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Answer

In October last year, The Wall Street Journal reported an interview with Alan Greenspan about his book, The Map and the Territory. Greenspan commented on a human feature that he had not factored in when he was chairman of the Federal Reserve. Referring to the meltdown of the markets in 2008, he noted that none of the recognized forecasters saw the economic crisis coming. He went on to say that he had not factored in ‘the spells of (human) euphoria and irrational fear.’

The article continued, ‘Studying the results of herd behavior provided him with some surprises. “I was actually flabbergasted,” he says. “It upended my view of how the world works… I wouldn’t have dared write anything like that before,” he says. He concluded that fear has at least three times the effect of euphoria in producing market gyrations. “I wouldn’t have dared write anything like that before,” he says.’

It is not my purpose here to speak about the state of the economy or the financial world. Rather, I want to take up the theme of human nature: the WSJ article raises the subject of the deeper aspects of our human nature usually hidden from others. It opens up questions about who we are and what life is about – that we are much more than the sum of our parts: head, heart, hands, feet, and so on. Significantly, the article shows us that, if we are alert, we will constantly come across opportunities to talk with others about the larger issues of life.

With this in mind consider the words of Paul the Apostle in Colossians 4:6: Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer everyone.

Paul’s advice to the Colossians has two parts: life-style and speech. As we noted last week, we are all obliged to act wisely and graciously towards people we live and work with in the wider community. Here, Paul is telling us that we are also obliged to make the most of the opportunities to respond to the questions people ask about matters of faith.

Our English word answer here translates a Greek word that means responding to people who have a genuine interest in finding out more – in this instance, about Christianity.  Peter, in his Letter, also speaks of our need to be prepared to ‘answer’, but the word he uses means making a defense, giving a reason, for the hope we have in Christ (1 Peter 3:15).

Paul wants us to cultivate conversations that are kind and gracious but seasoned with salt. ‘Salt’ here is a metaphor for the kind of sparkling, interesting, challenging conversation that opens up larger issues and provokes questions about life. Here then is the motivation to look for opportunities to sow a grain of salt that might niggle and stir others to ask us what we believe and why. Some people tell me that when they read newspaper editorials and news, even see movies, they are looking for ways to initiate conversations about faith.

So, Paul urges us to let our life-style – every facet of our life – commend the savior who came as a servant. If we hold a position of responsibility, let’s pray for God’s grace so that no one is able to accuse us of unfairness, exploitation, or harshness. And whoever we are, let’s pray and look for opportunities to answer the questions that others have about life. It may be that we simply tell others our story of faith or invite them to church. If we do this, we can expect to see lives around us being changed. Nothing is more exciting than seeing this happen.

Opportunity

Opportunity is an optimistic, motivating word, full of promise and hope. The Oxford English Dictionary says it is: ‘A time or set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something’.

It is a word we find in a wide range of contexts. Winston Churchill commented: “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” Boris Pasternak remarked: “When a great moment knocks on the door of your life, it is often no louder than the beating of your heart, and it is very easy to miss it”.

In a recent sermon on 1 Peter, I noted that people to whom Peter was writing were victims of intolerable oppression. They were living under the Roman Empire, one of the most powerful and ruthless dictatorships the world has known. They had no vote and there was no free speech. Many of his first readers were slaves. Seemingly they had no opportunities in life.

Yet in 1 Peter 2:11-12 we read:

Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.  

Lifestyle. Peter was saying to his readers – slave and free – that though they were ‘resident aliens’ in this world, through their lifestyle they all had the opportunity to make a difference.

Following Jesus Christ involves a new way of living: Abstain from the sinful desires which wage war against your soul, he says. This is a reference to the desires of our hearts that are out of step with the Ten Commandments and Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount – the lies, the false-witness, the anger, the greed, the lustful look, the adulterous relationship. It is anything that stands against the mind of God.

Let’s think about this: Peter is saying that our inward desires are not uncontrollable. We can nurture them or choose to restrain them. How different this is from the attitudes of many around us who say that our feelings are morally neutral. People laugh at anyone who says that some of the feelings and longings we have are wrong.

And there is something else here: Peter warns us that these longings wage war against our souls. To entertain sinful longings may appear harmless – no one else knows. But he is saying that in reality they are our enemies, because they make us spiritually weak and ineffective.

Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us (2:12). Good conduct, godly behavior, will not often draw the applause of the crowds. From Broadway to television shows God’s people are mocked. Yet Peter is saying, ‘Yes, there may be times when you are slandered and falsely accused, but the very consistency of our life can lead to the salvation of others.’

By the very life we live, we have the opportunity to make a difference to others. Peter echoes Jesus’ words: “Let your light so shine before others, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 5:16).

Neither Jesus nor Peter is saying that people are converted by seeing the good works of God’s people. Peter has already said (1:12) we become God’s people only when we respond to God’s gospel. These people glorify God because they have seen the difference in the lives of God’s people and they’ve been drawn to find out what has brought about the change.

The tough question we need to ask ourselves is, ‘What does my life look like to others?’

The Trinity

Trinity Sunday (this Sunday) is a wonderful reminder of the God whom we worship. Article I of ‘The Thirty-Nine Articles’ states in a concluding sentence: And in unity of this Godhead there be three Persons, of one substance, power, and eternity; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

When Jesus commissioned his disciples to go and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:20), he expanded the Old Testament phrase, ‘the name of Yahweh’ into ‘the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit’. He was not introducing a new teaching but rather giving more detail about the eternal character of God referred to in the Old Testament as, ‘the Spirit of God’.

Furthermore, in the Gospel of John we find Jesus’ teaching about the nature and work of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit – all of which is enormously encouraging for you and me.

A new confidence. For example, in John 16:23-24 we read,

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” 

Jesus here reveals an important aspect of prayer: we enjoy a new intimacy in our experience of God.

In the Old Testament, people relied on the order of the priesthood for their relationship with God. During Jesus’ earthly ministry he had been the go-between in the disciples’ spiritual experience. And, even though he taught them to think of God as close to them and concerned for them, they never really enjoyed this assurance.

A new dynamic. But following Easter and Pentecost we see a new dynamic in the disciple’s relationship with God. The Spirit of Jesus began to witness in their hearts that they were truly the children of God. They even began to use Jesus’ own intimate name for God – “Abba”, “Father”.

What’s more, we too can enjoy this confidence. In Romans 8:15, Paul the Apostle tells us that the Spirit of Christ within us assures us of this new, profound relationship we have with God as his adopted sons and daughters. We can call him, ‘Abba’, ‘Father’. This is profound.

A new privilege. It is vital we do not under-estimate the work of God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Through the combined and costly work of the three Persons of the Godhead, we are not just saved, we come to enjoy the greatest of all human privileges – knowing God as ‘Father’.

Too often we are complacent about what it means to be a Christian. So we wonder if God really hears our prayers. We forget that when we pray in the name of Jesus, he has direct access to the Father.

If we fail to experience a vital prayer life and a strong assurance of God’s personal love for us, then we are living as if Easter and Pentecost had never happened. We are living as if we are still on the other side of the Cross. We exist as spiritual paupers, when the riches of heaven have been placed at our disposal in the new age that has already dawned.

A Prayer for Trinity Sunday.

 Almighty and everlasting God, you have given us your servants grace by the confession of a true faith to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and by your divine power to worship you as One: we pray that you would keep us steadfast in this faith and evermore defend us from all adversities; through Christ our Lord. Amen. (1662, Book of Common Prayer)

Pentecost

This Sunday is Pentecost or WhitsundayYet for many of us it is an enigma. Within Judaism it was the Greek name ascribed to the Feast of Weeks, celebrating the giving of the law at Mt Sinai. In Christianity it is the festival that comes seven weeks (fifty days) after Easter (ten days after ‘Ascension Thursday’), and celebrates the coming of the Holy Spirit on Jesus Christ’s first followers – about 120. (Acts 2:1-31) It celebrates the birthday of the church.

Why don’t we give Pentecost greater attention than we do? Is it because the Holy Spirit and his work are obscure? Is it simply because we don’t know what to make of him? In this all too brief ‘Word’ let’s look at something Jesus promised about the Spirit.

During the Passover meal Jesus told his disciples that he was going away but that he would not be leaving them alone. He pointed out that his going would mean the coming of the Comforter, the Advocate. So, we read in John 15:26-27:

“When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning”.

In the previous chapter (John 14:26), Jesus had made specific promises to his disciples – in particular that the Holy Spirit would enable them to have accurate memory and right understanding of all that he had taught and done. Now in these verses, Jesus was reassuring them of the work of the Spirit of truth in their lives. He developed this by setting out more clearly the functional relationship within the Trinity.

The Spirit’s work is to implement the will and the purpose of both God the Father and God the Son. So Jesus explained God’s larger plan. The Father, having sent his eternal Son, the Word of God, into the world, would now give him the position of highest honor in heaven; he would be enthroned in glory. The Spirit of God would now be sent to replace Jesus Christ in the lives of his people.

Here Jesus makes one of the clearest statements about the true nature of God: he is one, existing in three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Son does the will of the Father and the Spirit does the will of both the Father and the Son.

The Spirit who came to Christ’s disciples now comes to bring us encouragement, comfort and boldness in the place of Jesus Christ. As the ministry of Christ as Comforter was important to the first disciples, so too was the ministry of the Holy Spirit as their Comforter. In the same way, as the work of Christ is essential for us, so too is the work of the Spirit – teaching us God’s Word and prompting us to walk through life with Jesus Christ as our Lord.

Prayer: Almighty God, who taught the hearts of your faithful people by sending them the light of your Holy Spirit: so enable us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things and always to rejoice in his holy comfort; through the merits of Christ Jesus our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen.  (1662 BCP, Whit Sunday – adapted)