Listening for Spirit - Jeremy Duncan

[Music]

welcome to the commons cast we're glad

to have you here we hope you find

something meaningful in our teaching

this week head to commons dot church for

more information

last week we started a new series called

the forgotten god

and we are talking about the holy spirit

in this series

and we're going to look at a number of

different areas today we're going to

talk about god's spirit in us and

through us and what it means to trust

that god's voice is not just surrounding

us

but also somehow guiding us through the

world

next week we'll look at spirit in

community and how we navigate our

choices together and then we're going to

talk about how spirit

expands our imagination of the divine

adding more complexity but also more

beauty into the metaphors that are

available to us

but last week we began the series by

talking about trinity

because i figured if we're going to talk

about god as spirit then we need some

framework for that and this is what

trinity provides for us

i also said last week that i'm not

particularly interested in adjudicating

theological spats in this series

all of our language of god

but particularly when we talk about

something as mysterious as spirit this

language is provisional

if you think about it

as soon as we start to talk about god in

any capacity

we are necessarily using language that's

drawn from our experience of the world

to describe something someone

who is fundamentally other

and so we always have to hold our god

talk open handed

there's a theological stream called the

apophatic tradition

and the core of apophatic theology is

the idea that we can only ever say what

god is not

god is just too big too great for us to

ever speak definitively of

and so in this tradition even if you

were to say god is love you could say

okay well as human beings we experience

love and that orients us toward the

divine

it helps us understand that god is not

avarice or selfishness or greed or wrath

because those things are not love but

even our very concepts our experience of

love are always tilted even if slightly

so divine love is something we can never

ever perfectly describe

we can only know what god is by noticing

the brokenness in our own experiences of

love

now i'm not a theologian in the

apathetic tradition but i do think they

are on to something there

by the way gregory of nazianzus who we

talked about last week

and who gave us that image of trinity as

the eternal dancing around

he came from the apaphatic tradition of

the cappadocian fathers

now one more footnote here

if you really want to tie yourself in an

apathetic knot listen to this quote from

the 9th century irish theologian john

the scot we do not know what god is

god does not know what god is

because god is not anything

god is not because god transcends the

very idea of being now all he's saying

here is that even our language of being

and knowing all of this is too narrow

for god

and so when we talk of god

we have to remind ourselves to keep

pushing ourselves to expand our thinking

that's his point now why is this

important when it comes to trinity well

it's important because we have sometimes

these deeply ingrained images and

metaphors

god is father son and spirit they are

beautiful

sacred even because they are gifted to

us by god

but those images can also if we're not

careful

close down rather than open up our

imagination of god

god is like a father but god is not your

dad and god is like a son but in

christian theology we have this belief

that the christ is eternal in both

directions

so jesus was born and lived and died and

rose again ascended to heaven to prepare

a place for us and that jesus

demonstrates divine love for us alive

and breathing in human history

but the christ the logos the word that

was with god in the beginning as john

says

that has always existed never been born

therefore not an offspring and therefore

not at least literally a son

and look that gets kind of heady

and you might be right to ask what's the

point of all this does it even matter

truth is

you can very rightly keep jesus at the

center of your faith journey and model

your life around his example and

teachings and that is enough

but there are reasons that i think

talking about the nature of god

is worth the discomfort it brings from

time to time

first

as i said it keeps our god talk

provisional

it reminds us that theology is useful

but theology can never completely define

god

and so theology at its best is not about

definite answers it's about becoming

more like god more loving

and any theology that doesn't help you

become more loving is by definition bad

theology

second

this is why we're opening the series

this way

is that i believe

that reminding ourselves of the grace of

god that extends even beyond our

language

this is what creates the room for us to

experience the presence of god spirit in

the fullness of what jesus invites us to

as i said last week

i tend to live in my head a lot

and that can really be a gift i'm pretty

comfortable with myself and my

idiosyncrasies at this point in life

but reminding myself

that i can't think my way to god

that helps me to open myself to spirit

in new ways every day

and so today we want to talk about god

as spirit in us through us speaking to

us

but first let's pray

good morning heavenly father

good morning lord jesus good morning

holy spirit

we worship you today as creator of the

universe a savior of our world as

sustainer of all that is

and we ask that you would continue to

invite us to know you in ever more

expansive ways

may our lives look more and more like

love

may our intentions be shaped by your

imagination

would our very existence sing of your

presence around us this moment

as we speak today of triune being in

spirit that enlivens and animates all

life

might we begin to see more love and joy

and peace and patience

more kindness and goodness and

faithfulness more gentleness and

self-control might we see all of this

growing up in us

and extending out into your world

through us

and if in order for that to come

our imaginations need to be expanded

or our welcome of spirit needs to be

opened

and holy blessed glorious god in three

persons

have mercy upon us

and be present to us in a new way

today

and the strong name

of the risen christ we pray

amen

okay forgotten god part two today we're

going to talk about jesus and the father

jesus and the spirit our felt experience

in the world and the peaceful voice of

spirit in our lives first though let me

say this there's lots that i want to

cover today so buckle up because we are

going to jump straight in i got no

stories for you but we're going to start

by looking at how jesus talks about

spirit and in john 14 jesus is starting

to prep his disciples for his departure

the story is getting closer and closer

to the cross and jesus is becoming more

and more aware of how that story is

going to go

and so he wants to prepare his friends

for this

there's a lot going on in this chapter

it comes right on the heels of jesus

explaining to peter that he will disown

jesus three times that very night

but then jesus launches into this

section by saying look i know this is

bad news

but don't let your hearts be troubled

you already believe in god trust also in

me

my father's house has many rooms and i

am going there to prepare a place for

you

and if i'm preparing a place for you

that means i will come back for you

so that we can be together

don't lose heart

you know the way to where i am going

now again there's a lot going on here

and we're going to keep reading and

we'll get to spirit a little later

but let's parse this first

jesus says

guys this isn't going to end well

i'm going to die some of you are even

going to desert me tonight

but trust me i'm doing all of this for

you for your good

now

sometimes we get a little caught up here

on wondering exactly what jesus means by

preparing a place for us i mean what are

all these rooms and where exactly are

they

i know that we have this popular

imagination of jesus as a carpenter but

i do not think that we should be

picturing him building houses in heaven

in this moment

this isn't intended as a technical

explanation of angelic living quarters

the idea here is simply that the cross

which is what he's been talking about

prepares a place for us in the presence

and the welcome of god

okay but then he says you know the way

to the place where i'm going and that

sounds kind of cryptic

but if you think about it

the place he is going is heaven and the

way there is the cross

so

this is just jesus saying guys i've told

you it's coming we've talked about this

before i've tried to prepare you please

don't lose hope

to which thomas says

actually

we don't know what you're talking about

and we certainly don't know the way

and this is a theme all through the

gospels right jesus keeps explaining

what's going to happen and the disciples

keep pushing back saying we don't get it

we saw this just a couple weeks ago with

peter

in a vulnerable moment jesus opens up

about his death and his fears and peter

says oh get out of here that's never

going to happen

and we can read that as the disciples

not understanding not getting jesus

that's definitely part of the story

but there is another level here i think

all of us none of us we never want to

hear bad news

and so our tendency sometimes i think is

to push back against what we don't want

to hear and hold on to what we hope for

i think that's at least part of what's

happening here thomas doesn't want to

think about the path that jesus is going

to take the suffering and the pain and

it's just easier to plead ignorance

and honestly that feels a little too

familiar at times

but jesus responds by saying you don't

know the way

thomas i am the way

and the truth and the life no one comes

to the father except through me if you

really know me you will know my father

too

from now on

you do know him

and you have seen him

now pretty famous passage

one that we get pulled out of context

all the time to listen to i couldn't

tell you how many times i've heard this

weaponized against someone who's outside

of faith

rather than used as an invitation to

explore jesus

but a couple things here

first of all

notice the kindness that jesus extends

to thomas in this moment

thomas says jesus i don't get it i don't

understand and jesus responds and says

actually thomas you do

from now on remember you know me you

know god it's going to be okay

and there's a lot that's going to come

in the story much of it's going to be

tragic but i find jesus instinct to

reassure his friend here

incredibly comforting in those moments

when i'm not sure about my own faith

i mean just try

to imagine yourself in a moment of

anxiety and doubt and hearing jesus say

it's okay you know me you know god we'll

get through this together

there's a tenderness to jesus that i

find magnetic hold on to that we're

going to make our way back to there

later

but

think about this moment for a second

jesus has been talking about the cross

he says this needs to happen he says the

way it's going to happen is painful and

thomas says we don't know the way and so

jesus says thomas

i am the way

in other words

everything i have shown you through all

of my life all of the love all of the

selflessness and sacrifice for others

that i've shown you

all of the ideas that i've taught and

i've lived out in front of you that's

who i am and this

is the way

all apologies to the

mandalorian but that's essentially all

that jesus is saying here

the way of the cross

is just another example of who he has

always been all through his life

because that way of generative love is

the truth that life itself is grounded

in

and if you've seen that like thomas

living and breathing in the world in

front of you then you have seen the

father because god is

the eternal dance of gift and reception

self-giving love in relationship from

before there was

anything

last week

i said that trinity is not an explicitly

biblical concept it's the product of

biblical reflection

this is what i'm talking about

at no point does the bible or jesus ever

neatly explain trinity for us

yet as we reflect on the story of jesus

we keep finding ourselves drawn back to

this idea of divine love expressed

within the community of god self

but

we haven't even gotten to spirit and

that's our agenda so let's keep going

after the way in life and truth bit

philip decides to jump in

and he says okay one more thing lord

show us the father and that'll be enough

then we'll leave you alone

and i don't know if a lot of people know

this but this right here is the moment

when the palm was invented

just kidding jesus is far too gracious

for that instead he responds very calmly

and very patiently well philip

as i said

if you've seen me you've seen the father

and if you follow me you are following

the way and if you live the way that i

have lived i promise you will find your

way back to god

you can read his full response to philip

it's in verses 9 to 15

i want to pick up again in verse 16

because that's where jesus now expands

the conversation to spirit

he says

i am going

but i will ask the father and he will

give you another advocate to help you

and be with you forever the spirit of

truth the world cannot accept him

because it neither sees him nor knows

him

but you know him

for he lives with you and will be in you

i will not leave you as orphans i will

come to you before long the world will

not see me anymore but you will see me

because i live you also will live

and on that day you will realize that i

am in my father and you are in me and i

am in you and if that sounds confusing

you are not at all wrong

because this is a mess

jesus is going and another is coming

and when that one comes they will be in

you and jesus will be gone and no one

will see him but you will

because jesus is in the father and you

are in him and he is in you my goodness

a couple things here

the niv which is what i'm reading from

has opted for masculine pronouns for

spirit here that's an interesting choice

because spirit here is not a masculine

noun and therefore none of the pronouns

that jesus uses are masculine

that said translators are in a tough

spot

because well ruach the feminine word for

spirit in hebrew and spiritus is the

latin term which is masculine there

panuma which we're reading in greek is

neuter

and in english

neuter pronouns like it tend to be very

depersonalized

so you can understand why they didn't

want to use that interestingly though

since the niv was first published in

1973 they

have actually become a more common

singular pronoun in english and that

might actually be the closest to the

intent of the greek language in john 14.

at the same time probably shouldn't read

too much into that

greek like french assigns grammatical

gender to words that has nothing to do

with gender identity or expression

that's just a linguistic phenomenon

and so we are much better off

building our imagination of spirit

through the multiplicity of biblical

images and metaphors even the feminine

ones it gives us rather than just a

linguistic analysis still it's kind of

an interesting note

a bigger focus here though

is the way that jesus

in the gospel of john at least

weaves together his presence in the

world

with the creator of the universe

with the experience of spirit that runs

throughout all of our lives

and again this section by no means

offers us a nice neat tidy definition of

trinity but it does show that at least

by the time that john was written in the

late 1st century

the christian community was forming an

identity not just around the historical

jesus

but around the post-resurrection

experience of jesus spirit that welcomes

all of us into the presence of god

and you could see this beautifully in

the opening sometimes called the

prologue of john

in the beginning was the word and the

word was with god and the word was god

the word was with god in the beginning

through him all things were made without

him nothing was made

that's talking

about a connection between jesus and god

but it's using language that is very

clearly drawn from genesis

and there the poet writes that in the

beginning when everything was formless

and void and god began to create it was

the spirit or the ruach of god that

hovered over creation

so we have creator that shapes us and

christ that transforms us and spirit

that indwells and animates all of us

entwined inseparably together in this

christian imagination

now why is any of this important beyond

a debatably interesting theological

lesson

well here's why it's important to me

because jesus talks and the scriptures

speak

about our felt experience of the divine

the spirit that lives and moves through

us in the world as equally valid with

any other expression of divine encounter

spirit

and emotion

and encounter

these are not secondary ways to speak of

god

with every breath you have access to the

same creative force that has shaped the

universe

and that's beautiful

but that's also sometimes a little bit

scary isn't it

i mean who's to say this is spirit but

this is not

and i have spirit but you don't

much easier sometimes to clamp back down

on what we can say for sure

to elevate scripture or let's be honest

our particular interpretation of

scripture

above the living breathing spirit of

jesus that is at work in all of us

leading us steadily back toward love

i mean you and i we've all seen the

expressions of christianity that we know

and our bones are not loving

but sometimes we would rather that

in its absoluteness than the complexity

and the subjectivity of trusting spirit

to guide us when it comes to love

and look

i'm talking to myself here because often

times when i've seen things that looked

like religious abuse my default response

has been to step back or away or to

intellectualize my faith rather than

lean on spirit to guide me forward

and yet i also know

that some of my experiences with spirit

have been absolutely formative for me

that shaped me and pointed me in

directions that have defined my life

and i went into ministry as a career and

then a few years later i left that

career

a couple years after that i moved to

calgary to work for a church all over

again and then i left that position one

that i had held for a decade to start a

church here in kensington

and at each of those junctures there was

some sense of spirit that was guiding me

i know that i trust that but none of it

ever was simple

yet looking back reflecting on the most

important decisions of my life the ones

where i know spirit was leading me i've

come to realize that none of them ever

felt like an obligation

like i've made some hard choices

but it's always only ever been

invitation and adventure and possibility

in front of me this loving welcome of

spirit into what comes next

and slowly over time

this is how i've come to identify that

softer more subjective voice of god in

my life

ironically

probably what i should have known from

the start is that it is the slow steady

gentle welcome of jesus that i've

learned to listen for when it comes to

spirit

because here's the thing

to welcome the guidance of spirit is a

risky thing

and i've taken some big leaps in my life

based on what i thought the spirit was

saying to me but whenever i've seen the

idea of spirit used in manipulative ways

like the times particularly earlier in

my christian journey when i saw the

threat of spirit used to intimidate

someone

or to bolster authority by elevating one

person above another that was never

gentle like jesus

and it was never an invitation to

explore it was always a demand it wasn't

a risk it was fear that dominated those

moments

and that is not the way nor the truth

nor the life that was embodied by the

christ

the one who

welcomes us to witness the union of

creator and spirit and savior in our

world the one who reveals god to us

a self-giving dance of gift and

reception from before time

see

spirit is active in you right now

evidenced by the very fact that you

breathe

and god is so much more than just an

idea to understand or even a teaching to

embrace god is speaking to you in every

moment guiding you to love

but the way to filter out that voice

from the many that speak to all of us

constantly every day is to train

ourselves to listen for the most gentle

the most peaceful voice we can possibly

distinguish from everything else

that spirit

the best way to discern spirit is to

listen for the voice that gently listens

back to you

the one that says from now on

you do know me you do know god you do

know love i know it's difficult but we

can do this together

and sometimes

i find myself wishing i could trade a

spirit

for answers

and i know that would make a lot of

things easier for me but i also know

that will never reflect the god that has

only ever known community

and love

and so i'm left

learning how to love

trusting that spirit is as real as my

mind

and knowing that with every small step i

take every time i give myself away in

the model of jesus i move closer to

everything that god imagines for me

so may you sense spirit in you and near

you today closes your breath

may the most gentle voice in the world

slowly become the one that you learn to

listen to

and may you learn to trust the guiding

of spirit that leads you steadily toward

self-giving love inviting you

to love the way that the christ did

my spirit lead all of us

into more grace today

let's pray

three-in-one god

who has always existed as self-giving

love

shared gift and reception give and take

inhale and exhale

the god who speaks and listens within

god's self

might that imagination of love become

the imagination from which we live

with the cacaocophany of voices that

speak to us and yell at us demand

allegiance from us might we slowly begin

to parse out your voice

the gentle peaceful voice that teaches

us what it means to love each other

in all of the complexity of life and

relationship

may we slowly hear your voice more

clearly and may the courage rise up

inside us

to follow it

and step by step as we follow your way

in the world

might we trust might we know

that we are being drawn closer to you

in the strong name

of the risen christ we pray

amen

all right

two more weeks of spirit