SERMONS

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Sean Gilbert – 29/5/11
Christ Church

John 14 :15-21

"Recognition of Spirit"

A few weeks ago Christine and I headed out to Uniting College for a Sociology and Ministry class. Steve Taylor, it's lecturer, had invited me (back, in fact) to sing a handful of Paul Kelly songs to the students, as well as filling in some gaps about how Kelly's cultural communication skills through story and music might be instructive to trainee ministers (or ministry practitioners in today's parlance).

It was really great to have Christine along to offer some harmonies and percussion, although my buoyancy became a little weighted when I saw some of the students wander in and take their place in front of me ; A senior minister in the Synod, the spouse of a senior minister, an old friend from student ministry days, and then there came (Aunty) Denise Champion, the Ud nya muth uuna (phonetics) woman who gave the Synod permission to tell the dreaming story we heard earlier.

You see, I was going to sing two songs of Kelly with indigenous themes. The standard,
From little Things big Things Grow and the lesser known but highly evocative,
Special Treatment , a song about the Stolen Generations told from the Aboriginal, grief stricken perspective.

The feeling of white fella tokenism or white fella presumption flowed through me, head to foot. I mean beyond statements, and song, beyond some public pronouncements, and cultural appreciation, my first hand (rubbing shoulders) knowledge of indigenous peoples or of immersion in indigenous affairs is pretty nominal, minimal.

Well, I am a performer of sorts and I did sing, honoring the song, and the story of the songs, as best as I could, and I guess it is one small step toward recognition, respect and understanding; Small, very small but real none the less.

And so it occurs to me that my story and my feelings are probably not isolated. I sense them to be pretty common among white fella circles; living in the divide of physical presence / proximity of any sorts, and yet still somewhat desperate to convey a commonality of humanity, an empathy of human experience and spirit.

Such divides, chasms even between human beings (cultures), can be as complex as they are lamentable, we all know that. They seem impossible to bridge at times yet, too damaging and dehumanizing not to try and bridge. And whilst "at least impossible in our own strength " sounds like a well worn cliché, I think it has much merit, something Denise alluded to in class also, in relation to the lavishness of God's forgiveness. Because what might possibly bring about a fuller more generous sense of mutual recognition, is the prior recognition of Spirit; that life force, that love which gives birth to all, without discrimination, and which sets the seasons and earth in wondrous place.

Significantly, the best Christian understanding of Spirit and spirituality, are by no means exclusive or in need of protection. By their very nature, genuine experiences of Spirit urge and encourage us into fuller expression of love and life; the embracing of diversity and difference, to the needed point of recognition of the Sacred in each other and not simply, inanely, through my world and my familiarities. God save us from such myopia and neurosis!

"I will ask God and God will send another Paraclete", said Jesus to the disciples, "another Encourager into the demanding, often veiled way of love.

Gerard Manly Hopkins, author of Pied Beauty, - an Englishman, Catholic / Jesuit convert, priest and poet and obviously a lover of cricket - penned a wonderful metaphor from the game for this same Spiritual Presence of Encouragement. He likened the Paraclete (Spirit) to the non-striker, the one whose call to run it is, when the ball is hit behind square, behind the batsman's line of sight, either on the on or the off side.

You see, for the batsman it is really hard to see or judge a run, hence the needed, "Yes, come on!" Hopkins saw this principle directly related to the spiritual life and the Spiritual Presence; an encouraging voice that calls us out of our fears and self regulated limitations. The Go-between God in John Vincent Taylor's estimation, who urges, impels and fortifies the human spirit into the more ambiguous and difficult, yet most important facets of living; Race and cultural relation being one of those critical, pivotal facets of life.

The full and spirited recognition of one another. The needed revelation that someone apart from myself is real - very real in fact. And that their reality and ultimate worth is not dependent upon my rule of thumb or my cultural assumptions, which when you stop and think about it, can be incredibly binding upon us and them.

I well remember the great stress in my childhood home on cleanliness, and that dirtiness - perceived or otherwise - was lower than low - the very opposite of godliness. You might even begin to imagine how that played out racially, how my own received sense of morality inadvertently (perhaps) built a wall of fear and prejudices within, against those with darker skin than my own.

And so I honestly believe such a nexus, such an inner and outer divide, does stand a chance of healing or reconciliation exposed to and open to the great Encourager: The Spirit of Truth no less. And truth, of course, in this context, not being about correctness or certainty of ideas. More to the point, it is relational authenticity and genuineness of heart - simple trust and goodwill, in other words.

Like all good things, holy recognition needs to be practiced, if not savored at every opportunity. It takes us admittedly, to very difficult, entrenched places, but in that redemptive movement of soul, is not only the dignifying of another, it is the dignifying, if not the saving, of ourselves.

Shall we take a few moments for our own prayer and contemplation…