4th Sunday after Easter 3 May 2015 Sermon

4th Sunday after Easter 3.5.15 True wisdom

The Holy Spirit will teach the world where it was wrong.

The world does tend to get a lot of things wrong in its dealings with Almighty God.

Everyone is aware that there are many things wrong in the world, but not everyone sees the same answer.

We have a clash between the wisdom that comes down from above (Jm3,17) and the wisdom that arises from the pride of man.

The world’s solution for problems tends to be more education, more dialogue, more money to spend on the problem.

The Christian solution is much simpler: we just need people to obey God, to respect His commands. If we disobey Him on most points most of the time we will have a very chaotic world – and that is what we have.

(To make it even more galling people will then look at the chaos they have created and blame God for not fixing it! Or they will say that this proves He does not exist!)

The Holy Spirit will teach the world how wrong it was. The world does not understand how a loving God would allow people to learn from bitter experience that there is a right and a wrong way of doing things.

It is a fundamental misconception of God. He is calling us to union with Himself, removing all obstacles to that union, especially sin. The world sees God as just someone to provide short-term solutions.

If we do the wrong thing God in His mercy might rescue us from the consequences but He might also let us have a learning experience.

We have to learn that sin spells trouble. Look what the first sin did; and that was just one sin. Throw in a few billion more sins and what do we expect the world to look like?

Yet though defaced by sin it is still a beautiful world. Here also the Holy Spirit teaches the world something: simply that God is good and all good, and if we think the world is beautiful now, what would it be like if we had never sinned?

We must pity the unbelievers who can walk through a scene of beauty, gazing on a mountain, or an ocean, or a sunset, and then having no one to thank for putting it all there!

We are all challenged to look deeper, to read the signs, to discern the voice of the Holy Spirit in what goes on around us.

God is good and only good things come from Him, but when they are misused repeatedly and systematically there will be trouble. The solution is not to abandon belief in Him but to change our behaviour and attitudes, and get back to union with Him as fast as we can.

God does not like seeing us suffer. But He will let us suffer if it is necessary to call people to see the main point of their existence – to know, love and serve Him.

We pray that people will see this without having to be pounded by more suffering.

We can do a great deal of good by the basic simplicity of obeying God in all things, just earning our bread and doing our job. Blessed are all they that fear the Lord: that walk in His ways. For thou shalt eat the labours of thy hands: blessed art thou, and it shall be well with thee (Ps 127,1-2).

We do not become obsessed with predictions about dates and future events. We just do what we have to do.

The world is trying to cut God out, to deny Him any place in His own universe. We must do the exact opposite and give Him full glory, and full scope to intervene.