More to Come

Christ’s promise is that the Holy Spirit will continue to lead us into truth, to new things about the Triune God and about us, to new callings. This need not frighten us; it’s the good news that the Trinity still moves in our lives and is with us on the path.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
   The feast of the Holy Trinity, year C
   
text: John 16:12-15
Jesus said to the disciples, 12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, she will guide you into all the truth; for she will not speak on her own, but will speak whatever she hears, and she will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 She will glorify me, because she will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that she will take what is mine and declare it to you.”

Sisters and brothers in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.

When the Spirit of truth comes, she will guide you into all the truth.”

These are frightening words to ponder. So for most of the Church’s life, we’ve refused to ponder them. For 1,700 years the Church has been more interested in codifying the “truth,” weeding out heresy, punishing those who heard the Spirit’s call differently, rather than considering the possibility that the Triune God might have new things to say, things God is waiting for us to be ready for.

These are frightening words to ponder even at the basic level of our love for the Scriptures, God’s written Word. It’s far easier to think the Bible is the end of God’s speech to us, rather than the beginning. But if Christ is, in fact, the Living Word of God, and promises today, in fact, to continue to teach and lead us through the guidance of the Holy Spirit beyond what is written in the Bible, it’s a whole new world ahead.

Christ promises here that as we grow as the people of God, we will be drawn ever deeper into the life of the Triune God, and will learn new things.

“I still have many things to say to you; when the Spirit of truth comes, she will guide you.”

There will come a time when the Holy Spirit herself will lead the Church to realize that arbitrarily assigning a male pronoun to the Holy Spirit, simply because the Church was born in a patriarchal culture, is just that, arbitrary. She will remind us that “Spirit” in Hebrew is feminine, and in Greek, a neuter noun. So there is no particular reason to translate every pronoun for the Spirit as “he” instead of “she.” Except that our forebears usually didn’t imagine God in feminine ways. Nor often do we: many of us wouldn’t have noticed had the Gospel reading included eight male pronouns for the Spirit instead of eight female pronouns.

The Spirit of truth today reminds us how often in the Scriptures she is named as the One who gives us birth, in the waters of baptism, in the life of prayer. That she is the One who births in us gifts, fruits, and draws them into the light of the world like a midwife. Today the Holy Spirit of God reminds the Church, “I am your Mother, the Giver of Life.”

“I still have many things to say to you; when the Spirit of truth comes, she will guide you.”

There will come a time when the Spirit of truth will lead the Church to understand that when Jesus called the First Person of the Trinity “Father,” it was to show us the intimacy the Triune God wishes to have with us. To know our Creator as “Daddy,” “Abba,” so we understood we were loved deeply, not distant from our Creator.

At this time she will also remind us that the Son of God was born into a patriarchal culture, and perhaps knew this new Church couldn’t bear to envision more of God. And in fact, the Church proved we weren’t ready, calling the whole Trinity “Father” to this day, as if God’s wholeness is male.

But perhaps now, as Christ foretold, the Church is ready to bear a deeper, more profound truth, taught us by the Spirit of truth. That the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, whose name we celebrate today, is both beyond all gender and encompassing all gender, that the fullness of humanity, from female to male, is made in the image of God.

The Spirit of truth reveals the truth about the Trinity is so profoundly beyond us we must not limit God to our own categories, but also that the truth about the Trinity is that we, all of us, created in the image of this one, true God, can see ourselves in our God when God comes to us.

“I still have many things to say to you; when the Spirit of truth comes, she will guide you.”

There will come a time, a time which for many began over forty years ago, when the Spirit of truth will lead the Church to understand that all God’s children, women and men, are called to serve in the world, to all vocations for which they have gifts. She will teach us that, though ordained ministry is only one of many vocations for the people of God, both women and men are called to lead as pastors, bishops, deacons, even if for nearly two millennia the Church didn’t believe this. She will teach us that we need to draw from all kinds of God’s children for our leaders.

This time we know is now, for our two bishops, in Minneapolis, and for the churchwide ELCA, are women, and our vicar is a woman, and gifted women and men are leading the Church into new life and new grace in the Spirit, because now we are hearing from the full spectrum of God’s children in our preaching and teaching and leading.

“I still have many things to say to you; when the Spirit of truth comes, she will guide you.”

There will come a time, a time we rejoice is now, when the Spirit of truth will lead the Church to understand that our gender is not the key issue in whether we can love someone and commit our lives to that person, but it is the love we have received in Christ that we then offer to another in marriage that truly matters.

So the Spirit will lead the Church to understand that, even if for hundreds of years we weren’t ready for this as Church, now is that time, and that in marriage between two people, whoever they are, God’s blessing and love for this world can live and thrive and be revealed in the lives of those two people.

“I still have many things to say to you; when the Spirit of truth comes, she will guide you.”

There will come a time when the Spirit of truth will come to each one of us, when she thinks we’re ready, and invite us to deeper life in the life of the Triune God. She will show us that even if we first came to God hoping for what God would do for us, needing something, seeking something, we would be drawn deeper into the love of God we found and be changed. We would come seeking God for ourselves, and leave bearing God for others.

In that time the Spirit of truth will help each of us see the barriers we put up, our mental blocks and blind spots, our tendencies, our sins, all things in us that make us believe we’re the center of our life. She will help us take them down, move them aside, wash them away, until we see at the center of life only the Triune God, the life into which we are drawn, and we seek to draw others along with us into that life.

“I still have many things to say to you; when the Spirit of truth comes, she will guide you.”

There will come a time, a time we pray deeply is now, when the Spirit of truth will lead each of us, will lead the Church, to understand that peace in Christ is for all or it is for none. That the justice of God is for all or it is for none. She will persistently remind us that God needs each one of us to bring about such peace in the world, to bring about such justice. That she has given us God’s power to bear this healing to the world.

In that time the Spirit will plead with the Church, will plead with each of us, to stop always being late to the great battles for human dignity, to stop being last to stand with those who are being crushed, to begin to be first to move, first to cry out, first to stand hand in hand with all God’s children who are in pain and suffering.

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.

When the Spirit of truth comes, she will guide you into all the truth.”

These aren’t frightening words. These are thrilling, hope-filled words. The Triune God walks with us, dances with the Church, and continues to teach and lead and guide. Just exactly what we need as the path gets harder ahead.

And we needn’t worry how to tell if the Spirit of truth is speaking or if it is another. We already know from the written Word of God that if we hear a word saying the Triune God does not love all, or a word saying we are not called to love all, it is not of our Mother the Spirit who bore us into the world in love.

So, there’s even more to come. More things than maybe we can bear today. But when we’re ready – or maybe when our grandchildren or great-grandchildren are ready – the Spirit of truth will, as always, speak up.

Let’s open our hearts and ears to listen with joy and hope, longing for God’s new creation.

In the name of Jesus.  Amen