The bounteous local summer gardens, road stands, farmers’ markets, and even the roadsides are beginning to offer up a gracious plentitude of produce, not to mention the wild berries and other goodies the intrepid foragers track down. Other than my daily chopping and hacking in the kitchen, the seasonal produce calls forth other activities, not the least being pickling and infusing, two age-old methods of preserving these lavish riches at the peak of their flavor and scent. Infusing in particular is the foundation for a good number of pharmaceuticals but also contributes to the more unique, homemade ingredients stored in the pantries of enterprising cooks and bakers, along with a necessary bottle of “neutral spirits.” Such spirits are otherwise known as white lightning or moonshine along with some varieties of Aquavit, whisky, and vodka, tasteless and odorless but able to lay one flat on the floor if one is not careful.
If you have shopped for vanilla extract recently, it is apparent that buying a good quality brand will cost a king’s ransom for even a small bottle. Lesser varieties do, in fact, resemble stale cough medicine, not the best ingredient for your grandmama’s famous cookies. Simply obtain a small bunch of vanilla beans [yes, these are costly too, but it IS possible to extract several recipes worth of goodness from them with little effort that will last far longer than that measly little bottle you found in baking supplies]. Thanks to infusion, those vanilla beans dropped into a canning jar of vodka (the inexpensive variety) will produce a quite respectable quantity of vanilla extract fairly quickly. Once the vanilla extract has been made, take out the beans, dry them off, and put them in a jar of granulated sugar [infusion technique #2]. If you’ve never tasted vanilla sugar sprinkled on top of baked goods or made homemade whipped cream, you’ve a treat in store for you. Plain table salt [better yet, kosher salt] with herbs or spices like rosemary, dill, even grated lemon peel or ground, dried mushrooms can heighten your cooking magic considerably.
Nevertheless, “neutral spirits” are not always helpful, positive ingredients outside of the drugstore, medicine cabinet, bar, or kitchen pantry. “Neutral spirits” in the church remain a puzzling presence insofar as they describe children of God. This coming Sunday St. Paul addresses the Corinthian church yet again, reminding them [and us] of the qualities which describe the vital, active ministries to which we have been called because we have also been so gifted by the Spirit. Ministry for God’s people is NOT an activity we only aspire to once we have identified with, related to, become a member of, or baptized into a faith community like Mt. Horeb [or any other expression of Christ’s holy church], and get on the church roster. We don’t endure Sunday School, confirmation, bible study, and attend worship in order to qualify, to get “processed” by the Christian assembly line, graduate, and get shrink-wrapped, then sent off finally to the work of the Lord. Church is a hands-on bootcamp and apprenticeship from the very beginning. We learn to do ministry by doing ministry. The Spirit of God poured out on Pentecost encourages us, enlivens us, and continually gifts us with imaginative, creative hearts and intentions to be about the work of spirit-filled discipleship.
A quick check on the internet or in your dictionary provides several, sobering definitions of “neutral” which simply don’t set well with St. Paul’s notion of the Spirit of God nor God’s spiritually enlivened disciples, no matter which Testament you are studying. One dictionary defines “neutral” as “…’neither helping nor contributing to any particular side or understanding” in the midst of conflict or need. In this case neutral is a synonym for “impartial” or “disengaged.” Another definition suggests that neutral has “…no strongly marked or positive characters or features,” an odd descripter for followers of Jesus. During Israel’s exodus out of bondage God gifts Moses with commandments or teachings to remind Moses’ “people” of their striking characteristics and behaviors as God’s people. Exodus also discusses God’s own identity as the one who frees, who cares for the creation and people God fashioned in love, and continues to richly bless and provide for them. While Moses is meeting with the Almighty on the stormy peak of Sinai, the bored and wayward folks left down on the plain decide to fashion themselves a golden calf to have on hand for worship. Moses, seeing their radical departure from what it means to be God’s people, cries “Who is on the Lord’s side? Come to me!” No neutral spirits need apply, because to be God’s children means to live and bear witness daily to what abiding relationship with the Almighty means.
Sunday’s second reading [II Corinthians 6:1-13] summarizes the Spirit-led, baptismally graced characteristics which mark ANY of God’s children. We are capable of showing forth a clear sense of justice [another word for righteousness], purity of spirit, mind and heart, patience in all things, a holiness of Spirit [which implies a right active core of energy to be about the work of the Lord], a genuine love [not just pious lip-service], and remembrance of the power of God at work in us. Nothing neutral about those qualities! God’s “power” [based on the same Greek word from which we get “dynamic”] is effective beyond our feeble imaginings, yet we have been graced with it as well. In Sunday’s Gospel the disciples are frightened and befuddled at witnessing God’s holy power clearly at work when Jesus “rebukes” the waves and storm. They stammer their wonder: Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him? Yet such an admission of wonder will eventually be turned on the disciples themselves during their own ministry among people in need, the sick and dying, the forgotten, the despised and forsaken. And we ourselves may hear such comments about our own actions from day to day. Our calling and mission are not to be “neutral spirits” espousing no conviction or clear characteristics, but rather people enflamed by the power of God’s love.
As a congregation we do, in fact, have a wondrous opportunity this coming Sunday as Mt. Horeb welcomes two new fellow-disciples into our fold. Such an occurrence is altogether too rare in most parishes these days. The arrival of new children of God into our familiar circle puts us who welcome them on notice. Will we check of the box that we have ritually, and actually rather formally, welcomed them in the name of Christ [to do that is itself a privilege!] and then just get on with other business?
We DO have a choice. Reflect on past moments when we have welcomed folks into God’s household at Mt. Horeb. Have those folks been incorporated fully into the fabric of not only the congregation but into our very lives? We say we will pray for them, but continue to reflect. Have we? If not, our own sadly comfortable, indifferent spirits will eventually “neutralize” the newly arrived folks hopes and energy, too. Experience demonstrates that newly baptized adults or individuals welcomed into a church community are often shocked to discover complacency and lack of energy in the very parish they had placed their hopes and aspirations. But it doesn’t have to end in such a disappointing fashion. Even “neutral spirits” can have new life, energies, and hopes, even a discerning taste for the challenges of ministry infused into them thanks to the work of God’s ever-lurking Spirit. Who needs to flail around looking for proof, even 96o proof, when we have the active presence of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us?