“Are you the one who is to
come, or are we to wait for another?”
John poses this question for
his disciples to ask Jesus. Now this may
strike you as a bit strange. John seemed
to have no question that Jesus was the Messiah when he baptised him in the
Jordan River. He even states that Jesus
should be the one who baptises John.
Immediately after Jesus comes up out of the waters of the Jordan we have
what should have been proof positive that Jesus is the Messiah. The Holy Spirit descends on Jesus like a dove
and there is a voice from heaven saying “This is my Son the Beloved” with whom
I am well pleased. What more proof could John require? But now he seems to be having doubts.
Well we have to consider the
circumstances. Here John is in
prison. He probably realizes that he is
not going to survive the current situation.
He will lose his head over a pretty woman literally. He will end up being beheaded at the demand
of Salome – the step daughter of King Herod.
He is having doubts about whether the long foretold Messiah is actually
Jesus.
He is probably wondering if
the kingdom is actually going to come while he is still in this world or has he
placed his hope and dreams on the wrong person.
After all there were many false Messiahs around in that time. They were doing miraculous deeds just as
Jesus had done. It is really not
surprizing that he might have had some doubts and wanted assurances.
That is what Jesus gives
him. “Go and tell John what you hear and
see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the
deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to
them.” Jesus tells him that he can
discern who Jesus is from the results of his acts. By his fruits we shall know him. In effect, the proof of the pudding is in the
eating.
John is posing for us the
question we need to consider at any time but perhaps even more so at this time
of the year. We are in Advent - a time
of preparation for the coming of the Christ child. We are preparing again for the birth of God
in our lives. How then do we know in
what form God is going to be born in us again?
Jesus tells us that we will know God is working in our lives by what is
accomplished. John knew that there could
be signs of miracles and wonders but that wasn’t necessarily proof.
There were many miracle
workers in those days who proclaimed that they were the Messiah. One
we know about from the book of Acts is Simon the magician.
Now a certain man named Simon
had previously practised magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria,
saying that he was someone great. All
of them, from the least to the greatest, listened to him eagerly, saying, ‘This
man is the power of God that is called Great.’ And they listened eagerly to
him because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic.
The question that we have is
how do we determine the true work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, in the
church and in the world? There certainly
are miracles and wonder galore today.
When I was younger the TV evangelists were popular. Do any of you remember Katherine Kuhlman? She was probably the first TV faith healer of
note. There were many faith healers
before them. There has been a long line
of them since Katherine – people like Jimmy Swaggart, Jim and Tammy Faye Baker,
Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. We
have amazing events which are pictured on You Tube and other places on the internet. Can we simply look at results? People seem to be healed at one of these mass
events and later it has been shown that it is simply the power of suggestion by
the faith healer. Do we look at the
number of people attending a church to determine if they are truly doing the
work of the Holy Spirit? If it is simple
numbers of bums in the pews that count – everyone in this Diocese should attend
North Park Church in London or a similar church.
If we look at our own lives,
how do we know that we are living as God intends us and doing what God intends
us to do? We are faced with a
mindboggling number of choices in our lives.
How do we know what is right for us and if the choices are the right
ones? I believe that we need to
exercise one of gifts that God gives to us - one of the gifts that is often
neglected these days. We need to use our
gift of discernment. The early church
knew the need for discernment. They were
living in times that were to a surprizing extent similar to ours. They knew that many miraculous things which
occurred in the world were not the result of the Holy Spirit. The question for them was how to tell the
work of the Holy Spirit from things that were not of God. That is the question that we need to consider
today in this season of Advent.
I am currently reading a book
by Morton Kelsey appropriately titled Discernment. He notes that the New Testament tells us that
discernment is “the ability to tell the difference between gifts that come from
the Spirit and those which do not.” In
the book he gives us helpful guidelines in discerning whether things are of the
Holy Spirit of not.
He lists some things to
consider if a charismatic leader has gifts that are from the Holy Spirit.
1.
Does he or she use the gifts for personal prestige?
2. Is
the gift used in a way that hurts others
3. Does
person uses deceit or fraud to enhance the gift
4. Encouraging
spiritual experience for the experience itself rather than because it leads to
a deeper Christian life
5.
Using the gifts to put yourself in a superior position and lord
it over others
The book of Acts reports how
Simon misused his gifts by trying to bribe Peter and John:
Now when Simon saw that the
Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them
money, saying, ‘Give me also
this power so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.’
True discernment is not
easy. The Anglican Church is struggling
to discern where the Holy Spirit is moving in the church today. We face many challenges and questions in our
Diocese about how we should be church and what that should look like. Right here at St. Anne’s we have one example
of discernment. There was discernment by
our leaders that there was a renewed call to be church in this place. It will require continued discernment on the
part of all of you here - not just your ordained and lay leaders - to discern how
you all are called to be the church.
Each of you have gifts and it is my hope that each of you will work to
discern how God is calling you to be part of this community – this part of the
Body of Christ. May God continue to
bless you this Advent and in the coming year.
Amen.
