The Spirit of Truth
John 14:8-17; Acts 2:16-21[1]
Given our sometimes maddeningly diverse world, I’m afraid people
tend to fall into two camps when it comes to “Truth.” Some, like Pontius Pilate
long ago, sagely ask, “What is truth?” (John 18:38). Others cling ever more
tightly to that version of “Truth” they have embraced, insisting as the Roman
Catholic Church did in the Middle Ages that it is “what has been believed
everywhere, always, and by all.”[2]
I’m afraid this kind of “all-or-nothing” thinking has plagued the church for
centuries. Indeed, all organized religions are characterized by their ability
to define and maintain their identity, even when the means they use to do so
may seem to contradict the faith they profess.[3]
Unfortunately, that tension in the church originates in Scripture.
It is a tension between what we might call “exclusion” and “embrace.”[4] There are many passages of scripture that
emphasize “God’s people” as unique, distinct, set apart from other peoples.
And, as we discussed not long ago, along with that goes “boundary markers” that
are absolute in order to reinforce that identity. It is the language of
“exclusion.” It says to those who are different, “You don’t belong.”
But then there are also many passages in Scripture that emphasize that
God’s ultimate purpose in choosing a people for himself is to bring all peoples
into the embrace of God’s love and God’s life.
Along with that point of view go visions of a far-reaching and
all-inclusive mission to carry the good news of God’s love to all nations. It
is the language of “embrace.” It says, “Jesus loves the little children, all
the children of the world.”
Our Scripture lessons for today highlight this problem. In our
lesson from Acts, Peter uses verses from the book of the prophet Joel to
explain what was happening on the Day of Pentecost. He boldly proclaims, “this
is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days it will be, God
declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh’” (Acts 2:16-17). Peter
was quoting from Joel 2:28, which in its context was a part of God’s promise to
restore his people and restore his life-giving presence among them. That might
seem to limit the promise of the Spirit to Jewish people, but in Acts, the idea
of the Spirit poured out on “all flesh,” as well as the promise that “everyone
who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Acts 2:21), clearly implies
that the promise is opened to all people.
On the other hand, in our lesson from John’s Gospel, Jesus seems
to speak about the gift of the Spirit in a very different way. The setting is
that Jesus is preparing his disciples for his departure. But they are confused.
They cannot fathom the idea that the Messiah would abandon them. In response,
Jesus promises to send them “another Advocate” (John 14:16). The word
“Advocate” here could also be translated “Comforter,” “Counselor,” “Helper,” or
“Friend.” I think the main point is that the one Jesus was sending to them
would be with them in the same way that he had been with them.
Jesus calls this helper, “the Spirit of Truth (John 14:17),
because he’s talking about the Spirit of God, the one who makes God’s presence
real in our lives, and the one who would continue to make Jesus’ presence real
in their lives and ours. But the strange thing Jesus says about the “Spirit of
Truth” is that while “he abides with you, and he will be in you,” “the world
cannot receive [him]” (John 14:17). This seems to be a very different take on
the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost. It seems to say that the Spirit is
reserved only for a limited group, not poured out on “all flesh.”
What are we to make of this? Is the Spirit of God poured out on
everyone, or just a particular group? Even within the Gospel of John, which
affirms that “God so loved the world that he gave his only son” (John 3:16), the
language of our Gospel reading seems strange. Part of the answer can be found
in the fact that the community of believers John was addressing faced severe
threats, like the loss of livelihood, or family and social ties, or possibly
even loss of their lives. In the face of these kinds of threats our natural
fears harden into isolation. Instead of embracing others, we see them as a
threat from which we must protect ourselves. And we tend to restrict those who
belong to our “group,” and limit the gifts that go with our faith, like the
gift of the Spirit.
Beyond the context of our reading from John’s Gospel, I believe we
have to think more clearly about what the gift of the Spirit represents. It
represents God’s presence in this world, and I don’t see a whole lot of
justification in Scripture for placing any limitations on that. The Spirit
represents Jesus’ continuing presence in this world, and it doesn’t make sense
to restrict the presence of the one who identifies with the poor and
marginalized people in our world. If we see ourselves as those who are called
by the “Spirit of Truth” to be the people of the God who embraces all people in
his love, then we cannot isolate ourselves from “outsiders” whom we judge
“different.”[5] If we are going to follow the “Spirit of
Truth,” we will not only love God but also love our neighbors, all our
neighbors. [6]
And that means recognizing every human being as a beloved child of God. As Ray
Stevens sang it, “Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his
sight.” If they are precious in God’s sight, they must be precious in ours as
well.
[1]
© 2019 Alan Brehm. A sermon
delivered by Rev. Dr. Alan Brehm on 6/9/2019 at Hickman Presbyterian Church,
Hickman, NE.
[2]
This was Vincent of Lerin’s view of the faith that guided the Roman Catholic
Church in the medieval ages. See The
Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 1700, s. v. “Vincentian Canon.”
[3]
John D. Caputo, On Religion, 32-33: “Institutionalized
communities are defined by their identity and the power to maintain their identity,
which includes the power to excommunicate the different.”
[4]
See Miroslav Volf, Exclusion and Embrace,
22-31.
[5]
Volf, Exclusion and Embrace, 69-79.
[6]
Caputo, On Religion, 111: “Religious
truth is tied up with being truly religious, truly loving God, loving God in
spirit and in truth (John 4:24), and there are more ways to do that than are
dreamt of by the faithful in the traditional confessions.”
