By Bill Carroll
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. For he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears.
We have just celebrated Trinity Sunday, and in the Gospel, we encountered some of the basic grammar of our faith. That day, of all days, it was important that we not get lost in abstractions, as easy as that would be. Doctrine is important, because it preserves the Church from certain fundamental distortions of the Gospel. But the purpose of doctrine is to illuminate the Gospel story—and not the other way around.
And so, let me note where the day’s Gospel passage occurs in the overall narrative. It is taken from the lengthy farewell discourse in John. Jesus is about to enter Jerusalem, where he will be crucified. He is preparing his disciples for his death and return to the bosom of the Father. He is preparing them for his reconciling work, by which he will make his enemies into friends, but which will come at first as a traumatic loss. There is no gateway back to God, except the narrow door of the cross—that is, the self-emptying and dispossessive love of Christ.
And he is promising them, in spite of what they are about to experience, that he will never leave them orphaned or alone. He will send them another Comforter, or Advocate. This Spirit, the Holy Spirit, will lead them into all Truth. Indeed, in John, the Spirit is the One through whom Jesus continues to dwell within us and among us, keeping his promise to be with us always, even to the end of the age.
The Spirit’s ministry is described in nearly the same terms as that of Jesus himself, who is sent by the Father to declare the things he has seen and heard. Like Jesus, the Spirit is a faithful witness, who speaks only what belongs to Another. As Jesus puts it, he will take what is mine and declare it to you. Moreover, Jesus has been given everything (and only those things) that belong to the Father. As he notes in the passage, All that the Father has is mine.
Now, on one level, this points us to the fundamental achievement of the First Councils of Nicaea and Constantinople, held in 325 and 381 respectively. Jesus is “of one Being” with the Father. He is homoousios or consubstantial with the Father. Against the Arian heresy, the Church maintains that Jesus is not an angel or God’s highest creature–not even a demigod–but God’s only Son our Lord, eternally begotten of the Father, different in person but not in substance with the One who sent him.
The passage also points us also to the fundamental equality of the Spirit, who is the Lord and Giver of Life. The Spirit is worshiped and glorified equally with the Father and the Son. The Spirit is no mere creature—but is instead God’s own Spirit, the very love of God poured into our hearts to make us holy—to lead us into Truth. According to John, Jesus himself is that Truth. And it is for this reason that the Spirit is said to take the things that belong to Jesus and declare them to us. The Spirit is the One by Whom the precepts and promises of Christ are conveyed to us. But more fundamentally, the Spirit is the One by Whom we are united in faith and love with the Lord Jesus, so that in him, we might give glory to the Father.
Again, it all comes back to a story. The story that is told in many conflicting and sometimes contradictory voices in the Scriptures, summed up in the Creeds, and retold at each and every celebration of the Eucharist. Here it is in outline:
For all eternity, God is love. God is pure, abundant, self-giving love, perfectly shared among the Three. Out of goodness and love, God made the world and everything in it. God made it good, and God made us human beings very good, in and through the Word. And when we sinned and fell short of God’s good and loving purpose, when we lost our freedom and sold ourselves to other masters, out of love, God sought us out and set us free. Again and again, God sent prophets to call us back to love. And finally, in these last days, God sent God’s very own Son, Jesus the Christ, to live and die as one of us–to rise again as one of us—to reconcile us to the one God and Father of all. While await his return in glory, the Lord Jesus has sent his very own Spirit to live within us, to strengthen us to continue his work in the world, to purify us and form us ever more deeply into his likeness, a kind of first fruits of God’s Kingdom.
The Church remains highly imperfect. If you don’t believe it, look around you. Or better, look not to others, but engage in the more difficult work of self-examination. Look to the unfinished story of your own life and to the frustrations of life in human society. In the light of the Spirit, by whom God searches us and knows us, we come to know our open depravity and secret shames. We see the truth of our broken promises, our pride, our lust, our greed. We see our rapacious appetite disfigure earth and sky and sea. We see our rivalry and violence—our fear and hatred of our fellow human beings—our participation in the long, dark legacy of Cain.
Indeed, it can be painful work for us as the Spirit guides and stretches us—as the Spirit forms us into vessels fit for God’s abundant goodness. So far have we strayed from our created goodness. We do not easily withstand the gift of mercy—so rare it is in the world. We are threatened by the purity of God’s truth. And yet, in the Spirit, we share in Christ’s own life—in his very own relationship with the Father. In the Spirit, we share in Christ’s own love—for the neighbor, the sinner, the stranger, and the enemy—even for ourselves. And we are made joint heirs with him of all God’s promises, which exceed all we could ever ask or imagine.
In the Word and the Spirit, God holds nothing back. These are no creatures, but God’s own hands, present and active in the world. The Spirit takes the things that belong to Christ and gives them to us, just as Jesus shares with us the mystery of his Father’s ineffable mercy and love. Jesus is God from God, light from light, true God from true God. As much as we can—often more than we can—we receive from his hands as a gift—until at last his Spirit leads us into ALL TRUTH.
In that day, the living God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—will be all in all.
And the earth shall be filled with the glory of God, as the waters cover the sea.
The Rev. Dr. R. William Carroll is rector of the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in Athens, Ohio. He received his Ph.D. in Christian theology from the University of Chicago Divinity School. His sermons appear on his parish blog. He also blogs at Living the Gospel. He is a member of the Third Order of the Society of Saint Francis.