by Rev. Herbert Nichols

The trees have shed their leaves, stripped naked. The nights are getting darker sooner and colder. The sun has lost its punch. To make it all worse imagine, being lost in the woods with nothing to start a fire. Shivering and desperate for survival you wrap your arms around yourself, doing anything you can to survive.

When St. Paul speaks of the person living according to the flesh, this is what he means. A person turned in on himself in egoism, selfishness and narcissism. Sin is the expression of a person who has his hands wrapped around himself, in contrast the person who lives according to the Spirit, the Spirit of Christ.

The Holy Spirit is symbolized by fire, which provides both light and heat The work of the Spirit is to give us the light of wisdom and the warmth of love. When the power of the Spirit dwells within us, we no longer need to wrap our arms around ourselves. Rather we can open our arms and embrace God and his people with love. That is true wisdom.

Think of the example of Jesus who in the moment of His great suffering opened his arms on the cross in a gesture of love for His Father and all humanity. The Father responded to this love by raising Jesus from the dead, from the coldest of the cold.