Geoffrey Wainwright - "Seen One, Seen 'Em All" (June 18, 2000)
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| The third reading is written in the third chapter | 0:05 | |
| of the Gospel according to St. John. | 0:08 | |
| There was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, | 0:14 | |
| a leader of the Jews. | 0:16 | |
| He came to Jesus by night and said to him, | 0:19 | |
| "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher | 0:23 | |
| "who has come from God. | 0:25 | |
| "For no one can do these signs that you do | 0:28 | |
| "apart from the presence of God." | 0:31 | |
| Jesus answered him, "Very truly, I tell you, | 0:35 | |
| "no one can see the kingdom of God | 0:39 | |
| "without being born from above." | 0:42 | |
| Nicodemus said to him, "How can anyone be born | 0:46 | |
| "after having grown old? | 0:49 | |
| "Can one enter a second time into his mother's womb | 0:52 | |
| "and be born?" | 0:55 | |
| Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you, | 0:58 | |
| "no one can enter the kingdom of God | 1:01 | |
| "without being born of water and the Spirit. | 1:04 | |
| "What is born of the flesh is flesh, | 1:08 | |
| "and what is born of the Spirit is Spirit. | 1:12 | |
| "Do not be astonished that I said to you, | 1:17 | |
| "you must be born from above. | 1:20 | |
| "The wind blows where it chooses. | 1:24 | |
| "And you hear the sound thereof, | 1:27 | |
| "but you do not know where it comes from | 1:30 | |
| "or where it goes. | 1:33 | |
| "So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." | 1:35 | |
| Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?" | 1:41 | |
| Jesus answered him, "Are you a teacher of Israel, | 1:45 | |
| "and yet you do not understand these things? | 1:50 | |
| "Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know, | 1:54 | |
| "and testify to what we have seen, | 1:57 | |
| "yet you do not receive our testimony. | 2:01 | |
| "If I have told you about earthly things | 2:05 | |
| "and you do not believe, | 2:08 | |
| "how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? | 2:10 | |
| "No one has ascended into heaven | 2:15 | |
| "except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. | 2:18 | |
| "And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, | 2:24 | |
| "so must the Son of man be lifted up. | 2:29 | |
| "That whoever believes in him may have eternal life. | 2:33 | |
| "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, | 2:39 | |
| "so that everyone who believes in him may not perish, | 2:43 | |
| "but may have eternal life. | 2:48 | |
| "Indeed, God did not send the son into the world | 2:51 | |
| "to condemn the world, | 2:55 | |
| "but in order that the world might be saved through him." | 2:57 | |
| This is the word of the Lord. | 3:04 | |
| - | We preach Christ crucified | 3:28 |
| says the apostle Paul. | 3:31 | |
| Christ crucified and risen. | 3:33 | |
| The Christian message is therefore a very simple one. | 3:39 | |
| What do we confess? | 3:45 | |
| What is our faith as Christians? | 3:47 | |
| We believe and confess that Jesus is Lord. | 3:52 | |
| Again, a very simple matter. | 3:57 | |
| Christ crucified and risen, | 4:00 | |
| Jesus is Lord. | 4:03 | |
| Why then all this stuff | 4:09 | |
| about glory be to the Father, and to the Son, | 4:10 | |
| and to the Holy Spirit? | 4:13 | |
| As it was in the beginning, | 4:15 | |
| is now and ever shall be, | 4:17 | |
| world without end, amen. | 4:20 | |
| Is it the theologians who are complicating a simple faith? | 4:24 | |
| Especially on Trinity Sunday, | 4:32 | |
| some preachers get embarrassed. | 4:33 | |
| There is, by the way, | 4:37 | |
| no truth in the rumor that Dean Willimon chickened out | 4:38 | |
| for this Sunday. | 4:40 | |
| And the embarrassed preacher | 4:45 | |
| will then start to talk about shamrock leaves. | 4:49 | |
| I happen to have one here. | 4:57 | |
| If you can't see it in the back, | 5:01 | |
| here's an even bigger one. | 5:02 | |
| Three lobes, one leaf, | 5:08 | |
| all of it green. | 5:13 | |
| The divine nature as chlorophyll. | 5:16 | |
| No, we won't talk that route today. | 5:22 | |
| Or the preacher starts to talk about water. | 5:27 | |
| Well that's a bit more promising, | 5:32 | |
| we might be getting towards baptism | 5:33 | |
| if he talks about water. | 5:35 | |
| But no, the preacher will say, | 5:37 | |
| well water exists in three forms. | 5:40 | |
| Liquid, steam, and ice. | 5:43 | |
| The divine nature as H2O. | 5:49 | |
| No, we're not going that route either today. | 5:54 | |
| The Holy Trinity is not a metaphysical puzzle, | 6:00 | |
| not a mathematical puzzle. | 6:05 | |
| St. Basil, one of the great theologians | 6:11 | |
| in the fourth century, | 6:13 | |
| when the whole matter was under debate. | 6:14 | |
| St. Basil of Caesarea very wisely said, | 6:18 | |
| that number belongs to created things. | 6:22 | |
| Number belongs to created things. | 6:27 | |
| So let us go another route. | 6:35 | |
| The text to bear in mind, all along this morning is this, | 6:39 | |
| "He who has seen me, has seen the Father," | 6:45 | |
| saying of Jesus, in the fourteenth chapter of John's Gospel. | 6:51 | |
| Whoever has seen me, has seen the Father. | 6:57 | |
| You remember the episode, perhaps. | 7:02 | |
| Jesus is instructing his disciples | 7:04 | |
| that he's about to leave them | 7:07 | |
| and go to prepare a place for them. | 7:09 | |
| They don't understand. | 7:12 | |
| Thomas puts the question, Phillip puts a question. | 7:14 | |
| Phillip said to Jesus, | 7:19 | |
| "Lord, show us the Father and we shall be satisfied." | 7:20 | |
| Jesus said to him, | 7:27 | |
| "Have I been with you so long | 7:29 | |
| "and yet you do not know me, Phillip? | 7:32 | |
| "He who has seen me, has seen the Father." | 7:36 | |
| How can you say show us the Father? | 7:39 | |
| Do you not believe that I am in the Father | 7:44 | |
| and the Father in me? | 7:48 | |
| Sam Hammond reminded me, earlier this past week, | 7:55 | |
| that the verse to think about this morning, | 7:58 | |
| whoever has seen me has seen the Father, | 8:01 | |
| was said by William Temple | 8:05 | |
| to the great archbishop of Canterbury | 8:07 | |
| in the middle of the last century. | 8:09 | |
| That verse was said by William Temple | 8:11 | |
| to be a verse from which | 8:14 | |
| you could unfold the whole of the Christian faith. | 8:15 | |
| Whoever has seen me, said Jesus, | 8:21 | |
| has seen the Father. | 8:25 | |
| We're not going to begin quite there though. | 8:30 | |
| Let's begin with the Holy Spirit. | 8:32 | |
| Last Sunday, Pentecost Sunday, | 8:36 | |
| you saw the Holy Spirit come down, didn't you? | 8:38 | |
| Or did you? | 8:43 | |
| You heard a sound as of | 8:47 | |
| a mighty rushing wind. | 8:54 | |
| You saw light, | 8:59 | |
| tongues of fire, | 9:02 | |
| come down on the heads of the apostles. | 9:05 | |
| Thunder and lightening. | 9:11 | |
| The Lord makes the oak trees whirl, | 9:16 | |
| it said in the Psalm for today. | 9:20 | |
| Yet, the wind, you don't know where it comes from | 9:26 | |
| and you don't know where it's going to, | 9:30 | |
| said Jesus in our Gospel reading. | 9:32 | |
| I remember when we were in West Africa, | 9:40 | |
| when a great tropical storm would brew. | 9:44 | |
| We'd go and sit out on the porch and watch the mighty wind | 9:50 | |
| swing the palm trees, bend them over. | 9:55 | |
| A mighty wind, you don't know where it comes from, | 10:01 | |
| you don't know where it goes to, | 10:06 | |
| but you kind of see it | 10:10 | |
| or don't see it. | 10:14 | |
| You see it in its effects. | 10:16 | |
| The Holy Spirit is the wind from God like that. | 10:22 | |
| You see the Holy Spirit, | 10:27 | |
| and yet you don't see the Holy Spirit. | 10:29 | |
| You see the effects of the Spirit. | 10:35 | |
| You might say, perhaps, | 10:38 | |
| that you see through the Holy Spirit. | 10:39 | |
| They Holy Spirit enables you to see what you do see. | 10:46 | |
| That great hymn by Charles Wesley | 10:53 | |
| that at last has found a place | 10:55 | |
| in the United Methodist Hymnal. | 10:57 | |
| "Spirit of faith, come down, | 10:58 | |
| "reveal the things of God, | 11:02 | |
| "and make to us the Godhead known, | 11:03 | |
| "and witness with the blood. | 11:05 | |
| "'Tis thine the blood to apply | 11:07 | |
| "and give us eyes to see." | 11:09 | |
| Give us eyes to see. | 11:14 | |
| That's what the Holy Spirit does. | 11:19 | |
| We see him and we don't see him. | 11:25 | |
| We see the Holy Spirit in what the Holy Spirit | 11:28 | |
| enables us to see and do. | 11:31 | |
| And what the Holy Spirit enables us to see, above all, | 11:38 | |
| is Jesus. | 11:44 | |
| Conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary. | 11:49 | |
| The Holy Spirit said Jesus, | 11:57 | |
| continuing his final conversations with his disciples, | 11:58 | |
| the Holy spirit will take what is mine | 12:02 | |
| and declare it to you. | 12:06 | |
| The Holy Spirit brings Jesus to mind. | 12:10 | |
| How does the Holy Spirit do that? | 12:18 | |
| How does Holy Spirit enable us to see Jesus? | 12:21 | |
| Well, by various tracks. | 12:27 | |
| The Holy Spirit enables us to undertake faithful reading | 12:32 | |
| of the scriptures and above all, of the Gospels. | 12:37 | |
| It's a commonplace, running right through | 12:44 | |
| the history of spiritual writing and of theology | 12:46 | |
| that the scriptures must be read | 12:49 | |
| in the same spirit as the spirit in which they were written. | 12:52 | |
| The Holy Spirit presided over the recording of those things | 13:00 | |
| which are in our scriptures. | 13:06 | |
| That same spirit gives us eyes to see | 13:08 | |
| when we read those stories. | 13:12 | |
| And at the heart of those stories, is of course, Jesus. | 13:16 | |
| prophesied in the old testament, | 13:19 | |
| promised in the old testament, | 13:21 | |
| come in the flesh, in the new. | 13:24 | |
| The Holy Spirit enables us to see Jesus | 13:30 | |
| as we read the scriptures. | 13:36 | |
| Read them on our own, | 13:38 | |
| read them with a group of Christian friends, | 13:40 | |
| hear them read in church, study them. | 13:42 | |
| The Holy Spirit takes what belongs to Jesus | 13:47 | |
| and declares it to us. | 13:52 | |
| Or another way in which the spirit allows us to see Jesus. | 13:56 | |
| There's a phrase I like very much | 14:00 | |
| in the Lord's supper service | 14:02 | |
| of the Eastern Orthodox Churches. | 14:05 | |
| There the presiding minister calls upon God | 14:09 | |
| to send the Holy Spirit to show | 14:11 | |
| the bread and wine to be the body and blood of Christ. | 14:16 | |
| The Holy Spirit enables us, | 14:25 | |
| when we gather at the Lord's table, | 14:27 | |
| to take that bread and to receive that wine | 14:29 | |
| as the body and blood of Christ. | 14:32 | |
| What a shame that we are not doing it | 14:35 | |
| in the main service today, | 14:37 | |
| but you are invited afterwards, into the side chapel. | 14:38 | |
| The Holy Spirit enables us to see Jesus | 14:46 | |
| in the midst of us, | 14:51 | |
| as we gather at his table. | 14:53 | |
| It's an old cry, isn't it? | 14:59 | |
| Sir, we would see Jesus. | 15:00 | |
| That's what the Greeks said, | 15:06 | |
| who came up to Jerusalem | 15:07 | |
| and heard about this strange character. | 15:10 | |
| "Sir, we would see Jesus." | 15:13 | |
| So then we kind of see | 15:19 | |
| and kind of don't see the Holy Spirit. | 15:20 | |
| We see through the Holy Spirit | 15:25 | |
| and we see the one to whom the Holy Spirit points us, Jesus. | 15:29 | |
| Who do we see or what is it that we see | 15:40 | |
| when we see Jesus? | 15:44 | |
| Looking backwards this time in St. John's Gospel, | 15:50 | |
| to the very first chapter, | 15:53 | |
| after that glorious beginning, | 15:56 | |
| in which John talks of the word | 15:58 | |
| by whom everything was made | 16:00 | |
| and this word became flesh as Jesus Christ. | 16:02 | |
| Then, to sum it up, the Gospel writer says, | 16:07 | |
| No one has ever seen God. | 16:10 | |
| But the only son who is in the bosom of the Father, | 16:15 | |
| he has made him known. | 16:21 | |
| One of the few successful bits of translation | 16:26 | |
| in the New English Bible is that verse. | 16:28 | |
| Where it says that the Son, the only Son, | 16:31 | |
| who is closest to the Father's heart, makes him known. | 16:34 | |
| If you look at the Greek, | 16:44 | |
| it says that the Son gives the exegesis of the Father. | 16:45 | |
| He explicates, unfolds, makes the Father known. | 16:50 | |
| Looking in Matthew's Gospel, Jesus himself says, | 16:57 | |
| no one knows the Son, except the Father. | 17:00 | |
| No one knows the Father, except the Son | 17:03 | |
| and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. | 17:05 | |
| Son, Jesus, the word made flesh, | 17:13 | |
| allows us to see the Father. | 17:19 | |
| (speaking in German) | 17:27 | |
| As the Germans say. | 17:29 | |
| The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. | 17:31 | |
| We speak about people as the spittin' image | 17:37 | |
| of their parents. | 17:41 | |
| That's exactly what the letter | 17:44 | |
| to the Hebrews says about Jesus. | 17:47 | |
| He's the spittin' image of the Father. | 17:50 | |
| In Jesus, the incarnate Son, | 17:57 | |
| we see the Father. | 18:01 | |
| Who then or what is this God whom we see in Jesus? | 18:05 | |
| He's the one whom Jesus addresses | 18:14 | |
| throughout his ministry as Abba, Father. | 18:15 | |
| A reverent, but affectionate form of address. | 18:21 | |
| Kind of thing I always wanted my children to say to me, | 18:27 | |
| but they somehow never managed to. | 18:30 | |
| That combination, it's Father's Day, after all. | 18:32 | |
| I have to mention that somehow. | 18:35 | |
| That combination of respect and affection, Father. | 18:38 | |
| Who is that Father? | 18:50 | |
| That Father is the God who so loved the world. | 18:53 | |
| Now today's Gospel reading, | 18:59 | |
| that he gave his only Son, | 19:02 | |
| that whoever believes in him should not perish, | 19:05 | |
| but have everlasting life. | 19:07 | |
| The Holy God he is, the Holy God who so hates sin, | 19:13 | |
| that he wants to deliver the sinner from it. | 19:19 | |
| I came to invite sinners, says Jesus. | 19:24 | |
| Luke's Gospel, chapter five. | 19:30 | |
| I came to invite sinners to repentance. | 19:32 | |
| Just as I am, but not as I mean to stay. | 19:40 | |
| The love and mercy and wrath of God, | 19:48 | |
| against all that disfigures, | 19:53 | |
| God's plan for the world and for humankind | 19:56 | |
| is revealed in Jesus. | 20:00 | |
| But there's always a plus | 20:01 | |
| on the saving side. | 20:05 | |
| He came so that the world might not be condemned, | 20:08 | |
| but so that those who believe in him, | 20:13 | |
| might have everlasting life. | 20:16 | |
| We see and we don't see the Holy Spirit. | 20:25 | |
| We see through the Holy Spirit to Jesus. | 20:29 | |
| Testified to in the scriptures, | 20:33 | |
| and coming to meet his people, | 20:35 | |
| day by day, Sunday by Sunday, year by year. | 20:38 | |
| And that Jesus is the one who reveals the Father. | 20:43 | |
| Now what's all that mean for us? | 20:50 | |
| Here we need to look at it | 20:52 | |
| in the terms of our Epistle reading for this morning. | 20:54 | |
| Romans chapter eight, | 20:57 | |
| 'cause that's one of the great passages | 21:01 | |
| that allows theologians to build up | 21:05 | |
| the doctrine of the Trinity. | 21:09 | |
| The Holy Spirit, Paul tells us in that passage, | 21:14 | |
| the Holy Spirit liberates people. | 21:17 | |
| The Holy Spirit liberates people from slavery to sin. | 21:20 | |
| The Holy Spirit leads people, says St. Paul. | 21:25 | |
| In the paths of righteousness and all that jazz, | 21:31 | |
| as Louis Armstrong used to say. | 21:34 | |
| The Holy Spirit liberates us, leads us, | 21:38 | |
| witnesses with and to our spirit, | 21:43 | |
| and tells us that we are sons and daughters of God. | 21:47 | |
| Those who are in Christ, by faith and baptism, | 21:50 | |
| we are sons and daughters of God, in the Son, Christ. | 21:53 | |
| And we have the great privilege | 22:01 | |
| of being able to address the Lord of heaven and earth | 22:04 | |
| as Father. | 22:08 | |
| This Holy Spirit going on in chapter eight of Romans, | 22:12 | |
| is the same spirit who is at work throughout the world. | 22:16 | |
| Prompting dis-satisfactions | 22:21 | |
| with the present state of affairs. | 22:23 | |
| Starting to bring about changes, | 22:27 | |
| so that the whole creation may one day be filled with God. | 22:29 | |
| For us, the Holy Spirit is starting to transform us | 22:39 | |
| into the likeness of Jesus. | 22:46 | |
| That's probably the hardest work | 22:51 | |
| that the Holy Spirit has to do. | 22:52 | |
| Much harder than spreading the heavens and the earth. | 22:56 | |
| Transforming us, giving us the mind that was in Christ, | 23:01 | |
| enabling us to walk as Christ walked, | 23:06 | |
| so that one day | 23:11 | |
| we may, this time, perhaps, really see the Lord. | 23:14 | |
| The Lord, without whom, | 23:24 | |
| without holiness, you cannot see, says Hebrews. | 23:26 | |
| The Lord, himself, is of purer eyes, | 23:34 | |
| than to behold in equity, says the prophet Agatha. | 23:38 | |
| This Lord who dwells in unapproachable light, | 23:44 | |
| says Paul writing to Timothy. | 23:47 | |
| Isaiah sort of got a glimpse of him, | 23:51 | |
| high and lifted up. | 23:57 | |
| But it was smoky in the temple. | 24:01 | |
| Incense burning, seraphim getting in the way. | 24:05 | |
| Isaiah, sort of saw | 24:11 | |
| the Lord in the temple. | 24:15 | |
| He was being serenaded by the seraphim. | 24:21 | |
| Holy, holy, holy. | 24:26 | |
| The threefold holy that we sing | 24:31 | |
| every time we gather at the Lord's table. | 24:34 | |
| You see, the three divine persons, here I am now. | 24:39 | |
| Finally, as a theologian. | 24:42 | |
| The three divine persons in-dwell one another. | 24:43 | |
| Did you not know, Jesus said to Phillip. | 24:51 | |
| That I am in the Father and the Father in me. | 24:56 | |
| Extrapolate a little bit from that to the Holy Spirit. | 25:02 | |
| We have the mutual in-dwelling, as we say in the trade. | 25:06 | |
| The mutual in-dwelling of the three persons, | 25:12 | |
| Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. | 25:16 | |
| They receive a single worship | 25:23 | |
| because they are one God. | 25:27 | |
| One day, we'll get a better view. | 25:33 | |
| But meanwhile, | 25:40 | |
| turn your eyes upon Jesus. | 25:44 | |
| Look full in his wonderful face. | 25:51 | |
| Seen one? Seen 'em all. | 25:58 | |
| Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, | 26:03 | |
| and to the Holy Spirit, | 26:06 | |
| as it was in the beginning, | 26:09 | |
| is now and ever shall be, | 26:11 | |
| world without end, | 26:13 | |
| Amen! | 26:15 |