2026 05 10 Easter 6 A
These readings between the resurrection and Pentecost are
deliberately presented to us to teach us so that we prepare for the feast of
Pentecost, and so that we can stir up that gift of the Holy Spirit that God has
given us. More often than not, we are
not stirring up that gift because we just haven’t thought about it, or don’t
really know about it. If we are to grow
as a church, it is imperative that we stir up this gift and rely on all that
the Holy Spirit offers.
Our Bible study group has been exploring this “in
between” time in the lives of the disciples.
It is a time of “Pre Pentecost Poverty to Post Pentecost Power”. The first week we looked at the first time
that Jesus appeared to the disciples after He rose from the dead, and He
breathed on the disciples and said, “receive the Holy Spirit”. Oooh and to find out all that was going on
with that…. You need to join our Bible study group. It’s been awesome! This week we looked at what the disciples did
next. They had seen the risen Lord, and
then Thomas had seen him, and they were told to meet Jesus in Galilee. So, they went…. And nothing was happening….
So, they went fishing. In other words,
they went back to their old life.
We too might experience great things and get all keen and
fired up, but then the event ends and we go back to the ways of yesterday. We are much like the disciples in those days,
unless we are empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Through our baptism we received the Holy Spirit, but do we live by the
Holy Spirit? It is the Holy Spirit that
makes all the difference, but for us, it is often a case of not knowing how to
live by the Spirit. Most of the time,
the Holy Spirit is an unwrapped gift. For
Christmas I received an awesome gift. I
haven’t opened it, because I’m a bit afraid that I won’t know how to use it. I suspect that this is how we are with the
Holy Spirit. So, the gift remains, to
some extent, unknown.
Speaking of unknown, St. Paul in our first reading,
addresses a very spiritual group of people who worship have an altar to an
unknown God. Because St. Paul is filled
with the Holy Spirit and living by the Spirit, he makes clear to these people,
and reveals just exactly who is this formally unknown God. One of the things that the Holy Spirit does
is that He gives us the right words at the right time. The result in St. Paul, is that we see him
creatively build on what the people already know. He meets these people where they are at and
clarifies, such that they can grasp the Good News of Jesus Christ. In doing so he doesn’t hold back in letting
them know that their former religion was wrong, as he tells them that in the
past God overlooked such ignorance, but he now commands all people everywhere
to repent.
St. Peter, in our 2nd reading talks about
telling the Good News to others in gentleness and respect. Was St. Paul respectful when he gave his
speech? By todays’ standards critics
might say that St. Paul was being “hateful”.
Their basis for believing this is from the understanding that neither
one religion nor the other is better. Yet
Paul knew that he was actually being respectful, loving and merciful. Here is why; Consider the context, these were
a people who were worshiping idols. Paul
was someone who previously had his own strong ideas on God and how the
spiritual world worked. Paul didn’t
worship idols. He worshiped the one true
God, but as a pharisee and a religious leader, he was persecuting Christians
believing that they were a threat to his religion and the one true God. However, as Paul was going to round up some
of those pesky Christians, God struck Paul down and revealed himself to Paul,
as JESUS.
Paul knew, because of this, that what God says, as
revealed through Jesus is the truth, and that Jesus is the Messiah – the
Saviour who died to save us. He discovered
that Jesus is God… and Jesus is IN the
father and, when, in that encounter, Jesus said to Paul, “Why are you
persecuting me?”, Paul understood that Jesus is in us and we in him. Paul also knew that God, although merciful,
has boundaries. Paul, himself,
experienced both God’s judgement and mercy on that day that God struck
him. Paul knew God has a day when God
will have the world judged by Jesus.
Paul is not only proclaiming the Good News about Jesus, but he is aiming
to prevent others from making his own mistakes. As respectful and loving as we can be, if we
are truly loving people, we need to speak the truth in love, and proclaim God’s
truth.
As we speak to people, we remember God’s far reaching
mercy. St. Peter tells us about those
who drowned in the flood. At that time,
God looked at the intense evil in the world and he pronounced judgement. Only 8, the family of Noah, were saved. But just as you might be thinking about the
eternal state of those who died, we read that Jesus went and made a
proclamation to the spirits in prison.
God always respects our free will, and yet he makes every effort and
opportunity to save us. He is the Good
Shepherd who actively pursues us to bestow on us his goodness and mercy.
God is merciful and loves us all more than we can
imagine. If there is a way for people to
come to know of God’s saving grace, God will do it. But here is where we need to be challenged,
because now that baton has been passed; we are the body of Christ on earth, and
we are to be his voice and proclaim his message to those around us.
St Paul’s message in the Areopagus began with a
complimentary statement of truth about the people, "Athenians, I see
how extremely spiritual you are in every way.
For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of
your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, 'To an unknown
god.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.”
These Athenians did not need another philosophical
idea. They did not need another god to
worship. In our community we have the
same. We have SO many “religions” and
New Age philosophies, why would we proclaim Christianity to people? There is even one religion that was created by
blending the best of all the religious ideas – they sometimes even sound
Christian. It sounds like a great idea, doesn’t
it? but so did that fruit in the garden
of Eden! Either Jesus is God and is who
he says he is, or any idea will do. And
if Jesus is who he says he is, we need to be absolutely uncompromising on that
truth. Why? Because Jesus sacrificed his life to bring us
life and to bring us eternal life. It
was price no one else can pay. Peter tells us, “For Christ also suffered
for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you
to God.” That is an absolute and serious statement. Unless we are very clear and understand what and
who we are, we are only passing on to people another “idea”, and they don’t
need that. What we all need is the
truth. The ONE truth.
In our Gospel reading Jesus says, “On that day you will
know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” Here is the heart of what it is to be a
Christian. These are words that we hear
often, but not something we often explain.
Essentially, what is being announced here, is that Christianity is not a
mere religion. Christianity is more than
a group of people who adhere to some philosophical understanding about the
spiritual and physical life and how everything works. Christianity is God alive and living in and
through us. He does this by His Holy
Spirit.
Unless God’s Holy Spirit is alive and living in and
through us, we are not actually Christians, we are merely adherents to the
Christian philosophy - onlookers.
Colossians 1:27 says, “"Christ in you, the hope
of glory". This confirms that
it is through Christ who lives in us and through us, by the Holy Spirit, that
is everything….. The Holy Spirit is our
teacher, helper, advocate, guide. The
Holy Spirit is our eternal life already present. The Bible describes it as the deposit
guaranteeing our eternal life. But it is also how God transforms us.
Through the Holy Spirit living in and through us, God
enables us to know and to do His will and his command. Can any of us in our own strength do
this? I don’t believe so. Though there is so much that is a mystery
about God and his ways, we are comforted to know that God will reveal himself
to us when we walk in his ways. We need
to know God’s will as we walk into an unknown future. We can achieve nothing in our own strength
and relying on our own talent. We need
the advocate, the Holy Spirit, who is God ever with us, in us and working
through us. And then we rest assured
that we will achieve exactly what God would have us achieve – and that is all
that matters.
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