Living in the Realm of Spirit

Devotional Reflection, Thursday, June 13, 2024

Proper 5, the week of the third Sunday after Pentecost

The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.

Key phrases for reflection from today’s reading:

16Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh. . . .the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, 23gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. 24And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

You will find the full text of today’s epistle reading at the end of this reflection.

Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP, 971)

AM Psalm [70], 71; PM Psalm 74

Eccles. 11:1-8; Gal. 5:16-24; Matt. 16:13-20

David’s Reflections

What would be the decisive evidence that the Holy Spirit is alive and active within a Christian’s life?  According to New Testament scholar Leander Keck Paul might say, “. . . rather than asking whether a person has a throbbing religious experience or holds an avant-garde idea, a better test of whether the Spirit is present is whether he (or she) finds it possible, at least one day at a time, to love another person without exploiting (them) him."*

Today’s reading delineates the Christian’s spiritual conflict.  The two words “flesh” and “Spirit” label not so much forces within us as two realms of our existence opposed to each other, realms which Christian simultaneously experience.  Flesh can be thought of as all of humankind, viewed as a whole, separated from and ignorant of God.  Spirit would then be the realm of existence of those of faith, indwelt by Christ’s Spirit.  Through faith, we have left the captivity of the former realm and live in the latter, but we still experience the power of that old realm, the flesh, from whose captivity faith in Christ releases us.

Do you recall the baptismal renunciations?

“Do you renounce Satan and all the forces of wickedness that rebel against God?” “Do you renounce the evil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God?”

“Do you renounce all sinful desires that draw you from the love of God”

In each case, you or your sponsors answered, “We renounce them.” If you were confirmed as an Episcopalian, the bishop asked you “Do you reaffirm your renunciation of evil?” (See The Book of Common Prayer, pp. 302-303). Those three renunciations make a good description of “flesh,” Satan and all the forces of wickedness,” “evil powers of this world,” and lastly, “sinful desires.” Our individual vulnerability to “flesh,” in Paul’s teaching, is secondary to our experience of “flesh” as a world of existence.

What typifies the life style of those who live with no conscious experience of God and no regard for Christ’s teaching and example?  Paul’s list of behaviors in verses 19-21 (see below) catalogs those typical behaviors.  What typifies the lifestyle of those with faith who seek to order their lives according to the Spirit’s driving energy?  Paul’s list of fruit of the Spirit in verses 22-23 catalogs those traits (see verses 22-23 below). At the head of that list stands love.  One’s ecstatic experience, if s/he has such, may be Spirit-given, but does it result in a more loving and giving life?  That’s where the Spirit wants to take us.

Paul in Galatians is calling for us to live into the life that God already has made present to us; we are to trust in the enabling and transforming presence of Christ, “walk in the Spirit,” to use Paul’s language. The Spirit desires to overflow God’s life into ours and produce the the fruit of the Spirit.  Is that a new thought, that God has desires for us?  Our challenge is to stop resisting and to depend more consistently on the Christ who desires to take us there, as it were to keep renouncing that old realm and all its entangling seductiveness.

In this time of cultural war and acrimonious political verbiage, some who profess faith in Christ manifest Paul’s works of the flesh— “enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions;” thee demonize fellow believers who differ with them politically. Paul’s call to walk in the Spirit seems particularly on point. How can anyone infuse their political rhetoric with those behaviors and call it Christian commitment?

I love what Episcopal priest Sam Shoemaker had to say about Christians and the Spirit: "The real 'lunatic fringe' in this hour may not be the people we call the 'crackpots, but it may be all of us who, though in the churches, are out of the Spirit."#

*Mandate to Witness (Valley Forge: Judson, 1964), p. 56.

#With the Holy Spirit and with Fire, cited by Peter C. Moore, "I Believe in the Holy Spirit," Seed and Harvest (May/June 1998), p. 3.

Collect of the Day, Proper 5, the third Sunday after Pentecost

O God, from whom all good proceeds: Grant that by your inspiration we may think those things that are right, and by your merciful guiding may do them; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.  (BCP, 229)

A Collect for Protection

O God, the life of all who live, the light of the faithful, the strength of those who labor, and the repose of the dead: We thank you for the blessings of the day that is past, and humbly ask for your protection through the coming night. Bring us in safety to the morning hours; through him who died and rose again for us, your Son our Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.  (BCP, 124)

Guidance into the Future

O God, who has made us creatures of time, so that every tomorrow is unknown country, and every decision a venture in faith.  Grant us, frail children of the day, who are yet blind to the future,  to move toward it in the sure confidence of your love, from which neither life nor death can ever separate us.  Amen.

(Reinhold Niebuhr, cited by Elizabeth R. Geitz, Calling Clergy:  A Spiritual and Practical Guide Through the Search Process (New York:  Church Publishing, 2007), p. xii.)

In the Evening

O Lord, support us all the day long, until the shadows lengthen, and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done. Then in thy mercy, grant us a safe lodging, and a holy rest, and peace at the last. Amen.   (BCP, 833)

A Collect for Mission

O God and Father of all, whom the whole heavens adore: Let the whole earth also worship you, all nations obey you, all tongues confess and bless you, and men and women everywhere love you and serve you in peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 124)

Daily Office Epistle, Galatians 5:16-24

16Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. 19Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, 20idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, 21envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, 23gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. 24And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Daily Offices in the Book of Common Prayer

Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, The Book of Common Prayer

Noonday Prayer, page 103, Book of Common Prayer

Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p 109, Book of Common Prayer

Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer

Compline (Night Prayer), page 127, Book of Common Prayer

Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer