God’s Honest Truth

In Acts 2, we meet the disciples grieving. Jesus is dead. They have lost their friend and teacher. It’s 50 days after the resurrection and we are told they’re ‘all together in one place’. The Holy Spirit then fills that space and flows out into the streets and into the public realm, beyond the people gathered as so-called ‘church’ and out into the world. The Holy Spirit fills and overflows, so much so that the apostles ‘began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability’. Can you imagine the fear and complete confusion? The Holy Spirit had arrived and the broad invitation was to listen, but primarily to participate.

In John 15, we hear Jesus saying that we are to testify. With the arrival of the Holy Spirit, some may ask whether WE really need to testify? Surely the Spirit has this covered for us? Surely, therefore, Jesus doesn’t need us to bear witness? However, we should realise that this isn’t a question of Jesus’ needs, but a question of the needs of the world. Our society, our world needs us to testify because evil and corruption know no bounds.

This is why we need the Holy Spirit and this is why we need that fire inside us. The Holy Spirit liberates us to imagine a better and more equal world and the flame of the Spirit enables us to step out confidently into a new reality. The Holy Spirit enables us to envisage a world where all are included and welcomed; a world that gives room at the table for different voices and accents; where equal opportunities provide us all with the potential to light up the darkness!

Four times in today’s passage from John (John 15. 26-27; 16. 4b-15) is truth named. Through these references Jesus’ identity is intertwined with that of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit asks us to speak truth, because in doing so we bear witness to the truth of God in and within us. This is a truth that makes us who we are as followers of Christ, a truth by which we are known, loved and trusted. The Holy Spirit is light and wonder, but fundamentally the Holy Spirit is also truth. The Holy Spirit is a truth that pierces the darkness of a lie. We can believe that Jesus’s body was not stolen as some people like to argue, he WAS resurrected and our movement IS ongoing and vibrant, it has not failed as some like to suggest.

To be a Christian is to look a lie in the face and be unafraid, because we have the Holy Spirit. It is not our fault we are so often abused or betrayed by those around us, perhaps particularly those who control narratives or who are in authority. It is not our fault they try to justify their actions using their version of the truth, which in reality is lies. Politics around the world is often in a state of disorganised chaos because those in public office have forgotten the central importance of ‘truth’, ‘equality’, ‘inclusion’ and ‘welcome’. We do not need scandal in public life or mismanagement of public funds. What we need is honest conversations, humility and transparency. What we need is directed funding towards social care, the NHS and education. We need those who give selfless service to our communities to be paid the salary they deserve and not to be exploited because they chose to follow their vocations. We need truthful conversations about the funding of wars which, intentionally or unintentionally, target and kill civilians and children. We need truth, not lies and humility, not greed. Spirit-filled faith is a massive threat to those who live for themselves alone. No wonder they attack all people of faith who speak out to bring a greater understanding of truth to the world.

We need to make room to speak God’s honest truth to all, because we have the freedom and permission of the Holy Spirit. Within this truth, we travel the path laid before us together, set aflame by the resurrection of a dead body and the living breath of a loving and patient God. Jesus is alive! Jesus loves us and is waiting for us all to testify against the greatest lies and to say loud and clear, and without hesitation, we are not alone, we are not abandoned, love conquers all and the world is upside down! God’s world is the right way up. The hungry will be fed, the children will be safe. God will wipe away every tear from our eyes. There will no longer be death nor sorrow. Our weeping may endure longer than we want, but joy comes in the resurrection morning.

The Trinitarian reality of Pentecost is that God sees in us something greater than we could ever see in ourselves and we are called to be a people who testify to the greater good and a greater glory. God’s honest truth is that God was with us in the beginning and we will be with God at the end, but only after we have stepped into the promise of our potential and testified in word and action to the truth.

At Pentecost, we are reminded that as Christians, we have everything we need, in the Holy Spirit, to fulfil Jesus’ call to love our neighbours as ourselves and speak God’s truth to those who deny it. Have you welcomed the Holy Spirit into your heart, are you willing to testify?

With every blessing,

Christian