Sunday, July 16 at 10am | Bulletin
Friends,
It’s challenging to have houseguests in NYC. For most of us fortunate enough to have housing, our spaces are small. An extra bedroom? Probably not. That old inflatable mattress? It has a hole in it. The couch? It’s ok for a night or two. Still, some visitors come, and they make a world of difference in our lives. Sometimes they even become roommates, lovers, or life partners.
What would it be like if God came to live with us?
St. Paul takes on that question in chapter 8 of his letter to the church at Rome. “When God has taken up residence in your life,” the quirky Message translation reads, we are transformed from the inside out. It’s the Spirit who comes to live within us, Paul tells us, and it’s something he’s experienced first-hand. The Spirit, like a wind, “cleared the air,” leading Paul and us “out into the open, into a spacious, free life.”
Come Sunday, I want to focus not so much on what we’ll do with this spiritual freedom, but rather, as the wind of the Spirit blows, on who it is we’re becoming and how it is we’re being transformed. In this summer season of renewal and revival, we’ll follow Paul in releasing our grip, taking a deep breath, and awakening to what (and Who) is already here.
See you in the sanctuary or online at 10am.
Peace and love,
Pastor Terry
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