WAIT. LISTEN. LOVE.

EASTER 6

“I have said these things to you while I am still with you.  But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, with teach you everything….”

Of course, today’s newspapers are dominated by the ongoing talks between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. Cameron and Clegg are due to meet later this morning, while the Prime Minister waits in No 10 no doubt tapping his fingers on the desk top waiting to pick up the pieces.  Word is that David Cameron is prepared to give ground to the Lib Dems in key policy areas in order to clinch a deal sooner rather than later – including a rather more generous concession on electoral reform that has been offered thus far.  But everything remains very fragile – not least since the leaking of a secret memo outlining the "hardline Eurosceptic stance” that will (allegedly) come into play once in government, and threatens to undermine the whole process.

For the past month or so we have been bombarded with promises from a whole range of political persuasions – the whole process crowned by three TV debates between the leaders of the three main parties.  Those debates have been so dominant in the campaigns that a number of school children I’ve spoken with this week were convinced we were voting for a new Prime Minister, rather than a new government.

Its perhaps a little ironic that having spent weeks hearing and assessing the promises made to the electorate, we are now having to sit back and wait as they now make promises to one another in attempt to form a coalition.  So many promises, and so much resting on whether or not, in time, those promises will be fulfilled or forgotten.  Just as the nation has been caught up in a ‘season of promises’, so our worship and prayers at the moment are focused on promise.  Specifically the promise Jesus made to the disciples, that once he had left them, the Father would send the Advocate, the Holy Spirit.

We don’t know how the disciples responded initially to that prospect.  There will certainly have been confusion and maybe even a little scepticism and doubt – that would certainly be consistent with their response to Jesus on other occasions.  And of course within a few verses, Jesus is telling them not to let their hearts be troubled, and not to be afraid.  It was, for them, a time of significant uncertainty.  It was a time when all they could do….was wait.  As we approach the feasts of the Ascension and  Pentecost, we wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit.  Of course, we’re not waiting in the same way as the apostles did.  Our worship here this morning, our Christian discipleship and witness as individuals and as a congregation, are a direct result of the outpouring of the Spirit at the first Pentecost some 2000 years ago.  But we are still waiting on the fullness of Christ’s promise: ‘the Father will send [the Holy Spirit] in my name, [to] teach you everything….’ To lead us into all truth.  Now we may or may not be right to take our politicians promises with a pinch of salt (after all its easy for any of us to say what we intend to do, only to discover too late that its not going to be possible after all!).  But how do you respond to the promise of Christ to send the Spirit to lead us into all truth?  And what on earth might that mean?

Potentially, we are at a milestone in our political history, with electoral reform becoming the bargaining tool of a  hung parliament.  And of course that ought to be something which as Christians we are deeply involved in and concerned for - praying for our members of parliament (and of course that means praying for the ones we didn’t vote for, as well as the ones we did!)  But we are also at a milestone as a Church: the draft legislation has been published by Synod to enable women bishops within four years, and the Pope has cleared a path for anglo-catholic traditionalists to be re-grafted into the Roman Church.

We too are possibly in a place of scepticism and uncertainty, and maybe even doubt.  And as we look towards Pentecost, today’s gospel challenges us and begs the question: Do you believe that God, through the Holy Spirit, is leading us into all truth?  Of course, the very idea implies that there will be change and new developments.  If the Spirit is leading us into all truth then we have to accept that our grasp of the truth (such as it is) today may well be incomplete, may well be limited and will most certainly be partial.

On Friday I went to the Jain Temple just outside of Potters Bar.  The Jain community were welcoming the Archbishop of Canterbury, and we were invited to keep him company!  I learned a lot more about Jainism than I’d known previously, but I was particularly struck by one of the principle teachings of this ancient eastern religion called ANEKANTAVADA, which translated means ‘the multiplicity of viewpoints’  In essence this philosophy is the humble understanding that no single perspective on an issue contains the whole truth, which engenders a non-dogmatic approach to faith and living.

Sitting behind the Archbishop, it wasn't too difficult to imagine the invisible weight of the world-wide Anglican Communion that sits on his shoulders, and I could easily imagine him thinking ‘Oh if only….!’  That’s not a digression, or just a shameless opportunity to name drop (although it is a pretty good one you have to admint), but because surely there is a similarity between ANEKANTAVADA and the belief in the promise of Jesus that the Spirit will lead us into all truth.  Because unless we are prepared to stand up and say that the Holy Spirit’s work in us (or in our congregation or in our church or in our denomination) is complete, then we too must accept a multiplicity of viewpoints, even when that touches the things about which we care most passionately.

Such multiplicity of viewpoints is clearly going to be the hard-experience of our politicians in the weeks and months ahead.  And it will most certainly continue to be the experience of the Church –

 “I have said these things to you while I am still with you.  But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, with teach you everything….”

 By God’s grace, it is in the gaps created by our difference and disagreements that the Holy Spirit is able move and lead us….If only we will wait. If only we will listen.  If only we will love.

Amen