Scripture:
John 14:15-27 and John 16:12-15

There is a saying which goes like this, “Listen to your broccoli, and your broccoli will tell you how to eat it.” It means, according to author Anne Lamott, “that when you don’t know what to do, when you don’t know whether you would do this or that, you get quiet and try to hear that still small voice inside. It will tell you what to do.” It is the truth.

Anne says “The problem is that so many of us lost access to our broccoli when we were children. When we listened to our intuition when we were small and then told the grown-ups what we believed to be true, we were often corrected, ridiculed, or punished. Too bad for those who had their own opinions or perceptions.”

Anne goes on to say, “For example if you asked innocently, ‘Why is Grandma in the bathroom crying,’ you might be told, ‘Grandma isn’t crying; she has allergies.’ Or if you said, ‘Why didn’t Dad come home last night?’ you might be told brightly, ‘Dad did come home last night, but then he left again very early.’ And you nodded, even though you knew that these were lies, because it was important to stay on the adults’ good side. So you may have gotten into the habit of doubting the voice that was telling you quite clearly what was really going on. It is essential that you get it back. You need your intuition. You need your truth.”  (From Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott)

Today’s scripture passages from John introduce us to the early Church, the Christian community. They were faced with these questions: What happens when Jesus, the founder of the community, is no longer around? Is the community left on its own, with no access to his presence or transformative power?  We are reminded of assurance from Jesus who says, “The Holy Spirit will come, your Advocate.” The question: But how will this work? It’s the question we deal with in our personal relationships – how will we go on without this individual in our life? And we continue, grasping that in some way we will know what to do, we’ll learn how to live, and we’ll be more mindful of others who are walking similar paths.

John wants the disciples and others to have confidence that because of the presence of the Advocate, there is not, and will not be any loss of the presence or power of Jesus. But it will be different. It will be important for the community to recall what Jesus has said – his teachings, the hard stuff as well as the more comfortable parts – and to discover what it might mean for the church today. A community that is confident in who God is for them, who has come in the person of Jesus.

So what is this Spirit of Truth? What is truth, anyway? We won’t go into what is “The Truth” as in philosophical terms, but rather consider a dictionary version first: Truth is the state of being true, loyal, trustworthy, being genuine, sincere, honest.

If we look at the Greek word for truth, we find the word alaythia which means truth or true, as not concealing. That could mean for us: not hiding, being real, being transparent, being vulnerable, listening to that still small voice that makes one brave, to stand up and say who you are, knowing that you may or may not be accepted. Waiting on this spirit of truth will take patience until we know how to respond and why. We must be ready. When we’re ready, and know that the spirit abides with us, then that spirit will be in us.

Our text says “This is the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.”

So once this community receives the spirit of truth, then what happens next? Do you think the people will want to sit still and do nothing?

 I started reading a book by Jim Wallace entitled Rediscovering Values. If you’ve not heard of Jim Wallace, he is someone who may interest you. Jim is President and CEO of Sojourners, where he is editor in chief of Sojourners magazine that speaks of Faith in Action for Social Justice. Wallace says that a community or congregation who wants to change who they are, will not be satisfied “with bowling leagues, sewing circles, and yoga classes, or even with therapy sessions or Bible study classes, but will be led to do ‘works’ similar to those of Jesus: befriending the outcasts, healing the sick, speaking up for the marginalized, housing the homeless, feeding the hungry, and speaking truth to others.”  (Rediscovering Values – Jim Wallace)

But for people of faith, Jim says there are other questions to ask: “What is a Christian, a Jewish, or an Islam response to a deepening economic crisis like this? What should people of faith be thinking, saying, and doing? What is the responsibility of the churches, synagogues, and mosques to their own congregants, to their communities, to the nation and to the world? And where is God in all this? What do pastors, lay leaders, activists, and practitioners say about creative opportunities and new solutions that could come out of all this: the possibilities of mutual aid, congregational and community credit unions, and new cooperative strategies for solving problems? How can an economic crisis reconnect religious congregations with their own communities? How might a crisis be an opportunity to clarify the mission of the faith community?” 

Tough questions and difficult answers, right? But how might we respond as a congregation? What kind of ongoing conversations could come from various interest groups branching out from adult education, youth and parents, women’s chapters, men’s ministry, interfaith dialogue, and mission outreach, just to name a few?

A faith community who walks and works together will multiply their strength as they are helped by the Spirit. As this community experiences the presence and power of the Spirit of truth in its life, it can become a non-anxious presence in an anxious fearful age; it can have the peace the world cannot give or take away. And isn’t that what we truly want and desire?

So what is truth? Truth does not equal “facts” or wisdom.
But in John’s gospel, truth is a reference to Jesus, who is the truth. “I am the way, and the truth and the life.” So the truth into which the community is to be guided has to do with Jesus himself, providing both greater clarity about all that he has said and deeper conviction regarding who he is and what he did.

What the text wants most to do is encourage within the community an openness to fresh encounters with the revelation of Jesus. John intends to shape a community that is receptive to Spirit-guided growth. We may not experience “new truth” but perhaps just understand life a bit better – a Christian community that is not locked into the past but understands what Jesus means for its own time. Changing circumstances and the emergence of new questions will require the community to think afresh. And by relying on the guidance of this Spirit of Truth the community will be led where it needs to go.|

Perhaps it really is about What Would Jesus do?

Maybe Jesus would challenge us to change or to think about changing. The Spirit of truth may challenge us to move forward – to be a relevant church that does not exist for itself but for Christ and the world. How might we do that? I invite you to begin thinking and praying about how we might be a relevant church and then make a list and send it to Howard or me. Or send it to your moderators or Executive Board leaders.

Jim Wallace gives us some 20 moral exercises to help change the script, to doing something different that will move us forward in truth. Here are 5 of those ideas that spoke to me:

--Calendars and Budgets are Moral Documents
A budget tells you what and who are most important to a family, a church, a city, state or nation. A calendar is also truly a moral document in the same way a budget is. For our calendars show how we spend our time and our budgets show how we spend money and the importance of both. Look seriously at your calendar and budget in your congregation.

--Screen Time versus Family Time
Screens are everywhere in our life today, making us more efficient and more distracted.
How can we spend more quality time with family and friends? When is the last time you saw the eyes of your teenager on you and not their phone or computer? How can we all have more dialogue in small groups, face to face?

--Welcoming strangers and making neighbors – making your home a place of hospitality
Do you know who your neighbor is? Do you know their name? Would you feel comfortable inviting them to your home? I knew a neighbor in Pennsylvania who had Thursday night leftovers and invited different neighbors to her home each week on Thursday night, served leftovers only, and got to know these people instead of just waving to them on the sidewalk.

--Living a life of service- reaching out, giving to others.
We do this pretty well. But who are we missing? Who is falling through the cracks?

--Build a better book club: start a book club to discuss this book by Wallace and other books that offer a challenge for change. But like any thing else, the words we read will make sense only when it is acted on, experimented with, and tested in the real world.
Perhaps there will be men and women who want to join me this fall in reading, studying, and acting out this book of Moral and Spiritual values.

Recall what Anne Lamott said, “We need to listen to our broccoli. We need our intuition. We need our truth.”

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. And how do we know? “You know him, because he abides with you and he will be in you.”

May we be willing to be that community of faith, as Christ intended for us.
Amen.