The Spirit of Truth

Today’s Gospel tells us that God’s Spirit abides with those who keep the commandments.  “If you love me you will keep my commandments.  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate…. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him.  You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.”

Recognition of God's Spirit requires faith and action.  The Spirit does not come to those who are passive, who sit by the roadside and watch the parade go by, but the Spirit comes to those who are active, those who do to others as Jesus did in his life and ministry.  Faith demands a particular quality of life.  It is more than belief.  The point is that loving God and keeping God’s commandments involve motivation to act in ways the world might not fully understand.

We live in a global culture of tremendous diversity.  There are more ethnic, racial, national, social, economic, and spiritual differences than we could ever have imagined a few years ago.  With all this diversity and pluralism there seems to be a greater emphasis on special interest groups that claim to have the Truth (capital T), or answers to the complex issues of our lives.  The first and second century Christians also lived in a world filled with competing communities and factions that claimed to know the truth.  Today we live in a time that has been referred to as a “post-Christian” era.

Given this reality of diversity and pluralism, especially among so many different faith traditions, we who are people of Christian faith are challenged in new ways.  In the midst of all our diversity there is more than one path to God.  God, in the wisdom of creation, must have a purpose in devising so many differences, so many languages and faith traditions, and so many ways of being and doing.

The Bible and Christian faith present a vision and a worldview that challenges the prevailing culture.  A former chaplain colleague from Missouri once said that we Christians “stand as a subversive community in our own time.  We are a community that celebrates and lives out a New Life – the Resurrected Life – in a world that is obsessed by…destruction and death.  We stand as an alternative that looks to the future with hope in the promise of God who gives New Life and calls us to the New Life.  This is what it means to be the resurrected community.  In the life of a community there are decisive questions that must be confronted: How are we called?  What sort of people and community are we called to be?  Will we follow the call?  These are the questions we face as the community of those who celebrate the Resurrected Life that God has given us through the power of Christ.”

One clear response to these questions is that we are called to love God and our neighbor.  At the center of the biblical command to love is the call to live the resurrected life, a life transformed and rooted in God’s relationship and intention for all creation.  Jesus proclaimed this in his ministry of preaching and teaching, in his healing and feeding, in his forgiving and loving.

Jesus told his disciples, “I am coming to you.  In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live.  On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me.”  Keeping the commandments, what we do as a result of loving God, is what matters.

There is a wonderful book titled The God We Never Knew, by Marcus Borg.  In it the author offers insightful ideas about how Christians today can come to love God and faithfully keep God’s commandments. 

Borg writes, "[Our] images of God...affect how we think of the Christian life.  Rather than God being a distant being with whom we might spend eternity, Spirit -- the sacred -- is right here.  Rather than God being the lawgiver and judge whose requirements must be met and whose justice must be satisfied, God is the lover who yearns to be in relationship to us.  Rather than sin and guilt being the central dynamic of the Christian life, the central dynamic becomes relationship -- with God, the world, and each other.  The Christian life is about turning toward and entering into relationship with the one who is already in relationship with us -- with the one who gave us life, who has loved us from the beginning, and who loves us whether we know that or not, who journeys with us whether we know that or not."

Marcus Borg reflects the passage in the Gospel of John, Jesus said, “I am in the Father, and you in me, and I in you.”  In other words, "God is all around us" and "we live within God."  "Whatever opens our hearts to the reality of the sacred is what we should be engaged in....  The Christian life is not about pleasing God the finger-shaker and judge.  It is not about believing now or being good now for the sake of heaven later.  It is about entering a relationship in the present that begins to change everything now.  Spirituality is about this process:  the opening of the heart to the God who is already here."

"The fruit of this process is compassion..... God's will for us...is to become more compassionate beings..... If spirituality -- a life of relationship with the Spirit of God -- does not lead to compassion, then either it is life in relationship to a different spirit or there is a lot of static in the relationship.  The absence or presence of compassion is the central test for discerning whether something is 'of God.'  As the primary gift of the Spirit, compassion is the primary sign of spiritual growth."

As we continue through these final weeks of the Easter season we do well to recall the meaning of Christ’s resurrection and the anticipated coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.  God through Christ is in relationship with us as we are in relationship with God and one another.  Our lives are within a community of celebration, a community of life transformed and rooted in God’s relationship and intention for all creation.  It is a community of compassion that actively lives out the command to love God and to serve others according to their need.  Amen.

The Way to God

John’s Gospel is renowned for its brilliant word play. There is a clever use of semantics that are obscured by the translation from Greek to English.  In Jesus’ farewell discourse in John, chapters 14 through 17, we get glimpses of the writer’s remarkable craft.  For example, there is a cluster of related words that have to do with the concept of “home.”  In my Father’s house are many dwelling places or, as some translations have it, mansions or rooms.  Another example is the phrase, “I go and prepare a place for you.”  And another, “The Father who dwells in me does his works.”  

John uses these and other metaphors to communicate one of the key theological concepts in the gospel: Christ is the bridge between the kingdom of God and God’s creation, between God and those who believe or trust in God, between eternity and now.  In and through Christ we dwell or have a place with God.  Jesus promises his disciples that in God’s house there are many dwelling places and he will go to prepare a place for us and welcome us when we arrive.

This is good news.  The good news gets even better when we read ahead to the 15th chapter of John.  For Jesus’ promise is that once he is reunited with God, then through the power of the Holy Spirit, God will dwell or reside in those who love God and who keep God’s word.  God will “make a home in us.”  It is a figure of speech that can be translated from Hebrew and Aramaic as “home, abode, house, family, or temple.”  All of these metaphors carry intimations of profound intimacy:  “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.”

To be a committed Christian, or for that matter a Jew or a Muslim, is to be convinced that God is with us, in us, and

is everywhere for good.  For us as Christians, it is to acknowledge Jesus' words spoken in the gospel:  "Believe me that I am in God and God is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves."  John, in writing his gospel urges us to be assured that to know Jesus and what he has done is to know God.

The context and setting of John’s gospel is Jesus' departure from this world and the fate of those left behind.  The first century of the Christian era was a time of religious persecution and while this continued there was a strong need for hope.  The writer’s intent was to prevent despair by showing that Jesus’ resurrection meant that he was mindful of the early Christian followers and active on their behalf even though he was physically absent.  John argued that Jesus' departure was not something to be lamented but an event to be joyfully experienced.

Thomas and Philip, two of Jesus’ disciples, were skeptical and asked questions.  “Lord, we do not know where you are going.  How can we know the way?” “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.”  Jesus answered. “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”  In other words, “If you have seen me you have seen God.”  No additional revelation is necessary.  It is a matter of faith or trust that Jesus and God are one.  The last implied question is, what is the nature of this faith?  How will it be shown to us?  Jesus answered, “The one who believes in me will also do the works that I do.”  Faith and trust are manifested in doing the work of love and justice.

These questions that the disciples asked of Jesus sound ingenuous and uncomprehending.  They are also our questions spoken from our confusion and our deepest religious yearnings and impulses all these years and centuries later.  If we are honest we must admit that we are often troubled and uncertain about what God is up to in our world.  The question for us is how can we truly follow where the Spirit leads?  We want some direction.  We want to know what the future holds, how to control and shape our own destinies, how to find a safe and secure way.  It is comforting to be in control and to know the answers to our questions.  Jesus' answer to us is the same as it was to the disciples.  It was simply to point to himself: "I am the way." “Have I been with you all this time, through these last 2,000 years, and you still do not know me?  Whoever has seen me has seen God."

The dialogue between Jesus and the disciples, and the dialogue between the risen Christ and us today, can be summarized by stating three points: 

            First, Jesus is victorious in the cosmic struggle of life and death. The disciples did not need to be troubled.  Death has been defeated by the death and resurrection of Christ. 

            Second, Jesus declared that the direction, the way to ultimate life, is found in truth and life.  Seek the truth and live life to the fullest by doing the works of love and justice that Jesus did. 

            Third, Jesus did not abandon the disciples nor has he abandoned his followers throughout the ages.  Christ prepares a place with God and provides power to live as the witnessing community in the midst of a threatening world. 

By the power of God’s Holy Spirit through baptism we are to witness to the principalities and powers of our day and be the transforming love of Jesus for all humanity.  The three points of Jesus’ message for the disciples and for us is that to know Christ is to know God, and the way to God is through truth and life.

Henri Nouwen, a renowned priest, professor and author of many books on spirituality, wrote about his life as a way or journey home to God:

“I have been led to an inner place where I had not been before.  It is the place within me where God has chosen to dwell.  It is the place where I am held safe in the embrace of an all-loving Father who calls me by name and says, ‘You are my beloved son, on you my favor rests.’  It is the place where I can taste the joy and the peace that are not of this world.  This place had always been there.  I had always been aware of it as the source of grace.  But I had not been able to enter it and truly live there.  Jesus says, ‘Anyone who loves me will keep my word and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him and make our home in him.’  These words have always impressed me deeply.  I am God’s home.” (The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming)

Jesus told his disciples that he is the way, the truth and the life.  “I am in the Father and the Father is in me.”  With our knowing that God is in us we can accomplish the work of doing justice and loving kindness that God, through Christ, invites us to do.  Amen.

Gateway to Abundant Life

The 23^rd Psalm and our Gospel reading, both involving sheep and shepherds, illustrate how important sheep and shepherding were in ancient times and at the time of Jesus and his disciples.  Today we also depend on sheep even though we don’t really think about it.  Wool sweaters and other clothing come from sheep, and sheep are a source of mutton.  Sheep are also used for research.  Remember a few years ago when a sheep named Dolly was cloned?

In the United States there are some 82,000 sheep producers.  China, Australia, India, and Iran have the largest modern flocks, and they serve both local and exportation needs for wool and mutton.  New Zealand and some other countries have smaller flocks but retain a large international economic impact due to their export of sheep products.  In some developing countries sheep are part of subsistence agriculture or serve as a product for trade.   

The 23^rd Psalm begins with the phrase, “The Lord is my shepherd.”  Many funerals held in churches, synagogues, and funeral homes include a reading of the 23rd Psalm.  In the Psalm God defies death by leading us through its shadow, and God provides all that is necessary for life that we might have it abundantly:  “My cup is running over.  Surely your goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.”  God, the shepherd of our souls, sees to our deepest longings: fear is eliminated (“I shall fear no evil”), our souls are restored (“God revives my soul and guides me along right pathways”), and home is attained (“I will dwell in the house of the Lord”). 

These are familiar words.  They provide comfort, “a settled rest,” in times of grief and loss, but they also reflect our human condition and offer us an invitation for reflection and action.

Much of our use of the 23^rd psalm is our response because of the comfort it offers surviving family members in their grief and bereavement.  Psalms are hymns of the people of God.  Their use is liturgical, and the singular pronouns in the psalm refer to God’s people and their communal response to God.  It is the whole community who walks through the shadow of death.  When death happens, when a member of our community dies, part of us has died as well.  We need to know that.  We need to know that death diminishes us all.  We also need to know that violence of every kind, and evil deeds of every sort, separate us from the abundant life of an over-flowing cup and the very purpose for which Jesus lived, died, and rose again to new life.

We heard in the Gospel of John that Jesus said, “The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep…. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.... I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” 

As in the 23^rd Psalm, John, in writing his gospel employed images of sheep and shepherd to communicate his message.  The details agree with what we know about shepherding in Mediterranean countries.  An enclosed courtyard of a house constituted the sheepfold.  The appropriate way to approach the sheep was through a gate opened by the shepherd.  Those who entered the courtyard another way threatened the safety of the flock.  John identified Jesus with the gate and the shepherd.  “I am the gate.... The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.” 

Gates, doors, jet-ways and other passageways are symbolic of times of transition in our lives.  They are symbols rooted in our experiences.  Hospital doors are the gates that speak of birth, traumatic injury, sickness and death; jet-ways are entry points to home, vacation, distant opportunity, or conference; chapel or church doors are the gates to our relationships in baptism, marriage, worship and reconciliation.  We speak about the doors of opportunity that open for us because of education, career, profession, or vocation.  At Brown University, the VanWickle gates on Prospect Street open inward as freshmen students enter the university to grow intellectually and emotionally.  Those same gates open outward when graduating seniors, graduate students, and new medical doctors leave to enter those arenas around the world that give promise to visions of abundant life after Brown.  The gates you and I pass through greatly influence the circumstances of our lives.  It is always our hope that the gates through which we enter or exit will lead us to a more complete, full and abundant life.

The gospel invites us to recognize that it is in and through Christ, the “gate,” the “good shepherd,” that we share in abundant life.  When we see what is happening in many places around the world, it is difficult to affirm this gift.  Basic human rights are violated: individuals are physically and psychologically abused.  Crime, addiction, discrimination, sexual abuse, violence and murder are endemic in our culture.  The perpetrators seem reminiscent of the 49^th Psalm that says, “Such is the way of those who foolishly trust in themselves, and the end of those who delight in their own words.  Like a flock of sheep they are destined to die; death is their shepherd; they go down straightway to the grave” (vs. 12-13).

Jesus’ statement, “I am the gate.... I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” is in direct opposition to greed and self-serving attitudes.  It is an invitation to a full, satisfying, and responsible life.  The imperative to live abundantly invites us to live actively and purposefully in self-giving love, compassion, concern, and service to others.  It demands a response to all the violence, war, and mayhem that pervades our culture and tells us vengeance is the only way to right what is wrong and evil in the world. 

An abundant and compassionate life is attentive to the signs of love that enable us to appreciate the gifts of creation for what they are: gateways that awaken within us the recognition that God is at work in and through the events of history and our lives.  Compassion fears no evil; it is the breath and Spirit of God.  When we embrace a life of compassion we share the abundant and authentic life that was the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth, the Good Shepherd, the gate and caregiver of the sheep.  It is in his life that we live and minister to others.  Amen.

Receive the Holy Spirit

In our reading from the Acts of the Apostles Peter addressed the crowd of people around him and said, "Let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made Jesus both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified." 

Jesus had been crucified and raised from the dead.  The Jewish leaders and the Roman authorities had executed him, but with the resurrection they were, as we are told, “cut to the heart.”  In other words, they were stunned, stricken with the realization of their responsibility for what had happened.  They then asked Peter, “What should we do?”

Peter said to them, "’Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  They were to make a radical change of heart, to turn toward a new direction in their lives by serving the living God.  Their sins would be forgiven and they would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit as promised by God.  The promise was for them, for their children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him’…. So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added.”

Today we are not adding three thousand new people to the household of God, but we are baptizing seven young people and toddlers into the Christian community, the Church.  Baptism is our response to the invitation of the Gospel.  It is the initiation rite into full membership in the Church, and, in the case of infants, a time for giving a child his or her name.

By the sacrament of baptism (a sacrament is an outward and visible sign, water, of an inward and spiritual grace, the gift of God's Spirit) we place ourselves as Christians, and those we baptize, within a particular history.  We take on the historical identity of the Jewish and Christian traditions and pledge to work for justice, peace, love and reconciliation of all people with one another and with God.

In the service of Holy Baptism parents and God-parents along with the whole congregation pledge to be responsible for seeing that these children are brought up in the Christian faith and life.  It is through prayer and the witness of all of our own lives that our children are enabled to grow into the full stature of Christ.  This means that they will become responsible adults, living their lives by caring for others, working for peace and justice among all people, and respecting the dignity of every human being.

We heard in today’s Gospel from Luke that “On the first day of the week, two of Jesus' followers were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him.  And he said to them, "What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?"

Along the way they discussed the events that had happened on Easter Day and referred to what some of the women in their group had discovered when they visited the tomb where Jesus had been buried.   His body was not there, and the women reported, “they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive.”   

Jesus’ followers still did not recognize him, so Jesus then, “beginning with Moses and all the prophets… interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.”  When they got closer to Emmaus, the village where they were going, they issued an invitation, "Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over."  They sat at the table for supper, and Jesus “took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.”  Only then were their eyes opened.  They recognized him; and he vanished from their sight.  They said to each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?"  Later that evening when they returned to Jerusalem “they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.”

In this story about Jesus’ followers going to Emmaus Jesus wanted them to understand that his life fulfilled what was in the Scriptures from the time of Moses through all the days of the prophets.  At supper that evening when Jesus “took bread, blessed and broke it” they developed a deeper knowledge about who Jesus really is.  He is the Christ, the anointed Messiah, the Son of God.

What this story means for us today, especially as we baptize these young persons, is that in our prayers and celebration of the Eucharist we recall all that God has done for us through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Whenever we come together to worship, to break bread, to offer thanks, and to drink from the cup, we proclaim our commitment and loyalty to God.  We pray that God will “sanctify us that we may faithfully receive his holy Sacrament, and serve him in unity, constancy, and peace; and at the last day bring us with all the saints into the joy of your eternal kingdom.”  Amen.