Pentecost 2012

Pentecost 2012 (John 15:26-27;16:4b-15)
“When the Spirit of truth comes He will lead you into all the Truth.”

Truth is a person. Truth is the second person of the infinite and eternal Trinity. Truth is the Logos, the Beloved. Truth incarnates, becomes flesh, in Jesus Christ.

The third person of the infinite and eternal Trinity is the Holy Spirit. Jesus calls the Holy Spirit the Advocate. An advocate speaks on behalf of someone. The Holy Spirit speaks on God the Father’s behalf to the human race. He also speaks on our behalf to the Father.

The Holy Spirit is the Helper and the Guide for all people everywhere. He always, always helps people discern the truth of the human condition. The truth of the human condition is that we as a species and each of us individually have willfully chosen separation from God. Not only have we chosen separation we are lost in separation. As we are lost we cannot find our way back by our own reason, will or emotion. We are lost in the limited and ever narrowing world view of our condition. The proof of this is pain, suffering and death.

The Holy Spirit revealed this truth to Moses and the prophets as they recorded their observations of the human condition and their own personal experience with God.
As the Holy Spirit speaks on the behalf of the infinite and eternal Father, so he reveals to humanity the Father’s solution to the problem of separation. That solution is a person, the second person of the infinite and eternal Trinity. Jesus and Jesus alone is the solution to separation.

In Jesus the infinite and eternal Trinity unites divinity with humanity never to be divided from it. Salvation is an organic and spiritual union of the Divine with the human in the person of Jesus Christ.

The Holy Spirit always, always reveals Jesus as the pattern, plan and purpose for the human species as a whole and for each of us individually. Any spirit that claims to come from God yet does not honor the co-eternal Beloved of God is not from God.
The Holy Spirit meets us where we are and initiates a process of reunification and transformation. Only He can do this. We can help. The Holy Spirit invites us to help through the activity we call “evangelism”. But it is important to understand that it is not our job to convert or to change anyone other than ourselves. It is our job to grow so close to Jesus that we reflect a small portion of his infinite and eternal love in our attitudes and actions.

Moses and the prophets identify three basic paths for humanity: the path of separation, the path of reunification and the path of stagnation. Jesus revealed to the beloved apostle John that these three paths can be characterized as hot, cold or lukewarm.

The Holy Spirit reaches out to a species that is cold and indifferent to divine principles and the divine person. He seeks to ignite a spark, the spark of love, in the souls of people who are lost in self-indulgence and lost in the will to power. He has at his disposal an infinite array of signs and symbols and means by which to accomplish this.

As a guide, the Holy Spirit meets us in the individual particularity of where we are lost, you are lost, I am lost. As a Guide, the Holy Spirit always, always leads us to Jesus.

Jesus identifies three principle misunderstandings we humans hold. These misunderstandings divert our attention from the truth and subvert our desire for the truth. These three principles of misunderstanding deal with sin, righteousness and judgment. These misunderstandings manifest in two forms: the rigid inflexible form of power; and the self-indulgent seductive form of knowledge.

The Holy Spirit reveals that all sin is a distortion of the good. The source of this distortion is the pain of separation. We sin, by direct action or passive inaction, in an effort to mask the deeply rooted pain of our separation from God, nature, each other, and the image and likeness of God imprinted in our souls.

Since sin is a distortion that proceeds from the pain of separation righteousness is an expression of the new life of reunification with God. That reunification comes solely through our personal relationship with Jesus Christ. We become who God created us to be only in relationship with the one for whom, by whom and through whom God created us. That one is the co-eternal Beloved, incarnate in Jesus Christ.
Jesus is the reunification of humanity with divinity in his own person. He just doesn’t stand as an example. He is the reality of the Original Blessing. He is the real presence of the new life that will produce the new way of living.

In Christ there is no judgment, no final condemnation. That judgment, that final condemnation, is personified in the choice the Seraph Lucifer made. Lucifer declared: I am like God. He condemns himself by making a final choice to separate from God in order to be equal with God.

None of this is taught by the world’s religions or secular philosophies. It is present only in Jesus Christ.

This is the broad outline of the task the Holy Spirit undertakes in his outreach to the peoples of the world. The Holy Spirit is actively and compassionately speaking to everyone on this planet at this moment. He is seeking to help us understand that we are lost in separation, He is guiding us very gently but persistently away from fear, anger and hatred into faith, hope and love.

In this process each soul has the personal responsibility to listen. Each soul has the personal responsibility to take the next step forward that will lead to reunification with the Father, though the Son in the presence of the Holy Spirit.
We are you still feeling the pain of separation?

Where are you lost?

Where are you walking the tight rope of indecision?

Where are you lukewarm in love and compassion.

It is precisely there that the Holy Spirit is even now meeting you.

The Holy Spirit is our advocate, guide and helper. He meets us where we are: lost in self-will, fear and pride. He invites us to consider our condition. He offers a path forward. It is the Way of reunification and transformation. It is the Way of Jesus.