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Saturday, April 27, 2024

Trinitarian displacement?

Sermon for the fourth Sunday after Easter

We see
Our Lord Jesus Christ 
talking with His disciples.

They have had 
their last supper 
and the Lord has told them
of His departure.

The Lord knows 
that they understand 
that He will be taken from them
and return to the Father.

But they sorrow
and their sorrow is clear
to the Lord 
as he talks with them.

His response is 
to tell them that 
He must go away
or the Holy Ghost will
not come to them.

Why?

Is it impossible 
for the Holy Ghost 
to walk the world
alongside Jesus?

Don't they have
a ministry on Earth 
together?

Why do we get
One of the Trinity 
at a time?

[PAUSE]

The first thing is
we have to know
where Jesus is going.

This isn't the Ascension.

He's walking to crucifixion here.

He is about to die,
and we know why
He has to die.

[PAUSE]

In His death,
Jesus redeems Mankind,
opens the door to Heaven,
brings us back to God.

Only after Our Lord 
accomplishes
this great task
of reconciliation 
and atonement 
as only He can,
do we find ourselves 
able to receive 
the Holy Ghost.

This reconciliation 
can only take place
because of Our Lord's uniqueness
as being fully God and fully Man.

But being fully human
Is a limitation.

In order to be human
Our Lord has to empty Himself.

He becomes visible
so that we can see the Father.

He becomes human
so that He can sanctify 
our humanity
so that God can be with us.

And He gives us 
the Holy Eucharist 
precisely so that 
He can be with us physically 
unto the end of the age.

It's not that the Holy Ghost 
and Our Lord cannot work
alongside each other.

Jesus doesn't go away from us
to make room for the Holy Ghost 
but rather He goes to the Father 
in order to send the Holy Ghost.

He brings the Holy Ghost with Him
at His Resurrection 
and breathes Him upon the Disciples.

It is not that the Holy Ghost is absent
from us until Christ brings Him.

He has always been present,
but Christ brings Him 
in order to introduce Him
to us who have not fully known Him.

The reason is clear.

Jesus is sanctifying
the ministry of the Church
with the gift of the Holy Ghost 
operating with us and in us.

The Holy Ghost comes to us
precisely for Him to work
with us in His Church.

Our work is important to Him
- vitally important!

It is the Holy Ghost
that gives the Church authority 
to make clear to the world 
the presence of sin
because the world does not 
believe in Christ.

It is the Holy Ghost 
that gives the Church the purpose
of making clear to the world 
the presence of righteousness
because Our Lord goes to the Father 
and becomes invisible 
to those who do not believe.

It is the Holy Ghost 
that gives the Church the right
to proclaim the judgement 
that God has made 
against the prince of this world,
exposing his temptations
as he leads people into sin.

[PAUSE]

Of course, 
each one of us sins
and falls short,
but it is the righteousness
that the Holy Ghost 
reveals to His Church
that exposes our sins,
not for our condemnation,
but for our repentance 
and reconciliation in Christ.

[PAUSE]

We cannot think 
that one Person of the Trinity 
displaces another
but that God is present to us
in His Trinity 
at all times and in all places.

Through Christ,
we have seen the Father
and know the Holy Ghost.

It is His desire
that we work with Him
to present His process of salvation 
to the world 
and He gives our work
the dignity that 
our actions of worship 
and evangelism
are precious to Him.

We may think 
our worship small
and insignificant
but it is the Holy Ghost's presence
that makes our little actions
glorious in the sight of Heaven

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