This Week : Sunday 9 June 2019 – Touch me again
This Week : Sunday 9 June 2019 – Touch me again

This Week : Sunday 9 June 2019 – Touch me again

 Bible Reading: John 14:8-17, 25-27 

Fear. There’s a lot of it going around these days. Which is why Paul’s words are so powerful and necessary to hear. “For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.” 

This, in a nutshell, is the work of the Holy Spirit to come along side us in times of anxiety and remind us that because we are God’s children, we do not have to give in to fear. Actually, Paul goes a little further. We are not only children, but heirs of God, those destined to inherit all good things. And if that’s not enough, we are not only heirs in general but co-heirs with Christ. Co-heirs! Those God has called worthy to receive all the inheritance and merit and reward and favour that Christ is accorded and deserves. My goodness, but when you’re loved that fiercely, even fear can’t keep you down. 

And it’s not just the letter to the Romans. The Acts story depicts a group of believers who had everything to fear and, indeed, had been nearly crippled by fear earlier. And yet on Pentecost they receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, a Spirit that encourages and equips them to go out into the marketplace and witness to their faith in Christ. In doing so, they risk not simply having people think they were drunk, but perhaps also treasonous, deserving of the crucifixion that their leader had suffered. Yet emboldened by the Spirit, they find the courage not simply to resist fear, but actually to step out in confidence and joy. 

John in this week’s reading testifies to much the same. Philip’s question to Jesus is motivated by anxiety. Understandable anxiety, we should note. This is, after all, the night before Jesus’ crucifixion in John’s story, and Jesus has just told his disciples that he would be leaving them. And so, Philip is worried, anxious, perhaps afraid. And so, he says, “Lord, just show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Now, we are so used to referring to God in parental terms that it may be hard for us to realize the audacity of Philip’s request. Keep in mind that God was considered so awesome, so wholly and completely other from humanity, that pious Jews like Philip wouldn’t even speak the divine name of God aloud, and yet in this scene Philip is asking to see God. Why? Because he’s afraid and wants comfort and assurance and security. 

Instead of certainty, Jesus offers Philip himself: “Whoever has seen me, has seen the Father.” Jesus comes in order that we might know that God is love, that God’s love is big enough for everything and the whole world, and that God loved God’s people and world so much that God would go to any length even to the point of dying alone on the cross so that we would know God’s love, perceive how much God loves us, and be emboldened to live with courage and hope. And it’s the work of the Holy Spirit to come along side of us whenever we are tempted to forget these things and root us again in this confidence. 

Solomz 

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