The Holy Spirit - the Ultimate Wedding Crasher

Recently I officiated at a wedding for a wonderful couple. Weddings give me a very insecure feeling because there are a lot of unspoken expectations at a wedding. Everything has to be just right. One of the things that has to be just right, as I perceive it, is what the minister says. You do not want to be "preachy" yet you want to share Gospel - oh and you only have a few minutes. It is nerve racking.

Here something like what I said at this last wedding.

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On behalf of everyone hear, I want to thank you for allowing us to be with you tonight. It is a true honor, joy and privilege. Not just because you are exchanging vows. Not just because you are giving rings. Not just because there will be great family pictures. Not just because we are celebrating the two of you and the union of two wonderful families. Not just because we recognize God in the middle of all of this. Not just because there will be cake afterwards. It is a honor, joy and privilege to be here because ALL of that is happening.

Sometimes we say this is a special moment. Some people say it is once in a lifetime. Some might venture to say it is beautiful or romantic. For us Christians we say this moment is holy. Hold on to this moment because there seems to be fewer and fewer moments like this.

The text we just read a moment of was from Song of Solomon or Song of Songs. If you read the entire book you get the very strong feeling that there is a sense of urgency and anticipation between the beloved and the beloved-ed. They are anticipating a future yet to be. They are excited for the winter to be over and they are anticipating being united. They are planning and hoping and dreaming and imagining what the future will hold for them once they "get started" on their life together.

I could not help but think as I read this text, in all their anticipation and urgency for the future, how many holy moments did they miss out on? How many times did they experience life and see it as commonplace, ordinary or, heaven forbid, even boring? How many holy moments did they miss out on?

It is my prayer that you do not miss out on your chances for holy moments. To be honest with you that is one of the joys of marriage. There is someone in your life who can help point out the holy moments. They can look at flowers and say, those are not just flowers in the garden but these flowers will adorn your jacket on our wedding day. You have a great gift in one another, you have another set of eyes for the holy.

It is our prayer that you do not miss out on holy moments. Do not miss out on this moment.

Amen.

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I share this because I did not prepare to talk about this at all. I had in my mind another sermon entirely and was prepared to share those words. I practiced them in the car ride to the church. I even wrote up notes. Not a word of it made it to the "preaching moment". This was something which was right in the moment. I honestly felt there was something moving in the room that night. Call it what you will (I use the label of Holy Spirit), but I cannot explain why I can prepare for one thing then in the moment come out with something else.

It was a great wedding. It really was a joy and an honor.

And to be honest with you, I have tried to see more holy moments these past two days. And at the very least not think of anything as commonplace or, heaven forbid, boring.

I do not remove black from my home but...

I am a fan of the book “The Evolution of God” even though it is at times laborious to read and sometimes feels like a conspiracy theorist making his/her case. While I do not have the time to go though the entire book I wanted to share a line from the book and then what it evoked in me.

The author is talking about the rituals that a fisherman and canoe builders in ancient tribes would do in order to ‘please the gods’ of their home or tribe. Some of these things that were done seemed rather odd and seemingly unrelated to fishing or canoe crafting, but the author writes, “is indeed hard to argue that removing all black from the home is, in and of itself, time well spent for the ambitious angler. Still, the combined effect of all these rituals was to cloak the business of canoe building and fishing in an air of solemnity that presumably encouraged exacting and conscientious performance.”

While it seems sort of silly for me to think that people believed a bigger catch or better canoe would result in the removal of the color black from their homes, I can appreciate it.

What I mean is that I too have my rituals and my disciplines which, to some viewing them from afar, might seem silly or unrelated. I read the Bible. I engage in conversations on theology. I maintain a blog. I cross my forehead, wipe my face and kiss my left ring finger after a prayer. I worship on Sunday. I even have a ritual when I get to work each day.

Ritual is something in my life that is very helpful not because I believe I am persuading the ‘gods’ to work on my behalf as though my wishes are first on God’s ‘to do list’. Nor do I engage in rituals in order to keep ‘the gods’ happy. I do not worship to persuade or keep God happy. I worship, I partake in ritual in part because it “encourages exacting and conscientious” living.

Everyone has rituals in their lives. You might not even be aware of them. So the next time I see someone praying in a certain way, walking in a certain way, or even to the extent of practicing what I might consider “superstitions”, I will give pause to consider that perhaps their ritual may not be as silly as it looks.

Lesson from Hawaii

I had the privilege to spend last week in Kauai. I became aware of something while I was there. Are you ready for this groundbreaking statement?

People go to Hawaii because the island is beautiful.

Shocking, I know.

Everyone I have spoken with who has been to Hawaii says says the same thing but phrases it as a question, "isn't is beautiful?" It as though everyone is overwhelmed by the beauty of the island that you almost have to say that in the form of a question just to make sure that what you saw was real.

What strikes me about this is not that Hawaii is beautiful, but that the Hawaiian natives are nice! In fact they are more than nice, they all seem to embody a spirit that is engraved in their DNA or their souls. They are crazy nice to everyone almost all the time. And you know, they do not have to be.

In fact I would be willing to bet that Hawaiians can be total jerks and people would still visit Hawaii in mass numbers because people visit Hawaii for the beauty of the island not for the people. And yet, the people are insanely nice and hospitable.

Why?

I asked several native Hawaiians why they are so nice to tourists. I expected to hear some statement about how natives don't really like tourists but are nice to them because they supply money to the economy. But I did not hear that. Not even from people who were in the hotel or restaurant business or even the locals I met on the peer. Rather they all said basically the same thing.

"Well, I guess we are nice because we understand it is a real gift to live in such beauty."

They live in a place of such beauty. They identify they are not entitled to the grace and beauty around them. There is a humility that seems rooted in their voice as they talk as though they take such pride in the island that they cannot help but share it.

I think there is a message here for the Church. What would our lives looked like if we stopped treating hospitality as something we do but as something we are because we too identify that we are not entitled to the grace and beauty around us? What if we took so much pride in the beautiful message we call "Good News" that we could not help but share it.

The Hawaiians I encountered were hospitable as though they needed to be in order to survive. The church speaks of hospitality as though it is something we do in order to get members.

I desire a faith that I cannot help but be hospitable because I identify the beauty around me and know that grace that is in my life is not earned. I want a faith that is hospitable because it engraved in my DNA or my soul.