Readings: Proverbs
8:1-4, 22-31, John 16:12-15
May the words of
my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight O God
our rock and our sustainer. Amen.
When the Spirit of
truth comes, that Spirit will guide you in all the truth……
It is only in
John’s gospel that we hear this title used: Spirit of truth. It is a differing perspective perhaps, one
that adds another dimension to our understanding of the Spirit, and one we
don’t always use when describing the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives and
in the Church.
And it does need
to be said that John’s understanding of truth is not as fact, dogma, rules but
instead as revealed and declared in Jesus, the Christ –that the Spirit comes to
guide the community of faith in the truth that is the life and teaching of
Jesus continuously working in the world.
In the reading
from Proverbs we meet Sophia, Wisdom, calling from the market places and the
crossroads – places where truth (wisdom) is both found and revealed.
Wisdom cries out
to all – pleading for her voice to be heard and offering her impressive credentials
for speaking the truth of God into all the world and in the most public of
places. True she has competition,
folly’s voice is strong too, but Wisdom is belting out her message, God’s
message of encompassing love creatively and audaciously.
Listening to the
role of Wisdom in the beginning, in creation, you might well imagine her as
God’s architect, active in all the inhabited world, the delight of God and in
turn delighting in the all human race.
John Calvin paints a picture of the work of God in creation with these
words from the Institutes:
“Wherever you cast
your eyes, there is no spot in the universe wherein you cannot discern at least
some sparks of God’s glory. You cannot
in one glance survey this most vast and beautiful system of the universe, in
its wide expanse, without being completely overwhelmed by the boundless force
of its brightness.”[1]
Yet the God revealed
in the market place and through nature can only be fully understood in the
light of Jesus and therefore through later scripture.
So back to the
Gospel reading on this Trinity Sunday. John is not so concerned about defining the
inter-relationships of the three in one God (he left that for theologians to
battle with for 2000 years)– rather he is focussed how the triune God relates
to the reconciling of the world to God.
And in this passage we are looking particularly at the role of the Holy
Spirit in the continuing instruction of the way of living in the truth of
Jesus. In a sense the things that Jesus
has held back on, that he couldn’t say, were not because he felt they were too
much but rather because they would only be revealed in context of resurrection
and through the Spirit of truth.
The journey of
revelation continues to this day. The
truth of Jesus Christ is a living and creative happening in the world and, I
have to say, not the captive of the institution that we know as the
church. Where we (the church) have
decided that we already have all the truth, where the voice of dogma is louder
than the voice of the Spirit, I would suggest we have well and truly lost our
way.
We must expect God
to be present outside the confines of church, we must expect to encounter
wisdom outside of Sunday service, we must accept that God is at work in the
world outside of our influence. With
vigour, with the passion and daring of Sophia, the Spirit of truth is at work
in the world.
This Gospel text
is encourages us into an openness to fresh encounters with the revelations of Jesus,
engaging anew with the Spirit of truth and courageous enough to be the
raucous truth
tellers that are needed in the world today.
Jesus Christ – the
way and the truth and the life as guided by the Spirit – our story to tell, our
truth to share. I wonder what this means
for us.
I personally have
a real problem with the idea of getting out into the market place and
haranguing the crowds with what they need to do to be saved. Not particularly effective at the best of
times and certainly not where the words
are not surrounded by acts of living out the truth of Jesus.
Equally though I
have a real problem with us expecting the world to come to us, the Christian
Church, as the source of all truth. We
are not, God is! We are continuing to be
guided throughout time in the truth of Jesus Christ made known in the Spirit –
how dare we assume that we have it sussed, signed off for all time. We are part of the reformed and reforming
church, forever discerning the truth of God in our lives – we need to be
careful what we claim are the facts of truth and who has exclusive use of God.
Is it possible
that in some way we have become entangled in religion, its familiar rites and
passages, and lost our searching faith, our understanding of the truth that is
Jesus Christ. There is a quote from the book Churchless Christianity that might
speak to some of us: “Come out of those
jungles of religion. If you once enter
there, you can no more find the way.
Look for Christ, who by-passed the jungles, who pointed out the
direction, who over-ruled the ceremonials, and who showed us how to live always
for others.”[2]
One of the best
ways for me to keep a handle on how it is that I as a Christian am asked to live in the truth of Jesus, to be aware of
where the jungle of religion is compromising that, is always to imagine my feet
in his, my response as his, my choices as he would choose, my prejudices and
biases and apathy to be swept aside by his care for all in the world.
So imagine if
Jesus was born and lived not into the first century but the 21st
century.
Would Jesus be
delighted with the religious establishment in any sense of the word? Probably not.
Would Jesus choose
to exclude certain groups of people because the community in its wisdom decided
they did not conform – never, his arms would be open and his table a place of
welcome
Would Jesus stay
in a safe place and prefer not to engage with the different. Heck no!
Would Jesus muck
in with the homeless and the destitute, Heck yes.
Would Jesus be
protestant (reformed of course) or Catholic or Eastern Orthodox? Would he even be a member of the church? Or
would he allow that faith and truth was to be found where people gathered to
worship and learn to live in the way of Jesus?
Would Jesus sit in
on the interfaith group, seeking truth together – I believe he did in his day
and would do so today.
Would Jesus
understand that diversity was delightful and be horrified at our desire for
conforming to sameness? Yes and yes.
Would Jesus act as
if there was nothing new to know – or would he be on a journey like us, excited
about what might be around the corner?
Absolutely
Would Jesus be
interacting with all the people he met never mind their failings? Yes, yes,
yes.
Would Jesus be the
raucous voice in the market place, seeking not to win souls for the church but
to do what ever it takes to bring people into God’s love and justice, wisdom
and truth – for all who would have ears to hear? Yes indeed.
When the Spirit of
truth comes, that Spirit will guide you in all the truth – the truth that is
Jesus the Christ.
I invite you, in a
time of reflection, to consider how the truth of Jesus challenges and assures you
in your journey of faith.
Amen.
Margaret Garland
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