Advent
2015
Luke
1:39-56
Not a drop of holiness gone
Sing:
Holy Spirit you are welcome here, come
flood this place and fill the atmosphere. Your glory, Lord is what our hearts
long for, to be overcome by your presence, Lord. Your presence, Lord.
When
I was about 15 years old and first learning to drive a car—and my car was just
a year younger than me, a 1966 beige Plymouth Valiant, 6-speed, with only about
60,000 miles on it, and some of the hoses were still original—
One
morning in the fall, it was foggy. And I pulled my lights on, the little metal
rod on the dash. And I drove across town to high school, and parked in the
parking lot. And at the end of the day, I went out and what do you suppose
happened? My car wouldn’t start. No lights, no nothing.
And
this was in the days before cell phones, so I had to go back into school, and
use an office phone to call Mom and tell her I’d done something careless—left
my car lights on, all day. And my dad was at work, out on some train between
here and Dodge City. And mom had one of her beauty shop customers under the
dryer, and another in the shampoo chair.
So
she called our neighbor across the street, who was retired, Howard Grant. And
he came to the high school parking lot with his car. He was not especially a
fun, lighthearted fellow. He was usually pretty grouchy. But he came, and
pulled his car up close to mine, and popped both car hoods, and started his car
engine. And he put one end of a jumper cable like this on his car battery, and
the other end to mine. And a second cable to his engine, and another to metal
close to my battery, to ground the connection. At least that’s how I remember
it.
And
we waited awhile, and he revved his engine accelerator. (VROOM!) and then
Howard said, okay, get in your car and try to start it. And it took awhile, me
trying several times, because the battery was completely drained. But finally,
I got in, and this time, it turned over. Started.
And
Howard said, Now, keep it going. Don’t turn off your engine. And we stayed there,
me in the driver’s seat, he overlooking things, and I probably revved the
accelerator some.
And
then, both cars still running, he carefully took one cable off our engines, and
then the other, making sure the cables didn’t touch. Or there would be this spark,
because there was still so much electricity, so much power, flowing through
them.
And
even though I was afraid my engine might die again, it didn’t, and Howard said,
Now, don’t turn off your engine. Keep it going. Drive around for awhile, and
don’t turn it off when you get home. Let it run awhile, until your battery is
fully charged. And if you get up in the morning and need another charge, just
call me. (I knew he probably didn’t want to get up out of bed to do this, but
at least he offered.)
And
I was so happy that Howard had come to rescue me, this gruff old neighbor man.
He probably wasn’t that old, looking back; I was just that young, at the time.
I think I was so relieved not to be stranded anymore that I threw my arms
around him and gave him a big hug.
(PAUSE)
Do
you remember last week, when I talked about the holiness of Jesus, and how the
scribes of the Pharisees were concerned he would be made less holy because he
was in the presence of a big group of known sinners, eating food that was
unholy because they’d prepared it, bought it, cooked it, in unholy pots and
pans, and served it on unholy tables, in unholy dishes?
They
were worried because that’s what they believed would happen to them if they did
the same thing. They’d also become unholy. And even people who’d been healed of
something by Jesus, they were considered sinners by these same Jews, because if
you’d been sick with something big and bad, that meant you were a sinner,
because people who were holy weren’t born with a defect, had no need to be
healed. We know that now to not be true, but’s what people believed in Jesus’
time. If you’d been healed of something by Jesus, you surely had been a sinner
to have the need to be healed in the first place.
And
we decided what, last week? That the holiness in Jesus was so powerful that it
didn’t matter how many sinners touched him, it was never gonna take away any of
his holiness. Amen??
In
fact… in fact… his holiness was gonna do what? It was gonna rub off on the
people he was around! Like a spark between two cars, connected by battery
cables. BOOM! Jesus’ holiness was gonna spark something in other people. HIS
holiness would become THEIR holiness.
And
it began right there in Mary’s womb, before he was even born. Did you catch
that, in the scripture today? All these people around him, we read in
scripture, BOOM! Are suddenly filled with the Holy Spirit. Why? Because the Son
of God was near! He is coming, and the holiness in him is so powerful that it
sends a current of holiness through all these people—
Through
Elizabeth, when she hears his mother Mary’s voice, and then the child in
Elizabeth’s womb leaps with joy! John, not even born yet, is also filled with
the Holy Spirit, as the angel of the
Lord, a holy messenger from God, told his father, Zechariah.
And
Zechariah will be filled with the Holy Spirit as he speaks the prophecy about
what his son John will do, in regards to the One who was to come. (Read v. 67-79)
There
were all these sparks, these power surges of the Holy Spirit going on, all
around, because this child, this baby was coming, and he is the Son of God,
conceived by the Holy Spirit.
And
John, when he becomes a young man, tells everyone he has come to baptize a
baptism of repentance, but Jesus has come to baptize with what? With water and
the Spirit. The Holy Spirit… and so do you see what happens? There are more
sparks, more power surges, and Jesus physically brushes up against people, and
they are HEALED. They are HEALED. Amen??
And
not an ounce, not an OUNCE of his holiness is lost. He may feel it go out from
him, as with the woman who had the bleeding problem, who couldn’t stop
hemorrhaging, who reached out just to barely touch the hem of his robe. He felt
something go out from him, but he didn’t LOSE any holiness. It goes OUT, and it
makes OTHERS more holy. Do you see??
And
it STILL does, even though his body is not physically here, because he LEFT us,
he SENT us, his Holy Spirit… to continue to BE here with us all. And we only
need to REACH OUT, and be CONNECTED with him, to awaken our souls, which once
were dead as a doornail, as dead as my old Plymouth Valiant that had sat in the
parking lot all day, with the lights on.
You
see, Jesus pulls up ALONGSIDE US, and opens the hood on our heart, our little
motor that purrs, and he connects himself to us. And after the awhile, the
engines of our souls just begin to turn over, to finally start the way they
were always meant to, because there was really no life there, before. And
before long, something begins to spark, and our hearts are jumpstarted, why?
Because our batteries are finally empowered and emboldened with the Holy
Spirit.
We
NEED NOT be afraid of losing the holiness that he has given us IF…. IF we have
drawn sufficient power from him, and if we remain CLOSE to him, and ensure we have
a constant, steady stream of power that flows from him, through us. And this
enables us to sit among the worst of sinners, eat unholy food with them at
unholy tables on unholy dishes… IF we have been fully charged by God’s Holy
Spirit first, and REMAIN with him, in his Almighty Presence, and RETURN to him,
time and time again, our spiritual batteries ALWAYS charged and ready to go.
AMEN? Amen.
