CALVARY BAPTIST CHURCH
Rev. Fred
Weimert January 11, 2009
“Source of the Water”
You know you might be fine just
waiting and doing nothing, but, then again, who knows?
This year
I did something that I have never
done before…
I had a flu shot…
so
courageous.
I probably had the shot
because a nurse had come
here to church
from Greater
and she was giving the shots here at
church
to
people from the Assistance Center…
and
for anyone else who came in…
I opened the door for her to get in…
and
she said
“These
flu shots are for anyone…
why
don’t you get one.
She
caught me off guard.
Normally
if my wife had asked me that…
I
would have had numerous reasons
why
I couldn’t get the shot…
or
I don’t want to go out now…
but
I didn’t have to go out!
or
There will probably be a long line…
a
long wait…
but
there was just me!
or
I think the shots are only for people
at
the center…
but
she said
they were for anyone.
or
I would rather get one
from my doctor…
but
she gave me a note.
or
I don’t want to get sick this weekend...
you
know those shots always
make
you sick.
That’s
an old wives tale!
This
nurse caught me off guard…
and
none of my pat excuses
seemed
to work.
And
then she shamed me
by
saying it’s not going to hurt…
as
if I was afraid of a little shot.
So I rolled up my sleeve,
and she gave me the
shot…
and it
didn’t hurt too much…
that
day
or even the next.
During the
few moments I was sitting in her presence
I mentioned the one thing
which probably is the
real reason I never get the flu shot…
“Now, are
you sure
that this is going to protect me
from the flu?’
Is
this really going to work?
She replied:
It will
protect you from the strain
we
believe is most likely to occur.
“Yeah, but
what if a different strain comes?”
What
if you’re wrong?
“Oh, then
you could get sick,”
Which
is not very reassuring to me.
How will I even know
that this shot has taken affect?
It could
have been saline solution.
Every year my wife gets her flue
shot
with the other teachers
in
And every year when I get a cold…
I hear…
“Now you’ve
gotten the flu…”
your should
have gotten your flu shot.
And I would tell her…
This is a cold not the
flu…
The shot
would not have protected me from this…
And she inevitably answers me…
“How do you know?”
I have had a couple of colds this
year
since my flu shot…
but I guess
those are just colds
because
this year I got my shot.
The whole
thing drives me crazy…
It is all so uncertain…
How can I be sure I am
really protected?
How can I know I have gotten
the right thing?
How could I know that I
didn’t just get this shot for nothing…
who knows I
might have been fine without it.
besides it did hurt a little…
and I was a little stiff the next
day.
But if ‘bird flu’ comes
along
am I safe?
I
doubt it.
When you
deal with virus
they are so small…
and they can be inactive
for years…
then just
spring up.
Sometimes I
think I would like to just let my natural immunities
build up…
I have never been afraid
to expose myself to the potential of
illness…
and if I get
sick…
then
my immunities will get stronger…
so they’ll protect me
when
something big comes along.
I don’t
know that a medical doctor would agree with that
homeopathic hoodoo.
I actually think my
immune system is getting weaker as I age.
So I am taking
flu shots now…
But I am still wishing there was
more certainty about it…
Maybe If I would just
turn green
as long as the shot was in affect
not
all of me
just
maybe a toe nail…
Then
I could check…
“Oh yeah, I am still protected…”
Then, If that
worked for flu shots…
maybe we could devise something
similar
For recognizing the Holy Spirit in
me…
something
to tell us that that I/we have the Spirit…
To reassure us that the Spirit is
still in control.
To show us that our baptism
glow...
had
not grown dim.
Paul
had some trouble with this in acts.
Acts 19: 1-7
While
Apollos was in
Paul
passed through the interior regions
and came to
where he found some disciples.
He
said to them,
"Did you receive the Holy Spirit
when you became believers?" They replied,
"No,
we have not even heard that there is a
Holy Spirit."
Then
he said,
"Into what then were you
baptized?"
They
answered,
"Into John's baptism."
Paul
said,
"John baptized with the baptism of
repentance,
telling the people
to believe in the one who was to come
after him,
that is,
in Jesus."
On
hearing this,
they were baptized in the name of the
Lord Jesus.
When
Paul had laid his hands on them,
the Holy Spirit came upon them,
and they spoke in tongues and
prophesied--
altogether
there were about twelve of them.
Here
ends the reading.
Apollos was
mentioned at the beginning of this reading,
but he was also the subject of the
preceding paragraph…
As of the beginning of
the 19th chapter
Apollos was
in
But
in the previous paragraph
Apollos
was in
teaching
with enthusiasm…
And
Paul had called his teaching into question,
because
he had some confusion about baptism.
Apollos
only knew the Baptism of John…
Which
is the same problem
that
Paul addresses with the larger
Ephesian
congregation…
Obviously
they had been influenced
by
Apollos, ideas.
John’s
baptism was simply about repentance…
Luke, who
wrote the book of Acts
also
wrote a gospel.
And in Luke’s gospel…
when John the Baptist
spoke of his baptism…
he said:
“I
baptize you with water;
but one who is mightier than I is
coming…
He will baptize you with the Holy
Spirit”
All four of
the gospel writers
when speaking about the baptism of
John…
indicate that Jesus will
come
and baptize
with the Holy Spirit.
It
is all so simple to understand…
isn’t
it?
So here in
the text,
Paul
explains the error in the teaching of Apollos…
Paul
baptizes the people into Jesus…
then
lays on hands…
and
the Holy Spirit
comes upon them…
and
they speak in tongues
and
prophesy…
Oh,
yes,
now
I understand how it works….
But is that
how it worked for you?
Is that how it works for us… today?
I have Baptized some of
you
and there
was no prophesying…
or
speaking in tongues…
So was there no Spirit?
Were you not
baptized into Jesus?
Was there something less
than salvific about your baptism?
A
Pentecostal might say yes…
there
was something wrong…
Something
incomplete…
You need to speak in tongues.
It
would be nice if it was all that simple…
so certain…
Obviously the Spirit of God is in
me…
I can do that ecstatic utterance
thing.
Now I could pretend to do that…
I have seen enough
people speak in tongues,
And that may
help those individuals feel closer to God,
and
that is fine,
But it is
not where I am…
I have seen some of those
people “in the Spirit”
but then I have seen them outside of worship…
being
quite “out of the Spirit.”
It would be nice if your
toenail turned green…
and you
could be sure the Spirit of God was with you…
in
you.
That your
baptism was a real one…
while
those others baptism was not quite right.
but
I don’t think we can,
because
I believe those words
in John’s gospel
that
took place between
Jesus
and Nicodemus
in the third chapter.
“The
wind blows where it wills
and
you hear the sound of it,
but you do not know
where it comes from
or
where it goes.
So
it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
I know that
the Spirit of God is powerful…
It was in motion over the water’s of
Jesus’ baptism
and it was moving over the face of
the deep in Genesis…
and at the
in these
Ephesians in the book of Acts…
and it still
moves with might and power today…
It moves in
all kinds of people and places,
and even religions.
It
can move in us
if we open ourselves to it’s possibility…
And sometimes when we are driven by
the wind
we can even help others get caught
up in a gust.
But none of
us makes it blow…
The wind,
the Spirit,
We can’t be as foolish
as the prophets of Baal
in that
Elijah,
dancing,
shouting… cutting themselves
all
to make the wind blow…
to
make the fire come down from heaven.
We don’t make it
blow, God does.
In Tom
Troger’s book on worship entitled Open to
Glory…
he has a chapter “Soar with the
wind”
and
he talks about a boy flying a kite…
on a
windless day…
I know I have mentioned
this frustrated boy to
you before…
running up
and down the street…
until
another boy who had been watching said:
“You’ve
got to wait for the wind.”
And that is
our problem
in worship and at work…
We’ve got to wait for
the wind.
But we also
have much to do…
things
can’t wait.
So, I would
say…
start
doing them,
Don’t
wait to go to work…
Don’t
wait for the wind to start blowing
before you put your
sailboat in the water,
because
by the time you get it in the wind may have moved on.
So get out
and go to work,
and
we may just be surprised
that
in the midst of doing those routine things…
a
little gust of wind may come up
and
lift our spirits
and
push us along.
and
we may discover Emmanuel…
God
with us…
God
is with us you know…
So
may we work and worship.
Amen.