gospel.

When Ms. Benkner was asked how to live a long life, she said, "Don't die." These weeks may be a good time to address the Holy Spirit of God within each of our lives with a heartfelt prayer: "Don't die." Don't die when we neglect you. Don't die when we get caught up in mundane squabbles or church politics. Don't die when our workload overwhelms or our frustrations rise too high. Don't die - but show us the way where there is no way.

Maybe you will be so bold as to seek new awareness of the power of God within you. Can you feel the Spirit's fire? Does its wind propel you in a direction you thought you'd dare not go? Does its still small voice speak to you in a startling way? Do you trust it to be your helper? Do you willfully nurture your relationship with her exhilarating power? Are you willing to find out what the Holy Spirit of God can do with your life if you truly open your heart and mind and soul to its power?

In God's grace, may we embrace Christ's promise that, as people of faith, partnering with the Spirit within us, our ministries of healing and service can resurrect the good and transform the world. Amen.

CHHSM Staff Meditation
April 10, 2008

William R. Johnson