In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

     Today, we hear, again, from Jesus at the Last Supper, as we hear again, from Jesus' Farewell Discourses. If you don't know by now that there are several chapters in the Gospel of John referred to as the Farewell Discourses of Jesus, spoken at the Last Supper on the night before His crucifixion and death then, well, you haven't been listening these past seven weeks of Easter. And today, we hear again from these discourses, because at the Last Supper, as Jesus was speaking about his concern for His disciples, and how they would fare after His crucifixion, resurrection and ascension-now He assures His disciples that they--WE will not be on our own, after He ascends to the right hand of the Father. At the Last Supper, Jesus promises that after He ascends, He will send to His disciples, to the Church, the Advocate, to aid us and help us and inspire us and move us. Our reading from Acts records for us the giving of that Advocate, the Holy Spirit at Pentecost-as the disciples of Jesus were gathered in the upper room, and tongues as of fire descended upon them, as they received the gift of the Holy Spirit, which empowered them to be able to speak in other languages, that they might proclaim the Gospel to their nations and kinsmen, whether Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and so on. Our lesson from Acts tells us how it was that the Spirit came to the Church-whereas our Gospel reading tells us WHY the Spirit was given to the Church, as Jesus lays out for us why He was sending the holy and life-giving Spirit. And why was that?

     It's not difficult to figure it out, really. Just look at the theme of what Jesus is saying in this passage and you get a clue. What word shows up again and again, in this discourse about the Spirit? TRUTH! Jesus begins by saying, "when the advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf." And what does the Spirit testify on Jesus' behalf? The Truth-about Jesus, and who Jesus is, and why He came, and why He died and rose and returned to the Father. Jesus goes on to point out, that we will need this Spirit of Truth, because there are those who will persecute His disciples, thinking that the disciples are wrong, and that by persecuting Christians, they will be honoring and worshiping God. But, Jesus says, they will do this because they never really knew the Father, or the one whom the Father sent, His Son, Jesus the Christ. And Jesus tells us it will be to our advantage that He will ascend, so that He will send us the Advocate, the Spirit of Truth, because this Spirit will prove who is right and who is wrong. The Spirit of Truth will prove the world wrong, about sin, and righteousness and judgment. Indeed, Jesus says, when the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever He hears, and He will declare to you the things that are to come.

     Now, we all know that at that moment, at the Last Supper, Jesus was speaking about the religious leaders of His time, being the ones who would kill, first Jesus, nailing Him to the cross-but then, Jesus was preparing the apostles for the persecution and martyrdom they would face, also, at the hands of these same religious leaders. And truly, Jesus says, these Jewish leaders at that time, thought they were offering worship to God, by persecuting the so-called Christians. St. Paul himself, as Saul, thought that he was doing an honorable thing by finding and arresting Christians, and bringing them to trial before the Sanhedrin. But they have not known the Father, or the Son, Jesus says. Which leads us to ask, who is it today, who needs to be proven wrong, about sin, and righteousness and judgment? Where does the Spirit of Truth need to work, today, to lead and guide people into all the Truth? Surely, Jewish religious leaders today are not persecuting Christians and killing Christians, and leading Christians astray. So, who needs the Spirit of Truth to work in them today? As Pogo once said, in the classic Sunday comic, "we has seen the enemy, and he is us"!

     Now, that might catch you off guard, a bit. Jesus says the Spirit of Truth came, and comes, to prove "the world" wrong. We Christians are quite comfortable pointing fingers at the error of the world-at the sin, disobedience, un-godliness of the world. We find it quite easy to point to the world's problems, and assess blame, whether it's hunger, or homelessness, or violence, or sexual promiscuity, or terrorism-we blame governmental leaders, fundamentalist Muslims, corrupt economic systems, secular humanists teaching in our schools. And maybe there is some responsibility that should be laid there. But first and foremost, we must look to ourselves, to realize, to admit, to confess-we are not the godly, righteous, Christ-like disciples we have been called to be. In fact, what most American Christians practice is not Christianity, strictly-speaking, but a kind of civil religion that embodies the age-old heresy of gnosticism. In his book "Catholic Matters", Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, a former Lutheran become Roman Catholic priest and theologian, points to American religiosity as being, not so much Christian, as religious Americanism. He quotes William James, who wrote a hundred years ago in his work, The Varieties of Religious Experience, that American religion is defined as "the feelings, acts and experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may consider the divine." More recently, the literary critic Harold Bloom argued in his book, The American Religion, that "the natural religion of almost all Americans, no matter what their religious affiliation, is gnosticism...in the tradition of Ralph Waldo Emerson, they deem themselves possessed of a 'divine spark' by which spiritual truth is discerned by its agreement with their individual aspiration toward the transcendent." (Neuhaus, p. 89)

     It doesn't take a scholar or a theologian or a social scientist to see that yes, in America today, most people, regardless of their religious affiliation, feel that they have a "divine spark" within them that tells them what is true, what is right, what is divine. Consequently, we, alone in the world, spin off endless new religions, create myriads of new gods and goddesses, jump from church to church to church in search of what connects with our "individual aspiration toward the transcendent". And we Lutherans are not immune. In the ELCA, we have come to think we can determine God's will, and change long-accepted Scriptural teachings, by gaining a majority vote at a national assembly-as we vote, for example, on whether or not traditional teaching lines-up with our individual, or corporate aspiration toward the transcendent. If Biblical teaching doesn't line up with what we think and feel and aspire to, we simply create a new agenda, plan a strategy and try to win enough votes at the national assembly to change long-standing Biblical teaching. If you don't like that the Psalms refer to God the Father as "He, and Him", you form a committee to revise the worship book and simply remove the offensive Biblical references in the Psalms to God as Father, or He, or King or Lord-which are also supposed male chauvinistic terms-King and Lord. And if you don't like the negative connotations of Dr. Martin Luther's prayer of thanksgiving in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, where Luther wrote, "in the flood, you condemned the wicked and saved those whom you had chosen, Noah and his family", you simple prepare a new worship book, and remove the reference to "condemning the wicked"-so that all you are left with is a more positive approach. And you see, it's not just our denomination-our new denominational hymnal that rewrites and revises the psalms, and softens up sin and condemnation of the wicked-is the natural progression of our own individual desires, not for objective Truth-but for religion, as I prefer it-for religion as I would like it-for religion that reflects my own individual aspiration toward the transcendent. Most Americans, regardless their own denominational affiliation, are gnostics, because they-we, think we have the divine spark within us-which makes us our own little gods-able to pick and choose and create our own religious experiences and practices, without regard, as Jesus says, for sin, righteousness and judgment. Because, left to create our own religion, who would choose to emphasize sin, and confession, and repentance? Who would choose to speak about righteousness-and judgment?! Most would prefer religion that doesn't require much, doesn't demand anything, doesn't restrict us and control us, and seek to disciple-to discipline us. Which is why, we're ending up with many churches where anything goes. Which is why we have people who claim to be Christians but espouse the Gospel as, "do what you want, so long as you don't hurt anyone." Which is why many Christians believe there is no objective Truth, that is True because God says it's true-but that Truth is whatever is true for you, even though it may not be true for me. This is what Pope Benedict has rightly, and pointedly termed, the dictatorship of relativism. Everything is seen as relative, so nothing is seen as True. And when nothing is seen as True, everything goes-do what you want, live as you choose, with no restrictions or boundaries or limits. And we have only to look around, to see the fruits of this dictatorship of relativism. We have only to consider the undisciplined behavior of many of our children and youth, the moral corruption of our governmental leaders, the situational ethics employed in business, the breakdown of marriage and family, due to rampant sexual promiscuity, adultery and perversion, to understand that we do indeed, need, the Spirit of Truth, to guide us back, into all the Truth. And not just our religious leaders, not just the world out there-but we-WE, need the Spirit of Truth, to prove to us that we are wrong in our attitudes about sin-that sin is not passe', that sin is not an un-necessary downer; to prove to us that we are wrong in our dismissal of righteousness, as if living rightly and godly is no longer a valid or useful goal in life; to prove to us that we are wrong, if we think we can do our own thing, create our own personal, individual religion, without consequences-without judgment!

     Granted, the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, was intended to empower the disciples, the Church, to proclaim the good news of God in Christ-but how can we proclaim it, until we know the Truth about it? How can we, ourselves, testify on Jesus' behalf, until we know the Truth about Him, and that He has come, not to dismiss sin, righteousness and judgment-but to teach us the Truth about sin, righteousness and judgment? And the good news, for us, this Pentecost Sunday? The good news for us is, Jesus sends the Holy Spirit! Jesus continues to send, the Holy Spirit! The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, was given, and is given, still, to guide us into all the Truth-and our prayer, today, and every Pentecost Sunday, and every Sunday of the year is, "Amen. Come, Holy Spirit." Come, Holy Spirit, and guide us, into all the Truth. Come, Holy Spirit, and open us to the Truth. Come, Holy Spirit, and show us where we are wrong about sin, righteousness and judgment. Come, Holy Spirit-and be, the Spirit of Truth, for us, and for the Church, and for the world!

     In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.