A new day has begun

Published 11:28 am Wednesday, June 2, 2021

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Have you ever tried to describe what you believe the Holy Spirit of God to be? Pentecost Sunday has come and gone. There is mystery to what happened on that day we often hear about over in Acts 2. There is great mystery to this third manifestation of God. 

This year, many of us considered for scripture on this day another part of Jesus’ famous “Farewell Discourse” found in John’s gospel. We’ve visited parts of it especially over these last few weeks. Specifically this week, we read in John 15: 26-27 and then John 16: 4-15. 

These are among Jesus’ final words of instruction and perspective. Let me ask you another question. What has been the biggest close to a chapter in your life that you can recall? What transition as you look back appears to be the single most important one that you’ve made in your years? It is as if they heard in John’s gospel here, “One chapter of your life with God’s son may be ending. But I am sending the Holy Spirit, and it will be your teacher now.” 

In trying to explain the Trinity, we can lose sight that we are still dealing with one God, but three persons who are not the same as each other. All of them are still God. If I asked you, “What comes to mind with a teacher or professor you learned the best under. That one who might not have been as well-known as all the others, but who made a subject truly click for you. 

The Holy Spirit makes faith, life and hope come alive for us! The Spirit can make life click into place often, if we are attuned and open to the guidance. We hear of the Spirit as a guide, advocate, helper, teacher, conscience or even one who nudges us. There may be no one name we can give to the Spirit that will capture it. But the Spirit is God, alive to us and within us. I am convinced the Spirit is before us and behind us. It is beside us and it is within us. 

In short, here is some of what Jesus taught us in our scripture this week. First, that God is always with us. We may pray that God would meet us, be with us, but in reality God is already with us if we’ve allowed. Maybe instead, we should pray that God would open us to see what is already here! Fred Craddock says, “God works in both rehearsal and in reflection.” Part of the challenge is to bring our experience with Christ in the past and on into our lives today.  

Jesus also pointed out that the disciples were called to bear witness to Jesus. So are we, even in an age when people may not be listening. My calling is to bear witness to a risen Jesus Christ. A Lord who transforms our very living, if we’ll allow. I’ll keep on doing that.  

Finally, he taught us that the Spirit will guide us into the future. When my Dad was in the early stages of his Dementia, one of the first signs the caregivers and doctors pointed to was that he was drawing excessively on memories. He was obsessed at times with photo albums and stories of long ago. Hindsight is good. Looking in the rearview mirror is good. But if all we have is memories, then we are in trouble. 

There is so much we’d like to know. What are things going to be like soon? What will our culture act like next? What are the young people going to become? Do you know? Has someone told you? What answers do you really have? 

What does all this in John 15-16 mean for us today? It seems to want to tell us that the Spirit is there to guide us into what we don’t know. Some of the biggest fears we sometimes have are centered around what is next. What we so wish is that we had clarity. That we had a roadmap to follow. That we had certainty. Instead, we have the Spirit. One of the greatest gifts the Spirit seems to give us is that it comes alongside to live with us into the next days, weeks, months, years and realms of our eternity. A new day has begun already. Because the Spirit is with us now!

DR. CHARLES QUALLS is senior pastor at Franklin Baptist Church. Contact him at 757-562-5135.