Sermon at The Church of the Holy Apostles, New York City
June 3, 2007
The Reverend Andrew G. Kadel
Isaiah 6: 1 - 8
Canticle 13
Revelation 4: 1 - 11
John 16: 5 - 15

   

      “When the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth;”

     Today is the feast of the Holy Trinity.  Since this is the only feast honoring a doctrine, as opposed to a person or an event, it’s sometimes perceived as a bit abstract or obscure.  But really it’s quite straightforward: Trinity Sunday is about God’s love for us.

     In today’s Gospel Jesus is speaking to his disciples, in his farewell discourse.  He says “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.”    As I was thinking about this, I couldn’t get out of my head a line from the movie “A Few Good Men”, in which Jack Nicholson, playing a Marine colonel, delivered, in response to a question from Tom Cruise, an idealistic military lawyer: “You want truth?, you can’t handle the truth!”   I don’t think that Nicholson was playing a Christ figure in that movie—but the truth really is more complex and difficult to accept than we usually expect.  Jesus was facing his crucifixion, but could the disciples accept that, let alone understand it?  Facing the truth square on is more than most can bear.  Jesus tells them “when the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, … he will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine.”

     The truth that we receive, we receive throughout our lives: in small increments and in dramatic revelations, through experience of giving and receiving loving care and through struggle; in the fight for justice and in personal growth.  I cherish and learn from the stories of Jesus more than anything, yet if I only used his words, I wouldn’t be able to cope with all the complex things that have happened since the first century, and in particular that happen in my life in contemporary America.

     The Trinity integrates the revelation of God in the various ways we know it—the transcendent and overpowering Lord of the universe and all things beyond: the one who Isaiah describes as so huge that the temple is filled with just the hem of his robe; Jesus, Incarnate son, teacher and brother; and the Spirit who extends the truth outward into the world and in new times and places.

     So Jesus says: “When the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.  He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you.  All that the Father has is mine.”  Jesus has the truth from the Father and the spirit continues to declare it after Jesus has gone.  There is no sort of disharmony or disagreement among the Trinity; it is a constant and consistent declaration of the truth.

     In our lives it may appear different.  Demands for our energy and attention stretch us and give us conflict.  Should we feed the poor?  Should we pray privately?  Believe the Bible and teach it?  Explore contemporary theology and ways of devotion? Should I pay attention to my friends and have a good time with them?  Should we advocate for the oppressed?  … Yes.   They are all expressions of Christian truth in our lives.  Nonetheless, there are advocates of any one of these who regard the others as competitors or even enemies of their brand of Christian Truth.  And when a person accepts that all are good, then the demands of time and energy can be overwhelming and exhausting.  So what do we do?

     Isaiah found himself in the temple, and had the overwhelming vision of God surrounded by mysterious winged beasts and their singing was so loud that the heavy door hinges rattled.  “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts!”  The seraph touched his lips with a coal from the thurible … “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”  and I said, “Here am I; send me!”  Of course this is a dramatic and frightening scene in the book of the prophet Isaiah. How does it keep us from being overwhelmed?  Like Isaiah, we are all called. The question is, called to what?  In truth the call can be arduous or even dangerous as it was for the prophets, as it is for many in our own time.  Yet at the bottom, the call is to discern the right focus for your energies, for your spirit.

     We shouldn’t get distracted by the call to the ordained ministry—some of us are so called, but it is no more important than the call for every person in their own lives.    When I was at a time in my life when everything seemed to be going in the wrong direction, someone mentioned an encounter with a music reference librarian at the University of California.  That librarian was energized by the opportunity to help someone and took no greater pleasure than to guide research and connect people with a new level of truth about their area of interest.  This struck a chord within me; it was the beginning of my journey to be a theological librarian.  The call to be a librarian does not supercede my call to be a priest, but it is just as sacred.  The new call made sense of my life as a priest. It made my priorities much clearer.

     The Trinity calls us to live in the Truth.  The Spirit of Truth teaches and guides us when new and challenging situations come up.  But the Spirit is above all integrated with the rest of the Trinity; we lose nothing nor is anything superceded when we are guided by the Holy Spirit.  The Trinity is above all the integration of all truth—it is not little interesting fragments about the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  The Trinity is the one God, who we experience as the loving God.

     "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to Receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will the existed and were created.”