Do We Really Want The Inconvenient Truth Of The Holy Spirit?
Good Morning Friends,
Even as we contemplate the journey to Pentecost and the growth of the church around the world in the power of the Holy Spirit there is something that calls me back to the presence and power and focus of an earthly Jesus and his prayer that we be one, shared well before the Ascension and even the Crucifixion and Resurrection. The thing is that in the Bible we read about the Church of Corinth and Ephesus and other communities and it is never the churches plural of a place. The underling message is about unity. However, today in our reality of multiple churches in a place, the focus on God gets blurred, much like the situation in Athens presented in today’s text from Acts. You see the Athenians had way too many gods to worship much like we have way too many churches in community. Of course, there is only one God and one Church and one Called Out Assembly of believers in each community, but the way we live does not reflect this power. So, interestingly maybe it is the unseen church and the unknown God we need to be paying greater attention to. Friends, we seek the truth but find the ignorance bliss. So, Do We Really Want The Inconvenient Truth Of The Holy Spirit?
Scripture: Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens; and after receiving instructions to have Silas and Timothy join him as soon as possible, they left him. Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’ Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some scoffed; but others said, “We will hear you again about this.” At that point Paul left them. But some of them joined him and became believers, including Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris, and others with them. After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.
Acts 17:15, 22-18:1 (NRSV)
“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
John 16:12-15 (NRSV)
Message: Paul was guided by the Spirit to speak before the Athenian Counsel about an Unknown God that he had come to know though Jesus and the Spirit. He conveyed a message about four basic truths of the Unknown God to ease the burdens of a people in Greece. These inherent qualities are revealed as the greatness of God, the goodness of God, the government of God and the grace of God. Paul’s sermon is basically that the Unknown God was made known to him and that God gives to all people and all things life and breath. Paul reveals that the unknown god is the Lord of heaven and earth and having up to now overlooked our ignorance, is now declaring that all people everywhere should repent so their burdens might be lifted. The real message of Paul’s sermon is that the Unknown God has made Himself known, and we can know Him today, through the Spirit of Jesus, His Son. Friends, God has been revealed to us so that the burden of sin on our lives might be lifted and our journey through life made easier even in its suffering. Thankfully our reading from Acts shares an example of someone who had a mission strategy and carried it out while making changes as necessary to ensure that he could easily get his message over to the people who were hearing it. Yes, sometimes the truth was inconvenient as it is for us today. What Paul learned was that you need a starting place to begin the conversation. The same is true for us today. For we do need something new that extends beyond the weddings, and baptisms and funeral and worship services to tell the message of Jesus. Thankfully we will be given the gift of the Holy Spirit as John explains in today’s scripture. And with this relational gift we can reach out into the community both corporately and as individuals. Friends, as I read our task, we are sent out into the world to tell people about God and Jesus through words and actions. We like Paul are to get to know people on an individual basis and then larger crowds. We are to get to know the people and place, so we too can better relate to the body of believers. Here we are to see how people are struggling. Here we are to see who is lonely and isolated. Here we are to see who is facing illness in their families. Here we are to see into the lives and hearts of others and be guided by the Holy Spirit in the mission we have been given. We see Paul demonstrate this act of sharing the Gospel, when he was up against a lot in Athens. The philosophies of Athens ranged from the Epicureans to the Stoics. One was about enjoying life and the other about enduring it. One was about indulgence with the chief goal of life being pleasure and the other indifference with the chief goal to not care. Paul knew that both were dead ends but also opposite ends of the spectrum of a whole list of beliefs and idol worship that missed the mark. However, all the philosophies of ancient Athens had something in common. They all hated the preaching of Paul. They were looking down their noses at him as if he knew nothing. Then Paul cleverly pointed out that their culture acknowledged a God that they did not know and was not embodied in a little stone or wood carving. So, he shared the message about the God that they acknowledged as an asterisk and yet did not know…the God of creation…the God of personal involvement…the God of repentance…and the God of judgement. And that just set them off. Even their tolerance had its limits and still, some believed anyway. So too today in the truth of the Holy Spirit, in the great diversity of expressions of faith, we need to realize that we may never be one until Jesus returns and yet we still might have some sense of revival of the faith, so others might believe.
And So, the answer to today’s question is going to be based on the power of the Holy Spirit in each of our lives. The whole idea is complicated on the one hand and simple on the other. It is mission but also the strategy. It is love but also theology. In the context of the body of believers on the road to Pentecost, is about being sent by Jesus to carry the implication of Jesus to others with an effective plan of how to share the Good News. And in carrying out the plan it soon becomes obvious that we need to listen and obey God so that our actions are part of God’s plans. You see it is not just about making mission plans and asking God to bless them and then carrying them out. And it is not a job we can differ either. It is not the work solely of religious professionals, but rather it is about all of us who are members of the body of Christ. So, here is the deal, we must get better at this work. The Gospel is clear that this is a job for all of us, so we need to all learn the necessary skills to spread the message if only in small ways. And yes, the truth about God can be a little problematic for those living in the world, for it requires of us our body, mind and soul…it requires us to grow in a love not of this world.
Pray we continue to be Christians even though it is often inconvenient. Pray we understand the folly of mythology and the limits of philosophy. Pray we realize that complete open-mindedness is its own trap. Pray instead that we work to empower people for worldwide mission but also for a unity that honors Jesus. Pray we stretch our love so that others might believe. Pray we be witness to the spark of the Spirit that glorifies Jesus. Pray we realize that in this age of the Spirit that we must seek the truth even at the risk of controversy. Pray we listen to what the Holy Spirit declares so that we might know better what we are to declare. Pray we stretch our love but not the truth. Pray we journey through times of suffering. Pray we realize the great strength of our God. Pray we realize the goodness of God. Pray we embrace the government of God. Pray we believe in the grace of God. Pray we realize that we cannot internalize all that is happening in the world, but that God can. Pray we get to know and to trust in God’s Spirit as our guide on the journey. Pray we recognize that God navigates our life in measure of what we can handle.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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