The Spirit of Truth--May 30, 2023

 

The Spirit of Truth--May 30, 2023

[Jesus said to his disciples:] "If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.  This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him.  You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you." [John 14:15-17]

It's easy to think that it's more "loving" to tell people what they want to hear, isn't it?  After all, telling people what they want to hear, even if it doesn't line up with reality, makes us feel like we are being "nice." And we do have a way of confusing being "nice" with embodying love.

But on second thought, "niceness" has a way of staying shallow--talk about the weather and summer vacation plans, but nothing beyond the surface.  And genuine love insists on depth, which means being willing to tell the truth--and to hear the truth.  That's why, even when it means having difficult conversations, Christ's kind of love will always seek to be honest.  That's why, when the apostle Paul sketched out descriptions of what love is like, he includes the notion that "love does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth."  Or actually, to be a bit more precise with the Greek Paul uses, love "does not rejoice in injustice," but rather "in the truth."  As we continue working our way this year through that description about love from First Corinthians, we'll now turn to that idea for our devotions in this season of Pentecost.  We need to take a deeper look at how love means truth-telling [and in particular truth-telling over injustice], because we know the pull of hiding the truth in the name of being "nice."  

And that's why our conversation for today takes us here, to these words from John's Gospel as he prepared his disciples for a new chapter in their relationship together.  Jesus is hours away from his betrayal, arrest, torture, and death, and he knows that even after the resurrection, there will soon come a point when he won't be with them as one person around the table as they've come to know him.  So he prepares them for a new way to be in connection with God--and therefore with himself.  He tells them that he is sending them the Holy Spirit.  Church folks know the storytelling--we all just retold in this past Sunday on the Day of Pentecost, where we heard again the story of tongues of flame and apostles empowered to speak in other languages so that all could hear about "God's deeds of power."  But sometimes we are so quick to assume we know that story that we miss out on something important about how Jesus talks about this Spirit, who is given to us.  Jesus insists that the One whom we also call the Holy Spirit is also "the Spirit of truth."  And I suspect it's worth unpacking what that means.

Jesus tells his disciples that they will not be left alone or orphaned, because they'll have "another Advocate," who will remain with them forever.  And then he identifies this One who will come alongside them to counsel, to guide, and to defend them [the idea of an "advocate" here is like a defense attorney, actually, and someone who stands with you in solidarity] as the "Spirit of truth."  This Spirit won't just be physically limited to being in one place at a time, as Jesus had been, but will be "in" you--present among all of the disciple community.  That, of course, would be a huge help once the disciples found themselves headed in different directions to bring the Gospel to every nation and people in all directions.  It meant that they didn't all have to keep going to back to some central location where the Spirit held office hours.  

But the Spirit is more than just a warm fuzzy feeling of God's presence. Jesus is convinced that the Spirit has something to do with making us into truthful people: that is, people who do not merely speak accurately [although that's a part of it, to be sure], but who live in ways that align with the truth, and who are willing to see the worth truthfully, rather than through rose-colored lenses or the slanted bias of self-interest.  The Spirit is the One who enables us to be pulled out of our own little myopic perspectives, which to be honest, can sometimes be uncomfortable.  Nobody wants to admit they don't see the whole picture.  Nobody wants to consider the possibility they might be wrong.  And it is deeply frightening to most of us to entertain the idea that someone with whom we sharply disagree might have something to tell us that we cannot see from our vantage point.  We are afraid, to be honest, of talking about truth if it means considering we don't already have all the answers under our control.  And so Jesus knows that what we need is the promise of One who will be with us--who will not abandon us, no matter what--who will make us brave enough to face all that.  God's Spirit is the Spirit of Truth because God's presence gives us the courage to admit we do not already know it all.  

If genuine love requires us to tell and to hear the truth, rather than pleasant lies, then love is also what makes that truthfulness possible, because when we know we are loved unconditionally and irrevocably, we can bear to face even the truths that don't make us look good, and the insights we didn't know we needed.  Because we have been given that love--promised to us by the Spirit who will not abandon us--we can be people who face the truth bravely, both to tell it and to hear it.  Because we are held by the Love that will not let us go, we can endure coming to terms with facts that make us uncomfortable, realities that stretch our understanding, and truths that break open our prejudices and presumptions.

Today, we can lean on the Spirit Jesus has given to make us brave enough to be truthful.

Lord Jesus, let your Spirit's presence open our ears and eyes with what you would have us see.