Sermon for Whitsunday – May 11, 2008
“ I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. ”
EVER think how funny a human being is to look at? If you could forget you were human, perhaps grow up in a pack of wolves, and came upon a city, how would you regard your fellow human creatures?
Comparison to all other living beings, a human seems to teeter around balanced on top of two narrow legs, on strange pads called feet , with huge heads and long arms swinging. The head swivels around, eyes outward, observing the other funny humans, and thinking nothing is out of the ordinary. They are covered with thin vegetable weavings, making them colorful instead of various shades of beige to brown. Compared to other animals, the one that walks upright is noisy, ill equipped for the elements, and seems oblivious to his own vulnerability. He creates strange hard objects in which to travel at high speeds, for he is rather slow of foot. And he makes overly large boxes in which he works, eats, rests and sleeps. Here he makes his abode, rears and raises children, guards his possessions, and eventually dies. These bodies last up to a hundred years, 70 to 80 on average, and then they return to the native soil.
We are very funny, when we stop assuming that we are normal to this world. In our own context, with paved streets, artificial lighting, shops and signs and traffic, addresses for residences and work places: we think nothing of it. But take us and drop us naked into the middle of Nevada and we'd see how strange this planet really is, and we even stranger in it. So we create an environment around us to orient ourselves to living here, but let a hurricane or cyclone, earthquake, fire or flood destroy this grid of streets and hiding places, and in an instant life takes on a more basic meaning. Some of us go camping to get a sense of basic existence. Outside almost all the day, we still need our warm sleeping bag when the sun goes down, and for most of us a tent.
Life makes little sense if we have no context for being here. Mankind creates contexts—the work day, paychecks, parking lots, single family dwellings, drivers' licenses, and public schools—in order to organize and orient us to our world. Modern man is as out of touch with nature as a tulip in the Gobi Desert. Modern man is trying to explain our presence on earth as an extension of nature, as though it were obvious that nature exhausted its variations of lions, elephants, polar bears, otters, swans and monkeys, and let one species start thinking big thoughts, grow opposable thumbs, come out of the trees and walk erect. No weirder than a flamingo or a praying mantis. Mankind did begin thinking, and in his big thoughts was a notion that Someone larger and greater than himself had done all this. Of course the animals were wiser and knew that they had created themselves. Modern man is catching up with the amoeba: that self-wise single-celled organism that launched itself from primordial mud into simple life without meaning or intention or help.
That's what modern man is saying. We're just nature having a little joke.
But if that doesn't satisfy you, (and your presence here suggests that you can't swallow that theory), then human life has a point and the pointer is aimed at the sky. We are meant for something else. We open our Bibles to find out what .
There we discover another story, one of creation, a great God, early humans, and disobedience. Mankind starts as the top of creation, blessed by a Supreme Being, actually created in the image and likeness of God. Fallen from grace the lessons are hard, but it is all moving toward a valiant rescue, some great end. Abraham rises and goes south. Moses leads his descendants through the wilderness. Joshua leads an assault to gain a country. David is anointed king. Promises are made, hints given, Someone else is coming. In warlike language Moses sang of God's purification of Israel, with punishment for idolatry, exile for a time, and restoration. “Shout for joy, ye nations, with his people, For he avengeth the blood of his servants, And rendereth vengeance to his enemies, And maketh atonement for his land, for his people.” Deut 32:40-43 Various translations make that mercy or cleansing, but some say atonement —God Himself making a sacrifice to settle a score. God was coming here to become a man and die.
“ And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” John 1:14 The Word dwelt among us. He by Whose pronouncement everything from white light to blond hair sprang into existence is now enclosed in human flesh and has come for a Purpose. We know from the Gospel accounts it was to die in our place. He also came to rise from the grave, defeating death. But there was a third revolution He had planned. He said He was leaving so He could send the Comforter, the Spirit of God. Today's Gospel reads: “If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you … If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him … At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you .”
God has made us in His image. One reason He may have done this was that He intended to indwell us by His Holy Spirit, to make us His own abode. This fulfills the prophesied New Covenant Jeremiah spoke of: “ Behold, the days come… that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.” Jer 31:27-34 Once God makes His abode in you, what kind of a difference do you suppose that might make?
Let's imagine a bachelor pad. Only one guy living there, going to college, pursuing his own interests, away from his parents. There are a few thousand such dwellings here in Chico. Got the picture? Let the young man grow up a little, fall in love, get serious about life, and marry the girl: now she moves in and they make a home together. What kind of difference is there going to be in that former bachelor pad? It's kind of like that when the Holy Spirit comes to live inside your humanity. It's why we celebrate Mother's Day today. Viva la difference . Thank you, ladies, for making us live differently than we would have alone.
When God Himself comes to live inside of you, you need to change. There is a gentle force, an urging, that causes you to look upon this life of yours—on your possessions, your pastimes, attitudes, likes and dislikes, jokes and favorite stories, DVD collection, and tastes—and reassess them all, reassign new values to them, discover that the pleasure has gone out of many of them. God is cleaning his abode . He has made atonement for this. He has paid a great price. He has a right to enter and to subtly, or drastically, change things around.
Acts chapter 2 finds the disciples of Christ suddenly given new languages as a gift by the Holy Spirit, driving them out into the street, praising God and testifying of Jesus to the many in Jerusalem from distant lands in their own foreign tongues. Tongues was one of several signs given at that time to verify the Spirit's presence and approval. By the second century, tongues was no longer the common sign. Then God's Spirit falling on a believer universally brought tears: a steady stream of happy weeping. What were they crying for?
You are on a quest. It began with your first breath, or before. The first task is to find out why you're here, what you have to do with this planet and its strange creatures, who is your God and what does He want from you? You encounter Him and by faith in Him, you let Him in. Jesus made it possible and now God's Spirit makes His abode in you. You once were lost , now you're found. Was blind , now you see. Deaf , now hear. Crippled , now walk. Living a pointless existence for yourself , now you have a destiny. Guilt ridden, shame-faced, burdened , now you are forgiven. Sure of hell and an ignoble end , now hopeful of heaven and glory in everlasting life. An orphan, loner, cut off, alien, reject, unchosen , now specially selected by the Holy God as His abode, and He lives in you and loves you from the very heart of your existence. What were they crying for ? They were crying for joy. Our own eyes should be brimming with happy tears as well, if the Holy Spirit has chosen us for His own abode.
I mentioned Mother's Day. A wife and mother makes a house into a home. It's her nature to create a dwelling. In this she is most like the Holy Spirit, and perhaps that is why some identify God's more feminine nature with the Spirit. That should be enough for us to honor, revere, appreciate and hallow women. No longer objects of lust or oppression, but of admiration and joy. Happy Mother's Day once again.
Discendi Amor Santo , the words written by 15 th century Bianco da Siena , are more familiar to us as the hymn, Come Down O Love Divine . What an invitation to the Holy Spirit! We can't make our souls and bodies worthy of Him, but if we welcome Him , and are willing to let Him do in us His work, we can become a fitting place in which God may make His abode.
Come down, O love divine, seek Thou this soul of mine,
And visit it with Thine own ardor glowing.
O Comforter, draw near, within my heart appear,
And kindle it, Thy holy flame bestowing.
O let it freely burn, til earthly passions
turn to dust and ashes in its heat consuming;
And let Thy glorious light shine ever on my sight,
And clothe me round, the while my path illuming.
And so the yearning strong, with which the soul will long,
Shall far outpass the power of human telling;
For none can guess its grace, till he become the place
Wherein the Holy Spirit makes His dwelling .
PFH+