Phil Kniss: The Trinity: it’s not a mind game

May 30, 2010

Trinity Sunday: John 16:12-15; Romans 5:1-5

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I have read that there was a time, around 320 A.D. more or less,
that there were arguments in the streets among common people—
sailors and travelers and moneychangers and bakers—
arguments that bristled with as much passion and partisan zeal
as say, New Yorkers arguing about the Yankees vs. Mets,
or Chicagoans at each other over the White Sox vs. Cubs.

But these ancient street arguments were not over sports or politics.
They were over the Doctrine of the Trinity.
I read that in the early 300s, especially in Egypt, Syria, and Asia Minor,
people on the streets were singing ditties, based on popular tunes,
proclaiming that the Father alone was true God,
but that the Son was neither co-eternal nor uncreated,
since he proceeded from the Father.
I read that a market vendor,
when giving his customers what they ordered,
would add an unsolicited theological discourse,
on whether the Father was greater than the Son.

What got these persons all inflamed
was a theological controversy between Arius,
and bishop Alexander and his sidekick Athanasius.
Arius, apparently, was a charismatic figure,
and a skilled propagandist,
who put his dissenting beliefs to music,
so the common people would help spread the word.
When things really started getting out of hand,
Emperor Constantine summoned a council to Nicaea,
in modern-day Turkey,
to settle these questions.

And what resulted from a month of negotiations,
was the Nicene Creed of 325 A.D.

But that didn’t settle everything.
Many more councils ensued.
There was one in Constantinople in 381
that added several lines about the Holy Spirit,
including that the Spirit proceeds from the Father.

There was one in Chalcedon in 451
which ruled that Jesus had two natures, both divine and human.
That resulted in a major schism.

Then in 589, at the Third Council of Toledo
(that’s not Ohio, by the way),
the Latin-speaking churches of Western Europe,
added the words, “and the Son,” (in Latin, filioque)
so that now the Nicene creed said the Holy Spirit
“proceeds from the Father and the Son.”
The Eastern church found this addition unacceptable,
because it equated the Father and Son.
The “filioque controversy” got political and personal,
as not only the popes, but kings and emperors,
took positions on it, over against each other,
until in 1054 there was another major schism in the church,
that continues today,
separating Western Christianity
from the Eastern, or Orthodox, Christianity.

A lot more could be said,
but I try to make it a habit in my sermons
not to bore you to tears.

Suffice it to say, the Doctrine of the Trinity,
in the history of the Christian church,
has been a hugely important issue.

What makes it so?
For one thing, saying God is both one, and three,
creates difficulty for persons
guided primarily by logic and reason.
And we Western Christians, in particular,
love logic and reason.
We have to work it out in some way
that makes sense for our logical minds.
Eastern Christians tend to experience it a different way.

We’ve been blessed for several weeks to have worshiping with us
a priest from the Eastern Christian tradition,
specifically the Coptic Orthodox church.
Now, Coptic Christians were part of that first schism after Chalcedon.
Sometimes they’re called “non-Chalcedonian” Christians.
But I told you I wasn’t going to bore you.

Father Luke, would you please come and join me here
behind the pulpit for a minute?
Just the fact that the two of us can stand behind the same pulpit
as brothers in Christ says a lot about how far the church has come,
since these divisions over the Trinity.

Father Luke, your church was brought into being
because of a particular way of stating the doctrine of the Trinity,
and the nature of God, as seen in Christ, and in the Holy Spirit.
But putting aside for now,
the finer theological points that make your tradition distinct,
I want simply to ask you one personal question,
and have you give a brief response.

What does the Trinity mean to you in your personal spiritual life?
In other words, why is believing in the Trinity
important to you personally,
in your experience of God?
_____________________

Thank you, Father Luke.
For the most part,
Eastern and Western Christians get along fairly well today.
The popes and patriarchs have made null and void
earlier declarations that condemned each other.
And both Eastern and Western Christians are strongly Trinitarian.
But there is a difference in how the Trinity is approached.
We can describe that difference with the word “theory.”

When we in the West use the word theory,
we are talking about a rational hypothesis,
which we try to prove,
or at least logically argue to be true.
And that’s how we tend to approach Trinity, as a theory,
trying our best to “make sense” of it.

But in Eastern Christian theology,
the word theory, or in Greek theoria,
means contemplation.
It means to view or witness something, in this case, to “see God.”
It’s a stage on a deeply spiritual journey.

So Greek, and Russian, and Coptic Orthodox Christians,
continue to find that the contemplation of the Trinity
is an inspiring religious experience.
The Trinity can only be grasped intuitively,
and, as a result of a religious experience.
Meanwhile, Western Christians get hung up on the logic of it,
or lack thereof.
We are less comfortable with contemplating the mystery,
and allowing the mystery to be a vehicle for seeing God.

I would encourage us, when it comes to the Trinity,
to be more Eastern than Western.
As Bishop N. T. Wright of England has said,
the Trinity is not a mind game.
I quote,
“It would be a mistake to give the impression that
the Christian doctrine of God is a matter of
clever intellectual word games or mind games.
For Christians it’s always a love game:
God’s love for the world calling out an answering love from us.”

We all, certainly, want to know God.
We wouldn’t be here today, if that wasn’t the case.

And there are different ways of knowing.
There is knowing arrived at through analysis,
and knowing arrived at through contemplation and experience.
We can learn to know something by dissecting and analyzing it.
Deconstructing it, and debating the details,
until we make conclusions about its essential nature.
That’s what the ancient councils of the church were doing.
We can also learn to know something by living with it,
by relating our lives to it,
contemplating its beauty and wonder,
experiencing and interacting with it,
developing a relationship with it,
allowing the knowledge to transform us.
There are times and places to seek both kinds of knowledge of God.

Mind games are enjoyable to many of us, including myself.
Mind games can even be fruitful and productive.
But for the Doctrine of the Trinity,
let’s get beyond the mind game, and make it a love game.
Let’s marvel at the beauty
of a God who longs to relate to us in love.
_____________________

We learn how to understand and relate to the Trinity,
through scripture,
even though the word Trinity doesn’t appear in the Bible.
Paul, for instance, doesn’t teach the doctrine of Trinity, per se.
like he teaches the doctrines of justification or sanctification.
Paul teaches relationship to God.

Paul describes, to the church in Rome,
in today’s reading from Romans 5, for example,
how, because of Jesus,
we can relate to the God of the universe, in peace.
Romans 5:1—“We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom we have obtained access to this grace.”
Paul says because of the Holy Spirit we can experience
the real and present love of God.
Verse 5: “God’s love has been poured into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”
It’s a concrete, present, multi-faceted relationship with a triune God,
that makes a joyful and hopeful life possible,
even in a world full of suffering, Paul says.

And the Gospel reading this morning, from John 16,
gives another picture of this relational God,
put into words by Jesus himself.
Jesus describes the Godhead as a divine community.
In John chapter 16, vv. 14-15,
Jesus describes to his disciples
this interactivity between himself and the Spirit and his Father.
“[The Spirit] 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 [the Spirit] will take what is mine
and declare it to you.”

Jesus tried to reassure his disciples,
that they could experience the real presence of God
when he was no longer physically present.
Jesus was the incarnation of God.
God in real flesh.
God present. Emmanuel.
The disciples understood that.
But how was God going to continue to be present with them
when the incarnation ended?
when Jesus left them?

So Jesus reassured them they would not be abandoned.
God will continue to be present.
God will be with them through the Holy Spirit.

And that’s what happened in the early church.
They experienced God’s presence and activity
in many different ways.
And it was this lived experience of God,
that they wrote about in the scriptures,
and that informs our thinking today.
And it was the lived experience of God,
that early theologians tried to hammer out in words.
Yes, those early doctrinal councils had political aspects to them.
But primarily, they were just trying to find
adequate language for their experience.
This wasn’t an ivory tower academic exercise.
If it was, I don’t think there would have been
common folk in the market singing ditties about the Trinity.

God is not just a concept. God is known in relationship.
The Trinity, which we know because of Jesus,
keeps us grounded in the worship of a relational God.
It keeps us from making God into some cosmic notion of goodness.
Let me read a paragraph or two from the writings of N. T. Wright.
I may have read these before, but they bear repeating.
“Once we glimpse the doctrine of the Trinity”—
or we might substitute the Orthodox language—
“Once we [contemplate] the doctrine of the Trinity
we dare not slide back into . . . paying distant homage
to a god who is . . . merely a quasi-personal
source of general benevolence . . .
Christian faith is much more hard-edged, more craggy, than that.
Jesus exploded into the life of ancient Israel . . .
not as a teacher of timeless truths,
nor as a great moral example,
but as the one through whose life, death, and resurrection
God’s rescue operation was put into effect,
and the [world] turned its great corner at last . . .
It is because of Jesus that Christians claim
they know who the creator God of the world really is.
It is because he, a human being,
is now with the Father in the dimension we call “heaven”
that Christians came so quickly to speak of God
as both Father and Son.
It is because he [is still] in heaven
while we are on earth . . .
that Christians came to speak of the Spirit, too . . .
[present with us] as a distinct member of the divine Trinity.
It is all because of Jesus that we speak of God the way we do.
And it is all because of Jesus that we find ourselves
called to live the way we do.”

The Trinity is not a dry, intellectual study of God’s nature.
The Trinity is putting into words
what it means to worship a God who is with us, really with us,
in a way that puts a claim on our ordinary daily lives.
The Trinity compels us to respond to and relate to God,
one way or another.
Accept or reject. But respond, we must.
In obedience or in rebellion, but relate to God, we must.

Deep knowledge and experience of God
will not come from rational analysis or debate.
Contemplating the Trinity,
is like examining a multi-faceted gemstone that reflects the light
in different colors and intensities,
depending on the angle from which we’re viewing it.
The Trinity helps us see God from three angles.
God the majestic sovereign,
creator of the universe,
all-knowing, all-powerful.
And, God who understands my human frailty,
God who has been in my shoes,
God who knows suffering, and continues to suffer.
And, God who is near to comfort,
to guide and empower in the present,
to speak the words of God to us today.
God who brings together earth and heaven.

It is our life calling to know this God,
not by looking on from a distance,
but by engaging in practices
that nurture a deeper knowledge and participation in God.

Let us commit ourselves to a life of contemplation and action,
that we might be drawn into the embrace of our loving God.

In response, let us sing the hymn printed on the bulletin insert.
No matter by what name we name God—
Eternal Light, Eternal Hope, Eternal Power, Eternal Wisdom.
Eternal Life, Eternal Brightness, Eternal Spirit, Eternal Savior.
The aim of our coming to God is the same—
to come before your face to know you, my eternal God.

—Phil Kniss, May 30, 2010

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Ross Erb: Melting pot or mosaic?

May 23, 2010 - Pentecost Sunday

Acts 2:1-18b; 21, John 14:8-17, Romans 8:14-17

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Happy birthday to us!

Pentecost Sunday is frequently referred to as the birth of the church,

when the Holy Spirit descended from heaven to empower the followers of Jesus,

gathered in Jerusalem.

This is the eighth Sunday of Easter.

It is the 50th day after Easter, and thus the name Pentecost.

The Eastern Christian churches have a different calendar than Western Christian churches.

It happens that this year Pentecost falls on the same day in both calendars.

So Christians around the world today

are celebrating the Holy Spirit coming upon the disciples,

empowering them and birthing the church.

That is what the Holy Spirit does.

To steal a phrase from Garrison Keeler, it gives us

“...shy people the strength to get up and do what needs to be done.”

It transformed those gathered in the upper room

from a huddle of fear to a rowdy rabble proclaiming God’s deeds of power.

This beginning of the church was immediately diverse and multicultural.

The coming of the Holy Spirit pushed the Gospel of Jesus Christ

out beyond the Jewish world of Jerusalem

to be heard by people from “every nation under heaven”.

The community exploded, led by the Spirit of God.

This new, expanded and Spirit-led community,

has some distinctive characteristics.

In our gospel text from John 14, Jesus promises that the Spirit will come,

but specifies to whom it will come.

Beginning in verse 15 Jesus says,

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

And I will ask the Father,

and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.”

Jesus identifies his community as those who live as his disciples,

those focused on glorifying his Father, making God known to all people.

The idea of community is one that we in Mennonite circles are pretty familiar with.

We use the word a lot.

In fact, if you pay attention to your bulletin every week,

you will be familiar with these words.

“Park View Mennonite Church is a community of communities who worship God and follow Jesus by the power of the Spirit. Each community and its members participate in God’s saving, healing, and reconciling mission in our world, our neighborhoods, and our church.”

That is our vision as a congregation, it is what we strive to be and to do.

There is a focus on worship and discipleship – following Jesus,

and there is a focus on participating in God’s mission in the world.

What it means to be a new community formed by the Spirit is where the challenge lies.

How does your Sunday School class, your small group,

your commission or committee,

your book club or supper club,

meet this vision?

What shape does your community take?

What shape does our larger community, our congregation take?

We may have some of the same challenges that the people of Acts 2 faced with Pentecost.

I’ve already noted how the new community that began to form

with the coming of the Holy Spirit was diverse and multicultural.

This began a long process of struggle for the early followers of Jesus

to determine how to define who was in and who was out.

Following Jesus was for Jews initially,

then it was also for Gentiles who agreed to follow Jewish custom,

and then in Acts 15 leaders in Jerusalem agreed

separated following Jesus from obeying the laws of Moses.

Romans 8:14-17 says that this Spirit we have received is a spirit of adoption,

bringing us back into God’s family.

The community created by the Holy Spirit is a community of God’s children.

The multiple voices of Pentecost are a sign of the breadth of the new community,

encompassing everyone.

That is, of course Good News.

We are a part of the “everyone” brought into this inclusive community.

Our sins, our moral and ethical failings,

are forgiven and forgotten as through the Spirit we commit our lives to Christ.

We are adopted back into the family of God.

And through the workings of that same Spirit

we are empowered to change and move beyond our human failings.

So we are molded into a body,

a community of Jesus-lovers who come with all sorts of backgrounds and experiences.

2000 years of church history tells us that is no easy task being this body!

As I thought of this challenge

I was reminded of my social studies lessons back

when I was in my middle and high school years.

Growing up in Canada we looked at the cultures of Canada and the United States.

I remember being taught that in the United States

a melting pot approach was taken when assimilating immigrants.

It was expected that newcomers to the nation

would blend into the dominant culture and cut off ties to their homeland.

Canada’s approach to immigration had newcomers maintain

more of the heritage of, and connection to, their country of origin.

These cultural pieces were then welded together

to form a cultural mosaic of unique parts that shape the whole.

As I recall, both of these approaches had strengths and weaknesses,

although my suspicion is that because it was a Canadian education,

the mosaic was presented as more appealing than the melting pot.

Perhaps a more fitting way of looking at Christian community

is to use anthropologist Paul Hiebert’s model

of bounded and centered communities.

A bounded community has firm boundaries

and clearly distinguishes insiders and outsiders.

You are either in or you are out of the community.

A centered community is not so concerned with who is in or who is out,

but with whether people are moving toward the center,

toward the core beliefs and convictions of the community.

For the church, that would mean

moving toward living a life of discipleship to Jesus

and pointing others toward relationship with God.

This centered approach probably fits most closely with current Anabaptist thought,

although the bounded approach is very much our history.

With a strong center of discipleship to Jesus,

we can have a more open outer edge

that allows us to reach out and be mission-oriented,

interacting with others and inviting them to join our community.

But sometimes we gloss over the hard work of community.

We have, even in the renewed and Spirit-led community,

a tendency to let our human nature define things.

We struggle with knowing what it means to be an inclusive community,

and I recognize that even saying “inclusive community” can create alarm.

How loosely or narrowly do we define our core values?

What if people are not moving toward the center,

or are not (in our opinion) moving quickly enough?

Is there a point at which we have to say “No, you are not a part of this group?”

Phil alluded to this last Sunday as he talked about our proclivity to splinter and separate.

There are all sorts of challenges to being a community

where the Spirit of adoption is at work.

How we look,

the color of our skin,

the language we speak or the accent we speak it with,

do we say foy-er or foy-eh (hopefully not that one),

the understanding we have of the authority of the Bible,

how we worship,

what music we sing,

how much money we earn and how we spend it,

all of these might cause us to question whether we can be in community.

In fact, I think that there are times

when we really are hesitant to want to deal with the hard work

of living out this Spirit of adoption.

It makes for some hard times in the body!

Not infrequently we look at our history and shake our heads at the failures we see,

failure to see God’s Spirit working in diversity.

But we don’t always fail.

Some years ago, before I moved here,

Virginia Mennonite Conference was faced with the issue

of persons in the military who were coming to Mennonite congregations in the Norfolk area. Could they become members of these congregations

when a core Anabaptist belief involves Jesus’ teachings on peace,

and on calling his followers to be peacemakers?

I would have liked to have been an observer of the process that evolved

as committed lovers of Jesus wrestled with this question.

Here the mission-oriented nature of the community was attractive and effective,

but was coming into conflict with the discipleship values at it’s core.

Reaching out to persons in the military

and encouraging them in their relationship with God

is following the call of the Gospel.

Allowing persons in the military to be a part of the church

might water down our peace witness,

might cause change to our core values.

What if “they” challenge us

and push us to abandon our commitment to peacemaking as a discipleship issue?

But what if “they” help us to clarify what we believe,

and enrich our understanding of discipleship?

Somehow, Conference leaders, with the Spirit guiding,

came to a conclusion that our congregations

can accept as members persons in the military,

even while we continue to teach Christ’s call to be peacemakers.

Within the Harrisonburg District of Virginia Mennonite Conference,

there are a number of new or developing congregations

that are drawing in persons who are new to faith in Jesus,

or who come from Christian backgrounds other than Mennonite.

In these congregations – and in ours - the challenge is present each week

to welcome people with a diversity of belief

while encouraging movement toward deeper discipleship.

Some of these congregations have dropped Mennonite from their church name

because they feel it is a barrier to newcomers.

Some explore new ways of being church, new ways of worshipping.

Some explore ancient forms of worship

or seek to emulate the early church community practices.

In these ways they are seeking to strengthen their core of discipleship

as they engage in God’s mission.

This is the church that we are a part of,

a community that is empowered by the Holy Spirit

to live as disciples and engage in mission and ministry.

Our human nature works against this,

and would have us live in a spirit of slavery to fear.

We might fear others. We might fear change.

We might choose to want our church to be a melting pot

where people come and become just like us.

But the Spirit at Pentecost announced its arrival with a multitude of voices.

Everyone in the world could hear

and understand the good news of Jesus Christ.

That Spirit calls us into a community that represents a mosaic.

The pieces of the mosaic are formed into a body pleasing to God.

With the help of the Spirit we can reach out and welcome new friends,

in Jesus’ name, as our hearts are warmed with love.

“Well met, dear friends” is #102 in Sing the Story.

Let us join together and sing this invitation,

on our birthday,

for the Holy Spirit to continue to guide and empower us in this new community,

the body of Christ.

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Phil Kniss: One and free

May 16, 2010

Easter 7: John 17:20-26; Acts 16:16-34

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Jesus cared a lot about the unity of his disciples.

That would be putting it mildly.

He was impassioned . . . and insistent,

as he expressed his deep longing for his disciples,

in his famous prayer in today’s Gospel, John 17.

“Oh, Father, that they may be one!”

And again, “That they may all be one.”

“That they may be one, as we are one,

I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one!”

In the seven short verses of today’s reading,

six times Jesus uses the word “one”

in pleading with his Father for the unity of his followers.

This is pretty important to Jesus.

After he left the earth

he longed for his disciples to remain as one body,

united in him, as he was united in God.

So . . . how did they do?

The million-dollar question.

The World Christian Encyclopedia

counts 34,000 Christian denominations.

There are dozens of separate Mennonite denominations

in North America alone.

We might be one of the most splintered traditions,

except maybe the Baptists.

So how do you think Jesus feels about all these denominations?

Do you suppose he’s weeping

over the failure of his disciples to remain one?

It’s a popular truism.

Preachers often point to the thousands of denominations,

then point to Jesus’ prayer,

and then say, isn’t it shameful?

But I wonder, is it really?

I Jesus really weeping over these denominations, or not?

Well, there are certainly many parts of the Christian story of schism,

that are absolutely shameful, and worth weeping over.

We could probably point to a number of Mennonite splits

and say surely there could have been a better way

to resolve our differences,

than to walk away from each other.

But on the other hand,

is the fact there is a plethora of denominations,

in and of itself a sign of the church’s failure?

Should it be the goal of the church to do away with denominations?

I would argue . . . strongly . . . NO!

If there was a way to measure

how much God was interested in something, on a scale of 1-10 . . .

the structural unity of the church

(that is, getting all Christians to break down denominational walls

and come together under one global Christian body)

I don’t think even registers a .001

on the “God-is-interested” scale.

Hear me out.

I’m all for unity.

Jesus was impassioned in his plea for one-ness.

So must I be.

But more often than not,

being ONE in structure

only gives the impression of being one in Christ.

It’s a cheap substitute.

Structural unity doesn’t measure anything very substantial at all.

It certainly doesn’t measure spiritual one-ness.

Whenever we gather under ONE structural umbrella,

it gives the impression that there is blessed unity.

As a matter of fact, there is often (should I say usually)

more conflict over differences inside

each of these supposedly unified bodies,

than there is between the different bodies.

In other words,

Mennonites have more to fight about with each other

(and they do),

than Mennonites have to fight about with Lutherans.

Episcopalians have more to fight about with each other

(and they do),

than Episcopalians have to fight about with Methodists.

The same is true with almost any group.

Now I truly love the Anabaptist angle on the Gospel.

I love and value being Mennonite.

But let it be perfectly clear.

Getting all Christians to become Mennonites

was NOT what Jesus was praying for!

Being united in one organized religious body

says very little indeed,

about whether or not we are living as One in Jesus Christ.

So what does bring about our one-ness in Christ?

If it’s not structure and organization . . . it must be theology.

It must be that even though we’re divided up

into all kinds of groups and religious bodies,

what’s really important is that we become ONE in our theology,

on the same page in our beliefs and practices.

Right?

Well, let’s think about that.

Yes, we are called to do good sound theological discernment.

Our aim, always, ought to be to seek together to find deeper truth—

a deeper shared truth about God.

But is it really God’s intention that all Christians

all around the world,

think the same way about God?

Should all Christians really

operate with the same metaphors for God?

have the same vision of how God works in the world?

use the same doctrinal language

to describe their experience of God?

Do we think that God does not have

different working agendas and different modes of operation,

depending on whether God is working

in a Swiss-German community in Ohio,

or in the lives of New England aristocrats,

or among Miami’s Haitian immigrants,

or in the entertainment industry in southern California,

or with the urban poor on Chicago’s south side?

Not to mention, whether God is working

in Sudan, or Hong Kong, or Afghanistan, or London, England.

For that matter, bring it close to home.

Do we think God wants all of Jesus’ followers in Harrisonburg

to believe and to do the same thing,

whether they are situated among the marginalized

in the northeast community,

or in Old Town Harrisonburg,

or in an upscale east-side subdivision,

or a trailer park populated with Spanish-speaking immigrants,

or adjacent to JMU student housing on Port Road,

or in a concentrated Mennonite community like Park View?

No! Our practices, our metaphors, our theological priorities,

cannot be exactly the same wherever we go.

The way we articulate and practice our faith

will adjust based on our context.

Faith and practice is contextual.

So the answer is no,

I don’t think that perfect uniformity of theology and practice

was what Jesus was so impassioned about in his prayer.

So if it’s not one-ness of structure and organization,

if it’s not one-ness of belief and practice,

what is it that can make us one, as Jesus prayed . . . and longed for?

The kind of being ONE

Jesus was yearning for was of a different nature.

We see that by the words he prayed so eloquently,

“As you and I are one, Father, may they be one.”

“As I am in you and you in me, may they be in us.”

In his prayer, Jesus was drawing a direct comparison

between the oneness he experienced with his father in heaven,

and the oneness that we are also called to experience with God.

Between Jesus and his father,

there was a deep unity,

a deep oneness of purpose,

a deep continuity of mission.

In various places Jesus deferred to the one who sent him,

saying things like,

I only do what my Father does.

I am only speaking my Father’s words.

There was not a disconnect, but a continuity,

between the mission and purposes and will of God in the world

and what Jesus undertook to do and to say.

And Jesus’ prayer was that this same unity and continuity,

would be the experience of his disciples.

Because as they align themselves

with the mission of God in the world,

and the words and ways of Jesus in the world.

they will, by definition, be in unity with each other.

If A=C, and B=C, then A must equal B.

If we find ourselves in unity with the purposes of God in Christ,

we will be in unity with each other . . .

even when we speak different languages,

even when we use different metaphors to describe our faith,

even when we live in vastly different cultural contexts.

We want to be one?

We must learn to know Jesus more deeply.

We must immerse ourselves in the full story of Jesus in scripture.

We must open ourselves more completely to the Spirit of Jesus,

the Advocate we talked about last Sunday.

Jesus wants followers who are in synch with

his mission

his identity

his purpose

and who will continue the work he began,

continue . . . as in an unbroken line,

without interruption or corruption.

_____________________

And now to bring this around to the topic of freedom.

It is this oneness of purpose

and continuity with the person and mission of Jesus,

that gives people the ability

to live lives of true, deep freedom,

even in the midst of terrible trials.

When we are one, we are free.

What do I mean by that?

I mean that as we become clear about who we are in Christ,

as we fully immerse ourselves in Christ,

as we become in Christ, as Christ is in God,

like Jesus prayed,

we will also reach a place of deep inner freedom.

It’s those who don’t know who they are,

who are in bondage.

It’s those who squander their lives chasing after the wind,

who pretend to be free, by answering to no one,

who seek to satisfy every fleeting desire,

it is they who miss out on true freedom and deep joy.

Despite the illusion of freedom,

they are bound to their own insecurity,

always grasping, searching, but never finding.

See, our culture has this silly idea that freedom is escape.

That freedom is getting out from under

any external constriction or limitation or pain

or inconvenience or even, annoyance.

We should be free to do and to be

whatever we good and well feel like doing or being.

The biblical concept of freedom is so much richer than that.

Freedom is not just escape from restriction.

Freedom is learning how to embrace our full humanity,

discovering how to live into the fullness of life

that God designed for us.

Freedom is the deep liberation that comes

from discovering and choosing

the life God created us for.

Freedom is aligning ourselves with God’s larger purposes.

In other words, freedom is obedience.

What a concept!

Now we can see that story of Paul and Silas in Acts 16,

from a whole different angle.

Did you wonder how Paul and Silas had the wherewithal

to sing songs of praise and thanksgiving,

after they were beaten to a pulp, bloodied and bruised,

and locked in chains and stocks?

You see, Paul and Silas were never truly in captivity.

Those chains and stocks only held their arms and legs.

Hardware could not imprison Paul and Silas’ deepest humanity.

Even a dark damp prison could not obscure

the light and image of God that gave them deep liberation.

There were other prisoners in that story . . .

that weren’t in jail.

Some of them were set free. Some weren’t.

The demon-possessed slave girl was freed twice, in one act of God.

Freed from a spirit that held her captive,

and freed from human ownership and exploitation.

But her owners were in jail, so to speak. And stayed there.

Captive to greed.

Captive to a death-dealing desire

to manipulate others to their advantage.

_____________________

Do we want to be truly free?

The path laid out for us in today’s scripture readings

is to choose the right master.

Let us, by faith, submit ourselves to the purposes of God in Christ.

As we unite ourselves with God in Christ,

we will find ourselves in deeper union with each other,

and we will find our deepest freedom.

There is a wonderful ancient hymn of the church,

“Ubi caritas et amor Deus ibi est.”

Where there is charity and love, God is there.

We find it in Sing the Journey, #39.

It says there the text dates to the 9th century, which is plenty old.

But some scholars believe it goes back much further than that.

So what I’ve said this morning is nothing new, at all.

Because this text sums up exactly what I’ve been saying.

Since the love of Christ has brought us all together

Let us all rejoice and be glad, now and always.

Let every one love the Lord God, the living God;

and with sincere hearts let us love each other now.

Therefore when we gather as one in Christ Jesus,

let our love enfold each race, creed, every person.

let envy, division and strife cease among us;

may Christ our Lord dwell among us in every heart.

Bring us with your saints to behold your great beauty,

there to see you, Christ our God, throned in great glory;

there to possess heaven’s peace and joy, your truth and love,

for endless ages of ages, world without end.

—Phil Kniss, May 16, 2010

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Phil Kniss: The Holy Spirit is not your Advocate, and why that’s good news

May 9, 2010

Easter 6: John 14:23-29

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This is the sixth Sunday of Easter, two Sundays before Pentecost.

Pentecost was when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the church,

and empowered Jesus’ disciples for ministry.

So a couple weeks ahead of time,

in the calendar of the Christian year,

we are given a glimpse of what’s coming—

a sort of preview of Pentecost.

The lectionary calls for us to read from the Gospel of John,

where Jesus, in a sense, predicted Pentecost.

Toward the end of his ministry,

when Jesus spoke to his disciples

he repeatedly talked about two things that would happen.

One was, he was about to leave them.

He was about to enter a period of great humiliation and suffering,

after which he would die, then rise again,

then go to be with his Father in heaven.

The second thing Jesus predicted,

was that the disciples would not be left alone.

He would be sending someone to be with them.

He would send the Holy Spirit, the Advocate.

The Advocate.

The word also gets translated “Comforter.”

Or sometimes “Counselor.”

But what is meant, exactly, by the Holy Spirit as Advocate?

You may have noticed my intentionally provocative sermon title.

Which reads, “The Holy Spirit is not your Advocate,

and why that’s good news.”

Perhaps you fear I am going off the deep end,

since we all know that the Holy Spirit is frequently referred to

as an Advocate that Jesus sends to us.

I could right now read 4 or 5 scriptures that say so,

including today’s Gospel reading.

I could refer to dozens of hymns

the church has sung through the ages,

that say so.

So why would I say something so heretical,

as to suggest the Holy Spirit is not our Advocate?

Well, let’s take a closer look.

The original word in Greek is παράκλητος (parakletos).

It’s sometimes just transliterated, Paraclete.

Apparently, the meaning of this word can be fairly broad,

which explains why the King James

translates it Comforter,

and some others, Counselor.

But given the context here,

it is most likely used in the sense of advocacy.

Paraclete is the noun form of the

Greek verb παρακαλέω (parakaleo) which means literally,

to “call to one’s side.”

So a paraclete is the one who is called to stand beside,

like an attorney who represents someone in court.

An advocate.

One who “steps in” and stands alongside

and makes my case before judge and jury.

Of course, having an expert and articulate advocate on one’s side,

is a great comfort . . .

an Advocate is a much-needed Comforter

to someone who is threatened.

But it’s a different kind of comfort than say,

having someone’s grandmother

give them a hug or hold their hand.

Being an advocate is not just about giving emotional comfort

and solace.

It’s about having someone stand beside,

who is knowledgeable and loyal and trustworthy,

who will tell it like it is,

even when the truth is hard to hear.

I would like to disabuse us of the notion

that the Holy Spirit’s main job is to hold us close

and squeeze our hands.

The Holy Spirit is not our grandmother.

As wonderful as grandmothers are.

And on this Mother’s Day, I must also say, if you’ll pardon me,

the Holy Spirit is not our mother, either.

Yes, a good mother is loyal and trustworthy and

will always be a loving truth-teller.

If a child is blessed with a good mother,

there will never be a stronger and more tenacious Advocate

than Mom.

But that does not describe the relationship

between the Holy Spirit and us.

Yes, without question.

The Holy Spirit is an Advocate.

A loyal and persistent and skillful Advocate.

Just happens not to be OUR Advocate.

The Holy Spirit is an advocate for Jesus and the Gospel.

Remember what Jesus said in today’s Gospel reading in John 14?

“The Advocate, the Holy Spirit,

whom the Father will send in my name,

will teach you everything, and remind you

of all that I have said to you.”

God is sending the Holy Spirit, in Jesus’ name,

on behalf of Jesus,

to teach everything Jesus taught,

and to remind the disciples of everything Jesus said.

You see, once Jesus has departed the earth,

a certain danger will set in.

The disciples’ memory will be selective.

Once the church gets established,

and if the movement gains traction,

there will be all sorts of temptations

to veer away from the radical path that Jesus put them on.

They will be more likely to opt for safety and security,

as opposed to “taking up their cross” and following.

They will be sorely tempted to minimize the teachings of Jesus

that aren’t convenient for them,

or that don’t seem to serve their agenda and purposes.

And Jesus knew all this.

So one is being sent to Advocate for the Jesus way,

to remind and reinforce the radical Gospel message.

And in the next chapter, Jesus mentions the Advocate again.

Listen to John 15:26.

“When the Advocate comes,

the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father,

he will testify on my behalf.”

On my behalf, Jesus said.

The Holy Spirit is an Advocate for Jesus, first and foremost.

The Holy Spirit is an Advocate for the truth of the Gospel.

The Holy Spirit is an Advocate for God’s agenda,

for the larger mission of God in this world,

that Jesus engaged in during his time on earth,

and then passed on to his disciples to complete.

It is that mission of God

for which the Holy Spirit has come to Advocate.

In all these scriptures that promise us the Holy Spirit,

nowhere do we get the idea that the Spirit is being sent,

to be on our side no matter what,

to speak up for our own interests,

to take a stand against anything that threatens us,

to protect us from any and all harm.

That’s what mothers do.

No . . . the Holy Spirit is sent to defend the name of Jesus,

to articulate the message of Jesus,

to stand up on behalf of the Gospel.

That is the primary work of the Holy Spirit.

The ministry of Jesus

and the ministry of the Holy Spirit

are always and intimately connected to each other.

We cannot separate them.

In fact, we might well refer to the Holy Spirit,

as the Spirit of Jesus,

as scripture does on several occasions.

_____________________

I hope you are not let down this morning,

by this realization that the Holy Spirit is not really your Advocate.

Don’t be disappointed.

This is Good News!

What would our faith be like,

if one of the main tenets of our faith,

was that God, through the Holy Spirit,

was always on our side?

Maybe you trust yourself more than I trust me.

But I frankly don’t trust myself to get it right all the time.

Even most of the time.

I am too prone to make decisions based on my own fears.

When I’m being called to take some risky step of faith,

and I turn to the Holy Spirit for guidance,

I don’t think it would be a good thing

for the Holy Spirit to just take my side,

like my mother probably would.

When I resist something, out of fear,

I don’t think it would do God any favors

for the Holy Spirit just to pat me on the back,

and say, “That’s okay, Phil.”

(or as my mother would say, “That’s okay, Philip”)

It’s not in the interest of Jesus or the Kingdom of God,

for the Holy Spirit to just comfort me,

and say, “I know this must be frightening.

You can do it when you’re ready.

Maybe some other day when you’re stronger.”

And besides my fears, and other emotions that might drive me,

I don’t trust my thinking well enough

to believe that it would be helpful

for the Holy Spirit to always reinforce my thinking patterns.

I’m too self-oriented.

Too protective.

Sometimes, perhaps, too logical.

If God wanted me to do what Peter was asked to do,

in our scripture last week—

when Peter had that vision of unclean animals

coming down from heaven,

a sign that he should cross this huge social and religious

barrier, and enter into the Gentile world—

if I’d have been in Peter’s sandals,

I wouldn’t have made it to Cornelius’ house

if the Holy Spirit just reinforced my way of thinking.

If the Holy Spirit had stood by me, as my Advocate, and said,

“Yes, Phil, you make a good point.

That does go completely against your tradition and teaching.

Just forget it. Bad idea.”

But the Holy Spirit is not our Advocate.

The Holy Spirit has been sent to us as an Advocate

for the Jesus Way,

for the kingdom of God,

for the mission of God in this world.

Sometimes we human beings get in the way of that.

God needs an Advocate.

Jesus needs someone to stand up for the cause of the Gospel,

even an inconvenient Gospel.

There is a constant tendency to make Christ and the Gospel convenient.

We are tempted, continually, to create God in our image.

We want Jesus to reinforce what we have already

decided or wanted or believed or . . .

So Jesus sent the Holy Spirit,

not to pat our backs and hold our hands.

But to keep us from forgetting what Jesus was all about.

To keep us from distorting his message into something

he wouldn’t even recognize.

So whenever people claim today that the Holy Spirit

is saying this or doing that,

there is a built-in test, a measuring stick:

Does it look like Jesus?

Many Christians these days claim to be hearing from the Holy Spirit,

about this or that or the other thing.

But does it look like Jesus?

If people claim that the Holy Spirit is blessing them,

leading them to accumulate all manner of wealth and possessions

and gather earthly comforts all around them,

as evidence of God’s blessing on them . . .

well . . . does that look like Jesus?

If people credit the Spirit of God with leading them into battle,

into taking up weapons of violence against their earthly enemies,

and giving them victory by force . . .

well . . . does that look like Jesus?

If people believe the Holy Spirit is on their side,

as they wield their power over others in coercive ways,

manipulating others toward their own advantage . . .

well . . . does that look like Jesus?

If people say, “God told me to do this or that . . .”

We have a right to ask, “Does it look like Jesus?

Or does it look like something they wanted to do anyway?

Of course, I’m not saying God isn’t doing new things today.

Certainly some things God is up to today

would not have a precise parallel to what God did

in Jesus’ life and ministry 2,000 years ago

in a very different culture and context.

So we need to carefully and prayerfully discern.

God is doing new things,

and the Holy Spirit is part of these new things.

But the Holy Spirit is most certainly not

our personal, private, spiritual genie

that gives us three wishes and more.

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus Christ,

the Spirit of Jesus of Nazareth.

The Holy Spirit was sent by Jesus, and represents Jesus.

We cannot separate the work of the Holy Spirit and the work of Jesus.

There is an unbroken line connecting

the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth

and the ministry of the Holy Spirit today.

With very little effort, we can make the Holy Spirit say

whatever we want the Holy Spirit to say.

We can distort the gospel message of Jesus

to say whatever we want it to say.

The job of the Holy Spirit, as the “Paraclete,”

is to be the loyal, persistent, undeterred, and expert Advocate

for the Jesus Way.

The job of the Holy Spirit is to stand up for,

to stand alongside, like an attorney,

whenever the life and teachings and meaning of Jesus are threatened

whenever they get distorted or misshapen

or used in ways that don’t honor Jesus.

And this is good news.

Preserving the core of the Gospel of Jesus,

even against my own attempts to bend it to my advantage,

is good news,

for me and for the world.

I thank God for sending the Holy Spirit to be Jesus’ Advocate.

That is a comfort to me.

That helps me stay grounded.

It keeps me from drowning in a sea of self-interest.

It keeps me on the journey for which God made me.

Let’s sing together, in response, Sing the Journey #46

“O breathe on me, O breath of God.”

This is based on the more familiar, “Breathe on me, breath of God.”

Remember, the word for spirit and breath are same,

so when I sing this,

I’m asking the Spirit of God to breathe on me,

“fill me with life anew,

that I may love the things you love,

and do what you would do.”

And, “breathe on me, O breath of God . . .

until my will is one with yours . . .

breathe, my will to yours incline,

until this selfish part of me glows with your fire divine.”

Let’s make this our fervent prayer,

as we sing together.

—Phil Kniss, May 9, 2010

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Barbara Moyer Lehman: So how will they know?

May 2, 2010

Easter 5: John 13:31-35

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How do our children and others we meet learn about who we are? How do we make them want what we have? Do our actions, attitudes, and words make people want to be like us?

John 13:31-35 is a passage filled with discipleship themes. Pastor Barbara Moyer Lehman points out that love is the mark that should identify a person as a follower of Christ. It is our attitudes, actions, and acceptance of others that gives credibility to the words of love we speak. The tough part is that we are called to love people who are like us…needy, irritating, with bad habits. Acts 10:1-23 demonstrates how God pushed Peter to see that everyone is loved by God.

Where have we seen the call to love get ignored or broken? Where do we have work to do? Pastor Barbara encouraged us to explore this and then work to let the love of God show through us.

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