12 Jun SUNDAY, JUNE 12, 2022
The Holy Spirit of wisdom and truth is no afterthought. She was there before earth began, crying to all that live. Beside God, like a master worker, she was God’s daily delight. She herself rejoices before God always, rejoices in the world we inhabit and us, the human race.
God’s glory extends throughout time, above our heads in the heavens and down to the height of our knees where infants and children make noise. No one created place or being has the capacity to hold God’s glory. Therefore it is spread out and widely distributed like the Spirit of wisdom and truth herself. All that lives is addressed and made by God to receive.
How often do we identify with things such as the moon and stars or God’s glory? Do we simply admire these things or consider ourselves part of them? The psalmist notes how small mortals seem by comparison. The psalmist concludes we are not more, but less, certainly not better than the God who made us. And yet, God cares for us.
Wisdom’s cry is to all that live, not all who live. Every generation and the world around them matters. Through the media, we have been inundated with images of destruction as a result of war and economic greed. Know this: the sight of homes and land destroyed is no less tragic in the eyes of God than the sight of injured human bodies.
According to John Polkinghorne, much theological thinking sees the eternal destiny of humans as central to God’s scheme, but “fails to appreciate fully the necessarily cosmic scope of the Creator’s total concern. This vast universe is not just there to be the backdrop for the human drama, now taking place after an overture that has lasted fourteen billion years. It all has a value of its own.” (Science and The Trinity, p. 147).
Yes, it all declares God’s glory. Wisdom herself says, “All lives matter.” There’s a need to remember lives too easily forgotten. There’s no need to be irked when reminded that Black Lives Matter or Animals have Rights. The right to life and God’s glory is given to all that is created. No other people, culture, species or terrain exists as a backdrop to our human drama.
God’s vision is wide and expansive; ours: narrow and restrictive. Governments funnel resources. Corporations dam up access. While Wisdom cries to everything that lives, human greed exploits the opportunity to gain an advantage.
Did anyone see the two-part documentary on Theodore Roosevelt? What was true at the turn of the twentieth century is still true. There’s little cause for optimism or hoping for the best.
Humans continue to advance themselves, rather than assure all have what they need. Someone has to advocate for laws that protect every life and prevent abuse as Roosevelt did.
Many feel this is not their burden. But if we are disciples, Jesus makes note that when we cannot bear the burden of truth, the Spirit of Truth will come to guide us in it.
Truth is like everything else God has. It is held within God’s being while also offered to all that live. Truth as revelation comes as something new and different, by degrees, and over time. But it must come. When we feel no burden, perhaps we aren’t wrestling with any new truths.
On June 18th, I’ll ride a bus from Harrisburg to D.C. to join others in the Poor People’s Campaign, a civil rights movement begun in 1968. The core of that movement is a desire for government to act morally for the sake of all that live, to address the needs of all spoken to by Wisdom.
I feel a burden for people who haven’t had the same chances I’ve had: to receive a decent education, to live in a safe neighborhood, to land a job numerous times, to own a home in multiple cities, to acquire some savings and purchase material goods that last.
Theodore Roosevelt was born into wealth, but never stopped helping those who needed work to live. The disparity of wealth between classes is no less gross today. There are many J.P. Morgans and Rockefellers. Comparatively speaking, we ourselves are wealthy. What truth would God burden us with in regard to our moral obligation?
Our moral obligation is to consider what’s right and what’s wrong. Disciples of Christ are obligated to become informed and listen to the Holy Spirit’s voice that will declare things to come. Like you, my grandparents worked multiple jobs and never became rich.
They never felt a moral obligation to share what they acquired outside the family. Why? Probably because the family worked so hard to gain what they did. In my own way, I’ve worked hard and saved. I could easily find ways to spend, but God won’t let me. My burden is to do something to lift others out of poverty, yet I haven’t discovered how.
Jesus said, “The Spirit of truth will take what’s mine and declare it to you.” Perhaps my prayer should be, “Take what is mine and declare it. I mean, give it to someone prepared by you, Lord, to receive what I would give.”
Just as Jesus said, “All that the Father has is mine,” in the same way, all that we have belongs to the Father and is His to give. What is your burden to receive? What is yours to give?
What burden do you see born by others that God may be asking you to relieve? Perhaps it’s the care of young children or an elderly parent, perhaps it’s the maintenance of a yard or vehicle, perhaps it’s the price of gas, oil, utilities or an education.
Perhaps, like me, you say, “They could turn their thermostat up or down like us. They could stay home and not eat out or not go on vacation or not buy new things like we do.
Why should my sacrifice benefit other people who can’t or won’t restrain themselves, who won’t make the same effort I myself am willing to make?
Wouldn’t those have been the exact words Jesus could’ve argued if he’d wanted to make excuses for why human beings didn’t deserve his sacrifice rather than take on the burden of becoming Our Savior?
I feel myself being guided into all truth, into a time before I get to a place where life is all about me and those I love, where my main focus is on my own small sphere. Human beings can only experience linear time. God experiences eternity all at once.
From beginning to end, God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit has observed incompleteness and inadequacy and seen the burden of lives frustrated by challenge and conflict. For this world to attain true glory, truth must continually be revealed and accepted so what unfolds in the future is an improvement over the past. New equals different and better from when people didn’t know better.
We know that apostolic authority rests with those whose faith originated in the twelve disciples chosen by Jesus. There’s no denying what we have received. Therefore, we each have an obligation to all that lives.
As your pastor, I believe that I’m being led to guide you into all truth. I pray not to speak on my own and only what I hear about what is to come. As pastors in the ELCA, we are constantly reminded that our churches are becoming less full.
As ordinary citizens we are constantly reminded of contrasts in the way people live. Children are not being nurtured as much as given devices to teach and gadgets that talk. I see youth with new clothes and shoes, but no one at home. At home, there is food on the shelves, but no one to prepare it.
Perhaps the least available resource today is caring enough to feel burdened and burdened enough to do something. What is ours to do? Though we may not consider ourselves activists or ones to become politically involved, we are inspired. Be inspired to see what a difference getting involved can make.
circa 1910: Theodore Roosevelt (1858 – 1919), twenty-sixth president of the United States of America. (Photo by Stock Montage/Stock Montage/Getty Images)
Roosevelt proved that learning how other people live can profoundly change the course of life. Truth exposed is worth acting upon. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” He’s quoted using the word truth over two hundred times.
Moral revival is what the Poor People’s Campaign calls for. Moral revival cannot occur until spiritual revival happens. According to notes from the New English Translation (or NET Bible) Jesus said in John 8:31-32, “If you continue to follow my teaching you are really my disciples. You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” The commentary goes on to say that this freedom “will ultimately be realized in the ongoing ministry of the Holy Spirit to disciples after Jesus’ departure.”
What might the Spirit of truth be telling you? Jesus always aims to make a burden known, then ultimately lift it. Had we never acknowledged sin, we would never appreciate forgiveness. Had our families never experienced doing without, we would never have grown to appreciate all we currently have.
I had never bought a single onion before. I’d always been compelled to buy an entire bag. This means I’d only eaten yellow onions. Never white ones, unless you count the Blooming Onions I’ve eaten as an appetizer in restaurants.
The Vidalia onion found after Artsfest was surprisingly a burden. I continued to wonder whether it was safe to eat or if I had deprived someone else of a treat. The rest of the story is this:God uses humor, embarrassment and a bit of concern to teach us the pleasure of experiencing something new. That’s the role of the Holy Spirit.
Finally cutting into the big white onion was so different from cutting a small yellow one. The fragrance was less irritating, the flavor sweeter, the color like snow. Because Steve didn’t want any, I cut myself two big slices for my cheeseburger.
The lessons I learned were these: Accept the truth. It’s okay to figure that if no one else wants it, it must be there for you. It’s nice when burdens turn out to be gifts. God is generous and knows that we often don’t recognize what’s intended or needed until the situation becomes personal. Let us pray.
Dear Wisdom of the Holy Spirit, connect us to the needs of all and help us to realize our part. Guide us in all truth and help us to change what deprives others of opportunity, of the very life you give, the truth you mean to teach, the wisdom you mean to impart, the burdens you mean to lift. We look, listen and live to share all that you offer. To the glory of your holy name we pray and seek your will. Amen.