Today
is the Feast of Pentecost, the day the Church celebrates that, after ascending
to the Father, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit. And today I want us to consider one
thing Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would do; but first, some context.
There
is a recurring story in Scripture concerning the people of God. It goes
something like this. Having experienced God as Saviour, the people fail to
trust God as Lord. They adopted ‘God, plus’: God, plus various other gods; God,
plus monarchy; God, plus a certain set of ritual or moral behaviours. God, with
an insurance policy on the side. But far from adding security, this
half-hearted approach inevitably led them to a place of defeat. Again, they
would cry out to God as Saviour; again, God would save them; and again, they
would fail to trust God as Lord. Yet, God still held out the hope that they
might know him as both Saviour and Lord, who not only set them free but in whom
they might live in freedom.
Ezekiel’s
vision of the valley of dry bones sits within this recurring pattern. In the
vision, the people have been utterly defeated. There was no one left to bury
the dead. Once the jackals, the carrion crows, the flies had stripped the bones
of meat, and the ants had picked them clean, the unrelenting sun had bleached
them. Yet, even so, the breath of God can bring new life together, resulting in
the vindication of his previously-judged people.
The
Day of Pentecost puts flesh on the bones of Ezekiel’s vision, with devout Jews
drawn- and knitted-together from the four corners of the world and animated by
the Spirit of God. It enacts what Ezekiel envisioned.
Against
that backdrop, listen again to what Jesus said that the Spirit of truth—the
Advocate—will do:
“when
he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and
judgement: about sin, because they do not believe in me; about righteousness,
because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; about judgement
because the ruler of this world has been condemned.”
Sin
and righteousness and judgement. Those are our three words for today.
Jesus
says, the Holy Spirit will prove the world wrong about these things. Or,
convict the world of them. The original Greek conveys the sense of both a
negative and a positive: that the Holy Spirit will show you where you are wrong, and what is right,
about these things.
The
world is wrong about sin and righteousness and judgement. The world says, there
are good people and bad people. The world generally tells us that we, and
people like us, are good; and that people who are not like us are bad. The
world tells us that we deserve good things, and that they deserve their
comeuppance. You need only look at the media or social media to see these
things; though you will also hear them expressed as self-evident truths in
conversation with our neighbours, and, if we are honest, often on our own lips.
Sometimes,
the world flips the game. When we are at our most vulnerable, we may hear the
whisper of Accusation telling us that we are a bad person, one of the ‘them,’
an outsider. The unloved child in the family; the constant disappointment; the
person with no friends. Or, the imposter, living in fear of being found out for
who we really are; and then the judgement will be swift, and unforgiving.
But
either way round, the world is wrong; and the Holy Spirit brings us to Jesus.
What
does Jesus have to say about sin? Remember the woman caught in adultery?
Adultery is a serious betrayal, a breach of trust that tears the very fabric of
society. And causes us to hide, from others, and from God. Sin matters; and
Jesus does not dismiss it. But what does he say? To the crowd—to the ‘us’
circling one of the ‘them’ like a pack of hyenas—he says, let whoever is
without sin cast the first stone. And when they fall away—starting with those
who are older and wiser—Jesus says to the woman, neither do I condemn you; go
and sin no more.
What
does Jesus say about sin? Firstly, that we are all in the same boat: not good
people and bad people; just, people. Secondly, that the separation from God we
experience as a result is not permanent, at least from God’s side: Jesus
reveals that God is not hoping for our comeuppance. And thirdly, that we can be
empowered by God to resist sin, over and over again.
What
does Jesus have to say about righteousness? As it happens, not a lot, at least
explicitly. Matthew records him as saying that those who hunger and thirst for
righteousness are happy, because they shall be filled, their appetite fully
satisfied. And that happy are those who are persecuted for their longing, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Righteousness, then, is a good thing: we are
commended to pursue it; without it, we cannot know God’s good reign. But it
belongs to those who recognise the gap between their longing and their reality:
to ache with hunger and thirst is to know a lack of food and drink, over some
time. Indeed, Jesus is quite provocative towards those who saw themselves as
righteous, who trusted in their own righteousness, those who thought of
themselves as a good person, respectable, upright. Those who didn’t need God. Jesus
came for those who knew that they did need God—who alone Jesus called righteous:
Righteous Father.
Indeed,
Jesus explicitly says that he has come to call not the righteous but sinners to
repentance. Righteousness is something we might see in others but can never
claim to possess for ourselves. The paradox is that only those who know
themselves to be sinners can know the good things that God shares with those
who are undeserving. If others experience it in meeting us, it flows from
closeness to our heavenly Father, time spent in the secret place of prayer that
overflows into our days.
What
does Jesus have to say about judgement? He says that the ruler of this world—satan,
the Accuser—has been condemned. That is, the overturning of the order of the
world. Speaking of his own death and resurrection, Jesus declared now is the
judgement of this world, now the ruler of the world will be driven out. In a
decisive clash of empire and kingdom, God’s oppressed people will be liberated
and decisively vindicated: dry bones brought to life; a people scattered far
and wide brought together and filled with power from on high. Judgement matters—God
does not stand by, impassive, immune to our cries. It takes place in history.
It is costly. And yet, and yet. God’s judgement is for a glorious vindication
on all who would call on Jesus as Saviour and Lord, for the building of a new
society, to be a light to the nations. Of this, the Holy Spirit gives us—keeps giving
us—confidence.
Today
is the Feast of Pentecost, and the Holy Spirit fills this place, lighting on
each one of us here. And of what is the Spirit convicting you? Does the Spirit
come to lift the burden of sin that has been weighing you down? Or, as a strong
wind, to drive you beyond the rules of respectability to the table where your
hunger is fully satisfied? Does the Spirit come to free you from fear of
judgement? Or to renew you when you have given up hope that you will see God’s
judgement?
What
is it that the Spirit saying to your spirit today? May we respond, Maranatha! Come, Holy Spirit! Amen.
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