"A Sermon Series on the New Creed"
Part II: Continuing the Quest The Holy Spirit works in us and others as a helper and guide
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. Dr. Andrew Stirling
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Text: John 14:16-21
I read an incredible passage recently from the diary of Heidi Baker, a devout woman who works with the poor throughout the world. She wrote about having a vision in which Jesus appeared to her and said, “I want you to come with me and have a great banquet. I want you to invite people to this feast that I may feed them.” He said to her, “Wake up, Church. Come and bring those who are on the garbage tips of the world that I may feed them. Bring me the young children who are starving that we might touch their swollen stomachs, so that they may become flat; that their skin, which is broken because of malnourishment, might be healed; that their hair, which is brown due to vitamin deficiency, might become black, shiny and rich again.” Jesus said, “I want you to go to those dumps and hold my hand that we may hold their hands, that we may put golden robes upon their shoulders and red sashes across their chests, that we may take them from the dump and sit them at the head table where they may dine with me, and that we might feed together. This is the vision that the Holy Spirit is giving you.”
Heidi Baker works not only amongst the poor of the world, but particularly with children. She had this vision while she was working on a dump outside the City of Maputo in Mozambique, a place I visited many years ago. Why was she working on a dump site? That was the only place where the children, orphans who have no home and are neither loved by nor love anyone, can survive - by eating the scraps on the dump site. It is there that they live; it is there that they survive; it is there that they get their food and nourishment.
Heidi Baker felt that the Holy Spirit was calling her to go to those children and let them know how, in this vision, Jesus wanted to feed them. He did not want them to be orphaned or to think that they were alone. That is why, when I read something in MacLean's Magazine recently, which The Rev. David McMaster alluded to in his sermon a couple of weeks ago and I mentioned last week, that said that we don't need God, we can do just fine with our own ideas, and that is all that is needed, I said, “No!” I say “no,” not because I am a hyper-moralist, not because I am particularly religious or devout, not out of some attempt to preserve the power of the Church because I might be a beneficiary of it, but because I am a realist. Each and every day I run into people who are struggling in this life, who are trying to do things on their own but are finding it overwhelming.
This past week I talked to a young man who runs his own business. He is trying to balance the needs of a struggling business with a wife and a child and a commitment to the church. He doesn't know how to keep these things in balance, and it is an incredible burden upon his head and upon his life.
I have been dealing with someone who is struggling with the depths of grief. I mentioned on Good Friday that one of my best friends, in the midst of Holy Week, committed suicide. I have been talking to members of his family, who are absolutely devastated and decimated by that experience, and don't know how to deal with their grief. As much as they try to find counsel, love and support in each other, it is just not enough.
This week, I spoke with a man who was struggling with temptation. He works for a roofing company. An edict has come down that they are to cut corners and not to do their work properly in order to save money and maximize profit. He is concerned in his soul, struggling with how to deal with his own sense of integrity while at the same time having to meet his employer's needs.
I met someone who is struggling with health - a young man with family and friends who had an industrial accident. Girders fell on his lower body, pierced his bowel and severed part of his body. I have been visiting him at the St. John's Rehabilitation Centre.
I ask myself, when I see people like that, can they really handle this on their own? Or do they need help in life's journey? How can they get beyond their own personal needs? How can all of us have a bigger picture of the world around us, unless we have something to move us, motivate us, lift us out of ourselves and empower us to see the world and its need, not just us and our own needs?
I think we need something more. The Creed of the United Church of Canada, which I am preaching on in this series, contains an incredible line about believing in God, who has come in Jesus, “to reconcile and make new, who works in us and others by the Spirit.” What motivates that line in the Creed? The answer is in today's text from the Gospel of John. In that passage, Jesus' departing words to the disciples - part of a whole discourse - are that he knows he is about to die. He prepares them for what he is going to face, and what they are going to face, and promises them something: Even though he is departing, Jesus will make sure that the Spirit is sent to them. In this classic, Trinitarian text, he says, “I will ask my Father, who will send the Spirit to you.” Then there is an incredible line: “This Spirit will be with you always, for I will not leave you as orphans.”
Last week, I looked at the fact that Jesus said he would be with his people always. But how would Jesus be with his people always? Through the power of the Spirit. That Spirit would always be present; always animating, always moving people. No matter what the disciples faced, this Spirit would be working with them, in them and in others. So what does this text tell the Church today? It tells us that the Spirit continues the work of Jesus. Fred Craddock, a great preacher from the United States, makes the point that we mustn't separate the three persons of the Trinity too much. We have got to make sure that we see them as a unit. “As the Father has loved me,” says Jesus, “so have I loved you. Abide in my love.” We abide in that love through the power of the Spirit. The word that is used to describe the Spirit is the Greek word parakletos or paraclete, which means a helper, companion, advocate, or a guide.
Very often, it is hard for us to get our minds around what this Spirit is or what it looks like. There is a very famous group of people who have a language, Karre, which is not spoken very much in Africa. It is spoken by the people of the Central African Republic and in parts of Cameroon. A number of years ago, the Bible Society wanted to translate the Bible into Karre, and they were having difficulty. One of the areas where they were having difficulty was this word paraclete. How do you find a world to describe paraclete in the Karre language?
The translator came across a local who showed him how, throughout the jungle area, people carried things on their heads. You have all probably seen images from Africa depicting this. Because their arms are tired and they have to go a long way - often under very, very difficult circumstances - they carry heavy loads on their heads. Often, there is a train of people carrying these loads. The translator observed one man who was walking with them and carrying nothing. So he asked, “Is that the manager? Is that the foreman? Is that the owner of all this enterprise? He doesn't carry anything.”
The local said, “No, you don't understand. He is there to carry the load when one of them gets tired. When someone feels the burden, he picks it up and carries it. Often, he is the one who carries the most.”
What is the word used to describe that person? “The one who walks beside.”
The translator had the light go on. That is the word for the paraclete; that is the word for the Holy Spirit! In fact, there is a somewhat more subtle translation: “The one who kneels beside us.” That is what the Holy Spirit does. When we do not have power ourselves, when we are introspective and only concerned for ourselves, when we feel that we can't do anything about the problems of the world around us, when we are dealing with our own burdens, challenges and struggles, when we have our moments of doubt, as I mentioned last week, it is then that the Holy Spirit comes; it is then that the Holy Spirit empowers. The Holy Spirit is the One who comes alongside us - the paraclete. My friends, how we need the paraclete in our lives!
Jesus said in John's Gospel that this Spirit, this paraclete, will be with you always. My friends, I must confess to you, I am astounded that 2,000 years after that promise, we are here in this church today worshipping Christ, singing praises and day-by-day living the faith. Here we are! When I look at the history of the Church, I think it is absolutely incredible that it has survived. I think it is amazing that the Church, which was persecuted in its very earliest days under Nero, Diocletian and Domitian, survived that persecution. It survived!
When the Gnostics came along in the second century, brought their spurious writings about Jesus and tried to prove that Jesus wasn't fully human, the Church survived. When Arius came along and questioned the divinity of Jesus, not his humanity, the Church survived. When the Roman Empire was falling, the barbarians were coming, it looked like the relationship between the Christian faith and society was going to crumble, there was a crisis of faith and the great books were being destroyed, the Church survived. When the eastern and western Churches had a schism and it looked like the Church would forever be divided, the Church survived.
When Aristotelianism came along and started to undermine and call into question many of the ideas of the Christian faith, the Church survived. When there was a Crusade and Christians turned on Christians, when they went to Constantinople and killed one another, it is amazing that the Church survived. When Martin Luther came along and hammered his decrees on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, he made it abundantly clear that there would be change. There was a schism, a counter-reformation and an inquisition, but what happened? The Church survived!
When the Church was at its lowest ebb during the time of Wesley in England, and it looked like secularism, worldliness and apathy had taken over, the Church survived. When the Scientific Revolution came along, on the backs of the Age of Reason and the cynicism and the deism of Voltaire, the Church survived. When fascism and communism tried to either destroy or co-opt Christianity and promoted anti-Semitism or pagan secularism, the Church survived.
When the Church in North America today is overcome with secularism and affluence and beset with a degree of apathy that we haven't seen for years, the Church survives. When there have been sexual scandals and scandals in leadership, and problems have beset the Church concerning our dealings with aboriginals, women and other groups, the Church has survived.
Where is it surviving? Where is it growing, even today? It is growing on the garbage dumps of Maputo. It is growing in the places where human need is often at its greatest. It is growing in the barrios of the cities of Latin America. It is growing in places that we could never, ever imagine! Why? How has it survived? Because of the Holy Spirit!
The Church is not actually about who its leaders are. It is not about whether or not they are perfect. God only knows, at two o'clock on a Sunday afternoon, I am often astounded that Timothy Eaton Memorial Church survives after my sermons! But it is not about me - it never has been and never will be. And it is not about the Church's leaders; it is not even about its members. It is about the power of the Holy Spirit. It is about the power of the Comforter who continues the work of Jesus, and as Jesus said, will be with us always. He also works in the world with us and with others. Not just with us, lest we think that we are the only important people, but with others throughout the world who confess his name. Not just in the confines of our own lives or our own needs, but out of a vision for the Kingdom that is broad and expansive.
The problem is that so often, we in the Church want to have the approval of the world around us. We want to be in sync with our culture. But Jesus warned the disciples. He said, “You will realize that there will be others who will not accept the Spirit that I am sending upon you.” There is not a direct correlation between the zeitgeist, the spirit of the age, and the spirit of the Holy One, the living God.
That is why I love G. K. Chesterton's comment: “We do not want a Church that moves with the world; we want a Church that moves the world.” We want to be a Church that takes the world beyond the confines of its own insularity and desire for wealth, power, prestige and money, and lifts it above those things to the things of God. When the Church understands that it does not have to appease the world, but rather that it needs to be filled with the Holy Spirit in order to help and guide the world - not in a triumphal sense, but with a humble, gracious serving stance, just like Jesus' ministry - then it can do great things.
Known to many people in the theological world, but not much beyond, A. J. Gordon was a man who helped create Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Massachusetts. He tells a story about walking along a very long roadway going up to a farm one day. In the distance, he saw a man pumping water out of a well. As he continued the walk, he noticed that the man had the most tremendous rhythm - he never broke one stroke. It was consistent, powerful and fast. He thought, “Wow! That must be some guy pumping that water!”
He walked for another few minutes, and the man was still pumping away. Gordon couldn't get over this man. “He's absolutely awesome! What a labourer this man is. He is incredible!” But as he got closer, he realized something: It wasn't a man at all. It was actually a wooden figure that looked like a man, with its arms pumping and a wire connected to the well. He went toward it, wondering what on earth was going on. What made this mechanical man pump the well? Finally, he went right up to the well and he realized something: It was an artesian well. The force of the water was pumping the man, not the other way around!
That, my friends, is exactly what the power of the Holy Spirit is like with the Church. It is not we who do all the pumping; it is not we who have all the righteousness. We do not have our act together, we do not have everything nice and neatly organized, and we don't have the right theology at times. But, as stated in the Creed of the United Church, it is the Spirit working in us and others that is the motivator and the power. It is that force, that strength, that helper that moves us. It is that source and that power that gave the vision to Heidi Baker to go to those children on the dump sites, feed them and save them from their poverty. It is that power and that strength that enable us to continue the ministry, to preach God's Word and to carry forth his good news. It is the power of that Spirit that brings about growth in the Church, strengthens the Church and brings love and humility to the Church. It is not we who are the power; it is the power that moves us. May we recite this Creed with the passion that moves in us and in others. This paraclete - this Spirit - moves! Amen.