By Peter W. Marty
A Lutheran Christian life for today
Inhaling the Spirit We receive the Spirit as a gift—it is not found, obtained or possessed
C
hildren’s author Jeff Brown has inspired smiles for decades. He is the creative mind behind the 1960s children’s book series that features Stanley Lambchop as the main character.
Stanley has a traumatic experience one night when the heavy bulletin board on the wall above his bed falls on top of him. He survives the crush- ing blow but is forever flattened. But this 4-foot-tall, 1-foot-wide and half-inch thick boy makes the best of his new circumstance. Though ridiculed by some, he still enjoys an exciting childhood. Flat
Stanley serves as the perfect kite for his brother one windy day. He slips through the bars of a sidewalk grate to fetch his mother’s ring. When travel expenses to vacation in California prove too much for his fam- ily, Stanley’s parents stick him in a large envelope and mail him to his friends.
One night, tired from his forever-flattened state, Stanley cries. In
empathy, his younger brother Arthur hits on an idea. Arthur gets an old bicycle pump, rigs it up to Stanley’s mouth, and begins to pump air into his brother. At first the cheeks fill up. Then his whole body reinflates. The household celebrates. Those of us who tuck photographs of loved ones in our Bibles under- stand well the Flat Stanley tradition. These dear friends are not merely two-dimensional abstractions on photographic paper. We cherish them as real people who lead real lives, animated by the Spirit of God. According to the biblical story of Easter evening, Jesus appeared to
his disciples who were in something of a lockdown mode. Fear of what might be next had flattened them. There was no buoyancy of wonder or delight in their eyes. That’s when Jesus breathed his spirit upon them. He opened his mouth and reinflated their otherwise tame, scared and flat lives with resurrection breath. They would never be the same again. Their timidity would soon evolve into fearlessness. Pneuma, the Greek word for “spirit,” is what Jesus exhaled. It may sound to Flat Stanley readers like the pneumatic bike hose that Stanley’s brother stuck in his mouth. When Jesus breathed into his disciples, he invited them to “receive the Holy Spirit,” making clear that the Spirit of God always comes to us as a gift. We do not find, obtain or possess the Spirit. We receive the Spirit as a gift. Sometimes we pray for more of God’s Spirit to enter our lives, but this
isn’t spiritually accurate. It makes the Spirit sound like a set of odd puzzle pieces that need to be gathered together if ever there is to be a completed picture. The truth is that we receive all of the Spirit as a gift, never just pieces of the Spirit. Our prayer needs to be that the Lord will also have all of us, not just a few pieces of faint commitment.
When Christians profess, “I believe in the Holy Spirit,” they are mak-
ing an extraordinary claim unknown to any other religion in the same way: namely, that God works on us in a very personal fashion from the
inside out. We inhale the Spirit and we exhale a love that we did not know was in us.
Lutheran Chris- tians join others who declare the Spirit to be a per- son or being, not an “it.” This One is not an abstract idea, raw energy or simple enthusiasm. This One is not male in gender, even if referenced at times as “he.” This One is the fullness of God. After Jesus ascended into heaven, he
sent the Spirit as promised. This Spirit’s windy arrival upended the lives of countless believers.
Before Pentecost, the disciples found it challenging to do easy things. After they found it easy to do challenging things. Their church grew exponentially, not because the faithful passed out nifty mugs. Rather, they inhaled the Spirit. Their contentment with homogeneity ended. They found them- selves behaving with a generosity they had not known. They lost interest in making others speak and think exactly as they did. In belonging to God, people of many nations discovered they belonged to each other. No wonder we
continue to pray, “Take not your Holy Spirit from us, O Lord.” M
Marty is a pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church, Daven- port, Iowa, and the author of The Anatomy of Grace (Augsburg Fortress, 2008).
Lutheran Christians join others who declare the Spirit to be a person or being, not an ‘it.’ This One is not an abstract idea, raw energy or simple enthusiasm.
June 2011 3
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