Pentecost Fr. Forrest Burgett
Trinity Anglican Church Given 06/12/11
“And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive”
John xiv. 16
Gerald had a crisis of faith and asked his priest for help. He reminded the priest that he had been a faithful member of the church for many years. The priest listened intently as Gerald described his problem. When Gerald made $50 a week, he gave $5 to the church each week. As Gerald prospered, his income reached $500 a week and he gladly gave $50 to the church each week. However, when Gerald’s income reached $5,000 a week, he just couldn’t bring himself to give $500 to the church each week. Gerald felt bad about failing to tithe and asked his priest to pray with him for a solution. After careful consideration of Gerald’s problem, the priest began to pray; “Dear Lord, please reduce Gerald’s income to $500 a week so he can tithe again.”
This little story offers more than trivial humor. Gerald really did have a crisis of faith. Gerald knew what his actions should be. He was aware of the teachings and traditions. He had always given cheerfully of his time and treasure. It was a significant part of his character. Gerald realized his gift of time was shrinking as well. He knew his character was changing. He knew his commitment was fading. He desperately wanted the Church’s approval to minimize his commitment while allowing him to maintain the illusion that his character was not changing.
Basically, Gerald’s problem can be described as one of relativity. He had no problem giving a percentage when it was a small amount. But when the value of the percentage grew, his commitment began to shrink. He inversely related his commitment to the absolute value of the gift. This is not at all uncommon. A few years ago, a president stated that the wealthiest families should not have to pay a tax rate as high as that paid by families of more moderate income. That is exactly the principle Gerald wanted to practice. By the way, the president was not re-elected.
In many parts of our lives, relativity is a way to describe reactions. For example, how many here today think it is a little cool? How many think it is a little warm? About all we can agree on is, “the temperature is not just right.” This is a case where relativity is productive and descriptive. What seems cool to you might be rather warm in my opinion. We know that reactions are based on metabolism, activity level and the number and weight of garments being worn. Relativity is important in science as well. When something is unknown, we observe relationships; declare hypotheses; test theories; and search for the answer. Examining relative changes in nature is a valuable tool in our understanding of how things were designed to work.
On the other hand, many of us probably remember the song lyric, “If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with”. It’s a catchy lyric, but we know in our hearts, it is not the right approach. Our love for one another is not related to physical proximity. Remember the phrase, “absence makes the heart grow fonder”? It appears that relativity is appropriate in some areas and inappropriate in others. We could use a guideline for its application.
What would have happened if the disciples had applied relativity to their situation? They might say to one another, “Remember when Jesus was with us? Remember how He performed miracles when we were hungry and scared? He has been gone now for 10 days. I’m pretty sure He meant we should follow his commandments while He was here. I think we must take care of ourselves. I’m getting hungry and there is no change in sight. We can postpone waiting for the new Comforter. We should forage for ourselves, remain relatively faithful and still be back in time for the new Comforter.”
How would they have known they all felt the same Holy Spirit if they had been scattered around the city tending to their own interests? How could they have impressed the multitude if they were individuals reacting separately to the Holy Spirit? One of the most compelling reasons to worship together is to share the grace, strength, comfort and inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
There is considerable variety in how people react to the influence of the Holy Spirit. Some react with the “Amen Corner”. Some react with spontaneous hallelujahs. Some show the influence with songs of praise and thanksgiving. Some combine their resources and enhance their capacity for social work. Some suffer silently at the conscience that won’t be soothed. Some encourage others to hear the Holy Spirit. It is through our common worship that we begin to see the scope of the Holy Spirit and it exhances our ability to encourage each other. We are not all like. How we respond is relative to our individual talents, experience and personality. Notice I said our reactions are relative. I did not say the Holy Spirit was relative. Relativity is appropriate for reactions. It is not appropriate for the Holy Spirit.
Let’s return to our text for today.
“And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive”.
Jesus said He would pray for the Father to give us another Comforter in His absence. Jesus said He would abide with us forever. That much we all understand. But the next phrase is incredibly relevant to our discussion today. He said this comforter would be the “Spirit of Truth whom the world cannot receive”. He did not say we would find different truths. He did not say we would be able to comfortably rationalize our varying commitment to God. He said the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth and that is where we will find our comfort. Relative truth is an oxymoron. Truth is reality. Truth is actual existence. Truth is not relative. It is real. And, truth is our guideline to when relativity is appropriate and when it is not.
On the surface, truth does not sound like much of a comforter. Most of us are accustomed to having our consciences pinched by truth; but only when we are in denial. When we accept the truth, we align our thoughts and actions with that truth. We no longer question the relative importance of the issues in our lives. They are based on the reality of the Holy Spirit; Truth.
Let’s look at last phrase of our text today, “whom the world cannot receive.” We are told that the world will not receive the Spirit of Truth. We are told it will not be easy to receive the Spirit of Truth and feel comfortable in the world around us. We cannot expect to rationalize the standards of our world with those commitments graced by Jesus Christ, loved by God and encouraged by the Holy Ghost. Gerald’s problem is a conflict of interest between his commitment to God’s truth and his love of worldly possessions. His crisis of faith started when he replaced the Spirit of Truth with the relative standards of this world. He used relativity in the wrong place.
Now that we have a guideline, let’s return to our example of temperature. There are two ways to refer to temperature. Generally we refer to its effect on us. We refer to how we are reacting to the temperature. That is a relative matter and varies for each of us. But if we want to speak in terms of truth, we must use a common measure; a thermometer. While the thermometer will tell us the temperature, it will not describe our relative reactions to the temperature. It will describe the truth.
The plurality of modern religion rejects a common measure for spiritual truth, and in the process rejects God as well. We do have a common measure of spiritual truth for all of mankind. We have the revelations of God in the inspired writings of the Old Testament. We have the grace and love of Jesus Christ in the inspired writings of the New Testament. Today we celebrate the third aspect of our common measure. The Holy Spirit completes the Trinity; our common measure of spiritual truth.
And the Holy Spirit is not a single gift. He makes the sacraments more than mere symbols. He makes us, in Holy Baptism, members of Christ; children of God; and inheritors of the Kingdom. In Holy Confirmation; He gives us the spirit of wisdom and understanding; of counsel and ghostly strength; of knowledge and true godliness; and of holy fear. It is through these gifts that we come to know the fruits of the Spirit. Those fruits are love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance. These fruits of the Spirit are what Christians are intended to enjoy, both as individuals and as a Church.
As we struggle with our own crises of faith, may we clearly see the difference between the unchanging truth of God and the relative reactions of this world to his revelations. May we rejoice in the comfort of the Holy Spirit; depend upon the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ; and return the Love of God in all our efforts in this world. This is the vocation to which we were all called and it is the only path that offers love, joy and peace in this world.
Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all. (1 Chronicles xxix. 11.)