Principal Service

[Genesis 8.20—9.17]

Acts 17.22–31 †

Psalm 66.7–end

1 Peter 3.13–end

John 14.15–21

Sermon

Last Sunday our readings were looking at that inclusive nature of God and how through the Father and Son’s relationship, two parts of the Trinity, we are shown how we live as Christian’s. This week Jesus talks about that third part of the Trinity, the Spirit of Truth otherwise known as the Holy Spirit.

We often leave talking about the Trinity for Trinity Sunday and the Holy Spirit for Pentecost! Yet the three roles of the trinity are an integral part of our faith, so it is important that we spend time thinking and praying about them.

In our gospel reading, Jesus is explaining to the disciples that once he has left them physically, the Holy Spirit will be with them. I can see why this reading could give the impression that the Holy Spirit is this new part of God that comes at Pentecost, yet the Holy Spirit has been a part of God from the very beginning of creation moving across the waters. When we think about creation and that we are created in the image of God. Do we imagine God as separate male and female beings? Thinking about God in binary terms is helpful to us because it simplifies the idea of God for us. Yet it limits God. The language that we tend to associate with God is predominantly male, yet does this describe God in the fullest sense? Are we just being lazy in our worship by using masculine language to describe God?

Julian of Norwich who was a medieval mystic describes Jesus as mother and interchanges God’s gender in her writings.

She says, our heavenly Mother, Jesus, will never allow us his children to die, for he is almighty, all wise, all love.’ (Pg 131 (Julian Norwich journeys into joy).

So describing God using different genders is not a modern idea and it’s certainly not unheard of, so why don’t we do it?

I have always felt more comfortable talking about the Holy Spirit as female. This is helpful because it personalises the Spirit and doesn’t make ‘it’ an ‘it’ anymore. The problem with this, like assigning maleness to the Father, is that it limits the trinity by putting each aspect of God into different pigeon hole. God is beyond gender, so it isn’t accurate or helpful to use these terms.

In our reading from Acts Paul is talking to a group of people who believed in many different Gods and attributed to each of them control or jurisdiction over different aspects of the world, such as the weather or war. Paul sympathises with these people and understands why they might find it easier to understand the way the world and the divine work together on earth. Yet what he is trying to help them understand is that the true God is much greater and loving than the small gods they look to for favour.

We are human and so we are limited. If we can relate to God in a personal way it helps us understand how God relates to us. So maybe it is ok to limit God to help us make sense of it all, as long as we recognise and understand that this is what we are doing.

So if we can feel comfortable and understand the relationship between Father and Son or Mother and Daughter (if Julian can describe Jesus as Mother, than Jesus can just as much be a daughter!) Then where does the Holy Spirit fit in? What is Jesus telling us in our reading from John’s gospel?

In the Creed it says, I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord the giver of Life; who proceeds from the Father and the Son.’

What this is intended to communicate is that the Spirit is intricately bound up and inseparable from the Father and Son. They are together truly God. So the activity we see in the Spirit, in Acts and today, resemble the God made known in Jesus – not some other or extra god.

Sam Wells, the vicar of St Martin’s in the fields, says that, ‘what the Holy Spirit does is to overcome the distance of space and time between Christ and the believer and makes Jesus present in the church today.’

This is what Jesus is explaining to the disciples in our gospel reading. Jesus says, ‘I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. ¹⁹In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me;’

Jesus is saying that they will still see Jesus through the work of the Holy Spirit. She is the giver of life and is always present among us, working for the good of creation, just as Jesus did during his time on earth.

One analogy that you could use to help you understand the work of the Spirit is to imagine the church in darkness. It is there but we can’t see it. Yet when the flood lights come on, we can see the church. This is what the Holy Spirit is and does, it enlightens so that we can see God’s work in the world.

Through worship and prayer we often say, ‘in the power of the Spirit.’ This is to indicate that we are doing something with God’s help through the Holy Spirit. She is working amongst us and inspires us to focus on the teachings of Jesus in everything that we say or do. As it says in the hymn All over the world the Spirit is moving, All over the world as the Prophets said it would be, All over the world there’s a mighty revelation of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

So what we need to do as disciples of Christ is to walk in the Spirit, to look out for her work among our community and in our world. We need to pray for the work of the Spirit and when we recognise it, we need to work to help that light grow.

Amen.