1+1=3

When Jesus said, “When two or three are gathered together in my name . . . there I am in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20) – he must have known something that I’ve often missed.  Not 6 or 7, not 10 or 12 but 2 or 3.

So there were two of us last Tuesday evening for our first “RisingSpirit” open church gathering.  Or I should say 3 . . . because I felt the Spirit present.

There was no “master plan” or “blueprint” of where to go.  But there were hopes spoken:

• “A place where you get together to share about ‘real life’”
• “A place to share deep questions, hopes, fears, dreams . . .”
• “A place to have your spirit nurtured.”
• “Family is not enough . . . it’s too small.”
• “A place to make a difference.”

It is funny, the gift of the Holy Spirit for me was the bursting of my North American optimistic, success oriented bubble.  Two not twenty.  I confess that I did take me a little time to get that message.  The success stuff is deep inside me.  I hunch in most of us if we have grown up in this society that worships success.  Why so slow to understand?  After all, as a pastor, I have heard story after story of people who judge and struggle against this shadow side of success . . . failure.  Success is a hard, fickle and heartless god it seems to me.

I need to wean myself from its strange allure.  And I believe we must too as a society.  If it is killing our spirits  . . . it is definitely killing the earth.  I got a reality check, maybe you did too, with the news that 1 billion people in the world are hungry.  (World Food Day – Oct 16^th) I try to imagine, as a parent, living with the cries of hunger from my child.  For me, meditating on this sad fact puts lots into perspective.  If I let it, it puts me in touch again with my deep hunger for food for all, the healing of creation, for peace and justice on earth . . . as well as a renewed church to have a community where I can feel the pain of the world and work to make a difference in the world that God so loves.  Without that hunger, I don’t think we have any expression of church that is worth anything in the 21^st Century.

Two or three.  No hiding in the crowd.  The Spirit’s Blessing, it seems to me.  But there are three . . .Thank God.