Tag: ego

Day of Pentecost (John 14:8-17, 25-27)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment

Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 

“Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, but if you do not, then believe because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him because he abides with you, and he will be in you….

“I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” (New Revised Standard Version)

The Christian observance of Pentecost is much more than a date on the calendar or a cognitive belief about the Holy Spirit. Pentecost is a powerful reality for believers to be aware of and to live into.

The symbols used to communicate this reality are the elements of wind and fire. They each have incredible potential for both help and harm, life and death. Tornadoes and wildfires bring awful destruction, whereas flame and wind power are necessary elements for life.

There is power in the Spirit. The Spirit of God dismantles and rearranges our lives to make something different or new altogether.

When the Spirit gets involved, nothing is the same again.

The Spirit upsets the status quo, brings energy and ability, heals broken lives, and establishes a truly egalitarian society. The New Testament knows the Christian as one given wholly to the Spirit in order to accomplish the will of God on this earth.

Therefore, this time of the year is hugely significant. Christians attune themselves to Holy Time because it is the age of the Spirit, the blessed opportunity of Pentecostal life and power. 

Jesus promised us an Advocate, the Spirit, and the era of the Spirit is here. We enjoy the very same Holy Spirit as our spiritual ancestors in the faith. This gives us great confidence and security knowing that the Spirit’s enablement, guidance, and power is available to us.

Pentecost flings every single believer into a congregational whole, the church, and lets us know that we are not to be rugged individualists acting alone, but are part of the Body of Christ.   

The Spirit uses us to forge spiritual bonds of kinship, fellowship, and solidarity.  Pentecost throws disparate people together in a unified whole, made up of every kind of language, nationality, ethnicity, gender, and race. We all use the gifts of the Spirit given to us for the benefit of building up one another.

Pentecost and the presence of the Spirit opens up the greatest of possibility in seeing our true selves emerge, and experiencing what is false melt away.

For most of us, we eventually discover that our egos are much thicker and predominant than we realized. And that ego gets in the way of bringing our authentic selves to the world. The Spirit comes along with fire to purify us, and then blows a mighty wind to drive the false self away.

Such true spiritual power helps us discern that issues of power in this world are difficult to deal with because things are not as they appear to be. Operating in the ego, far too many of us puff up ourselves to try and merely appear strong. People who present themselves as large and in charge end up hiding their vulnerabilities and insecurities in favor of keeping up appearances.

Jesus openly talked of real spiritual power, and promised to give the Spirit for our benefit. And Christ laid bear himself, stretching his arms out on a cross in a display of humiliation and degradation – all for us and our deliverance from false power and pesky egos.

If we go looking for earthly power and rely upon worldly power structures, we will likely be as confused as Philip and the other disciples of Jesus. But if we adopt the inner spiritual power provided for us, we find real effective strength which brings us the peace of Christ in any and all circumstances.

Life in the Spirit – spiritual life – happens within the depths of the soul. And it happens when we give up all pretense to alternative power sources, and participate with the Holy Spirit in allowing God to melt all that is false with spiritual fire and blow it all away with spiritual wind.

Pentecost was and is a watershed event. It’s effects are lasting, right up to the present time. Rather than settling for power-substitutes, we can imbibe ourselves of real spiritual power.

Living God, you have created all that is. Send forth your Spirit to renew and restore us, so that we may proclaim your good news in ways and words that everyone will understand and believe. Amen.

The Divine Gardener

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality BlogLeave a comment
The Artist’s Garden at Vétheuil, by Claude Monet, 1881

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23, Common English Bible)

Soon it will be Spring. Many people are already planning for the soil in fields and gardens to be turned over for planting and cultivating.

Healthy plants grow and feed many. They don’t simply occur by happenstance. And neither does things like morality, ethics, and living an altruistic life; they don’t just happen.

Virtue and a good life are the result of solid and robust inner work within the soul.

The daily overall trajectory of personal and institutional life demonstrates whether they are driven by egoistic desires, or influenced from an inner garden of delectable fruit which has been wisely plucked for others to enjoy.

 “A good tree doesn’t produce bad fruit, nor does a bad tree produce good fruit. Each tree is known by its own fruit. People don’t gather figs from thorny plants, nor do they pick grapes from prickly bushes. A good person produces good from the good treasury of the inner self, while an evil person produces evil from the evil treasury of the inner self. The inner self overflows with words that are spoken.”

Jesus (Luke 6:43-45, Common English Bible)

The Apostle James learned well from his Teacher when he said:

My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree produce olives? Can a grapevine produce figs? (James 3:12, Common English Bible)

The soul is a garden which must have a faithful gardener to continually attend to it. There is a constant need for paying attention to the plants through consistent weeding, watering, and nurturing the seeds placed in good rich soil.

If we will but only allow it, the Holy Spirit of God can be our Divine Gardener, being the elements we need for growth, maturity, and a good life which produces good succulent fruit for many to enjoy.

Apart from the Spirit’s warming, watering, and protecting, people can easily degenerate into all kinds of illicit thinking and behavior such as immorality, moral corruption, doing whatever feels good, idolatry, substance abuse, casting evil spells, hate, fighting, obsessive behaviors, violent anger, competitive opposition, conflict, selfishness, group rivalry,jealousy, and lying.

The Christian virtues which flower and produce the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control occur through a close intimate connection with the Divine Gardener. 

Our Divine spiritual Gardener knows that all things are connected – that below the surface the roots of every plant become connected with one another. There is really no such thing as a person who is disconnected from the rest of humanity.

The Artist’s Family In the Garden, by Claude Monet, 1875

Thus, the Apostle Paul, having also learned well, understood that there are not spiritual “fruits,” but only spiritual “fruit.” That is, the nine virtues Paul mentioned are the “fruit of the Spirit,” not “fruits.”

In other words, all virtuous words and behavior are connected with each other. When a person or an organization has the Divine Gardener attending to them, all nine of the Christian values are a collective basket of fruit which cannot be separated from one another.

So then, if we look at the list of spiritual fruit in the New Testament book of Galatians and say something like, “Well, I’m pretty good at kindness and goodness, but I don’t have much peace or patience,” then what this really means is that we are likely doing kindness and goodness from a different place than by means of the Holy Spirit.

Because when the Spirit is manifested in us, we exhibit spiritual fruit. We cannot separate the nine spiritual virtues any more than we can separate the Trinity. They’re all one spiritual fruit, cultivated and produced within the inner person by the agency of God’s Spirit, our Divine Gardener.

Perhaps we need to consider what is happening in the ground, underneath the surface, which is the shadow side of our lives that no one sees.

For example, it could be that we are driven far more by our ego and our anxiety about most things than about genuine altruism and love. The results of our actions and words may look the same or similar, but the motivation might be far from truly altruistic.

Any sort of “fruit” will simply not last if our actions spring from a place of ego control and worry – because it is not of the Spirit.

Both persons and institutions must mortify (put to death) the deeds and the weeds of the sinful nature.

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. And the life that I now live in my body, I live by faith, indeed, by the faithfulness of God’s Son, who loved me and gave himself for me.

The Apostle Paul (Galatians 2:20, Common English Bible)

The Spirit will always have us in the good rich soil of Christ, so that when we are planted and receive the proper amounts of spiritual sun and living water, we will most certainly produce a hundredfold crop.

Then, we learn to make proper and right judgments about what is happening in our world. We are able to see the thief in the garden who cares only to pick fruit he has neither planted nor cared for, having no intention of sharing anything, but instead seeks to amass a gluttonous basket for his own self.

There is a great need for virtuous living, ethical sensibilities, and wise discernment among everyone in this world.

We are now observing what happens when a people are ignorant of how true righteousness, justice, goodness, and peace are grown and developed in any culture, society, and government. Fools are allowed to roam the garden, and they make a complete mess of things.

Let us all do our part in ensuring that genuine spiritual fruit is produced, coming from the true self. Disconnection, destruction, and chaos are the fruit of a bad tree. Then, it is only fit to cut down and thrown into the fire.

Jesus said:

“Every good tree produces good fruit, and every rotten tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit. And a rotten tree can’t produce good fruit. Every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. Therefore, you will know them by their fruit.” (Matthew 7:17-20, Common English Bible)

Therefore, beware, watch out, and be wise in the way your own soul is cultivated, and how you discern the souls of others.

For the Christian, the season of Lent is the best and most appropriate time to focus upon spiritual disciplines which help connect us with Christ and with one another.

Daily attention to the garden of our soul prepares us for Holy Week by participating with Jesus in both his crucifixion and resurrection. All that is wrong and sinful in this old fallen world is put to death, and a new life of virtuous and altruistic living is enjoyed.

And the beauty of it all is that it will organically spring from the depths of a well-cultivated soul garden. The Divine Gardener stands ready with both hose and hoe to bring about the fruit of the Spirit.

Soli Deo Gloria