In our gospel reading for Pentecost Sunday, Jesus announces to his disciples that he is going away, but that it's a good thing, because then, he will send the Advocate, the Holy Spirit. And Jesus predicts that the Holy Spirit will continue to do something people in our day and age will hate with a passion: the Holy Spirit will prove the world wrong. And in a world where everything is taken to be relative, and nothing seems to be on a solid foundation, what a joy it is for us to have this Advocate, the Spirit of truth, who brings US into ALL the truth...
How many of you ENJOY being told YOU ARE WRONG? Me, either! I remember one science class in grade 3...Mrs. Beida...she set up an experiment where she took a small pitcher of water, threw in a handful of sugar, and then poured some THROUGH A COFFEE FILTER into a shallow dish. Then she asked the class by a show of hands to predict what would be in the dish tomorrow: water, nothing, or sugar. Well, we knew enough about evaporation already that no one was dumb enough to pick water. And when the teacher called for votes for “empty dish”, I CONFIDENTLY raised my hand...because COFFEE FILTER. And based on a reputation I may have had for being a science nerd back then, most of my class confidently raised their hands for “empty dish” as well. By the time the teacher called for votes for “sugar”, only two or three brave losers were left to buck the trend. And, of course, the next day, the dish had sugar in it. I WAS WRONG, and as a result, most of my class was wrong. And the fact that this episode is one of the only things I remember about grade 3, shows you just how much it stung. Some of us just hate being told we're wrong. MOST of us just hate being told we're wrong.
And it's one thing to be told you are wrong about chemicals in solution, but it's quite another thing to be told you are wrong about ideas which you hold firmly and dearly and upon which you are basing your entire life! In fact, in this day and age, it is seen as harmful, cruel, and against people's human rights to tell them that they are wrong about anything, ESPECIALLY concerning God. And yet, this is what Jesus says the Holy Spirit has come to do – to PROVE the world wrong. We certainly can't expect the world to be happy about it!
The world is wrong about sin, because they do not believe Jesus – either they think that Jesus' death can't possibly be enough to redeem us from sin, and there must be something we have to do to eliminate our guilty feelings for ourselves. Or they think that Jesus' sacrifice was a waste, because there is no such thing as sin.
The world is wrong about righteousness, because Jesus suffered on his way the Father – either they think that suffering indicates we are in God's BAD books, and any and all suffering is a form of punishment. Or they think that God cannot possibly exist or be all powerful, with all the evil that is evident in the world.
And the world is wrong about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned – either they think we automatically deserve condemnation as well. Or they think that there will BE no judgement, that a good God would NEVER judge and CERTAINLY never condemn. Under one set of errors, the world gets to use guilt and fear to manipulate us and profit from us. Under the other set of errors, the world gets to do whatever ugly, disgusting things it wants to do, without consequences. So the world is not only resistant to being told they are wrong – they have a vested interest in MAINTAINING these errors.
And these days, it's not good enough to agree to disagree. The world will keep trying to convince us WE are wrong, that WE are bigoted or intolerant or old-fashioned or prudish or stupid or weak or insane, for holding onto the truth about God. The world will pressure us in all the ways it knows – from peer pressure to economic sanctions to censorship to jail time – so that we will accept their errors about God, and make them our own. It's one thing to make an error about God on a confirmation quiz, where the consequences are pretty much zero. It's another thing to make an error about God in the way that you think and speak and act – in the way you behave as one of God's representatives – or not. Are we, who HAVE the truth, going to be brave enough and consider it important enough to STAND for the truth?