Led by the Holy Spirit
Pentecost 3, Proper 8
June 29, 2025
Fr. Tim Nunez
May my spoken word be true to God’s written word and bring us all closer to the living word, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
We had a great week with the campers and staff at Camp Wingmann last week. There were over 90 campers, 51 elementary aged and over 40 middle and high school students.
My favorite moment was right at the drop off. Two of my grandsons were campers. As Gabriel was coming out of the middle school boys’ cabin he said proudly, “Grandpa, I picked a bed right next to the bathroom!” I said, “That’s convenient for when you have to go to the bathroom.” I then paused for dramatic effect and said, “It’s also convenient for when you have to clean it.”
Stunned, he turned and look at his father, “I have to clean it?” “Yes, son,” he said. “Everyone has to help with the chores.” “Awww man!” Gabe said. But he happily did his part and had a great week, too.
That’s life, isn’t it? In order for us to enjoy the blessing of life - in this case a fun week at camp - we have to meet our responsibilities, such as doing the necessary chores, going along with the activities schedule, playing the games by the rules and so on.
That truth applies at every level. This week we will celebrate the 249th birthday of our great nation. The Declaration of Independence which was passed on July 4, 1776, includes this famous sentence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Those rights get some clarity in the Bill of Rights, which was ratified over 16 years later. The First Amendment says:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Those are powerful words, articulating rights that we now assume as part of our culture to preserve our civic freedoms and to protect us from tyranny, but which also challenge us. This isn’t a civics lesson, but consider the responsibilities these rights demand, which set limits on them. Freedom of religion, but it cannot be exploitative or harmful. Free speech cannot be used to bear false witness or to defraud. The press can have all manner of perspective and biases, but it cannot slander or libel. Peaceable assembly has to be peaceable, which usually means police protection and control of elements that tend to use such gatherings as a presence for violence or looting. Redress of grievances has to be orderly.
Paul wrote to the Galatians that, “For freedom Christ has set us free,” free from the slavery that rises from our natural instincts. Remember, every sin we have, we come by naturally. We are ever-burdened with knowing what is. We continuously self-evaluate, but we cannot see it all from within. We need continuous feedback from the people around us.
We can browse carefully through Paul’s list of worldly struggles, recognizing that while it covers a lot we know there is much more. They share themes of appetites and control of each other, as well as losing control of ourselves, but losing control how and to whom? Satan, yes, but also to our baser nature. No one expects a tiger to be anything but a tiger. But we get very disappointed and upset with ourselves and others when people are being people, quite naturally.
I’m not trying to put you on a massive guilt trip, but consider the way people are naturally and how vexing a problem this is. We’ve had these pearls of wisdom from Paul for almost 2,000 years. The command to “love our neighbors as ourselves” is about 1400 years older than that. Yet it still challenges us to the core of our being.
We are also ever-burdened with knowing the way things ought to be. Every time we think or say, “I should have done that,” or “I should not have done that,” or “I should not have said that,” or “I should have said,” or “That is wrong,” or that needs repair,” we testify to the burden of what might be and what ought to be.
That’s not a problem for Jesus. Jesus does not have such debates in his mind.
When Jesus, as Luke tells us, “set his face to go to Jerusalem,” it is the central turning point in Luke’s Gospel. His will is totally aligned with his Father’s will. He will go to Jerusalem at the right time, steeled to his singular focus of facing down the powers of sin and death at the highest personal cost for himself, and the highest benefit to the world.
But he had a choice. He had choices, just as we all do. He chose his Father’s will. Our being is repeatedly disoriented. His is completely oriented.
Earlier, we jumped from the very personal decisions and responsibilities of an 11-year-old boy to our national ethos of rights and responsibilities, to God’s call to all of humanity, but of course the progression is exactly the opposite.
These precepts from God himself, shared through the Law and prophets of Israel and brought into sharp focus by Jesus, greatly influenced our nation’s founding documents. It’s much deeper than what Jefferson or Franklin or Madison believed personally. It’s the ground upon which they stood and the air they breathed.
That filters down to a boy, a girl, the counselors and their chaplain at a camp framed around building their relationship with Jesus so that they can know him and be freed from the terrible weight of sin.
But we cannot assume our culture will carry the precepts forward. Every right and every responsibility we have is under continual examination and re-examination. Sometimes that is helpful, but often they are treated as old flowery wallpaper or avocado countertops that were popular 60 years ago.
Sometimes we have to teach kids the importance of chores. Sometimes we need to defend life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, the freedom of religion, speech, assembly and so on. There are always contexts to explore and argue. That’s ok.
But when it comes down to it, we have to keep the main thing the main thing, which is to get oriented, to set our face toward Jerusalem, the Kingdom of God and nowhere else. We cannot do this on our own. We just can’t. That is why Jesus promised God would send us the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth, and that is why he did. When we are led by the Spirit, these godly gifts flow. When we aren’t, the opposite flows.
Paul gives us a very clear way to check whether or not we are being led by the Holy Spirit, or responding to our own desires and the pressures of the world. Hopefully not many of us are struggling with sorcery, and we talked about idolatry last week. The rest of this list is sobering, even convicting. When we are caught up in enmities, strife, jealousy, anger and the rest, we are very clearly being led by something other than the Holy Spirit. Our face is not set toward Jerusalem, so to speak.
And when we are caught up in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, we know that we are being led by the Spirit.
Note the irony of that last one. We cannot gain self-control by trying to have self-control. We can approximate it, but our willpower fails at critical points, on the edge of sin. It’s only when we have yielded ourselves to the power of the Holy Spirit we are truly able to have self-control.
When we truly want to be and are guided by the Spirit, then we meet our responsibilities as Christians, as citizens and as friends and fellow campers with joy. He leads us exactly where we want to be.
Amen!