In search of the Spirit

Currents in Theology and Mission, August, 2004 by Craig A. Satterlee

Proper 18--Thanksgiving Day, Series C

First Sunday in Advent, Series A

Though these Preaching Helps take us the rest of the way through the Sundays after Pentecost, past The Reign of Christ and Thanksgiving, into our next liturgical year, they were written during the Easter Season and edited in the weeks before Pentecost. During these weeks, our First Readings in worship came from the Book of Acts. The church recorded in Acts seems to drip with the Holy Spirit. Everywhere you turn, the Spirit is doing something. And the Spirit is not subtle, vague, or tentative. I quickly count forty verses in which the Holy Spirit instructs, empowers, fills, witnesses, emboldens, comforts, sends, forbids, testifies, and converts countless numbers to Christianity using what seems to be hastily prepared preaching.

All this talk of the Holy Spirit led one of those who listen to my preaching to ask, "Where is the Holy Spirit active in the church today?" I gave the standard answers, which I wholeheartedly believe: in word and water, bread and wine, the gathered assembly, in acts of justice in the world. I tell my students that, rather than sitting passively by, waiting for the Holy Spirit to pour a sermon into their heads, it is my experience, as well as that of the vast majority of preachers I know, that the Holy Spirit works in and through a method of preaching. I talked to this parishioner of similar disciplines of faith.

But she wanted more. She wanted something concrete that I could point to. She wanted me to say "Here is the Holy Spirit" as clearly as did the writer of Acts. After a good bit of reflection, I came up with three things that I could point to. First, now that the Lutheran Church is pretty well out of the business of threatening people with hell fire and eternal damnation (You are preaching the gospel as good news, right?), the fact that people show up for church is nothing less than the activity of the Holy Spirit. Second, the Spirit's activity becomes all the more remarkable each fall, when, more than showing up for worship, students show up for seminary. When I hear of what they are giving up, the sacrifices they and their families are making, and the debt they are taking on, there is no explanation for it other than the nudge of the Holy Spirit.

For me there is no clearer sign of the Holy Spirit's activity in today's church than when young preachers proclaim the gospel with insight, passion, and articulation that takes my breath away. I recently heard a seasoned preacher complain that interns, seminary graduates, and rookie pastors lack the experience to really preach. I agree that they lack experience. And I am convinced that the Holy Spirit uses their inexperience to instruct, empower, fill, embolden, comfort, and convert through their preaching. These preachers are discovering texts; they haven't yet made up their minds about what texts mean. They are trying to find their voice and develop their method, so they spend a lot of time and energy at the preaching task. Yes, young preachers have a good bit of growing to do. But for me, there is no surer sign of the Spirit's activity in our church than when they get it, and when they know they've got it--the gospel, that is.

I'm delighted to introduce you to three young pastors who work very hard to get the gospel. Time and again, I have heard them preach in ways that make me hopeful and confident about the Spirit's activity in the life and future of our church.

Sarah K. Bunge is serving her first call as pastor at New Life Lutheran Church in Bolingbrook, Illinois. A candidate from the South Dakota Synod, Sarah graduated from LSTC in June, 2003. Sarah spends lots of time talking to and listening to kids and young adults. She has a passion for connecting the gospel with their lives and with their world. Sarah and her husband Adam reside in Lisle, Illinois. Sarah guides us through the Sundays in September.

Robin K. Brown, who leads us through October, also graduated from LSTC in 2003. Robin is co-pastor of Grace and St. John Crane Creek Lutheran Churches in Tripoli, Iowa. After fifty years in Chicagoland, Robin experiences the Holy Spirit active in Northeast Iowa when she sees the thousands of stars in the night sky, listens to the silence of the country, and inhales the sweet dustiness of gravel roads. Robin's big question about Preaching Helps: "How will I write before planting what will be read during harvesting?"

Seth Moland-Kovash is Associate Pastor for Youth and Family at Our Saviour's Lutheran Church in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Seth graduated from LSTC in 2001 and served Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Downers Grove, Illinois, until June, 2003, when he accepted the call to Our Saviour's. Seth's wife Jennifer is a 2004 M.Div. recipient from LSTC and is a frequent "preaching help" to Seth. I know Seth best through his probing questions and keen sense of humor.

I am delighted to introduce you to these leaders whose preaching is for me proof of the Spirit's promise to be as active in our church as she was in the Book of Acts. And these are not isolated instances. I am grateful to report that, in my relatively short time teaching preaching at LSTC, the list of places I can look when I am searching for the Spirit continues to grow; they are congregations served by young preachers.