8 th Sunday From Easter Pentecost

Transcript

1 8 th Sunday From Easter Pentecost Κυριακή Η από του Πάσχα Πεντηκοστή Όρθρος Κυριακής στις 8:45 π.μ. και Θ. Λειτουργία στις 10:00 π.μ. Sunday Orthros at 8:45 a.m. and D. Liturgy at 10:00 a.m. Presiding Priest: Fr. Nicholas Dassouras 4 Ιουνίου June 2017

2 Τῇ αὐτῇ ἡμέρᾳ, Κυριακῇ ογδόῃ ἀπὸ τοῦ Πάσχα, τὴν ἁγίαν Πεντηκοστὴν ἑορτάζομεν και την μνήμη τοῦ ἐν Ἁγίοις Πατρὸς ἡμῶν Μητροφάνους, Ἀρχιεπισκόπου Κωνσταντινουπόλεως & τῆς Ὁσίας μητρὸς ἡμῶν Σοφίας τῆς ἀσκητικῶς βιωσάσης. Τῇ αὐτῇ ἡμέρᾳ, ὁ ἅγιος Ὁσιομάρτυρος Ἰωάννης, ὁ ἡγούμενος τῆς μονῆς Μοναγρίας, ἐν σάκκῳ βληθεὶς καὶ τῇ θαλάσσῃ καταποντισθείς, τελειοῦται, ὁ ὅσιος Ἁλώνιος ἐν εἰρήνῃ τελειοῦται & αἱ Ἅγιαι Μαρία καὶ Μάρθα, ἀδελφαὶ τοῦ Λαζάρου, ἐν εἰρήνῃ τελειοῦνται

3 On this day, the eighth Sunday from Pascha, we celebrate Holy Pentecost and we, also, commemorate our Father among the Saints Metrophanes, Archbishop of Constantinople & our devout Mother Sophia, who lived her life in asceticism. On this day, the holy monk-martyr John, Abbot ofthe Monastery of Monagria, died by being put in a sack and drowned in the sea, the devout Alonios reposed in peace & the Holy Maria and Martha, sisters of Lazarus, reposed in peace

4 ΝΕΑ ΤΗΣ ΗΜΕΡΑΣ / NEWS OF THE DAY General Assembly of our Community, Following the Divine Liturgy Γενική Συνέλευση τα ης κοινότητάς μας Μετά την Θεία Λειτουργία

5 ΑΚΟΛΟΥΘΙΕΣ ΤΗΣ ΕΒΔΟΜΑΔΟΣ WORSHIP SERVICES Δευτέρα 5 Ιουνίου 9:00 π.μ.: Όρθρος & Θ. Λειτουργία διά την Εορτήν του Αγίου Πνεύματος, Ι. Ν. Αγίας Τριάδος New Rochelle, NY Monday, June 5 th - 9:00- a.m.: Orthros & D. Liturgy for the Feast of the Holy Spirit, Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, New Rochelle, NY

6 Απολυτίκιον της Πεντηκοστής, Ηχος πλ. δ' Εύλογητός εἶ Χριστὲ ὁ Θεος ἡμῶν ὁ πανσόφους τοὺς ἁλιεῖς ἁναδείξας καταπέμψας αὐτοῖς τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον καὶ δι αὐτῶν τῆν οἰκουμένην σαγηνεύσας φιλάνθρωπε δόξα Σοι. Κοντάκιο, Ήχος πλ. δ Ὅτε καταβὰς τὰς γλώσσας συνέχεε, διεμέριζεν ἔθνη ὁ Ὕψιστος ὅτε τοῦ πυρὸς τὰς γλώσσας διένειμεν, εἰς ἑνότητα πάντας ἐκάλεσε, καὶ συμφώνως δοξάζομεν τὸ πανάγιον Πνεῦμα.

7 Αpolytikion of Pentecost, Plagal of the Fourth Tone Blessed are You, O Christ our God, who made fishermen allwise, sending upon them the Holy Spirit and, through them, netting the world. O Loving One, glory to You. Kontakion, Tone Plagal Fourth When the Most High came down and confounded tongues of men (Babel), He divided the Nations. When He dispensed the Tongues of Fire, He called all to unity, and with one voice we glorify the Most Holy Spirit.

8 Αποστολικόν Ανάγνωσμα: Eκ των Πράξεων των Αποστόλων 2:1-11 Ἐν τῷ συμπληροῦσθαι τὴν ἡμέραν τῆς πεντηκοστῆς ἦσαν πάντες ὁμοῦ ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτό. Καὶ ἐγένετο ἄφνω ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἦχος ὥσπερ φερομένης πνοῆς βιαίας καὶ ἐπλήρωσεν ὅλον τὸν οἶκον οὗ ἦσαν καθήμενοι καὶ ὤφθησαν αὐτοῖς διαμεριζόμεναι γλῶσσαι ὡσεὶ πυρός καὶ ἐκάθισεν ἐφ ἕνα ἕκαστον αὐτῶν καὶ ἐπλήσθησαν πάντες πνεύματος ἁγίου καὶ ἤρξαντο λαλεῖν ἑτέραις γλώσσαις καθὼς τὸ πνεῦμα ἐδίδου ἀποφθέγγεσθαι αὐτοῖς. Ησαν δὲ ἐν Ἰερουσαλὴμ κατοικοῦντες Ἰουδαῖοι ἄνδρες εὐλαβεῖς ἀπὸ παντὸς ἔθνους τῶν ὑπὸ τὸν οὐρανόν γενομένης δὲ τῆς φωνῆς ταύτης συνῆλθεν τὸ πλῆθος καὶ συνεχύθη ὅτι ἤκουον εἷς ἕκαστος τῇ ἰδίᾳ διαλέκτῳ λαλούντων αὐτῶν. Ἐξίσταντο δὲ καὶ ἐθαύμαζον λέγοντες Οὐχ ἰδοὺ ἅπαντες οὗτοί εἰσιν οἱ λαλοῦντες Γαλιλαῖοι; καὶ πῶς ἡμεῖς ἀκούομεν ἕκαστος τῇ ἰδίᾳ διαλέκτῳ ἡμῶν ἐν ᾗ ἐγεννήθημεν; Πάρθοι καὶ Μῆδοι καὶ Ἐλαμῖται καὶ οἱ κατοικοῦντες τὴν Μεσοποταμίαν Ἰουδαίαν τε καὶ Καππαδοκίαν Πόντον καὶ τὴν Ἀσίαν Φρυγίαν τε καὶ Παμφυλίαν Αἴγυπτον καὶ τὰ μέρη τῆς Λιβύης τῆς κατὰ Κυρήνην καὶ οἱ ἐπιδημοῦντες Ρωμαῖοι Ἰουδαῖοί τε καὶ προσήλυτοι Κρῆτες καὶ Ἄραβες ἀκούομεν λαλούντων αὐτῶν ταῖς ἡμετέραις γλώσσαις τὰ μεγαλεῖα τοῦ θεοῦ.

9 The Reading is from the Acts of the Apostles 2:1-11 WHEN THE DAY of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. And they were amazed and wondered, saying, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontos and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians, we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God."

10 Ευαγγελικόν Ανάγνωσμα: Eκ του κατά Ιωάννην 7:37-52; 8:12 Τῇ ἐσχάτῃ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ μεγάλῃ τῆς ἑορτῆς εἱστήκει ὁ Ἰησοῦς καὶ ἔκραξεν λέγων Ἐάν τις διψᾷ ἐρχέσθω πρός με καὶ πινέτω. Ὁ πιστεύων εἰς ἐμέ καθὼς εἶπεν ἡ γραφή ποταμοὶ ἐκ τῆς κοιλίας αὐτοῦ ῥεύσουσιν ὕδατος ζῶντος. Τοῦτο δὲ εἶπεν περὶ τοῦ πνεύματος ὃ ἔμελλον λαμβάνειν οἱ πιστεύσαντες εἰς αὐτόν οὔπω γὰρ ἦν πνεῦμα ὅτι Ἰησοῦς οὐδέπω ἐδοξάσθη. Ἐκ τοῦ ὄχλου οὖν ἀκούσαντες τῶν λόγων τούτων ἔλεγον Οὗτός ἐστιν ἀληθῶς ὁ προφήτης ἄλλοι ἔλεγον Οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ Χριστός οἱ δὲ ἔλεγον Μὴ γὰρ ἐκ τῆς Γαλιλαίας ὁ Χριστὸς ἔρχεται;οὐχ ἡ γραφὴ εἶπεν ὅτι ἐκ τοῦ σπέρματος Δαυίδ καὶ ἀπὸ Βηθλεὲμ τῆς κώμης ὅπου ἦν Δαυίδ ὁ Χριστὸς ἔρχεται; σχίσμα οὖν ἐγένετο ἐν τῷ ὄχλῳ δι αὐτόν. Τινὲς δὲ ἤθελον ἐξ αὐτῶν πιάσαι αὐτόν ἀλλ οὐδεὶς ἐπέβαλεν ἐπ αὐτὸν τὰς χεῖρας. Ηλθον οὖν οἱ ὑπηρέται πρὸς τοὺς ἀρχιερεῖς καὶ Φαρισαίους καὶ εἶπον αὐτοῖς ἐκεῖνοι Διὰ τί οὐκ ἠγάγετε αὐτόν;ἀπεκρίθησαν οἱ ὑπηρέται Οὐδέποτε ἐλάλησεν οὕτως ἄνθρωπος. Ἀπεκρίθησαν οὖν αὐτοῖς οἱ Φαρισαῖοι Μὴ καὶ ὑμεῖς πεπλάνησθε; μή τις ἐκ τῶν ἀρχόντων ἐπίστευσεν εἰς αὐτὸν ἢ ἐκ τῶν Φαρισαίων;ἀλλὰ ὁ ὄχλος οὗτος ὁ μὴ γινώσκων τὸν νόμον ἐπάρατοί εἰσιν. Λέγει Νικόδημος πρὸς αὐτούς ὁ ἐλθὼν πρὸς αὐτὸν τὸ πρότερον εἷς ὢν ἐξ αὐτῶν Μὴ ὁ νόμος ἡμῶν κρίνει τὸν ἄνθρωπον ἐὰν μὴ ἀκούσῃ πρῶτον παρ αὐτοῦ καὶ γνῷ τί ποιεῖ; ἀπεκρίθησαν καὶ εἶπαν αὐτῷ Μὴ καὶ σὺ ἐκ τῆς Γαλιλαίας εἶ; ἐρεύνησον καὶ ἴδε ὅτι προφήτης ἐκ τῆς Γαλιλαίας οὐκ ἐγείρεται. Πάλιν οὖν αὐτοῖς ἐλάλησεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς λέγων Ἐγώ εἰμι τὸ φῶς τοῦ κόσμου ὁ ἀκολουθῶν ἐμοὶ οὐ μὴ περιπατήσῃ ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ ἀλλ ἕξει τὸ φῶς τῆς ζωῆς.

11 The Reading is from John 7:37-52; 8:12 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and proclaimed, "If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, 'Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.'" Now this he said about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive; for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. When they heard these words, some of the people said, "This is really the prophet." Others said, "This is the Christ." But some said, "Is the Christ to come from Galilee? Has not the scripture said that the Christ is descended from David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?" So there was a division among the people over him. Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him. The officers then went back to the chief priest and Pharisees, who said to them, "Why did you not bring him?" The officers answered, "No man ever spoke like this man!" The Pharisees answered them, "Are you led astray, you also? Have any of the authorities or of the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd, who do not know the law, are accursed." Nikodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, "Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?" They replied, "Are you from Galilee too? Search and you will see that no prophet is to rise from Galilee." Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

12 Αποστολικό Ανάγνωσμα: Eκ των Πράξεων των Αποστόλων 2:1-11 Όταν έφτασε η ημέρα της Πεντηκοστής, ήταν όλοι μαζί συγκεντρωμένοι με ομοψυχία στο ίδιο μέρος. Ξαφνικά ήρθε από τον ουρανό μια βουή σαν να φυσούσε δυνατός άνεμος, και γέμισε όλο το σπίτι όπου έμεναν. Επίσης τους παρουσιάστηκαν γλώσσες σαν φλόγες φωτιάς, που μοιράστηκαν και κάθισαν από μία στον καθένα απ αυτούς. Όλοι τότε πλημμύρισαν από Πνεύμα Άγιο και άρχισαν να μιλούν σε άλλες γλώσσες, ανάλογα με την ικανότητα που τους έδινε το Πνεύμα. Στην Ιερουσαλήμ βρίσκονταν τότε ευσεβείς Ιουδαίοι από όλα τα μέρη του κόσμου. Όταν ακούστηκε αυτή η βουή, συγκεντρώθηκε πλήθος απ αυτούς και ήταν κατάπληκτοι, γιατί ο καθένας τους άκουγε τους αποστόλους να μιλάνε στη δική του γλώσσα. Είχαν μείνει όλοι εκστατικοί και με απορία έλεγαν μεταξύ τους: «Μα αυτοί όλοι που μιλάνε δεν είναι Γαλιλαίοι; Πώς, λοιπόν, εμείς τους ακούμε να μιλάνε στη δική μας μητρική γλώσσα; Πάρθοι, Μήδοι και Ελαμίτες, κάτοικοι της Μεσοποταμίας, της Ιουδαίας και της Καππαδοκίας, του Πόντου και της Ασίας, της Φρυγίας και της Παμφυλίας, της Αιγύπτου, και από τα μέρη της λιβυκής Κυρήνης, Ρωμαίοι που είναι εγκατεστημένοι εδώ, Κρητικοί και Άραβες, όλοι εμείς, είτε ιουδαϊκής καταγωγής είτε προσήλυτοι, τους ακούμε να μιλούν στις γλώσσες μας για τα θαυμαστά έργα του Θεού».

13 Ευαγγελικό Ανάγνωσμα: Εκ του κατά Ιωάννη 7:37-52; 8:12 Την τελευταία μέρα της γιορτής, την πιο λαμπρή, στάθηκε ο Ιησούς μπροστά στο πλήθος και φώναξε: «Όποιος διψάει, να ρθεί σ εμένα και να πιει. Μέσα από κείνον που πιστεύει σ εμένα, καθώς λέει η Γραφή, ποτάμια ζωντανό νερό θα τρέξουν». Αυτό το είπε ο Ιησούς εννοώντας το Πνεύμα που θα έπαιρναν όσοι πίστευαν σ αυτόν. Γιατί, τότε ακόμα δεν είχαν το Άγιο Πνεύμα, αφού ο Ιησούς δεν είχε δοξαστεί με την ανάσταση. Πολλοί άνθρωποι από το πλήθος, που άκουσαν αυτά τα λόγια, έλεγαν: «Αυτός είναι πραγματικά ο προφήτης που περιμένουμε». Άλλοι έλεγαν: «Αυτός είναι ο Μεσσίας». Ενώ άλλοι έλεγαν: «Ο Μεσσίας θα ρθεί από τη Γαλιλαία; Η Γραφή δεν είπε πως ο Μεσσίας θα προέρχεται από τους απογόνους του Δαβίδ και θα γεννηθεί στη Βηθλεέμ, το χωριό καταγωγής του Δαβίδ;» Διχάστηκε, λοιπόν, το πλήθος εξαιτίας του. Μερικοί απ αυτούς ήθελαν να τον πιάσουν, κανείς όμως δεν άπλωνε χέρι πάνω του. Γύρισαν, λοιπόν, πίσω οι φρουροί στους αρχιερείς και στους Φαρισαίους, κι αυτοί τους ρώτησαν: «Γιατί δεν τον φέρατε;» Οι φρουροί απάντησαν: «Ποτέ άνθρωπος δε μίλησε όπως αυτός». Τους ξαναρώτησαν τότε οι Φαρισαίοι: «Μήπως παρασυρθήκατε κι εσείς; Πίστεψε σ αυτόν κανένα μέλος του συνεδρίου ή κανείς από τους Φαρισαίους; Μόνον αυτός ο όχλος πιστεύει, που δεν ξέρουν το νόμο του Μωυσή και γι αυτό είναι καταραμένοι». Τους ρώτησε τότε ο Νικόδημος,

14 που ήταν ένας απ αυτούς, εκείνος που είχε πάει στον Ιησού νύχτα λίγον καιρό πριν: «Μήπως μπορούμε σύμφωνα με το νόμο μας να καταδικάσουμε έναν άνθρωπο, αν πρώτα δεν τον ακούσουμε και δε μάθουμε τι έκανε;» Αυτοί του είπαν: «Μήπως κατάγεσαι κι εσύ από τη Γαλιλαία; Μελέτησε τις Γραφές και θα δεις πως κανένας προφήτης δεν πρόκειται να έρθει από τη Γαλιλαία». Τότε ο Ιησούς τους μίλησε πάλι και τους είπε: «Εγώ είμαι το φως του κόσμου όποιος με ακολουθεί δεν θα πλανιέται στο σκοτάδι, αλλά θα έχει το φως που οδηγεί στη ζωή».

15 Do not say, It is impossible to receive the Holy Spirit; Do not say, It is possible to be saved without Him. Do not say that one can possess Him without knowing it. Do not say, God does not appear to us. Do not say, People do not see the divine light, Or else, It is impossible in these present times. This is a thing never impossible, my friends, But on the contrary altogether possible for those who wish. By St. Symeon the New Theologian, Hymn 27:125-32

16 Spirit of Truth Any reading of Acts or John, two of the main places in the New Testament where the Spirit plays a large part, will show that Pentecost must also be a time of clear-eyed recognition of the challenges which God s people face both in the world and in their own internal life, and of the urgent need for the inspiration, strengthening and guiding of the Holy Spirit without whom we are simply a bunch of ignorant armies clashing by night. Take Acts for a start. The great Pentecost scene, with the wind and fire and the sudden rush of multilingual speech, has

17 confused many in the last generations because it has been set within the wrong story. It has been held up as the archetype of a particular form of Christian experience, a filling and empowering which transforms sleepy or backsliding Christians into lively and zealous ones. Thank God that happens in many different ways, because the church always needs waking up and shaking up, and the day we forget that or resist it we might as well crawl away under a stone. But that isn t the story which Luke is telling at this point. There is nothing wrong with the disciples before Pentecost; they are praying, worshipping, joyful followers of the risen and ascended Jesus, simply awaiting further instructions and the power to carry them out. And the story which Luke is telling doesn t focus on them and their spiritual experience, though it includes that. Luke s story is about God and God s kingdom and about the sovereign lordship of the risen and ascended Jesus. Because Pentecost, you see, goes very closely with the story of the Ascension. Many western Christians have been embarrassed about the Ascension over the years, because they have thought of heaven and earth in the wrong way. We have supposed that the first-century Christians thought of heaven as a place up in the sky, within our space-time universe, and that they imagined Jesus as a kind of primitive space-traveller heading upwards to sit beside God somewhere a few miles away up in the sky. And we have told ourselves this story about the early Christians within an implicit modernist

18 framework in which God and the world are in any case a long way away from one another, so that if Jesus has gone to be with God whatever that means we understand that he has left us behind, that he is now far away in another dimension altogether. And we have then thought that the point of this story is that we, too, will one day go off to this same place called heaven, leaving earth behind for good. But this way of understanding the Ascension is, quite simply, wrong on all counts. The early Christians, like their Jewish contemporaries, saw heaven and earth as the overlapping and interlocking spheres of God s good creation, with the point being that heaven is the control room from which earth is run. To say that Jesus is now in heaven is to say three things. First, that he is present with his people everywhere, no longer confined to one space-time location within earth, but certainly not absent. Second, that he is now the managing director of this strange show called earth, though like many incoming chief executives he has quite a lot to do to sort it out and turn it around. Third, that he will one day bring heaven and earth together as one, becoming therefore personally present to us once more within God s new creation. The Bible doesn t say much about our going to heaven. It says a lot about heaven, and particularly heaven s chief inhabitant, coming back to earth. That is the story of the opening of Acts; and Pentecost, in Acts 2, means what it means within that story, not some other.

19 Pentecost is therefore to be seen as the moment when the personal presence of Jesus with the disciples is translated into the personal power of Jesus in the disciples; because Pentecost signals the mode and means by which the chief executive is putting his new authority into operation. Our generation has backed off from the idea of Jesus, let alone the church, as actually running things in this world, because it sounds to us like triumphalism, like fundamentalism, like the attempt to establish a direct theocracy which is of course an affront to our wonderful western democratic ideals. But Pentecost, and the story of the early church which follows from it, shows clearly that this isn t so. The disciples, filled with the Spirit, begin the work of Jesus sovereign and saving rule over the world, whose Lord he now is, by their shared common life, their works of healing, their proclamation of him as Lord and King, and their bold witness against the authorities who try to stop them. And that just about sums up the whole book, all the way to when Paul arrives in Rome and announces God as King and Jesus as Lord right under Caesar s nose, openly and unhindered. So, Pentecost is about the powerful presence of Jesus with his people; about the implementation of Jesus healing, saving rule through his people; and thirdly about the anticipation, in and through that work, of the final day when heaven and earth shall be one. It isn t just that the Spirit is the down payment of what is to come for us as his people; the Spirit

20 is the advance sign of what God is going to do for the whole earth, the entire created order. Because, you see, at the heart of Pentecost, in Acts and actually in John as well, the coming of the Spirit is all about the launching of the new Temple. In Judaism, heaven and earth overlapped in the Temple; but now, says Luke, Jesus is the one who has taken earth, in his own person, his own human body, right into heaven; and the Spirit is the corollary of this, the life of heaven becoming manifest and powerful here on earth. Heaven and earth are thus locked together in a firm and unbreakable Trinitarian embrace, as God the Father welcomes the human Son, the first-fruits of the new creation, into his rightful seat as Lord of the World, and pours out his own Spirit upon Jesus followers so that they can both be and accomplish new creation in themselves and in the world. This is the sold rock on which Christian mission is built, and in consequence also the solid rock on which the church must live in its own life of worship and mutual love. And this is why, on the day of Pentecost, Peter s sermon isn t about how people can have a new spiritual experience. It s about the fact that God s new day has dawned at last, the great and glorious day of the Lord spoken of by the prophets, and about the fact that the crucified Jesus has been exalted as King and Lord over Israel and the whole world. And the sevenfold gifts of the Spirit are given not just to comfort, inspire and enlighten us for our own private

21 benefit, but to send us out as heralds of this new dawn, as messengers of this new King. And as we find ourselves thus commissioned and equipped, we discover that, again to our embarrassment, we have to speak about truth; indeed, that we have to speak truth, to a generation for whom that claim is instantly suspect, automatically put through the shredder of deconstruction and irony. And I suspect that the embarrassment of truth goes quite closely with the embarrassment of the Ascension: because we still live within that implicit split-level world where we know that we are upon earth, where we can t be certain of anything, and that claims to absolute truth are claims to a heavenly perspective upon the world, a God s-eye view which can quickly be exposed as laughable arrogance. (I am reminded that in E. P. Sanders famous book, Paul and Palestinian Judaism, the index has an entry which says Truth, ultimate, with three page references, pages 30, 32 and 430; but when you turn to

22 those pages you find that each one is blank. Sanders is both ironically declaring his epistemological humility and also cocking a snook at those interpreters who believe that we can ever know the ultimate truth.) But, unfortunately for our overironic age, we are offered and indeed given the Spirit of Truth, and we have no choice but to follow where this Spirit leads and to speak the truth to which we are thus led. And John leaves us in no doubt where that will be. Sanctify them in the truth, prays Jesus in the upper room, your word is truth. But this, again, is not a private experience, such as the gnostic might wish for. It leads directly, as in Acts, to confrontation with those who presume that they own the truth, and back up their claim with violence. My kingdom is not from this world, says Jesus to Pilate in chapter 18. So, you are a king, are you? asks Pilate, eagerly latching on to the words which might have Jesus condemn himself out of his own mouth. That word is your way of putting it, replies Jesus. My way is like this: I was born, I came into the world to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice. Truth! answered Pilate. What s that? And John s point, in the middle of the massive irony, and the direct clash of the nonviolent kingdom of God with the violent and ignorant armies of Caesar, is crystal clear: truth is what happens when heaven and earth come together as they were always meant to. Truth is therefore what you find in Jesus, who is the point where that happens. And truth is therefore what happens when the

23 Spirit comes to fill, to guide, to commission, to empower the followers of Jesus. Teach us to know the Father, Son, and thee of both to be but one ; truth is what happens when we are caught up in the powerful, healing, transforming love of the Triune God, acted out on Calvary and at Easter, poured out at Pentecost, given so that we, the followers of Jesus, may be truth-tellers, truth-tasters here at the Eucharist, truth-livers as we confront the lies in our own hearts and lives and communities, truth-doers in our public and political life, in our ordering of our church at this turbulent time when like John Cosin we are faced with skepticism on the one hand and puritanism on the other. All we can do in such a time is pray the Pentecost prayer, not as triumphalists trying to trump everyone else with our spiritual superiority but as humble hearts seeking after holiness and hope, and ready to find our minds and our manners remade by the truth, by the Truth Incarnate, by the Spirit of Truth whom he sends from the Father. Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire, And lighten with celestial fire. That through the ages all along This may be our endless song: Praise to thine Eternal Merit Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. Adopted by a sermon of N. T. Wright

24 If any one thirst, Let him come to me and drink.