Novelty can be alluring. The new promises to surpass the old – I am incredulous whenever I see on the news the long lines outside stores with folks waiting sometimes days for the latest iPad or iPhone or whatever gadget or computer game that is just being released. It can be a thrill buying a new car or new clothes or new whatever. But the new quickly becomes old, and so novelty can create an inexhaustible desire. Our love of novelty can even take on the appearance of a search for truth, when in fact it is only a form of distraction.
In the Book of Acts during the Easter season we hear of the Apostles going throughout the Mediterranean region spreading the Good News. There were many competing new religions and philosophies swirling around then. So, many of the crowds drawn to Apostles came out of their curiosity to hear something new. There were scores of novelties: if one god or philosophy failed you or bored you, there was always another.
Although this sounds like it might just be an ancient problem, you can see similar contemporary versions of this right in Southern California; where you can see a car with a rabbit’s foot in the cup holder, a sacred heart air freshener dangling from the review mirror, a bobble head Buddha sitting on the dashboard, and a Darwin fish with feet bumper sticker.
People are searching for an experience of God or a quest for the spiritual through all the confusing expressions of that in modern culture. Some express their search in their “automobile shrines”, while others kneel at the altar of Superlative Experience: seeking the highest high, the biggest fanciest vehicle, the most extreme sport, the most sordid confession on a reality show. Many in our culture are indulging in this cult of experience, which is actually a misguided groping for God. The “experience” idol isn’t a stranger to our churches either and can ride into our sanctuaries with religious overtones and with superficial expressions of genuine spirituality.
An undergrad student once commented on her college’s religion department whose professors taught courses in everything from Hindu beliefs to Christian history. “They know a great many things about religion,” she said, “but none of them in the department practice any particular faith. I find that strange. They know everything about God except God.” To search for the divine as only an intellectual matter is another form of misguided groping for God.
This is the attitude some of Apostles found in the 1st Century where there was a philosopher approach to faith, engaging God only as a concept, like an intellectual challenge to be conquered. Unlike the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch we heard read today who was moved to be baptized, many crowds scoffed at a faith in Jesus Christ. It’s amazing that the Apostles had the nerve to stand up and say anything at all. We might wonder why they felt compelled to look silly and risk ridicule.
This Eastertide I have not experienced overt ridicule of my faith. No one scoffed at my Easter sermons. The eggs were eaten not thrown. But for the most part I have spoken of my faith only to those who share it. Most of those who have come through our church doors have been through them many times before. I encountered no skeptical spectators; no visitor has laughed out loud at our “alleluias.” However, it would undoubtedly very different if I ventured out into our post Christian society and spoke candidly about my faith at a city council meeting. Most of the people we brush shoulders with every day do not want to know about our personal faith and if we were to attempt to share it we would probably be hushed or relegated to the category of the of the doddering old preacher who was repeatedly wrong in his predictions of the rapture.
Our society does not seem to take seriously the realities that cannot be tangibly and scientifically touched, analyzed, and intellectually understood. The contrast between seeing and not seeing, between God and idols, resonates with the reading from St. John’s Gospel for today. This is another excerpt from Jesus’ farewell discourse to his disciples in which he tells them that the world will not be able to see the Spirit nor will it see Jesus, but the disciples will see them both. As we are transformed by faith we are able to see God. Being trained to see things rightly involves training in resistance to the glamour of novelty. This is where folks living in the 1st Century and the 21st Century with their love of all things new fall short. St. Augustine tells us that in order to see truth, “The mind should be cleansed so that it is able to see that light and cling to it once it is seen. Let us consider this cleansing to be as a journey or a voyage home.”
The 14th – 16th chapters of St. John’s Gospel offers us some of the most profound insights into the Holy Spirit. The fruits of the Spirit are poetically described by Jesus in the well known vine metaphor in today’s Gospel lesson. In the original Greek text the word used by Jesus describing the Holy Spirit is “parakletos” Paraclete, which literally means “one who consoles or comforts, one who encourages or uplifts and refreshes, and/or one who intercedes on our behalf as an advocate in court.” Since we have no such word in English, translators variously use the word Paraclete, Counselor, Comforter or Advocate.
I actually prefer the term “Counselor.” What does it mean that God is your Counselor? It can mean someone to be at your side to help you sort out your decisions and give you strength. With the Holy Spirit as Counselor it means that the Holy Spirit is personally concerned about us. God our Counselor is not a detached listener who listens politely to us for 50 minutes, asks for payment and then wants us to leave so the next client can come in. God is the supreme Counselor who is truly concerned about us and fully understands the complexity of our being. The Holy Spirit is a non-judgmental counselor who does not condemn us in our humanness. Our divine Counselor is a facilitator of growth and maturity within us, not magically solving all our problems or making the decisions we need to make ourselves, but offers us the strength and insights we need. This is what Jesus promised the disciples and this is what he promises us.
We do not need to reach far in our search for God. God is, after all not far from each one of us. Our grasping can end as we approach the altar, where we dine together as a family, where God is placed into our hands, and where we are reminded that God has come and will come again in Jesus Christ.
Amen.
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