This sermon was preached on May 22, 2016 for Trinity Sunday at Grace Episcopal Church in Medford, MA. The texts for this sermon were: Isaiah 6:1-8, Revelation 4:1-11, John 16:(5-11)12-15, and Psalm 29.
Jesus said to the disciples, "I still have many things to say to you.”
A big, red and black banner hung on the side of the United Church of Christ church in downtown Fairfield, CT when I was growing up. I’m not sure if it’s still there but the message remains burned into my brain. “God is still speaking,” declared the banner, and, underneath a giant comma at the end of the quote, “Never place a period where God has placed a comma.” A bold, brash theological statement about the relevancy of God in our lives right now…and the UCC’s 2006 denomination-wide marketing campaign.
Today's passage from the Gospel of John plunges us back into Jesus's lengthy farewell address to his followers on the night of his betrayal. Jesus knows he is about to leave his friends to face death on the cross, and that later, after the resurrection, he’ll leave them again, ascending directly into heaven. So in this moment in the upper room, Jesus promises his disciples that he will not leave them on their own. Jesus reassures his friends that he will send to them an Advocate, a Spirit of Truth. The Spirit will guide you into all truth, Jesus tells them, but also warns: this Spirit will not speak on her own.
On the night Jesus proclaimed new covenant between God and God’s people with the bread and the wine, God’s son introduces the third and final piece of the Trinity, a Holy Spirit of Truth. God still has so many things to say and do in this world, but God will guide God’s people in a new way.
Last Sunday, we celebrated the coming of the Spirit of Truth to the apostles on Pentecost. Signs of the Holy Spirit’s arrival included a wild wind and tongues of dancing flames, but the apostles first knew the true power of the Holy Spirit when they opened their mouths and the right words tumbled out. The Holy Spirit compelled them to speak and understand in a way they never could before.
God was still speaking, this time through a power the disciples felt around them, inside them, like a fire, like a wind. This time, God spoke through the disciples themselves.
Paul writes "God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit." The gift of the Holy Spirit is direct and intimate, within us. We do the miracles now. We speak the words. Through the Holy Spirit, we are God's presence to each other.
There’s this quote I’ve been hearing a lot lately. I’ve seen it passed around by friends on Facebook and shared by priests—Pope Francis himself even used it in a speech to a bunch of Archbishops last June. It’s generally attributed to St. Francis, although he probably never said it. It goes like this: “Preach the Gospel at all times, and use words if necessary.” When I first heard the quote, I loved it. Preach the Gospel at all times, and use words if necessary. How powerful an idea it is to preach the Gospel with our actions, with our lives, instead of with just empty words! And I think that’s generally what people mean when they use it. After all, how often do we need reminders to back up our speech with actions?
But then I got stuck on the “if necessary” part. What does that mean, “if necessary?” Is there some sort of bare minimum we can be assured we’ve reached, before we have to get to that drastic step of actually speaking the Good News out loud? If there is, I haven’t reached it. I’m here, after all, week after week, because I need to keep hearing the Good News that I am forgiven, that God is here with us, that each of us are worthy of love. Perhaps that’s why you’re here, too.
Could it be that there’s a tiny bit of relief in that quote? Could it be that an emphasis on action frees us to live out our lives like everyone else? Simply striving to be kind and decent human beings to one another without ever having to name Jesus as the reason? If that’s the unspoken meaning that lies behind the quote, it certainly turns the meaning of the Gospel as Good News on its head. It also sadly robs the Holy Spirit of one of her most incredible powers: The gift of God speaking through us to one another.
This week I sat down and tried to list out all of the gems of advice I’ve been told throughout my two years here at Grace Church. Some of you came out to hear an abridged version of that list this past Wednesday during my “Last Lecture” to the church. As I constructed the list—and I’m still adding to it—I was particularly struck by how many of the lessons were taught to me through direct speech. So many of them were simple ideas that, once said, put the world around me in a new light.
Now, each of the lessons I was told about community, about patience, love and grace would have been meaningless had I not observed them again and again in the actions of my colleagues, fellow parishioners, Sunday School students. But I would probably never have known to notice them in the first place had not someone else taken the time to explain their larger meaning.
If I hadn’t been told directly, for instance, would I have known that Noah always makes a full pot of coffee, even if he’s the only one in the office, so we are ready to extend hospitality to anyone who stops by? Would I have noticed that Maggie carefully and lovingly removes the broken crayons from the Sunday School supplies so that the children might know they are worthy of love and attention? That Margaret Smist makes sure never to ask if it’s someone’s first time at Grace, so that no one is made to feel unseen or that they do not belong?
C.S. Lewis did say this, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else." Our faith is action, and it’s words. It’s stories that frame our sense of self. It’s lessons that draw our eyes to the movement of God in our lives. Faith can be, for you as it so often is for me, what illuminates the purpose and meaning behind everything we do. But how will I know unless you tell me? And what a gift that can be to give to one another!
Has someone else’s words ever shifted your perception in an instant? And could it be that your words have done the same for someone else? Could it be, that there, in that instance, God was still speaking, too?
Our God is a living God, moving and breathing and acting within each of us through the Holy Spirit. And our God still has so much to say.
Jesus said to the disciples, "I still have many things to say to you.”
A big, red and black banner hung on the side of the United Church of Christ church in downtown Fairfield, CT when I was growing up. I’m not sure if it’s still there but the message remains burned into my brain. “God is still speaking,” declared the banner, and, underneath a giant comma at the end of the quote, “Never place a period where God has placed a comma.” A bold, brash theological statement about the relevancy of God in our lives right now…and the UCC’s 2006 denomination-wide marketing campaign.
Today's passage from the Gospel of John plunges us back into Jesus's lengthy farewell address to his followers on the night of his betrayal. Jesus knows he is about to leave his friends to face death on the cross, and that later, after the resurrection, he’ll leave them again, ascending directly into heaven. So in this moment in the upper room, Jesus promises his disciples that he will not leave them on their own. Jesus reassures his friends that he will send to them an Advocate, a Spirit of Truth. The Spirit will guide you into all truth, Jesus tells them, but also warns: this Spirit will not speak on her own.
On the night Jesus proclaimed new covenant between God and God’s people with the bread and the wine, God’s son introduces the third and final piece of the Trinity, a Holy Spirit of Truth. God still has so many things to say and do in this world, but God will guide God’s people in a new way.
Last Sunday, we celebrated the coming of the Spirit of Truth to the apostles on Pentecost. Signs of the Holy Spirit’s arrival included a wild wind and tongues of dancing flames, but the apostles first knew the true power of the Holy Spirit when they opened their mouths and the right words tumbled out. The Holy Spirit compelled them to speak and understand in a way they never could before.
God was still speaking, this time through a power the disciples felt around them, inside them, like a fire, like a wind. This time, God spoke through the disciples themselves.
Paul writes "God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit." The gift of the Holy Spirit is direct and intimate, within us. We do the miracles now. We speak the words. Through the Holy Spirit, we are God's presence to each other.
There’s this quote I’ve been hearing a lot lately. I’ve seen it passed around by friends on Facebook and shared by priests—Pope Francis himself even used it in a speech to a bunch of Archbishops last June. It’s generally attributed to St. Francis, although he probably never said it. It goes like this: “Preach the Gospel at all times, and use words if necessary.” When I first heard the quote, I loved it. Preach the Gospel at all times, and use words if necessary. How powerful an idea it is to preach the Gospel with our actions, with our lives, instead of with just empty words! And I think that’s generally what people mean when they use it. After all, how often do we need reminders to back up our speech with actions?
But then I got stuck on the “if necessary” part. What does that mean, “if necessary?” Is there some sort of bare minimum we can be assured we’ve reached, before we have to get to that drastic step of actually speaking the Good News out loud? If there is, I haven’t reached it. I’m here, after all, week after week, because I need to keep hearing the Good News that I am forgiven, that God is here with us, that each of us are worthy of love. Perhaps that’s why you’re here, too.
Could it be that there’s a tiny bit of relief in that quote? Could it be that an emphasis on action frees us to live out our lives like everyone else? Simply striving to be kind and decent human beings to one another without ever having to name Jesus as the reason? If that’s the unspoken meaning that lies behind the quote, it certainly turns the meaning of the Gospel as Good News on its head. It also sadly robs the Holy Spirit of one of her most incredible powers: The gift of God speaking through us to one another.
This week I sat down and tried to list out all of the gems of advice I’ve been told throughout my two years here at Grace Church. Some of you came out to hear an abridged version of that list this past Wednesday during my “Last Lecture” to the church. As I constructed the list—and I’m still adding to it—I was particularly struck by how many of the lessons were taught to me through direct speech. So many of them were simple ideas that, once said, put the world around me in a new light.
Now, each of the lessons I was told about community, about patience, love and grace would have been meaningless had I not observed them again and again in the actions of my colleagues, fellow parishioners, Sunday School students. But I would probably never have known to notice them in the first place had not someone else taken the time to explain their larger meaning.
If I hadn’t been told directly, for instance, would I have known that Noah always makes a full pot of coffee, even if he’s the only one in the office, so we are ready to extend hospitality to anyone who stops by? Would I have noticed that Maggie carefully and lovingly removes the broken crayons from the Sunday School supplies so that the children might know they are worthy of love and attention? That Margaret Smist makes sure never to ask if it’s someone’s first time at Grace, so that no one is made to feel unseen or that they do not belong?
C.S. Lewis did say this, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else." Our faith is action, and it’s words. It’s stories that frame our sense of self. It’s lessons that draw our eyes to the movement of God in our lives. Faith can be, for you as it so often is for me, what illuminates the purpose and meaning behind everything we do. But how will I know unless you tell me? And what a gift that can be to give to one another!
Has someone else’s words ever shifted your perception in an instant? And could it be that your words have done the same for someone else? Could it be, that there, in that instance, God was still speaking, too?
Our God is a living God, moving and breathing and acting within each of us through the Holy Spirit. And our God still has so much to say.
Comments
Post a Comment