Sermon for May 25th 2014

First sermon preached at my home church (only the second ever) on May 25^th 2014

May I speak in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

I have seen a vision, alleluia!

Honestly, I have. Straight away, you’re probably thinking, who is this nutcase and how did he get there. Well, as some of you may know, I’ve been exploring vocation to some form of ministry in the church, there’s nothing definite yet, but me standing here is a way to gain experience and hopefully to share a little of what I’ve learnt while studying the bible.

So, anyway, I saw a vision and I wasn’t a million miles from this spot. It was a couple of years ago and I was sitting in this church, just about there, in the second row from the front, with the rest of the choir. The altar was here, in the nave and the candles were on each side of the altar, as normal.

So it was as I was sitting there quietly, listening to the sermon, that I saw the vision. I was actually looking at the stained glass window back in the chancel, with Jesus standing by his disciples on the beach and it was then that I saw movement. That’s odd, I thought - and as I watched more carefully, I realised that the flames in the fire on the beach were flickering. The flames - were moving.

Okay, I thought, which day is it today? The sermon and pewsheet made it quite clear that this was Pentecost. Right, so, on the day when we recall the Holy Spirit being delivered to the apostles after Jesus had ascended to his father, I saw flames moving, in church – I had seen a vision!

So it was an obvious conclusion - that I had seen a vision - or perhaps I had gone mad and later on I’ll tell you know whether I really had seen a vision!  

This, for the apostles though, is jumping ahead. In John’s Gospel today, Jesus is preparing the disciples for what will happen after he has gone, he said

“In a little while the world will no longer see me.”

This, a little cryptically, refers to the crucifixion, and then Jesus says,

“but you will see me; because I live, you also will live”

this is also cryptic and I’m sure the disciples would have been confused, thinking, You’re leaving, but we’ll see you …. – in us and we’ll be alive?

Understandably, it was only later that they began to realise what Jesus had meant. However, the message was actually simple, Jesus’ human body was going to die, but for all who truly believed in him, he would remain with them always and also, therefore, with us, partly through the way we are like Christ every day, to all we meet and also in everything we do. He is also with us in another way, the Holy Spirit, which I’ll come to in a moment.

But in these ways, Christ remains alive in us. This is a truly amazing thought. Christ. Jesus. Alive in us. Today. Now.

No one is saying this is easy though. We imagine Christ being this serene man in a white robe with a nice beard and friendly smile,

But he was rejected in his home town,

He got angry in the temple,

He wept when friends died,

He was human.

He suffered through his life and of course, he suffered on the cross.

As we heard in the letter from Peter, we may do good, be true to Jesus through faith, have good conduct and have a clear conscience, but we may also still suffer and have to defend our faith, we may do this clumsily and we may fail sometimes, but if we suffer from doubt or the guilt of not being true to Jesus, we can still be assured of being truly blessed, because we still have God’s trust, but also something else, the Holy Spirit and God’s Love, which I’ll explain.

So, Jesus was preparing the disciples but the preparation here wasn’t through rotas, plans, lists or a project with milestones and actions.

No, it was simply,

“I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate,^* to be with you for ever.”

What though, would the disciples have understood by this? There are a few interesting things going on here, note how John states there will be ANOTHER advocate. The other Gospels don’t make this distinction quite so clearly, but this implies another advocate is already with the disciples, and even if they don’t realise it, that advocate is Jesus himself and it is he who has been there with them and for them, but Jesus also knows that he must soon leave, at least in his human form.

So what exactly was the advocate Jesus was promising? In Greek, the word used here in John’s Gospel, is Parakletos, which has a number of meanings, all of which are appropriate and they include Advocate – as used in our reading today, but it is also translated as comforter, counsellor and helper.

The disciples would have been aware of something called the Holy Spirit, but wouldn’t have known it to be such a life changing force in their lives as it would have been later on for them (and for us). By using this term Parakletos  though, Jesus was going some way to help explain what was coming after him.

He describes it as a spirit of truth, something which will mean that they are never alone, something which can bring wisdom, as a counsellor would, something which brings comfort, as a friend would, something which can help us and bring strength, something which can be our advocate, can give us the words to explain and defend our faith. Even if they didn’t understand, we can hope the disciples may have been reassured.

There is one other element to this, Jesus, at the beginning of the Gospel reading says,

‘If you love me, you will keep^* my commandments.’

And if you look for commandments in John’s Gospel, you will find just one. In the previous chapter, chapter 13, verse 34, Jesus says

“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”

And he repeats this in John chapter 15 verse 12

‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”

What, nothing else? Just Love? No lists. No specifics. Just love one another? After all, in John’s first letter, we are told in chapter 4, verse 8,

“Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.”

We all love, friends, family, neighbours, pets – all in different ways, but we do love them. So if we know love, then we already know God because God is love. Added to that, God he loves us and his only, the ONLY, commandment he gave us (according to John) is to love one another as I have loved you.

This isn’t easy though, because we are called to love not just our family, friends, and people we like, but everyone.

People who annoy us or wind us up, Love them.

The homeless, unwashed person, love them,

The person addicted to drugs, love them,

People who steal, kill, cheat, hurt or abuse – love them.

Its love, it’s not easy, we love different people in different ways, but through love, and the Holy Spirit, we can work in other peoples lives to help build relationships, community and to help them grow in faith. So love, that’s all we need to do.

So, Jesus is offering a simple promise, of the Holy Spirit, which in itself is part of God and Jesus, who are love. The Holy Spirit was going to be sent to the disciples as an advocate, comforter and helper, in love.

As we know, the Holy Spirit did come to the disciples. As a result, the Holy Spirit is always with us. Always there,

As an advocate through whom we can receive wisdom,

Through whom we can pray to God, as a comforter and helper.

However much we suffer, whatever trials we face, whenever we have doubt, we can be sure we are not alone.

The Holy Spirit is always with us. Always.

To finish, tell you a bit more about my vision. In reality, what I had seen was just a coincidence. The heat from the candles by the altar was distorting the air above them; this in turn made the air shimmer, like it does on a very hot day, but in this case, here, right in front of fire, on the beach in our window.

So, of course, I wasn’t going mad (at least, not that time anyway!) or seeing visions. It was just a coincidence. But I like to think that somehow, the Holy Spirit opened my eyes to see the wonder of that effect, which in turn opened my eyes to the presence of the Holy Spirit in my life then and today.

So I pray that we may all receive opportunities to see and embrace the Holy Spirit at work in our lives, whether as a source of strength, of comfort, of help or of Love. It is all of these, and much more.      

Amen

Readings for May 25^th 2014

Acts 17: 22-31

²² Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, ‘Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way.²³For 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.²⁴The 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,²⁵nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things.²⁶From 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,²⁷so 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.²⁸For “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.”
²⁹Since 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.³⁰While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, ³¹because 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.’

1 Peter 3: 13-end

13 Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? ¹⁴But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear,^* and do not be intimidated,¹⁵but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defence to anyone who demands from you an account of the hope that is in you; ¹⁶yet do it with gentleness and reverence.^* Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame.¹⁷For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God’s will, than to suffer for doing evil.¹⁸For Christ also suffered^* for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you^* to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit,¹⁹in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison,²⁰who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight people, were saved through water.²¹And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you—not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for^* a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,²²who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.

John 14: 15-21

The Promise of the Holy Spirit

15 ‘If you love me, you will keep^* my commandments.¹⁶And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate,^* to be with you for ever.¹⁷This 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.

‘I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.¹⁹In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live.²⁰On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.²¹They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.’