Download May-15-2016-Sermon - Advent Lutheran Church

1
May 15, 2016 at Advent Lutheran Church in Cedarburg, Wisconsin. Also Day of
Pentecost. John 14:8-17 (25-27) Fundamentalism and the Holy Spirit.
Question: Please take out the Thought of the Day from you bulletin and let’s
read it together:
“Together we must say no to hatred, to revenge and to violence which is
perpetrated in the name of a religion or of God himself.”
The Christian church’s doctrine teaches that the God we worship is a Triune God.
That means One God in three persons. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Have you
ever encountered the Holy Spirit? Tell us about it.
Pope Francis is stirring things up again. Our thought of the day is only part of
what the Holy Father said about religion, and in particular fundamentalism, which
is what he was talking about calling it, and I quote;
“a disease that is found in all religions”.
If you were here last Sunday you may remember I spoke about how some people
know everything that is in the Bible, but very little about what it means. That
would be just one example of Biblical Fundamentalism.
Pope Francis continued by saying:
“Fundamentalism is always a tragedy. It is not religious, it lacks God, it is
idolatrous. We Catholics, we have a few, even many fundamentalists. They
believe they know absolute truth and corrupt others. I can say this because this
is my Church.”
Everywhere the Pontiff went people of all religions were interested in what he
had to say. In Kenya he denounced the radicalization of young people mentioning
the “barbaric attacks” by Islamic extremists in Nairobi, Garissa and Mandera.
But it was in Central African Republic, torn apart by brutal violence that his
appearance must have had the most powerful result. First of all, think of the
courage it takes to visit and speak in such a violent explosive place wracked by
war.
For more than two years Christian militias and Muslim rebels have been warring
against each other. Rather miraculously I would say, before he held a papal mass
1
2
at the capital’s Barthelemy Boganda stadium, a group of Muslim rebels from the
PK5 area jumped out of two pickup trucks wearing T-shirts bearing the Pope’s
image.
They pushed their way through the crowd into a Christian area where Muslims
usually do not dare to venture while people cheered and shouted:
“It’s over.”
One of the rebels, and elderly man named Idi Bohari said:
“We thought the whole world had abandoned us, but not him. He loves us
Muslims too.”
There is a saying, an idiom that is so very familiar to us all, and holds a certain
truth about human behavior and indeed what we profess to believe:
“The proof of the pudding is in the eating.”
As we unfortunately know from our less than impressive spate of politicians these
days, people can and do say all manner of things regardless of their accuracy,
helpfulness and least of all truth!
So what you see, to allude to another idiom, and especially what you hear is by
no means what you get! And I believe this is also exactly what Pope Francis is
talking about as well.
It is embarrassing but true, that many people actually believe what others laugh
about, mainly;
“I saw it on the Internet, so it must be true!”
And I believe that is what Jesus is talking about in today’s Gospel. Philip wants to
see the Father. He wants proof of God. He lives in a material world, with a
material understanding of reality. If something exists you can see it, taste it,
touch it understand it!
Jesus, at least impatient if not frustrated asks:
“How can you say ‘show us the Father?”
Don’t you know that God dwells within me and I in God? Don’t you know that
the very force of life, the very breath of life comes from God and dwells in you?
2
3
And don’t you know that the work I do comes from God? And that you will do
even greater things than these because of God’s Holy Spirit? The works
themselves will reveal the truth to you because the proof of the pudding is in the
eating!
Years ago much younger and still stuck in the literal reading of Scripture I would
puzzle over how anyone could do greater things than Jesus, who was after all
God! Today I am astonished at what humankind can and does do like creating a
computer the size of a chocolate bar that can communicate with anyone
anywhere in the world instantly.
A marvelous tool that carries within it the ability to access unlimited volumes of
material greater than could fill all the libraries that ever existed in the world and
that with just the touch of a button.
Or the fact that there are thousands of people including our neighbor on Mequon
Avenue Doug Yip who is walking around every day with a new heart beating in his
chest, and members of Advent whose lives were not only saved but extended for
years through the miracle of modern medicine.
Ironically, it is Fundamentalism that has tried to stop and thwart research that
would save even more lives. The Pope is right, Fundamentalism is always a
tragedy, and it is anti-life, and it is anti-God!
Jesus explains how this works:
“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.”
The material world teaches; “Winner take all!” “You are #1.” Catch as catch
can.” “Enough is just a little bit more.” “You deserve it.” “God helps those who
help themselves.”
Jesus and the Bible teach exactly the opposite. “You truly live only by dying to
self. The only things that you will have when you die are the things you gave
away. Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all”
3
4
Big difference between what the world teaches, promotes and tries to get us to
believe and what Jesus taught. And therein lies the problem that Pope Francis is
also addressing.
Like the disciples themselves, we are more interested in being part of the “ingroup,” the elite, the members, the righteous, and most especially if it means that
we don’t have to do much about it.
On Earth Day Lisa Wegner gave me a poem for the earth by Helen Weaver, who
loves and is connected to this miracle we call nature and life. That prayer, I
think, captures the message of Jesus beautifully, and most especially on this Day
of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descends to unite to whole human family in to
one:
Let us pray:
Almighty God, who are mother and father to us all,
Look upon your Earth divided:
Help us to know that we are all your children,
That all nations belong to one great family,
And all of our religions lead to you.
Multiply our prayers in every land
Until the whole Earth becomes your congregation,
United in your love.
Sustain our vision of a peaceful future
And give us strength to work unceasingly.
To make that vision real.
Amen.
4