John 16:12-15
So this is Trinity Sunday.
And for some ministers today it’s a time to describe the three in one and the one in three.For some ministers today it’s a time to describe how the Holy Spirit is at work in our lives.
What is the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is God’s presence with us.
For Christians, being aware of God is something that comes naturally to some of us, and is less natural for others. I guess most people of faith have some times when they feel the presence of God with them and around them and then other times when God seems far off or absent.
From the time of Easter the disciples became aware that Jesus was alive and with them, but when he was going to appear they couldn’t predict.
Likewise, we cannot summon the Holy Spirit to appear in front of us like a genie from a bottle.
But are there things we can do that will make it more likely for us to be aware of God?
Are there steps we can take that will help us to be in tune with God and have a sense of what God is wanting from us - and what God is offering to us? In other words, how can we become more aware of God in our lives?
Today I would like to look at the way God is present with us through the words of a hymn written by a man called Christopher Idle who lives in London.
The Hymn is CH4 606 Lord, you sometimes speak in wonders.
I think the words of this hymn are masterful in describing how we encounter God. Verse by verse he points out different ways we meet with God, and what I think is very clever – the verses become deeper as the song continues – in other words, each verse (in my opinion), gets us a bit nearer to the heart of God.
Lord, you sometimes speak in wonders,
unmistakable and clear,
mighty signs that show your presence,
overcoming doubt and fear.
“Signs and wonders”.
You might think this is all we need.
And some types of churches certainly give that impression.
If there were only more signs and wonders then people would find it easier to believe…
“Is there a God? If only God would give me a clear sign – like making a large deposit in my name at a Swiss bank..” (Woody Allen: Love and Death)
Not many people would take that remark too seriously. We don’t imagine that God is going to give us lots of money just so we can believe in God, but we might think if there were more amazing signs then that would make a difference. We might imagine that more people would then believe.
But I am not so sure.
Take just one famous period in the Old Testament.
The story of Moses and the Exodus...
One day Moses comes across a bush that is burning, but it doesn’t burn up. It just keeps burning on and on. He takes the time to go over to the bush and meets God who speaks to him and asks him to take on a job.
And Moses turns it down!
Here he is, standing in front of a burning bush, listening to God speaking directly to him, and still he doesn’t agree to do what God asks of him!
Okay, he does eventually, but not until after a struggle.
And then when the people of Israel escape from captivity and flee into the desert, God miraculously guides their way with a pillar of fire by night and provides special food – manna - for them to eat in the desert. There could be no doubt of the wondrous nature of God to these people.
And yet over time they started to complain and eventually decided to worship other Gods! Even the miracles were not enough to keep them trusting in God when life got harder.
Did they believe in God?
Yes – they saw the evidence every day. There wasn’t anyone in that group of runaway slaves who didn’t believe that God was there. But even knowing God was there did not guarantee that they would trust in God or follow God.
Our relationship with God cannot be built on signs and wonders.
Do I believe that God can work miracles, signs and wonders?
Yes I do – though I don’t think they happen often.
But these things – wonderful as they may appear - do not always sustain our faith.
A woman I know had been an active Christian for many years but had drifted away from her faith. She then married a man who was very anti-Christian in his outlook.
One day she discovered terrible news – she had cancer.
And then she heard the terrible diagnosis – there was nothing that could be done. The doctor told her that it was too far spread and though she was young she was going to die and die soon. The doctor told her to go home and get her affairs in order for she wouldn’t have long to live.
A friend persuaded her to go to one of the Healing Rooms in Glasgow and ask the Christians there to pray for her. She was reluctant and sceptical, but what did she have to lose? She went along and they prayed and she was healed.
She went back to the doctor at the hospital who couldn’t believe what had happened. “Your cancer has just disappeared!”
Was she happy? You bet!
Was she grateful to God? You bet!
An amazing story.
But that is not the most amazing bit. The most amazing bit is that now – a couple of years on, she isn’t interested in God!
Miraculously God delivered her from death. And now she couldn’t care less about God! Not even that miracle was enough to keep her in faith.
A couple of weeks ago I conducted a funeral of a man in the parish. His daughter lives in the west end and she is a Christian, but who suffers from ill health of various sorts and has had to give up work.
But she was remarkably healed of one of her ailments and confounded the doctors after she had been to a prayer/healing meeting.
Now she says her husband always looks out for healing prayer meetings and tells her whenever he comes across something in Glasgow that is new. He too was well impressed at what happened to his wife as the result of these prayer meetings. But he himself doesn’t believe in God. He has no Christian faith at all – though he reckons he has nothing to lose by suggesting she seeks out these prayer gatherings.
Despite seeing the results of prayer – it doesn’t make him a believer.
Signs and wonders can be impressive things, and clearly God does speak through them - but they aren’t the best way to hear God.
Lord, you sometimes speak in whispers,
still and small and scarcely heard;
only those who want to listen
catch the all-important word.
What is this…?
Speaking in whispers….?
I think it’s the way most of us experience God –
through circumstances
snippets of conversations
something a friend says
something we read
little events that we look back on as being of great significance.
I’ve told the story before of the time I was at Crieff as part of our church youth group. I was asked to share a room with a guy called Elliot whom I had never met. He was about my age but he was really strange looking if I say so myself. He had a shock of curly ginger hair that grew up out of his head a bit like a mad professor and he seemed a bit weird to me.
Anyway we got into our beds and as we lay in the silence we struck up a kind of conversation, and he seemed okay as we spoke. He and I were both at the stage of finishing school and we talked about what we might do. For some reason he asked me if I had considered becoming a minister and I replied that I’d thought about it but wasn’t sure. I didn’t feel like the minister type. (still don’t, by the way…)
Anyway, the next day I had to go home early, for some reason I can’t remember, and as I went upstairs to pack there was a note lying on my bed from Elliot.
It said something like it was nice meeting me and he wished me well for the future.
And then under his signature Elliot had scrawled in much bigger writing:
“Maybe God DOES want you to be a minister.”
And I was struck by that message. It never left me - even though it was a good few years before I began my training. But I felt as if God was speaking through the note.
Now the note only said “Maybe” although the “DOES” was in capitals. And why would he say that?
And it was a strange thing to say to someone that this strange young man had only just met, but I felt as if God was behind the message.
If I was to tell that story to someone who doesn’t believe in God it would seem to them a ridiculous conclusion, but that is exactly my point. Looking back it was a whisper – no more than a whisper – but I believe it was a message I needed to hear.
Sometimes when God speaks to us, it happens through a very ordinary circumstance. But we get a sense that God is using that moment to tell us something.
Lord, you sometimes speak in silence,
through our loud and noisy day;
we can know and trust you better
when we quietly wait and pray.
God speaks in the silence.
In our fast-paced, noisy world, silence is quite foreign. We have so adapted ourselves to noise. There needs to be something happening in the background.
Kids at school can study and read books whilst listening to music at the same time. I can’t do that.
We are used to noise, and being quiet and still is quite a challenge for many of us.
Silence we are not good at. But in silence things happen.
The ten-day silent retreat I embarked on with Susan a couple of years ago was a difficult exercise (at least for me) but I could see the benefits of it as well.
We need to find ways to factor in silence in worship.
We need to stop speaking and listen to God!
A relationship between two people where one person is the only one talking is not a real relationship at all.
If prayer for us is about speaking to God and that is all we do then we are missing out an important element. We need to be quiet to allow God to speak to our minds and hearts.
Lord, you sometimes speak in Scripture,
words that summon from the page,
shown and taught us by your Spirit
with fresh light for every age.
Most all religions have their sacred scriptures, (the books or writings that speak to them of God).
The Bible is our scriptures.
This is the number one source book for Christians.
The Holy Spirit is particularly found here.
The Word of God is especially contained in the scriptures.
Now the Bible isn’t a magic book.
And there are things within it that are not worthy of God, and things within it that are time-bound – and should not be copied and pasted into the 21st Century. And we need to remember that God still speaks and that everything we need to know isn’t in the Bible.
But despite all of that – despite our need to wrestle with the Bible to understand what it is saying - God speaks to us and challenges us and comforts us and calls us through the Bible like no other writings. And the Bible has a place that is central
When we join the church we promise to make the Bible part of our lives. We promise to read it regularly. Why?
Because it is so important.
As I said, it is our source book.
Lord, you always speak in Jesus,
always new yet still the same:
teach us now more of our Saviour,
make our lives display his Name.
We come finally to the nearest thing to the heart of God – the person of Jesus Christ.
This verse isn’t set out the same way.
It doesn’t say: Lord, you sometimes speak in Jesus.
It says: Lord, you always speak in Jesus.
Note the “always”.
God always speaks through Jesus.
That what makes Jesus so central to our lives.
But maybe you want to complain - well, what happened to the Holy Spirit?
The Holy Spirit has been overtaken by Jesus.
But the Holy Spirit isn’t different from Jesus.
The Spirit of God.
The Spirit of Jesus.
The Holy Spirit.
All words for the same thing.
The Holy Spirit is the spirit of Jesus.
The Holy Spirit is the presence of Jesus with us today.
As we have gone through the hymn we notice that there are many ways that God can use to encounter us, but the greatest way of all is through Jesus.
Paying attention to him is the most important thing of all.