Monday, May 30, 2022
A visit to Vineyard
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
When Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. Altogether there were about twelve men.
Yesterday at Vineyard in Champaign there were several hundred men, women and children. Standing, sitting, dancing, jumping up and down, crying, laughing, the congregation swayed with the music, caught up in the metaphors of battle and victory and then drawn down into peace, into a moment of quiet before fireworks burst out again.
Our emotions ran all along the gamut, and when Carolyn repeated a phrase, or a sentence from a song, then again and again, then again, and again, the whole room rocked back and forth, back and forth. I’ll love you forever, I’ll love you for always, as long as I’m living, my baby you’ll be. The Holy Spirit sang in my ear.
Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers? They answered Paul, “We have never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”
Our Trinitarian theologies had not yet taken hold. But neither had any other, not particularly, and Paul explained what he knew and they agreed with him, and things moved along from there.
When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
I imagine there was singing and dancing right there on the highway in Ephesus. Let’s get some food and talk all night. Let’s celebrate this talking in the tongues, and try it again, and see what happens next.
We went to Vineyard Church in Urbana from 1990 till 2012, long enough to see a lot of what happens next. We learned to pray with our eyes open. We took mission trips to housing projects in Joliet and in Champaign, and our son Chris took several trips to Mexico. We had not been back for awhile.
I’d like to alternate Sundays between a charismatic, Bible teaching, Spirit swaying service at Vineyard with a high mass at St. Pat’s or Emmanuel Episcopal in Champaign. At Vineyard I settle into meditation as the band plays on. At Emmanuel I speak sotto voce in tongues and feel a lot like clapping along with the liturgical hymns. Why not? Always seeking the balance of spirit and flesh, of mind and emotion, of mindful prayer and dancing in the aisle.
Our nephew Christian Sandel came from San Francisco to work with the Vineyard worship team. He’s been there since May 1, and in a few weeks he’ll move on stage and play guitar. He’s found a balance in his spirit that quiets him and makes him ecstatic, depending on the moment. He writes peaceful love songs for the ukulele, and sings them to his wife Adrienne and son Elim, who is not quite 18 months old. His mom and dad (my brother John) are very proud of him.
Jesus walked for three years with his disciples. On the night before he was taken from them, they said they finally understood what was happening to them.
Now you are talking plainly, and not in any figure of speech, they said to Jesus. Now we realize that you know everything and that you do not need to have anyone question you. Because of this we believe that you came from God.
Christian and Adrienne and Elim are not blowing in the wind, but neither do they have deep roots set in vocation or place. They have something better, of course – deep roots set in Jesus. And that makes all the difference.
I have told you this, so that you might have peace in me. In this world you will have trouble, but take heart, for I have conquered the world.
(Acts 19, Psalm 68, Colossians 3, John 16)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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