Shaped by the Spirit--June 18, 2024

 Shaped by the Spirit--June 18, 2024

"For we know, brothers and sisters beloved by God, that he has chosen you, because our message of the gospel came to you not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of persons we proved to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for in spite of persecution you received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit..." [1 Thessalonians 1:4-6]

Being filled with the Holy Spirit won't improve your jump shot or your slam dunk--the Spirit will not make you more like LeBron James, Steph Curry, Michael Jordan, or Caitlin Clark.

Being filled with the Spirit will not make you faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, or able to leap tall buildings in a single bound--the Spirit is not trying to make us into Superman.

But being filled with the Spirit will make us love more boldly, face hostility with greater courage and integrity, and spread joy contagiously--because the Spirit is indeed making us to be more like Jesus.

The New Testament has been telling us as much since the earliest writings of the first generations of disciples, like these few verses from one of Paul's first preserved letters (and quite possibly one of the first writings of what we now call the New Testament!). Here as Paul writes to his friends at the house-church community in Thessalonica, it's obvious just how closely he connects the presence of the Spirit and their growth in Christ-like-ness.  He praises his friends there for how they didn't just receive the good news of Jesus as empty talk, but the Spirit showed up in powerful ways among them--and, as he says a bit further on, that same Spirit inspired joy in them as well as making them "imitators" of Jesus and those who modeled Christ for them in their actions.

This is a really important connection for us to make, for a couple of reasons.  First off, for whatever else we think it means to be "holy" or "devout" or "pious," the apostle says it looks like the Jesus way of life.  And while there are plenty of puffed-up, self-righteously sanctimonious practitioners of Respectable Religion out there, it's clear Jesus isn't one of them.  Becoming more like Jesus won't lead us to be more judgmental or arrogant, and it won't lead us away from the needs or pain of other people. Becoming more like Jesus won't lead us to seek more power, prestige, or "greatness," but will lead us to serve and sit beside the left-out and the left-behind. Becoming more like Jesus won't lead us to retreat behind stained-glass windows to keep our distance from the ones labeled "sinners," but will lead us to share tables and walk beside them in love. Expect the Holy Spirit to lead us in those kinds of things, not some kind of allergy to "the world" dressed up in the language of devotion.

Second of all, it's clear from Paul's words that he sees this growing imitation of Jesus (and the other people in our lives who reflect Jesus for us) as the Spirit's work in us, not our moral achievement.  In other words, God doesn't say to us, "Okay, you've got six weeks to work on your Jesus-impression, and whoever does well enough will get into heaven and receive the Holy Spirit as a bonus; the rest of you get sent out to the outer darkness..."  But rather, as we let the gospel do its work on us, the Spirit goes to work with God's own creative power to make us love, and speak, and act more and more like Jesus.  Being imitators of Christ isn't a matter of me learning to do an impression like a performer on Saturday Night Live; it's about the Spirit shaping me and bringing out the likeness of Jesus in me in new and deeper ways.  It is the Spirit's work and the Spirit's power, not something I have to constantly worry about being "good enough" on my own.

And finally, notice how all of this process of becoming more like Jesus happens in community.  As Paul saw it, the Spirit was working through him and the other apostles and leaders who first told them about Jesus, in order to make all of them more like Christ.  We shape each other--or rather the Spirit uses each of us to shape all of us, until the reflection of Jesus is clear in us.  The way someone singing next to you in church inspires you, or the person sitting down the table from you at Bible study offered you some fantastic insight, or the way the volunteers who work alongside you helping to feed others or comfort them in sickness--all of those are ways that the Spirit brings forth the image of Christ in us, almost like a woodworker whittling and chiseling a figure of Jesus for a nativity set. The Spirit is doing this through us, among us, and with us all the time.  Our usual word for it is just "discipleship."

Today, then, along with the other disciples that the Spirit is working on around you, we are given the opportunity to be shaped so that others will see Jesus in us.  We have the chance to be encouraged, taught, stretched, and blessed by other people through whom the same Holy Spirit is working, while at the same time the Spirit uses you to shape them as well.

And all of this is just a part of what the Holy Spirit is up to on an ordinary Tuesday.  Let's step into it today.

Lord Jesus, let your Spirit and your people make us to be more like you in this day.