Time Travel Trinity

Sermon for the fourth Sunday after Easter

Surely the Holy Ghost

has been present in creation

since the beginning time?

Wasn't He there,

moving on the face of the waters,

 right at the beginning

when God said, “let there be light”?

Why does Our Lord Jesus Christ

start talking about when

the Holy Spirit will come

if He’s already here?

[PAUSE]

If you think about it,

we actually have

the same problem with

Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Was he not

in the beginning with God?

Of course he was –

Saint John testifies to that.

“In the beginning was the Word...”

If Our Lord was in the beginning

how can He have been born

two thousand years ago?

[PAUSE]

The problem is our

understanding of time.

If Doctor Who

can travel back in time

before he was born,

then this should be a piece of cake for God,

and God is not fiction!

God the Holy Trinity,

Father, Son and Holy Ghost,

are in Eternity.

Somehow they all stand outside of Time. T

his is how it is possible

for Our Lord to have been born

two thousand years ago

and still be present

at the moment of Creation.

 Time has no restriction for Him.

Christ injects himself into Creation

two thousand years ago

so that we can see Him,

handle Him,

walk with Him,

hear Him speak.

Because we are all time-bound

we do not have this freedom

to move backwards and forwards in time

or see into Eternity.

This means we need revelation.

God has to reveal himself over time

in order for us to understand

Who He is

and so it is necessary

that the Holy Ghost

is revealed to us in time.

 

What we see here

is that the Holy Ghost

proceeds from the Father

as the source of all things

and enters into Time

through the Son.

This is how we understand

the relationship between

Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

The Holy Ghost proceeds

only once from the Father

through the Son.

 

Why should this matter to us?

Why does the Holy Ghost need to be revealed?

[PAUSE]

 

When we want to make

a relationship with people,

we need an introduction

so that we can find a way

to begin the conversation.

This is a typical English problem:

we don't like speaking to people

when we haven't been introduced to them.

Our Lord, therefore,

like the good Englishman

that He is,

makes sure

that we are introduced

to the Holy Ghost.

It means that the Holy Ghost

is not some kind of magic force

that you might find in Star Wars.

This means that the Holy Ghost is a person.

We are introduced to Him

and He engages in a relationship with us.

 

Admittedly, this relationship

seems to be full of reproof.

The Holy Ghost convicts us of sin,

He shows us where

we are wanting in righteousness,

and He reminds us that judgement awaits.

This seems very uncomfortable:

do we really want to know the Holy Ghost?

[PAUSE]

Of course we do!

To know the Holy Ghost

is to know the Father.

To know the Holy Ghost

is to know our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is good for us that our sin,

our lack of righteousness,

and our need for judgement

are revealed to us.

This is nothing less than

an expert doctor

giving a diagnosis of a severe ailment

that we possess.

The words of the Holy Ghost

are there to bring us life

in all its fullest.

This is the Breath of God

that breathes into us a new spirit.

It is the Holy Ghost

Who works with us

and within us

in the process of our justification

that begins at Baptism

and continues through to the day

in which we are taken to God in judgement.

It is the Holy Ghost who sanctifies

on a path by which we are set aside for God, p

laced upon the narrow way

to the strait gate.

[PAUSE]

The day of Pentecost

will soon be here

for Christ's disciples

and now they listen to the promises

of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

These are promises they can trust

because Our Lord

has already kept His greatest promise,

the promise of Resurrection.

And as they engage

with this risen Lord in a reality

that is so strange

and yet so ordinary,

their eyes and ears are full of wonder.

Their hearts are being prepared

to receive the Holy Ghost,

prepared for that great introduction

to the One Who will change

their lives yet again for the better

by equipping them for service.

We, too, can listen to

the words of Our Lord

and hear His promises.

Yes, there is judgement ahead,

but it is a righting of wrongs,

a filling in of the cracks

and putting aright whatever is amiss.

We have this now in ourselves

because the Holy Ghost is in us now

and He makes himself known

in the utter joy we feel

when we hear the promises of Christ for us

and know that they are true.

We too are being prepared

for service –

a particular service by which

we respond in love to God –

and that is something

that is always been revealed to us,

no matter who we are.