[Music]
welcome to the commons cast we're glad
to have you here we hope you find
something meaningful in our teaching
this week head to commons dot church for
more information
last week we started a new series called
the forgotten god
and we are talking about the holy spirit
in this series
and we're going to look at a number of
different areas today we're going to
talk about god's spirit in us and
through us and what it means to trust
that god's voice is not just surrounding
us
but also somehow guiding us through the
world
next week we'll look at spirit in
community and how we navigate our
choices together and then we're going to
talk about how spirit
expands our imagination of the divine
adding more complexity but also more
beauty into the metaphors that are
available to us
but last week we began the series by
talking about trinity
because i figured if we're going to talk
about god as spirit then we need some
framework for that and this is what
trinity provides for us
i also said last week that i'm not
particularly interested in adjudicating
theological spats in this series
all of our language of god
but particularly when we talk about
something as mysterious as spirit this
language is provisional
if you think about it
as soon as we start to talk about god in
any capacity
we are necessarily using language that's
drawn from our experience of the world
to describe something someone
who is fundamentally other
and so we always have to hold our god
talk open handed
there's a theological stream called the
apophatic tradition
and the core of apophatic theology is
the idea that we can only ever say what
god is not
god is just too big too great for us to
ever speak definitively of
and so in this tradition even if you
were to say god is love you could say
okay well as human beings we experience
love and that orients us toward the
divine
it helps us understand that god is not
avarice or selfishness or greed or wrath
because those things are not love but
even our very concepts our experience of
love are always tilted even if slightly
so divine love is something we can never
ever perfectly describe
we can only know what god is by noticing
the brokenness in our own experiences of
love
now i'm not a theologian in the
apathetic tradition but i do think they
are on to something there
by the way gregory of nazianzus who we
talked about last week
and who gave us that image of trinity as
the eternal dancing around
he came from the apaphatic tradition of
the cappadocian fathers
now one more footnote here
if you really want to tie yourself in an
apathetic knot listen to this quote from
the 9th century irish theologian john
the scot we do not know what god is
god does not know what god is
because god is not anything
god is not because god transcends the
very idea of being now all he's saying
here is that even our language of being
and knowing all of this is too narrow
for god
and so when we talk of god
we have to remind ourselves to keep
pushing ourselves to expand our thinking
that's his point now why is this
important when it comes to trinity well
it's important because we have sometimes
these deeply ingrained images and
metaphors
god is father son and spirit they are
beautiful
sacred even because they are gifted to
us by god
but those images can also if we're not
careful
close down rather than open up our
imagination of god
god is like a father but god is not your
dad and god is like a son but in
christian theology we have this belief
that the christ is eternal in both
directions
so jesus was born and lived and died and
rose again ascended to heaven to prepare
a place for us and that jesus
demonstrates divine love for us alive
and breathing in human history
but the christ the logos the word that
was with god in the beginning as john
says
that has always existed never been born
therefore not an offspring and therefore
not at least literally a son
and look that gets kind of heady
and you might be right to ask what's the
point of all this does it even matter
truth is
you can very rightly keep jesus at the
center of your faith journey and model
your life around his example and
teachings and that is enough
but there are reasons that i think
talking about the nature of god
is worth the discomfort it brings from
time to time
first
as i said it keeps our god talk
provisional
it reminds us that theology is useful
but theology can never completely define
god
and so theology at its best is not about
definite answers it's about becoming
more like god more loving
and any theology that doesn't help you
become more loving is by definition bad
theology
second
this is why we're opening the series
this way
is that i believe
that reminding ourselves of the grace of
god that extends even beyond our
language
this is what creates the room for us to
experience the presence of god spirit in
the fullness of what jesus invites us to
as i said last week
i tend to live in my head a lot
and that can really be a gift i'm pretty
comfortable with myself and my
idiosyncrasies at this point in life
but reminding myself
that i can't think my way to god
that helps me to open myself to spirit
in new ways every day
and so today we want to talk about god
as spirit in us through us speaking to
us
but first let's pray
good morning heavenly father
good morning lord jesus good morning
holy spirit
we worship you today as creator of the
universe a savior of our world as
sustainer of all that is
and we ask that you would continue to
invite us to know you in ever more
expansive ways
may our lives look more and more like
love
may our intentions be shaped by your
imagination
would our very existence sing of your
presence around us this moment
as we speak today of triune being in
spirit that enlivens and animates all
life
might we begin to see more love and joy
and peace and patience
more kindness and goodness and
faithfulness more gentleness and
self-control might we see all of this
growing up in us
and extending out into your world
through us
and if in order for that to come
our imaginations need to be expanded
or our welcome of spirit needs to be
opened
and holy blessed glorious god in three
persons
have mercy upon us
and be present to us in a new way
today
and the strong name
of the risen christ we pray
amen
okay forgotten god part two today we're
going to talk about jesus and the father
jesus and the spirit our felt experience
in the world and the peaceful voice of
spirit in our lives first though let me
say this there's lots that i want to
cover today so buckle up because we are
going to jump straight in i got no
stories for you but we're going to start
by looking at how jesus talks about
spirit and in john 14 jesus is starting
to prep his disciples for his departure
the story is getting closer and closer
to the cross and jesus is becoming more
and more aware of how that story is
going to go
and so he wants to prepare his friends
for this
there's a lot going on in this chapter
it comes right on the heels of jesus
explaining to peter that he will disown
jesus three times that very night
but then jesus launches into this
section by saying look i know this is
bad news
but don't let your hearts be troubled
you already believe in god trust also in
me
my father's house has many rooms and i
am going there to prepare a place for
you
and if i'm preparing a place for you
that means i will come back for you
so that we can be together
don't lose heart
you know the way to where i am going
now again there's a lot going on here
and we're going to keep reading and
we'll get to spirit a little later
but let's parse this first
jesus says
guys this isn't going to end well
i'm going to die some of you are even
going to desert me tonight
but trust me i'm doing all of this for
you for your good
now
sometimes we get a little caught up here
on wondering exactly what jesus means by
preparing a place for us i mean what are
all these rooms and where exactly are
they
i know that we have this popular
imagination of jesus as a carpenter but
i do not think that we should be
picturing him building houses in heaven
in this moment
this isn't intended as a technical
explanation of angelic living quarters
the idea here is simply that the cross
which is what he's been talking about
prepares a place for us in the presence
and the welcome of god
okay but then he says you know the way
to the place where i'm going and that
sounds kind of cryptic
but if you think about it
the place he is going is heaven and the
way there is the cross
so
this is just jesus saying guys i've told
you it's coming we've talked about this
before i've tried to prepare you please
don't lose hope
to which thomas says
actually
we don't know what you're talking about
and we certainly don't know the way
and this is a theme all through the
gospels right jesus keeps explaining
what's going to happen and the disciples
keep pushing back saying we don't get it
we saw this just a couple weeks ago with
peter
in a vulnerable moment jesus opens up
about his death and his fears and peter
says oh get out of here that's never
going to happen
and we can read that as the disciples
not understanding not getting jesus
that's definitely part of the story
but there is another level here i think
all of us none of us we never want to
hear bad news
and so our tendency sometimes i think is
to push back against what we don't want
to hear and hold on to what we hope for
i think that's at least part of what's
happening here thomas doesn't want to
think about the path that jesus is going
to take the suffering and the pain and
it's just easier to plead ignorance
and honestly that feels a little too
familiar at times
but jesus responds by saying you don't
know the way
thomas i am the way
and the truth and the life no one comes
to the father except through me if you
really know me you will know my father
too
from now on
you do know him
and you have seen him
now pretty famous passage
one that we get pulled out of context
all the time to listen to i couldn't
tell you how many times i've heard this
weaponized against someone who's outside
of faith
rather than used as an invitation to
explore jesus
but a couple things here
first of all
notice the kindness that jesus extends
to thomas in this moment
thomas says jesus i don't get it i don't
understand and jesus responds and says
actually thomas you do
from now on remember you know me you
know god it's going to be okay
and there's a lot that's going to come
in the story much of it's going to be
tragic but i find jesus instinct to
reassure his friend here
incredibly comforting in those moments
when i'm not sure about my own faith
i mean just try
to imagine yourself in a moment of
anxiety and doubt and hearing jesus say
it's okay you know me you know god we'll
get through this together
there's a tenderness to jesus that i
find magnetic hold on to that we're
going to make our way back to there
later
but
think about this moment for a second
jesus has been talking about the cross
he says this needs to happen he says the
way it's going to happen is painful and
thomas says we don't know the way and so
jesus says thomas
i am the way
in other words
everything i have shown you through all
of my life all of the love all of the
selflessness and sacrifice for others
that i've shown you
all of the ideas that i've taught and
i've lived out in front of you that's
who i am and this
is the way
all apologies to the
mandalorian but that's essentially all
that jesus is saying here
the way of the cross
is just another example of who he has
always been all through his life
because that way of generative love is
the truth that life itself is grounded
in
and if you've seen that like thomas
living and breathing in the world in
front of you then you have seen the
father because god is
the eternal dance of gift and reception
self-giving love in relationship from
before there was
anything
last week
i said that trinity is not an explicitly
biblical concept it's the product of
biblical reflection
this is what i'm talking about
at no point does the bible or jesus ever
neatly explain trinity for us
yet as we reflect on the story of jesus
we keep finding ourselves drawn back to
this idea of divine love expressed
within the community of god self
but
we haven't even gotten to spirit and
that's our agenda so let's keep going
after the way in life and truth bit
philip decides to jump in
and he says okay one more thing lord
show us the father and that'll be enough
then we'll leave you alone
and i don't know if a lot of people know
this but this right here is the moment
when the palm was invented
just kidding jesus is far too gracious
for that instead he responds very calmly
and very patiently well philip
as i said
if you've seen me you've seen the father
and if you follow me you are following
the way and if you live the way that i
have lived i promise you will find your
way back to god
you can read his full response to philip
it's in verses 9 to 15
i want to pick up again in verse 16
because that's where jesus now expands
the conversation to spirit
he says
i am going
but i will ask the father and he will
give you another advocate to help you
and be with you forever the spirit of
truth the world cannot accept him
because it neither sees him nor knows
him
but you know him
for he lives with you and will be in you
i will not leave you as orphans i will
come to you before long the world will
not see me anymore but you will see me
because i live you also will live
and on that day you will realize that i
am in my father and you are in me and i
am in you and if that sounds confusing
you are not at all wrong
because this is a mess
jesus is going and another is coming
and when that one comes they will be in
you and jesus will be gone and no one
will see him but you will
because jesus is in the father and you
are in him and he is in you my goodness
a couple things here
the niv which is what i'm reading from
has opted for masculine pronouns for
spirit here that's an interesting choice
because spirit here is not a masculine
noun and therefore none of the pronouns
that jesus uses are masculine
that said translators are in a tough
spot
because well ruach the feminine word for
spirit in hebrew and spiritus is the
latin term which is masculine there
panuma which we're reading in greek is
neuter
and in english
neuter pronouns like it tend to be very
depersonalized
so you can understand why they didn't
want to use that interestingly though
since the niv was first published in
1973 they
have actually become a more common
singular pronoun in english and that
might actually be the closest to the
intent of the greek language in john 14.
at the same time probably shouldn't read
too much into that
greek like french assigns grammatical
gender to words that has nothing to do
with gender identity or expression
that's just a linguistic phenomenon
and so we are much better off
building our imagination of spirit
through the multiplicity of biblical
images and metaphors even the feminine
ones it gives us rather than just a
linguistic analysis still it's kind of
an interesting note
a bigger focus here though
is the way that jesus
in the gospel of john at least
weaves together his presence in the
world
with the creator of the universe
with the experience of spirit that runs
throughout all of our lives
and again this section by no means
offers us a nice neat tidy definition of
trinity but it does show that at least
by the time that john was written in the
late 1st century
the christian community was forming an
identity not just around the historical
jesus
but around the post-resurrection
experience of jesus spirit that welcomes
all of us into the presence of god
and you could see this beautifully in
the opening sometimes called the
prologue of john
in the beginning was the word and the
word was with god and the word was god
the word was with god in the beginning
through him all things were made without
him nothing was made
that's talking
about a connection between jesus and god
but it's using language that is very
clearly drawn from genesis
and there the poet writes that in the
beginning when everything was formless
and void and god began to create it was
the spirit or the ruach of god that
hovered over creation
so we have creator that shapes us and
christ that transforms us and spirit
that indwells and animates all of us
entwined inseparably together in this
christian imagination
now why is any of this important beyond
a debatably interesting theological
lesson
well here's why it's important to me
because jesus talks and the scriptures
speak
about our felt experience of the divine
the spirit that lives and moves through
us in the world as equally valid with
any other expression of divine encounter
spirit
and emotion
and encounter
these are not secondary ways to speak of
god
with every breath you have access to the
same creative force that has shaped the
universe
and that's beautiful
but that's also sometimes a little bit
scary isn't it
i mean who's to say this is spirit but
this is not
and i have spirit but you don't
much easier sometimes to clamp back down
on what we can say for sure
to elevate scripture or let's be honest
our particular interpretation of
scripture
above the living breathing spirit of
jesus that is at work in all of us
leading us steadily back toward love
i mean you and i we've all seen the
expressions of christianity that we know
and our bones are not loving
but sometimes we would rather that
in its absoluteness than the complexity
and the subjectivity of trusting spirit
to guide us when it comes to love
and look
i'm talking to myself here because often
times when i've seen things that looked
like religious abuse my default response
has been to step back or away or to
intellectualize my faith rather than
lean on spirit to guide me forward
and yet i also know
that some of my experiences with spirit
have been absolutely formative for me
that shaped me and pointed me in
directions that have defined my life
and i went into ministry as a career and
then a few years later i left that
career
a couple years after that i moved to
calgary to work for a church all over
again and then i left that position one
that i had held for a decade to start a
church here in kensington
and at each of those junctures there was
some sense of spirit that was guiding me
i know that i trust that but none of it
ever was simple
yet looking back reflecting on the most
important decisions of my life the ones
where i know spirit was leading me i've
come to realize that none of them ever
felt like an obligation
like i've made some hard choices
but it's always only ever been
invitation and adventure and possibility
in front of me this loving welcome of
spirit into what comes next
and slowly over time
this is how i've come to identify that
softer more subjective voice of god in
my life
ironically
probably what i should have known from
the start is that it is the slow steady
gentle welcome of jesus that i've
learned to listen for when it comes to
spirit
because here's the thing
to welcome the guidance of spirit is a
risky thing
and i've taken some big leaps in my life
based on what i thought the spirit was
saying to me but whenever i've seen the
idea of spirit used in manipulative ways
like the times particularly earlier in
my christian journey when i saw the
threat of spirit used to intimidate
someone
or to bolster authority by elevating one
person above another that was never
gentle like jesus
and it was never an invitation to
explore it was always a demand it wasn't
a risk it was fear that dominated those
moments
and that is not the way nor the truth
nor the life that was embodied by the
christ
the one who
welcomes us to witness the union of
creator and spirit and savior in our
world the one who reveals god to us
a self-giving dance of gift and
reception from before time
see
spirit is active in you right now
evidenced by the very fact that you
breathe
and god is so much more than just an
idea to understand or even a teaching to
embrace god is speaking to you in every
moment guiding you to love
but the way to filter out that voice
from the many that speak to all of us
constantly every day is to train
ourselves to listen for the most gentle
the most peaceful voice we can possibly
distinguish from everything else
that spirit
the best way to discern spirit is to
listen for the voice that gently listens
back to you
the one that says from now on
you do know me you do know god you do
know love i know it's difficult but we
can do this together
and sometimes
i find myself wishing i could trade a
spirit
for answers
and i know that would make a lot of
things easier for me but i also know
that will never reflect the god that has
only ever known community
and love
and so i'm left
learning how to love
trusting that spirit is as real as my
mind
and knowing that with every small step i
take every time i give myself away in
the model of jesus i move closer to
everything that god imagines for me
so may you sense spirit in you and near
you today closes your breath
may the most gentle voice in the world
slowly become the one that you learn to
listen to
and may you learn to trust the guiding
of spirit that leads you steadily toward
self-giving love inviting you
to love the way that the christ did
my spirit lead all of us
into more grace today
let's pray
three-in-one god
who has always existed as self-giving
love
shared gift and reception give and take
inhale and exhale
the god who speaks and listens within
god's self
might that imagination of love become
the imagination from which we live
with the cacaocophany of voices that
speak to us and yell at us demand
allegiance from us might we slowly begin
to parse out your voice
the gentle peaceful voice that teaches
us what it means to love each other
in all of the complexity of life and
relationship
may we slowly hear your voice more
clearly and may the courage rise up
inside us
to follow it
and step by step as we follow your way
in the world
might we trust might we know
that we are being drawn closer to you
in the strong name
of the risen christ we pray
amen
all right
two more weeks of spirit