Sermon Archive
Readings for 13 May 2007
Sixth Sunday of Easter
Year C
Joel 2:21-27
The word of the Lord that came to Joel: Do not fear, O soil; be glad and rejoice, for the LORD has done great things! Do not fear, you animals of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness are green; the tree bears its fruit, the fig tree and vine give their full yield. O children of Zion, be glad and rejoice in the LORD your God; for he has given the early rain for your vindication, he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the later rain, as before. The threshing floors shall be full of grain, the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. I will repay you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent against you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame. You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I, the LORD, am your God and there is no other. And my people shall never again be put to shame.
Acts 14:8-18
In Lystra there was a man sitting who could not use his feet and had never walked, for he had been crippled from birth. He listened to Paul as he was speaking. And Paul, looking at him intently and seeing that he had faith to be healed, said in a loud voice, "Stand upright on your feet." And the man sprang up and began to walk. When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, "The gods have come down to us in human form!" Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates; he and the crowds wanted to offer sacrifice. When the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting, "Friends, why are you doing this? We are mortals just like you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. In past generations he allowed all the nations to follow their own ways; yet he has not left himself without a witness in doing good-- giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, and filling you with food and your hearts with joy." Even with these words, they scarcely restrained the crowds from offering sacrifice to them.
John 13:31-35
At the last supper, when Judas had gone out, Jesus said, "Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, 'Where I am going, you cannot come.' I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
Sermon
The Rev. Jack Zamboni
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. (John 14:26)
On this Mother’s Day, I find myself thinking about the many of us who do not have living mothers, or, indeed, living fathers. I’ve found in my own life and my pastoral work that when your last parent dies, you may well feel like an orphan, even if you are a mature adult who has been handling the responsibilities of life for many years. In addition to the grief you feel in missing someone you love, there is an additional loss: The people you have looked to for guidance and direction in life are no longer here.
And with their absence comes a question: How do I live now? How do I honor the people who raised me by being true to their values and faithful to their principles when I can no longer ask for their guidance and support? When I come up against new and challenging situations in my life, how will I know what to do when I can’t draw on their wisdom?
Christian communities have wrestled with the same questions ever since Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension: How do we live now that Jesus is no longer physically here with us? How do we honor our Lord by being true to his values and faithful to his principles when we cannot ask directly for his guidance and support in new and challenging situations in our common life?
Of all New Testament books, it may be that the Gospel of John wrestles with this question the most. It was written to a community living 60 or more years after Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension -- when the disciples who had living memory of the earthly Jesus were themselves all but gone. This Christian community, facing many new challenges, wanted to know how they could live as Jesus wanted them to when he was not there in the flesh, and the last living links to him were gone, as well.
This has been a question for every Christian generation since, including our own. Jesus has gone away – a very long time ago it seems in 2007. How can the Church learn to live, as Jesus would have us live, to love, as Jesus would have us love in our changing world?
John’s Gospel addresses this issue in many places, but especially in the Farewell Discourse of chapters 14-6 from which today’s Gospel reading comes. The setting is the Last Supper and the words are portrayed as Jesus’ farewell speech to the disciples -- yet he speaks already as the Risen Jesus, giving assurance to the Church he would leave behind. He speaks words of promise that answer that vital question – how do we Christians live now?
One verse from today’s Gospel along with another connected verse from Chapter 16 contain a central promise about how the Church can learn to live in faithfulness to Jesus’ teaching when he is no longer there:
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. (John 14:25)
I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. (John 16:12-13)
Though I am no longer there in the flesh with you, Jesus says, the Father and I will send you the Spirit who will teach you how to live as I would have you live.
This Teacher will help you remember my words. The Spirit will remind you of all that I have said and keep you connected with what I have taught when I was with you.
What’s more, in the future the Spirit will teach you new things you can’t understand at present – the many things I have to say to you, which you cannot bear now. Like children who can’t take in what they will need to know when they are older, you might not even understand what I still have to say, for you aren’t in those situations to come where you will need to know it. But in those future times when you have new challenges to face, the Spirit will guide you into my truth in the ways you need to know and live it then.
One commentator on these texts describes these two aspects of the Spirit’s work as both conserving and creative. The Spirit’s work is conserving for it “enables the Christian community, at any time in its life, to reach back to the teachings of Jesus and ‘remember,’ to bring Jesus’ teaching to life afresh.” The Spirit’s work is creative for it “gives new meanings to the teachings of Jesus as the changing circumstances of faith communities & the world demand. The [Spirit] thus ensures that there is ongoing communication between Jesus & contemporary communities of faith.” This promise tells us how we can live faithfully as Jesus’ followers in a changing world when he is not physically at our elbow to guide us. The Spirit will remind us of his past words and teaching, and will also guide us to hear his words in new ways when we need to. “[The Spirit is] the guarantee that the words of Jesus will always be available as fresh words for any and all futures” the Church encounters. i
This promise is no small thing in the present life of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion. The controversies we are in the midst of, many say, are not simply about sexuality, but about something more fundamental: how we are to interpret the Scriptures and Traditions of the Church so we know how to live in faithfulness to Jesus in our day. Recognizing the conserving and creative work of the Spirit in teaching the Church how to live has much to offer in this challenging time.
On the one hand, the Spirit in its conserving work continually reminds us of what Jesus preached and taught; it keeps the Church connected to the living memory of its Lord and first Teacher. That means that changes in Church teaching or practice that are detached from Jesus cannot be claimed as the work of the Spirit leading us into new Christian truth. The Spirit’s teaching will always ground the Church in the words of Jesus.
On the other hand, the Spirit, in its creative work, teaches us to hear Jesus’ words in new ways; it speaks to us those things that the first disciples could not yet bear that we need to hear in our day. That means we cannot learn Jesus’ will for the Church today by quoting isolated Bible texts in a literalistic way or by assuming that nothing new can happen in the life of the Church. The Spirit can and will give “new meanings to the teachings of Jesus as the changing circumstances of faith communities and the world demand.” To know how to live faithfully today, the Church must listen to the Spirit’s teaching, both conserving and creative.
It happens in our present Church controversies that people like myself who believe that the Gospel calls for the full inclusion of gay and lesbian people in the life of the Church are sometimes accused of ignoring Scripture or abandoning Christian tradition -- that is, that our position has neglected the conserving aspect of the Spirit’s work. But that is not so. I, and others like me, believe that the Spirit is leading us to new understandings of what Jesus’ own words require in circumstances that our ancestors in faith couldn’t imagine; in particular, that the holiness of love about which Jesus said so much means that the love which committed gay and lesbian couples have for each other is itself holy.
That is at once a conserving and creative belief: a belief grounded in the words of Jesus, understood in new ways. I can hold that belief because of Jesus’ promise that the Spirit will remind us of his words and guide into new understandings of their truth. That is the promise Jesus gave the Church for all time.
I have confidence in that belief about what the Spirit is teaching the Church. But I also know that Jesus’ promise is not an absolute guarantee I am right. To claim that would make me no different than those Fundamentalists who are absolutely sure they know how the Bible is to be read. Discerning how the Spirit is teaching the Church requires humility and a recognition that none of us know fully the mind of God. We discern the conserving and creative work of the Spirit together.
And as we do that work together, we can trust without reservation the promise given in John’s Gospel: that the Spirit is the Church’s Teacher now and until the Kingdom comes. Yes, like departed parents, Jesus may seem distant in time and space. But the Spirit has been sent to teach the Church: to remind us of Jesus’ words, and to lead us into new understandings of his words, in the ever-changing circumstances of our common life.
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iGail R. O’Day The Gospel of John in The New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume IX (Nashville,
Abingdon Press, 1995) All quotations in this sermon are from p. 777 of this volume.
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