Holy Spirit of Truth Gives Light and Salt (Epiphany 5a)

 

      We live in a time of social and moral chaos where absolute truth, specifically the absolute truths of divine revelation in the Bible, have been historically deconstructed by extreme liberals and woke activists. We are losing our freedom of speech to the politically correct speech of minority political activists. I am working on a book that explains how this loss of real truth caused our social chaos by confusing men and women about their sexual identities and spiritual life. This social chaos is destroying social order and the nourishing families we need to raise thriving future citizens. Francis Schaeffer warned that social chaos historically leads to the rise of strong leaders (Napoleon and Hitler) and the end of freedom and democracy. The origin of the social chaos is the loss of the authority of the Judeo-Christian divine truth that defines and maintains trust, co-operation and social order.

 

1.     Light Illuminates and Helps People See

Jesus used common things to teach us deep spiritual truths. Jesus preparing us for His Ascension. He promised to be with us through the Holy Spirit of truth. Like light, the Holy Spirit of Truth comes to us to open our spiritual eyes – have an Epiphany moment - so we can see these deeper teachings about spiritual life:

·     Holy Spirit comes to us in Baptism and comes more fully as we pray, read scripture or invite Him into our lives

·     Comes more powerfully as we examine our lives, repent sins and take them to the Cross for forgiveness

·     Most people experience Holy Spirit as conscience – guiding us toward the good and away from the evil

·     Feel dark, cold and afraid when we have unforgiven sin

·     Feel light, warm and joyful as we experience healing 

·     We begin to see things in scripture we had not seen before

·     We receive very quiet ‘words of knowledge’ to help us understand the Bible and guide us forward-  authentic truth

 

2.    Salt Enriches and Preserves

As our spiritual eyes are opened, we have epiphany moments - see things differently than other people. This new wisdom sadly leads to conflict and division. – and that is the point or the challenge. Jesus wants us to enrich the lives of those around us by sharing what we have seen or learned:

·     Christians have a different understanding of spiritual reality – authentic truth of the supernatural dimension

·     Why we need the support of a nurturing church community that corrects us and teaches the orthodox Faith of the Bible

·     Unlike most people we have a mission – we are all baptized into the body of Christ, given the mind of Christ and commissioned to love others and share the good news

·      This gives meaning and purpose – salt to our lives

 

3.     Paul Teaches Us to Depend on Holy Spirit in Ministry

Paul is full of fear as he – the great doctor and teacher of the Law, goes to Corinth. Corinth was a a tough audience:

·     Paul makes a decision to set aside his years of study and know only about Jesus Christ Crucified

·     He decides to depend entirely on the Holy Spirit for guidance in speaking

·     Corinthians see the power of God at work through the Holy Spirit healing the sick and freeing the demonically oppressed.  

·     This is how we all come to know the Holy Spirit of truth as the light and salt in our lives

·     This is our mission and how we can minister to those around us. AMEN!!!