Have you ever felt like there is supposed to be more to life?  like there is something that you are missing that feels so close, and yet is just out of reach?  I’m talking about a sense of emptiness or unsettledness, that, despite what we own or how successful we become, or even despite how many people love or adore us, still endures.

It’s been said that such a feeling is the beginning of the spiritual life, because it sets people off into spiritual exploration to try and answer that nagging question that clings tightly in the chest:  What is missing?

 

Such a feeling is no artifact of our modern age.  We could be tempted to think that it comes as a by-product of our technologies and advancements, that somehow if we could only return to balance with nature all would be well.  But a look through history shows that this sense is common to human beings across ages.

Five thousand years ago Abraham left his home country on a search for God.  2600 years ago the Buddha wandered his native land in the East searching for solutions to the agony of living.  In the Middle Ages the great draw of the monastic life was its promise of balance and clarity and deep, intrinsic truth.

 

I imagine that when Paul met these disciples along the road into Ephesus they exhibited some of the same feelings and questions and needs.  They felt like they had done all that was expected of them, they were baptized, they were disciples of Christ, they were trying to live the spiritually awakened life, yet something was missing for them.  So much so that Paul was led to ask, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?”

To which they replied, “No, we haven’t even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”  So Paul asked, “Well, into what then were you baptized?”  “We were baptized into John’s baptism.” They said.  And there was the catch.  Paul suddenly understood what was the problem for these disciples.  

They seemed to have had everything, but what they were missing was the life of the Spirit.  Here were some disciples made in the image of God, seeking to dedicate themselves to the work of God, alive by the very breath of God, yet without the Spirit of God as their restfulness, their knowledge, their peace.

Paul said to them, “John’s baptism was for repentence, but he told the people to look for the one who was to come after him, that is Jesus.”  So they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus, and when Paul laid his hands on them following the baptism, the Holy Spirit came upon them and the power of that Spirit ignited their wills and their voices and their minds.

 

The same that was true for this band of twelve is true also for the Buddha, for Abraham, for the monastics and for you and me.  By virtue of our life we have so much that is just a given.  We have awareness and abilities and love and insight.  We have creativity and compassion and strength and skill.  Add to all of those things our financial capacity and technological access, and we are prepared to believe that all that we need, we have.  And so the burning spiritual desire in our hearts can be confusing or ultimately lead some people to conclude that life is just random and without ultimate answers or direction.

But in fact, although all of these things—these capacities of ours—are great and numerous.  They are also hollow without one thing.  Without the power of God.  Without the Holy Spirit of God animating them and enlightening them.

What is missing, is Jesus.  Jesus as the ultimate revelation of the divine.  Jesus, the one through whom all things were made.  Jesus who sends the Holy Spirit in his name to all who believe.  

Imagine a twinkie without filling.  That is what all of life is without Christ; so wonderful and promising, yet without that which perfects it and makes it whole.  

Just as Christ was baptized and through that giving of himself received the fullness of God’s Holy Spirit, so we continue doing the same to this day.  We bring forth in baptism those who would live in the fullness of life in Christ.  Also we who have been baptized renew our baptismal covenant, asking with new focus that what God has begun in us may be brought ever closer to perfection to the glory of his name.

Amen.