by Barry Pollard
(Based on John 14:15-21; Acts 17:22-31; 1 Pet 3:13-22)
At the Men’s Breakfast last Saturday we had a session on ‘ecumenism’, looking at the division of Christ’s church into denominations, and what prevents it from being truly one church. In the session, a notion raised in Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis was used to encourage those of us who are still sorting out the direction our faith journeys need to take. Lewis uses a ‘hallway analogy’, which describes a hallway as being the common, shared Christian foundations of belief. In western housing design the hallway often leads to bedrooms, separating the living area from the resting area of the house. In Lewis’s analogy, branching off the hallway are rooms that open into specific denominational traditions. He views the hallway as a place for finding truth and waiting, but emphasises it is not a place to dwell permanently. For fellowship and deeper commitment, believers need to step out of the hallway into a room (a denomination).
The rooms, he says, are where the “fires and chairs and meals” are located, representing active, communal faith and specific traditions like Anglican, Catholic, Baptist, and so on. His advice for choosing a room is that it should be based on conviction of truth (“Is it true?”), rather than personal taste (“Do I like it?”).
In our humanness, we tend to think that our choices are always the best, don’t we. Well, Lewis offers a little more advice based on Christ’s call for unity within the church. Despite advocating for finding a “room”, he says believers need to be kind to those still in the hallway or sitting in different rooms, as we are all part of the same house!
In the Acts reading, we heard Paul telling the “men of Athens” about the “Unknown God”, the one he has seen a shrine built to, but was unnamed. A god who was worshipped without being known! This verse has often caused me to stop and think. Have I been worshipping our God without really knowing Him? I think at various times I have!
What Paul was doing was offering the Greeks a way in. He had acknowledged their religiosity and then, in Lewis’s terms, opened the hallway for them. Paul meets them where they are, worshipping at the unknown god altar, then sets about proclaiming who the one true God really is: Creator, Lord, Giver of Life! And as Paul does, he calls for a response; their repentance and coming to faith, grounded in the risen Christ.
I’ve often thought Paul’s way was like a sledge hammer. When we first encounter him as Saul of Tarsus, in the Bible, he was a fervent Pharisee, dedicated to rubbing out the emerging Christian church. But by the time we get to know him in Acts, he is a gentler version of his former self. I reckon he was so effective in his Christian ministry because of his earlier life experiences. He knew scripture intimately, had encountered Christ personally, and had no fear of authority (other than God’s).
But, as we seek to speak out our faith in an inattentive world, are we suited to Paul’s new style?
The Unknown God altar reveals a human state, doesn’t it? The Greeks, as they catered to their spiritual natures, were dedicating shrines to a variety of imagined gods, even to the point of acknowledging an unknown one. Religious to the extreme, we could say.
These days, many people freely admit to having a spiritual dimension but are reluctant to be seen as ‘religious’. Many people say they’re spiritual but not religious. Then they talk about the Universe, Nature, ‘something bigger’, and often themselves. Everything except God! Have you heard, “I’m not into church, but I reckon there’s something out there”?
Well, our task is to not dismiss that sort of statement, but instead use it as an opener to start building a bridge: “Let me tell you what that ‘something’ is like…” Just like Paul. It is a challenge, of course, to move anyone from vague spirituality to the knowledge of a personal God revealed in Jesus Christ!
I think we all tend to be wary of people who are pushy about their beliefs. Wary, may be, but we generally respect integrity when we encounter it.
In my working life I have worked with many genuine hard-working folk, and as many a shirker. One man stands out in my memory from when I worked as a packer at Forest Products during a university holiday. Albert, a big Samoan man, was quietly spoken, respectful in manner and speech despite often being denigrated by other workmates, and always strived for perfection in his work tasks. He stood out among all of our shift crew in that regard. I found that to work with him was a delight but, at the time, also a challenge!
Albert was a Christian who wanted to share his faith, with any, and all, he worked with. He was ever ready to give us reasons for the hope he had in Jesus and the life he was living. But he did it all with gentleness and respect. I can tell you it wasn’t loud preaching that engaged us, it was the way he was actively living out his faith in front of us that caught our attention. His approach to work, for me at that time, had more of an effect than his words.
Some on our shift mocked Albert for going to church, and talking about Jesus and the Bible. They shunned him in the cafeteria. They traded tasks with others to not have to work with him. But not once did I see Albert compromise himself in light of that treatment. He carried on, without defensiveness, without backing down, with calm and thoughtful questions and answers. A courage I would now say was shaped by Christ, certainly not by popular culture. Albert had integrity.
The factory was a great melting pot! I worked with old and young men. I had to do boring, repetitive tasks for a couple of weeks that others were doing for the rest of their lives. I worked with bikies, drug addicts, family men, even a bigamist (if he was to be believed), and a huge variety of cultures. To get along with everyone you had to be on your toes. Sometimes I found it could be a lonely place. You know when you don’t quite fit into the team. Your experience doesn’t match theirs. You think about different things. You have different interests.
However, working with Albert taught me a few things. (Some of them I didn’t actually realise until I started thinking about this reflection.)
Thinking about John’s Gospel and the promise of the Holy Spirit, I liken my experience working with Albert to two blokes working in the same place, doing the same tasks, enduring the same conditions but each having a totally different experience. At the time, me walking alone and Albert walking with a trusted companion, the Holy Spirit.
Today’s second reading, from Peter’s first epistle, talks to believers who, living in communities that did not believe as they did, have been suffering abuse and persecution for their faith. Peter’s approach was to remind them of their precious hope in Jesus. A hope that outweighs any sufferings they may endure for their faith. They are urged to do good, even when suffering. They are reminded to honour Christ as Lord in their hearts and lives. They are reminded to be ready to give a reason for their hope when asked, but cautioned that this should be done with gentleness and respect.
Resonates with Albert’s approach, doesn’t it.
Peter is talking about believers giving credible witness to Christ’s call on their lives through their character and endurance, not just their words. A suggestion, these days, we would translate as ‘walking the talk’.
The Gospel of John brings a lot more weight to the cause. Jesus is talking about our being empowered by the Holy Spirit. We don’t have to walk alone. Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit will be with, and in, believers. We won’t be left alone. We will live in relationship with God. Jesus was explaining the inner source of Christian life and witness: God’s own presence, the Holy Spirit, in us.
An internet summary of the purpose of the Holy Spirit in our lives will help us understand His presence better.
The Spirit is all these things:
Indwelling and Sealing: The Holy Spirit takes up permanent residence in the hearts of believers, acting as a guarantee of their eternal life and a seal indicating they belong to God.
Convicting and Regenerating: The Spirit convicts individuals of sin and convinces them of their need for Christ, leading to a spiritual ‘new birth’ or regeneration.
Revealing Truth and Guiding: He acts as the ‘Spirit of Truth’, helping believers understand the Bible and leading them into truth, while also reminding them of Jesus’s teachings.
Transforming: The Holy Spirit works in believers to make them more like Jesus, producing ‘fruit’, such as love, joy and peace, and helping them overcome sinful behaviours.
Empowering for Service: The Spirit gives spiritual gifts to believers to serve the ‘body of Christ’, the church, advance the gospel, and empower them to worship and live for God.
Interceding and Comforting: He acts as a ‘paraclete‘ (an advocate or counsellor) who helps in weaknesses and intercedes for believers in prayer, providing comfort and peace.
I follow the daily devotional readings provided by the late Selwyn Hughes. Our focus this month is “God’s New Society”, which deals with the Holy Spirit in our lives. How appropriate, you might say! How Holy Spirit, I would say!
The other day Selwyn raised the point that if the Bible ended at the Gospels, Christianity would be without life and power! The significance of the events recorded in the four Gospels had to be understood by Jesus’s followers and conveyed to others in the power of the Holy Spirit.
In the Gospel, Jesus was explaining that the Christian life isn’t only about trying harder. It is about knowing and walking with the Holy Spirit. Notice, I said ‘knowing’, not ‘knowing about’, the Holy Spirit. I read somewhere how we could understand the difference easily. The writer said there is a big difference between reading about Milford Sound and actually standing there in the mist and silence. In the same way, Christianity isn’t just ideas about God, it’s relationship with God through the Spirit. Jesus has promised that through the Spirit we will always know his presence.
So, what can we take away from our readings today?
I’d like to relate this back to C.S. Lewis’s hallway:
In Acts, we are encouraged to speak into a world that is searching, but looking in the wrong places. Our task is to invite the searchers at least into the hallway.
In 1 Peter, we are encouraged to live lives that make God’s message credible. We have to walk the talk. Our task is to provide examples of faithful Christian living and encourage the searchers to sample the rooms.
And in John’s Gospel, we are given the assurance that we do not have to do these things alone. The Holy Spirit is with us, providing spiritual gifts so we can serve the body of Christ, advance the Gospel, and empowering us to worship and live for God. As believers, already in a room, we need to be kind to those still in the hallway (searching) or sitting in different rooms, as we are all part of the same house.
Remember, our faith rings true, not when it’s loudest but, when it’s clearest, kindest, and most real. We know God truly, we live that truth visibly, because we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to do so.
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