Pentecost, May 20 2018
Acts 2:1-11; Gal 5:16-25; John 20:19-23
Brookdale
“Brothers and sisters, live by the Spirit and you will certainly not gratify the desire of the flesh. For the flesh has desires against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; these are opposed to each other.”
What do you make of this statement from today’s second reading? I think many—even most—American Christians today will hear a message that the body is bad but the soul is good. We are apt to equate “flesh” with the body and “spirit” with the soul. But scripture scholars tell us that Paul is not talking about body and soul. Paul was a Jew, and in the Jewish tradition body and soul were not separable. “Body” referred to the whole person as a physical being; “soul” referred to the whole person as an emotional being. “My soul magnifies the Lord” just means “I magnify the Lord in my heart.” The emphasis is on my heart and my emotions, rather than my arms and legs.
So if Paul isn’t talking about body and soul—and he is not—what does he mean by flesh and spirit? Flesh and spirit is about our weak human nature and God’s life-giving power. “Flesh” here refers to us as ordinary weak mortals, children of Adam and Eve, subject to illness and death, and tending to sin. To be sure, some works of the flesh (like drunkenness or orgies) are focused on the body. But consider these works of the “flesh” that Paul mentions that have nothing to do with the body but everything to do with our fallen human nature: “hatreds, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, [and] factions.” These are sins of the heart, or the soul. For Paul, sins of the body and sins of the soul are all works of the flesh.
Paul’s works of the flesh make up a list of things we need to look out for, symptoms indicating that our sinful natures are still in charge, as we know they often are. Okay, so we don’t do orgies, but how about factions? The very splits between Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox churches over doctrine are a work of our baser nature. How about selfishness, hostility to political opponents, and indifference to the plight of desperate migrants or laid-off factory workers? What about resentment when desperate people in the third world get the kind of jobs that Americans have always done? None of this is a problem with our bodies.
For Paul, you don’t become holy by beating up your body or living in your mind. Fasting and self-flagellation won’t help you (although fasting can be a useful discipline). What will help you is the spirit of God dwelling within you. This is the spirit of God that gave new life to Jesus and powered the resurrection. The spirit can lift up our sinful natures and give us new life. This is the Holy Spirit that we celebrate especially today, on Pentecost Sunday.
For Paul, we need to recognize the works of our sinful natures (the flesh) and restrain them. Then we need to yield to the spirit and allow it to bear fruit within us. After listing works of the flesh in today’s second reading, Paul goes on to list some fruits of the spirit: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” These are symptoms of allowing the Spirit of God free rein in our hearts. They’re not things we can force ourselves to do, but if we give in to the gentle promptings of the Spirit, we will notice its fruits in ourselves.
One of my favorite people at church a man who lives in the Spirit. He and his wife have practiced centering prayer—in which one stills the mind and practices resting in the Spirit—for over 20 years. He has also been very active in opposition to drone warfare by our government. But he doesn’t shake his fist, chant slogans, or insult the police; he is uniformly gentle and kind. He has practiced civil disobedience and gone to jail without offering any resistance. At church or in protests, he radiates a peace that flows out to fellow parishioners and opponents alike. “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” May they grow in all of us this Pentecost.