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“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me
because he
has anointed me
to bring glad tidings to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives.” (Luke 4:18)
Back in his hometown, Jesus preaches a sermon that begins with these words. Everything goes well until he suggests the good news he brings cannot be limited to “people like us.”
This is the first and last thing one should know about
the Spirit of God. It cannot be hemmed in, limited or predicted. The Spirit
blows where it will, Jesus was known to say. You never know how or in whom the Spirit
may show up.
But you can recognize it whenever and wherever it
appears, if you know what to look for.
The Spirit has one big work: breathing life into
creation, which means you and everything else there is.
If you are walking down the street and see the silly
smile of someone who is happy just to be alive, grateful for reasons they may
not understand, you are seeing an example of the Spirit’s best work.
The Spirit is about freedom, about life, about feeling
your heart lift from burdens that literally crush life out of you. It is about liberation
for people oppressed by anything and everything—physically, emotionally and spiritually—that
crushes their spirits and drains their joy for the wonder of being alive.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, Jesus said at his
hometown sermon, which means he is about liberating bodies, minds and spirits
that they might shine with the light of life within them.
That light and life is the Spirit’s breath that is in everything that lives, right down to the
spastic squirrels burying acorns among my black-eyed susans.
The Spirit’s greatest friends have been busy in
Covid wards and Afghani airports and Louisiana bayous. Wherever you see life
doing battle with death ... know who you are looking at.
And take a very deep breath.
David
L. Miller
