Getting Closer to God: The Three-Fold Gift

The scriptures referred to are John 20:19-31.

Even during this lockdown I am still going to the jail as the chaplain there. No, I cannot go into the secure envelope but I sit at my desk in my cubicle and answer the inmates' requests via the internal computer system. I pray for them and their families. I send down Bibles, Qurans, rosaries, Bible studies and books. I send down copies of my sermons.

I do miss meeting with them though because a large part of being a chaplain is just listening. I am the only person on staff with the time to simply sit with someone as they pour out their pains and regrets and fears. I try to be a comforting presence when a family member on the outside is sick or dying and they can't be there. That's something those of us on the outside are experiencing for the first time but it happens all the time in jail. To a young person who is there because of a stupid mistake and who thinks their whole life is now ruined, I can give hope. To the person struggling with an addiction, I can give encouragement. To the person grappling with doubts, I can help bolster their faith. I answer tough Biblical and theological questions, even if I have to get back to them after doing some research. I bring them communion. I pray with them. By the terms of my contract, I cannot help them financially. I can't pass messages in or out of the jail or even between units within the jail. I can't give them a hug. All I can offer is my presence.

We have been talking for the last 8 weeks about getting closer to God. And the most basic part of getting closer to someone is just being there. In fact, there are times when there are no words that can magically make a situation better. When you don't know what to say, don't say anything. Just be there for the person. Often that is the best thing you can offer them.

I imagine that most sermons preached today with be on poor old “doubting” Thomas. But in reading our gospel passage for the day my attention was drawn to the odd thing Jesus does when he first meets the disciples behind the lock doors of the room they are isolating in. He breathes on them and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” It's unexpected by us because we think that nobody gets the Spirit until Pentecost.

The key word might be “breathed.” As it says in Genesis 2:7, “And the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living being.” God's breath gives life. And sure enough, when a baby is born, the important thing after it coming out of the womb is it taking its first breath. In the movies, the doctor dramatically helps it by slapping its bottom. In real life the nurse suctions its nose and mouth of amniotic fluid and that unpleasant sensation is often enough to make it cry. And then we score the baby on its color and respiration among other things. With its first breath, we know it is alive and we want it to stay that way.

On the other hand about the only movement the baby can make is to breathe and suckle. It can flex its arms and feet and kick and even grasp things put it its palm, like your finger. But as any parent knows, anything more in the way of activity has to wait. It's a big day when the baby can turn over by itself, maybe 4, 5 or 6 months down the road.

I submit that by breathing on them Jesus is making the disciples spiritually alive. As we've said before, in both Greek and Hebrew one word is used for breath, wind and spirit. They need the Spirit because, as he says in the passage, he is going to send them out as the Father sent Jesus. But before that, for the next 40 days, he is going to teach them what they are going to need to know to function without his physical presence. (Acts 1:3) As Paul says the person without the Spirit cannot understand spiritual things. (1 Corinthians 2:14) On the night before he died, Jesus spoke of the Holy Spirit as “the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it doesn't see him or know him. But you know him, because he resides with you and will be in you.” (John 14:17) He goes on to say, “But when he, the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.” (John 16:13) The disciples are but babes in the faith. Just as an infant has to take in the physical world and learn how it works before it is safe for it to move and act within it, so the disciples need to learn the nature of the realm of the Spirit before they can do much with that knowledge.

One thing a baby learns very early is the importance of the presence of its parents. That's why we are moved to act when a baby cries. It is powerless but it knows that the presence of Mom or Dad means safety and food and warmth and that its messes will be cleaned up. Sensing the presence of the person caring for it is important. I took care of my granddaughter when her mom had to go back to work. I found out that when she went to sleep I couldn't put her down. If I did she was awake and crying in about 5 minutes. If I held her, she slept. I had to learn how to type sermons with one hand and do other things with a baby in one arm. In fact, that's how I reconcile the passages about how in the afterlife we are both considered “asleep in the Lord” and yet somehow aware of his presence. My granddaughter could only drop into a deep sleep when reassured she was still in my arms. During the period between death and the resurrection, we can sense we are securely in the everlasting arms of our loving Father.

One function of the Holy Spirit is to be the presence of God in our life. As Jesus put it, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and take up our residence with him.” (John 14:23) Occasionally Paul calls him “the Spirit of Christ” (Romans 8:9) and the “Spirit of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:19) When Jesus says, “I am with you always,” (Matthew 28:20) he means through the Holy Spirit. When we don't feel him, it is usually because we are too busy to notice his presence. It is often when people in a crisis stop flailing and sit still that they feel the presence of the God who is there and has been all along.

But not only does the Spirit offer us his presence but also power. Right after saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit,” Jesus says to the disciples, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” This is power in the sense of having authority. Jesus is handing the baton off to his students (for that is what “disciple” means.) And it is as if Jesus knows that they are going to encounter moral issues they did not see him deal with during his time on earth. For instance, in the larger Greco-Roman world, when people could not afford to raise a child, or if it was a girl and they wanted a boy, they would leave the baby on the side of the road. Maybe someone would take and raise it as their own. Maybe they would raise it as a slave. Or maybe the scavengers would get it. Very early in the life of the church, it was decided that this was not acceptable. There is nothing in the Bible that explicitly condemns this practice but plenty of denunciations of the practice of sacrificing children and much about how children are a blessing. And of course Jesus loved to bless children and used them as an example of faith. So the church took a stance on something not specifically mentioned by Jesus but clearly contrary to his Spirit. We do not throw away children.

The Spirit gives us power in other ways as well. We will talk about them in greater length at Pentecost but a quick overview shows that the Spirit gives each of us gifts and talents to use as followers of Jesus. The Spirit also produces in us such qualities as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23) It doesn't happen overnight. They grow slowly like fruit and take time to mature. But provided we do not hinder the Spirit in his work within us, he will empower us to do the work set before us.

And that is another vital thing to know about the Spirit. He is not an impersonal power. There are a lot of powerful things that can be used to help or to harm. The internet can connect you with virtually all the knowledge of the world, or it can used to spread misinformation, lies, propaganda, slander, gossip and instructions on how to do terrible things. Lord Acton famously observed that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. And we see all the time that giving people power tempts them to use it not for its intended purposes but for personal pleasure, social enhancement, and wealth for themselves, their families and their friends.

But the Spirit doesn't work that way. Being of one mind with the Father and Son the Spirit will not lead anyone away from God's will. The trick is learning to listen to the Spirit. Too often people think their own internal voice is that of the Spirit. That's why people have done horrible things “in the name of Christ.” They have burned heretics, hanged witches, enslaved people, classified the poor as lazy so they needn't help them, considered the imprisoned as irredeemable and exhibited xenophobia towards all who were different. They have ignored Christ's command to “love their neighbor.” In fact he left us with no one we can hate. Jesus said, “But I say to you, love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you...” And he gives us the reason we must do so: “...so that you may be like your Father in heaven, since he causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” (Matthew 5:44-45) The goal to be more like God. In fact that is the whole purpose of Christianity: to become daily more like the incarnate God we see revealed in Jesus Christ.

And that is the purpose of what the Spirit is doing. As it says in 2 Corinthians 3:18, “And we all, with unveiled faces reflecting the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, which is from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” The Spirit is working in us to restore the image of God in which we were created and which has been marred by what we do to ourselves and to others. Jesus is, as it says in Hebrews 1:3, “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature...” (ESV) When we look at Jesus we not only see what God is like but also what we can be; what we were meant to be.

Of course, God is infinite and we are finite. To become like him is a lifelong project. In fact it will take an eternal life. We are meant to keep discovering more aspects of God in ourselves, more opportunities to grow and develop. And by ourselves, I mean as a group. The Spirit gives us different gifts and abilities. You know you are good at some things and interested in others but maybe not so much in still other activities or areas of life. Yet you know that there are people who can do and want to do those other things. That's what keeps civilization functioning: multiple people doing different things for the good of all.

And so it is in the kingdom of God. I am a good preacher but not a composer. I can paint pictures with words, but others do so with actual paint, or pixels, or with sculpture. I am a nurse but not a medical researcher. And I am hopeless if you want something built. I can't do it all; none of us can. And we don't need to. There are myriad ways to express ourselves and countless ways to be helpful. As it says in 1 Corinthians 12:4-6, “Now there are different gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are different ministries, but the same Lord. And there are different results, but the same God who produces all of them in everyone.” The Spirit is the source of all of our gifts and talents. Ultimately the way we finite beings can best reflect the image of an infinite God is by coming together like a mosaic, each of us revealing a different aspect of our Creator.

The Spirit of God is broadly a three-fold gift. He gives us the presence of God. He gives us the power of God. He gives us the purpose we were made for: to become more like and thus ever closer to the God who is love.