November 21, 2016 – 33 Days Until My Head Explodes, Or Devotions to Prepare Us For Christ’s Coming

“There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift.” Ephesians 4:4-7

Bacon. Not Kevin Bacon. Not Francis Bacon. Not Henry Bacon. Just plain old bacon. Who doesn’t love bacon — unless of course your bacon has a face that is smiling back at you. Bacon is the great unifier. If you want people to gather around your kitchen table, make a lot of bacon. Bacon looks good even on your Christmas tree. And you cannot put bacon in a box, because it comes in a plastic covered package – and it is good on everything.

God’s Spirit too cannot be held in a box. The working of the Spirit is as elusive and unknown as the incredible flavor of bacon. The Holy Spirit can be found in all kinds of people, of all kinds of groups of people of faith. It is the Holy Spirit that gathers the faithful, and as such the Holy Spirit gathers Christians everywhere — it becomes our calling to share the love of Christ as people of faith gather together in the unity of the Spirit. This means we find ways to work together with our fellow Christians. There is no need to work alone – and Christ does not call us to do that – the Spirit calls us to be “One in the Spirit, One in the Lord”.

So, through the Holy Spirit we become entangled with other Christians like bacon wrapped hotdogs. As Martin Luther states in the Small Catechism, “…the Holy Spirit…calls, gathers, enlightens, and makes holy (through the Gospel) the whole Christian church on earth…” Bacon must not have been a staple on the Luther family breakfast table since I have not found any mention of this cheap and easy resource for meat in Luther’s writings – though he was known to use “earthy” and rich language. So, because he doesn’t use the visual image of bacon, perhaps Luther didn’t know what he was missing. Mmmmmmmm….bacon!!!!

Pastor Dave