"... now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things. But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counsellor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because people do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you."
(John 16:5-15)
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Her name was Mrs. Kostagner. She was the guidance counsellor at the high school I attended back in Scarborough so many years ago. One year (it was probably around this time of year actually, and I think it was as I was about to move from Grade 11 into Grade 12) after I had picked the courses I was going to be taking in September I got a message that Mrs. Kostagner wanted to see me. This was strange. It wasn’t quite as terrifying as being called to the Vice Principal’s office, but - still - this was strange. Something was wrong. Something must be up. Why would the guidance counsellor want to see me? I showed up rather hesitantly at her office, and she invited me in and asked me to take a seat. She wanted to discuss my course selections. She was concerned, she said, because she thought I was making a mistake in some of the courses I had selected - that I was selling myself short in some areas and she was concerned that I might start to limit my prospects for post-secondary education in an area that I would find fulfilling for the sake of taking courses that I thought I should take but didn’t really seem to have much interest in - and perhaps not even much aptitude in. We had a good conversation and she made a lot of good points. I told her I’d think about what she had said. She really had made some good points. I ended up changing some of my course registrations on the basis of what she had said, and - frankly - those decisions changed my life. It wasn’t a religious epiphany of any sort. This had nothing to do with faith. It wasn’t life-changing in that sense. But if I hadn’t responded to what Mrs. Kostagner had said to me, my life would almost certainly have turned out very differently. I would have no way of knowing how to get in touch with her (if she’s even still alive after all these years) but I owe her a "thank you" for the advice that she gave me in her office on that day.
I thought about Mrs. Kostagner and the advice she gave me as I read this passage. Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as our "Counsellor" - one who will guide us "into all the truth." That’s a journey that begins with a step of faith: a willingness to say to those around us that we believe, that Jesus is the centre of what we believe and that we invite the Holy Spirit to be our guide as we explore this faith that we choose to proclaim. Nine people have just done that. Males and females, some younger than others - but in Christ the differences don’t matter. All that matters is what binds us together: a common belief that Jesus is with us, and a constant willingness to be led deeper into that relationship by the Holy Spirit, whose coming we mark on this Day of Pentecost - the day generally thought of as the birthday of the church; a day appropriate for welcoming those who make the choice to proclaim themselves to be disciples of Jesus.
It’s a shame what’s happened with confirmation over the years. Like so many other things in the Christian faith, it’s been turned into a rite of passage by many, an excuse to celebrate, maybe a reason to have a party or give a card or a present or to have a cake. There’s nothing wrong with any of those things, but confirmation should be so much more. And, so often, confirmation becomes a graduation from Sunday School rather than a welcome to the church; it becomes an end rather than a beginning. From time to time we get bats in the church, and there’s an old joke that gets told about church bats - when you find one all you have to do is confirm it, and it will never come back again. That’s what we want to avoid. That’s what we don’t want to happen. We want people who stand up and proclaim themselves to be Christians to think of the church as their second home and their fellow church members as their second family. And the responsibility of making sure that happens rests on all of us.
For those who are already members - the Holy Spirit guides us in gifts of hospitality, gifts of teaching and gifts of wisdom and knowledge - all of which we’re called to share in order that the church might be a welcoming place for anyone who proclaims Christ as their Lord. For those who have just become members - the Holy Spirit guides you (and all of us) into a deeper knowledge of Christ and a deeper understanding of what it means to be a disciple of Christ - the privileges and the responsibilities involved in being a Christian; the great benefits of belonging to Christ, but also the sacrifices that are sometimes called for from those who belong to Christ. For those who may still be considering becoming members - the Holy Spirit is guiding you as well, asking you to go deeper into what faith in Christ is all about and challenging you to be willing to make those same professions of faith; that you be willing to declare yourself a follower of the way laid out long ago by Jesus.
The Holy Spirit - whose presence is always with us, and whose coming so long ago we commemorate today - is a counsellor who will guide us into all truth. The ultimate truth is found in Jesus; the ultimate truth is Jesus. May we all - young or old and no matter how long we’ve considered ourselves Christians - commit ourselves each day to growing just a little more into his likeness, and may we grow together as a family with a common faith in the one who is with us always.
No comments:
Post a Comment