Texts: Acts 2: 1-20; John 7: 35-37
In his biting and satirical novel Elmer Gantry, Sinclair Lewis created a character who had the power to sway audiences and congregations through the power and persuasiveness of his oratory. He was thought to be full of the Holy Spirit, but in the end, he was only full of himself. His appeal, as is the appeal of most of the magic men known as “televangelists,” comes from the fact that they speak to a yearning for a past that never existed, much like the kind of oratory we hear from some politicians in America today. It is worth considering what we mean by the term Holy Spirit and what we expect from our own attempts to recapture an illusory past.
Let's begin with Hebrew Scripture, what we Christians usually call the Old Testament. The word used for what comes to be la...
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 "He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" MICAH 6:8 NRSV |
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