'God's truth in Christ'
With the elements and drama of wind and fire, and people speaking in other languages - well may we ask today along with those crowds - what does all this mean? While that first reading tells us of the extraordinary events of the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples and the church, it is our gospel reading that goes to the heart of the matter in terms of meaning, meaning for those first disciples and meaning for us as the baptised [and especially as we have just baptised …… this morning].
It is all about truth. Truth is mentioned four times in our gospel passage - The Holy Spirit or Advocate is described as the spirit of truth. Jesus says, I tell the truth and then concludes that the Spirit of truth will guide us into all truth.
What we learn from the account in the Acts of the Apostles about the coming of the Holy Spirit is that it meant change – in some ways dramatic change for the disciples. This was evident first and foremost in their sudden and strange ability to speak of the good news in Jesus to people in their own language. It was dramatic and powerful. In these two readings – truth and change come together. The gift of the Holy Spirit to the disciples then and to us now means receiving and embracing truth and with that truth - change.
And change is oh so difficult, isn’t it? As if we have not had enough change in this past year with Covid 19. Give us a break may well be our justified plea! However, be assured that with the Holy Spirit this is not change for change sake but rather this is about changing what needs to be changed – be it for ourselves or our communities and that it will be in conformity with the truth that the Spirit will lead us into.
However, in our complex and information saturated world, it is not always clear where the truth lies. How do we discern the truth? Well there is no neat formula that we can use to discern truth, rather what our gospel does assure us though is that the Holy Spirit will guide us but that we still need to do the work ourselves - we need to seek and search, we need to be open and importantly not be afraid of the truth be it about ourselves or our world. A good example here in our own country at this time is a plea from our first nations people to hear and listen to the truth of our history and their experience. Whether it be on this issue or many others – what is critical for us as followers of Jesus is that again we need not be afraid of truth. Not afraid because of the wonderful truth that God sent his son, Jesus for the forgiveness of sins. In baptism we accept the truth of God's complete and unconditional love for us all, so much so that we can face the truth of our individual and collective sin, our human frailty, our self-centredness or selfishness, our greed, our neglect of the needy and our violence to the world and even to ourselves. We can come face to face with who we really are because we know that we are so loved and forgiven, and in that truth we can change, heal and grow.
All this nonetheless may seem somewhat daunting, yet remember these words of Jesus. I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, she will guide you into all the truth ... There is a sense here that the Holy Spirit is truly on our side - just like an advocate - one who has our best interests at heart. In and through the Holy Spirit, Christ is with us and will guide us, there is no sense in which we are going to be dumped upon with truth that we cannot bear, comprehend or act upon. On the contrary, in this journey of life and faith we are to take comfort that we are being lead and guided by the Spirit into more and deeper levels of truth about our God, ourselves and our world. But again – it is a journey – a lifelong journey at that.
And how does this happen? Well it happens in and through each and everyone of us as the community of faith. For the power of God works as the Spirit operates through the real lives of believers - ie you and me. In other words, this guidance and revelation is not just some kind of magical zapping - it is in and with one another as community. As such it can be messy, complex and difficult. It means that we struggle and wrestle together, we discuss, debate, weigh up and in the counsels of our church or community of faith we come to some decision or understanding – not always unanimously and more than often not without some pain, hurt or division. But be it as individuals or as a community – with prayer, openness and humility – I believe that indeed the Spirit can and does lead us into truth. The real challenge though is the inevitability that at some point we will need to deal with truth that is just so confronting and uncomfortable.
What I also think is equally important here in coming to grips with this proclamation that we are led into truth – is a recognition that no one individual, church or group has all the truth – in other words that some- how they have it all wrapped up / signed sealed and delivered so to speak. That is – I am right and everyone else is wrong. This makes me very nervous and reminds me of the words of St Paul – I now see in a mirror dimly but then will see face to face. Again his being led into truth is a journey and one which requires of us a huge amount of openness and humility – a recognition of our frailty, our imperfection, our failure for whatever reason to always welcome and embrace the truth. However, with the assurance of forgiveness in Christ, with openness and prayer – we can faithfully continue on the journey that Jesus calls to – a journey of being led by the spirit into more and more truth.
The LBWY!
Fr Greg Davies