Acts 17: 22-31 (Common English Bible)
John 14: 15-21 (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)
In both Lectionary readings today we celebrate the arrival of a new traveler who began her journey 14 billion years ago. And that is the Holy Spirit. It is a difficult subject to understand. One way to understand the Holy Spirit and the Trinity is through the Greek term “perichoresis” which illustrates the Holy Trinity in a divine dance in the intimate and harmonious relationships between Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Trinity is a verb in action rather than mistaking it as three anthropomorphic characters.
The Holy Spirit is probably the least discussed and understood subject among mainline Protestant denominations. It is important to note that John 14:16 places God the Father as the source of the Holy Spirit. Later the Roman Catholic Church added the phrase, “and the Son” to the creed in 589 AD. This might not seem like a big deal, but it was. Nearly 500 years later, this was the main reason the Eastern Orthodox Church split from the Roman Catholic Church. The Eastern Church in Constantinople condemned the Western Church in Rome for changing scripture.
When we read the gospel of John, Jesus addresses the worries his disciples had and the same worries we might have. Jesus invites us into another world, one is which he reigns, love is widespread and we are never alone. That is because we have an ever present Advocate called the Holy Spirit to guide us. Rather than living if Jesus is gone, we should celebrate him alive and active.
Like his disciples before us, we are neither helpless, powerless or abandoned. As Easter people, we should declare and live into God’s new world and embrace the world-changing teachings of Jesus.
The Greek word for Holy Spirit, “parakletos” can be translated in several ways - Comforter, Counselor, Helper, Intercessor and Advocate. The Intercessor part of the Holy Spirit prays for us. And the Advocate part of the Holy Spirit is with us when our faith is tested. Overall, the Holy Spirit helps us to cope with life. It was the Holy Spirit who gave religious activists like Martin Luther King Jr., Dorothy Day, Archbishop Oscar Romero and many more their passion and strength for justice.
It was the same type of passion that led the Apostle Paul to Athens to preach the good news. The philosophers at Athens were eager to hear about this new religion from the Jewish homeland. Paul does not preach a fire and brimstone sermon to his audience. Rather he tries to approach them on their level. Paul shows respect to their Greek history and actually draws a comparison between his beliefs with their own poets. Too bad centuries later Christian missionaries didn’t follow Paul’s example of evangelism.
Paul tells his audience that God is not “out there,” but actually among us right now. As it says in Acts 17:28, “For in God we live and move and exist.” For Paul we are creatures in a symbiotic communion with God. As Jesus is quoted in John’s gospel, “because I live, you also will live.” And, “I am the vine, you are the branches.” This is basically no different from what 20th century theologians like Paul Tillich wrote, that God is the “Ground of Being.”
If we take Paul’s speech at Mars Hill, also called the Areopagus, seriously, God is already here all around us. The divine life within the Trinity is swirling all around us and through all things even to the edges of the universe and beyond.
Notice when Paul comes before the Athenians, he does not openly denounce their gods or point fingers and accuse them of being lost without guidance. Instead Paul acknowledges their spiritual journey and then shares his own journey. I like to imagine that Paul’s approach to the Greek philosophers allows them to see Paul as a fellow seeker of knowledge and truth, which makes the Athenians more receptive to his message.
Paul believes what he has found is worth sharing. Part of what Paul shares in his understanding of the human condition is universal to all. Whatever name you give it, we all spend our lives searching and groping for life and love to be accepted. We all hope for the redemption of things we have done or not done and spend parts of our lives erecting idols in hope they will meet our needs.
When we ask God for guidance we should realize that God is not a being among other beings. The term “Supreme Being” for God is so wrong because it puts God into a pecking order with other “beings.” God is Being itself revealed to any true seeker. Moses found that out on Mount Horeb when he encountered the burning bush. The God whom Jesus talked about is presented as a totally positive and inclusive flow in one direction, a waterwheel of outgoing love and justice that never stops.
The Trinity gives us a better understanding of Jesus and the Universal Christ. When Jesus is removed from the Trinity we have created a very earth-centered figure with an atonement theology that will collapse when intelligent life is discovered on other planets. We’ve tried to love Jesus without knowing the Universal Christ, which existed billions of untold years before Jesus was born. The result has been an unhealthy tribal and competitive form of religion instead of what Paul preached at Mars Hill in Athens.
Christ is everywhere and in everything. Christ is a Cosmic and metaphysical statement before it is a religious one. Jesus is a personal and historical statement. Most Christians have the second statement, but without the first statement, it makes Jesus and the Christian faith way too small.
Now, I hope through my sermon, I haven’t confused anyone even more about the Holy Spirit and the Trinity. As I stated earlier, it’s a difficult subject. It took several church councils over many years to figure it out. And it’s debatable any church council ever really figured it out. But I don’t advise anyone to dissect and try to decipher the Nicean Creed written in 325 AD. You might be more confused. Instead watch the 2017 movie, “The Shack” based on the novel of the same name. I might have mentioned this book and movie before, but it is worth repeating. In the movie the Trinity comes alive. God is a Black woman, the Son is a Middle-Eastern man and the Spirit is an Asian woman. And the Holy Spirit is considered the feminine part of the Holy Spirit. In the book and movie the Trinity assists a father regain his faith after a serial killer murders his daughter. Although the Trinity is not actually three different human-like figures, this movie symbolizes what the Trinity does everyday among us. And believe me, the movie is much easier to understand than the Nicean Creed.
AMEN
