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30.05.2010_John 16:12–15
| 31.05.2010, 12:44 | |
| Rev. Tatiana Cantarella Psalm 8; Proverbs 8: 1-4, 22-31; Romans 5:1-5 John 16:12-15 "The Spirit of Truth will guide you into all truth!" We're not always aware of the ways that words affect us. When we read or hear a word, our emotions blend with our perception and change the way we understand the word in question. Sometimes our reaction to a word may differ significantly from the reaction of others sitting right next to us. This also happens when we are listening to the words of Scripture. Let's begin with a small exercise: I'll say a word and you tell me what kind of feelings, emotions, or thoughts it provokes. I won’t be grading you, so don’t be afraid to answer honestly. How about "study or instruction”? Okay, who had positive, pleasant feelings in reaction to those words? Who had a more negative reaction, unpleasant or uncomfortable feeling? Who associated the word ‘study’ with growth, achievement, and knowledge? Who associated it with discipline, tests, and fear? We need to remember these feelings in order to understand ourselves and grasp what the Gospel is trying to teach us today. Preparing to go to His Father and establish His disciples, Jesus says, "There is so much more I want to tell you, but you can’t bear it now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.” This is a fairly clear confirmation of the fact that, when Jesus is no longer right there with them, the disciples will still need to be taught, to learn. If the words "study or instruction” conjure up in us positive feelings, then we’ll here these words of Jesus as encouragement. We’ll find hope and joy in them, but if those words trigger a negative association, we’ll feel threatened by His words, as if they demand something from us and judge us; as if they require more from us than we can give. I have always enjoyed studying and I feel sorry for those don’t find pleasure in it. I don’t say so to convince you that you must love to study, but because we must listen attentively to what Jesus is saying, keeping in mind our own perhaps subconscious reactions to His words. It’s plain from Jesus words that our perception of God and our spiritual growth isn’t something that happens in a moment, when we put our trust in Jesus Christ. Jesus tells his disciples that now they may understand just so much (showing with His fingers), but with time they will come to know much more, and so it is, in reality. We are all at different stages in our walk of faith and in our lives, and that which seems within the ability of our spiritual muscle is constantly changing. I don’t say so as a condemnation. It’s simply a fact of life. We don’t, after all, denounce humanity because it crawls before it learns to walk, and walks before it learns to jump. That’s no accusation. That’s life. To condemn people for being at different stages in the development of their faith is just as senseless as condemning a kindergartener for not being able to handle the studies of higher classes. We go through stages in our development, but there needs to be a foundation on which our Christian faith can build. You might say that our growth in faith is like a home with many rooms, which we can explore in many different ways, but first we must all come in through the door – saving faith. The Apostle Paul says in Romans 5:1, "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” ‘Justification’ – that’s the foundation of true comprehension of Christian faith and practice and it has two sides. More often than not, justification is understood in the context of the courts (and Paul, most likely, was thinking in just this sense), when a case is heard and someone is found not guilty, that is, justified by the court. In this case we know that God is the judge and we stand before Him as violators of God’s law, whether that be one or more of the Ten Commandments, the Greatest Commandment, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself”, or even the command to forgive as God in Christ has forgiven us. Most of us, if we’re being completely honest, must admit that we’ve broken these commandments more than once. We stand before the Divine Court, justly condemned, but with Jesus our Advocate. Having trusted Him; having put our faith in Him, we are justified by Him and freed not only from condemnation, but also from guilt. This is justification in the light of condemnation, but there’s another side to the understanding of justification. To justify means to make right. Through faith in Jesus Christ, God not only takes away our guilt and our punishment, but also works in us, changes us, making us more like Christ. It’s as if He sands down our lives, our character, our personality. He removes the bumps, sands off the ugly spots, everything that doesn’t fit in His perfect creation. Why am I reminding us about all this? Remember what we said in the beginning. From the words of Jesus, it is clear that faith – that initial following after Him – that’s just the beginning of truth. The full scope of truth lies ahead. God wants us to learn, to grow, to achieve maturity, to grasp all of His truth. The first step on that path for each of us is a firm faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who died for our sins and justified us before God, even if we don’t fully comprehend what this will mean in our lives in and where it will take us. This first step is very important. Above all, it’s not important what good deeds we’ve done in life or what positions we held; it’s not important who our parents were or who our children became; whether we’re members of a church or were the first to come; whether we sacrificed a lot or a little. It’s not important who we were or what we did. All of that is only of secondary importance. It’s nothing more than a part of our growth into all truth. The first step – is to accept the gift of faith and be justified – freed from guilt and transformed by God into the likeness of Christ. But, it’s so hard for us to accept the gift of faith. After all, we’re accustomed to the fact that if we haven’t earned something, if we don’t acquire it on our own strength, it’s not worth anything, but the beginning of God’s truth is in this, that the most important thing in life; the most precious and eternal thing, comes to us only as a gift and is acquired only if we receive it as such. Only by standing on that foundation of faith are we ready to talk about "guidance into all truth”, because it implies the start of a life in which God will continue to reveal Himself and His ways. Jesus revealed to us God and His love, and the Holy Spirit will continue to lead us in a life that is continuously transformed by that revelation. "Guidance into all truth” on the one hand is a continuously deeper understanding of the revelation given in Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit isn’t telling us anything new, but is opening the understanding of God’s children to ever deeper understanding of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. On the other hand, "guidance into all truth” indicates application of that revelation in the life of the Christian community in this world. The passage that says the Holy Spirit will "announce to you things to come” implies not foretelling of future events, as do fortunetellers for example, but is a promise that the Holy Spirit will, in the future – after Christ has ascended to the Father – give the community of believers the wisdom to understand their circumstances in the light of divine revelation in Jesus Christ. It is precisely into the fullness of this truth that the Spirit leads us, and He knows our abilities and guides us into truth at our own pace. Have you ever studied under someone who knew his subject better than the person who invented the subject? ☺ It’s terrible! Everything is so easy for such a person and so understandable that he looks down his nose at those who don’t get it. It’s better to learn from one also has to work for it, like us, step by step, in order to achieve results. Jesus promises us that the Holy Spirit will tenderly lead us. The scripture promises that the Lord will never demand more from us than we are able in a given moment. Jesus had more to teach his disciples, more to tell them. The disciples had enough on their places, trying to deal with the coming tragedy of Christ’s death and all that would come afterward. They couldn’t handle more at that moment. We also have limits to what we can take in, and in our walk with God there are moments when it seems that we can barely stay afloat, and we are far from undertaking any courageous conquests into promised lands. Do you remember times when it seemed you’d hit the wall? Maybe some of you feel that way today. The Holy Spirit knows and feels the limits of our abilities and what facet of divine truth we most need in the current stage of our spiritual walk. Truth is formed in stages in our lives and the foundation is just as important as the heights to which we aspire. Karl Barth, a well known theologian of the 20th century, whose books are on the shelves of the all the best libraries, was once asked what is the greatest truth he’d come to understand in his own walk of faith. He responded with the words of a children’s song, "The greatest truth? Here’s the greatest truth: Jesus loves me, this I know.” Before we walk, we crawl. Before we jump, we walk. God takes pleasure in our growth at every stage, just as parents take pleasure in the simplest improvements in their child’s development, in the tiniest indications of growth. Parents rejoice when their child suddenly starts to crawl, and then when he takes a few steps. You’ve all seen how that brings joy to a parent’s heart! When a child learns to hold a spoon without help, says those first words, starts to read, and then carries out more and more complicated tasks and turns into an independent, responsible person. What joy that is to parents! Have you ever pondered how God takes joy in each step of our spiritual growth? Remind yourselves of it everyday, and I’ll be surprised if it doesn’t change your life and relationship with God. The tenderness of our teacher – the Holy Spirit – is a great comfort, however, we must expect that, while tender, He has plans for us, for our growth. Although in each of our lives there are truths we aren’t ready to take in, there will come a time when we will be able to take them in, and even the most understanding teacher needs students that are willing to learn. God expects us to be people who want to grow. Let me ask you straight out: what are you consciously and deliberately doing to grow in the knowledge of God and His love? What have you done in the last six months, for example, to know God better; to be closer to Him? The available resources are more than sufficient: scriptures, hundreds of Christian books and magazines, Bible study groups, prayer groups, teachers, growth from daily steps to be closer to God, concerted efforts to serve each other. The list is endless. God, by His Holy Spirit opens truth to us every day, but we, hearing those truths, too often continue to put them to the side, refusing to apply them in our own lives, and therefore, we don’t grow. It’s the most tragic picture – a Christian who has ceased growing and don’t allow the Holy Spirit to guide him into a new understanding of the Truth. Often God doesn’t open new truths to us, because despite having heard truths He opened to us earlier, we still haven’t accepted them and responded in obedience to them. The Spirit cannot guide us further, if we refuse to be obedient to that, which He has already revealed to us. Probably all of you at some time have seen a house of funny mirrors. One makes us small and fat and another makes us tall and skinny, but all of them give a false picture of reality. In this world there are many such mirrors and voices that try to deceive us. Very often lies hide under truth. Sometimes truth seems so elusive that we give up on striving toward it, but we all need to stand before Christ, the true mirror of life, and be justified, transformed by His Holy Spirit into His likeness. We are called to a life in the Spirit, to align ourselves in everything, in word, thought, and deed, in all our being, with our Lord Jesus Christ, but will we surrender to the Holy Spirit, who wants to guide us into all truth? Let us all, with David, pray today with our whole hearts, asking God, "Show me Your ways, O LORD. Teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, For You are the God of my salvation; On You I wait all the day. Teach me to do Your will, For You are my God; Your Spirit is good. Lead me in the land of uprightness.” (Psalm 25:4–5, 143:10). | |
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