The Darkness of Unknowing

Trinity Sunday, Year B

May 31, 2015
Saint Mark's Episcopal Church, Bay City, TX
Romans 8:12-17
John 3:1-17

I thought for Trinity Sunday I’d preach about God as a frosted Do-nut, with God as the dough part, Jesus as the frosting, and the Holy Spirit as the hole, where you’re thinking, “what is it; it’s hard to define, but it isn’t a do-nut without it.”  Then I thought that would be a terrible idea, and decided against it.

We just heard about Nicodemus coming to Jesus at night to question him, not like the Pharisees who questioned him during the day, trying to prove him wrong and make him look bad in front of everybody.  Nicodemus came to Jesus and questioned him because he was genuinely curious and drawn to Jesus.  Something about Jesus challenged or inspired Nicodemus, and he was led, I believe by the Holy Spirit to seek Jesus out and learn about him and from him.   So he went under the cover of darkness to question Jesus.

Nicodemus was a man who was very secure in his religion.  He had all the right knowledge about God, all the right answers, and all the right religious practices.  I would say he was over-familiar with his faith, and so when he heard Jesus speak, he began to feel something was missing.  What he had would no longer hold or sustain him.  So he walked toward the light of Jesus, but into the darkness of unknowing. 

That’s what happens when we follow the Holy Spirit.  We move from the light of what we know and into the darkness of unknowing and uncertainty, trusting only in the light of Jesus.

In the Episcopal Church today, like in all denominations, a lot of people are not moving toward the light of Jesus.  When checking a religious preference box on a survey, they no longer check “Christian,” and instead check “none.” 

Some check the “none” box because they’ve grown contemptuous of the Christian faith.  Dallas Willard described this problem as coming from over-familiarity, people who think they know all there is to know about Christianity, find it lacking, and turn away from the faith.  Over-familiarity breeds unfamiliarity, which leads to contempt.  Folks in this camp tend to feel that the Christian faith is about little more than avoiding a place called “Hell” when you die and that the Christian life is nothing more than spending an hour a week at worship in a church building. 

It is easy cast stones at those who feel this way and are leaving the church, but if folks really believe that those two things are all Christianity is, avoiding a place called hell and spending an hour a week in worship, I can understand them not finding that faith fulfilling and sustaining.  Over-familiarity led to unfamiliarity, which led to contempt.

I should also note that many of the folks who are leaving the church also say that they are very spiritual, just not religious.  Folks are seeking God, seeking the mystery of God, and they sometimes find that they aren’t allowed that mystery in the church that they have known.  Like Nicodemus, they are searching for something more. 

We were called together by Jesus and anointed by the Holy Spirit not to avoid a place called “Hell” or to spend an hour a week in worship.  We were called to believe in and follow Jesus and live as his disciples.  We were anointed to live out God’s kingdom here on earth and to spread God’s kingdom to others.  We were called by Jesus to show people the way of Jesus by how we live.  We were called to teach people the way of Jesus by how we live and by what we say.  We were commissioned by Jesus to lead others to be Jesus’ disciples as well, that they too might live out God’s kingdom here on earth. 

Our time here in worship is not a minimum requirement to avoid a place called hell.  Indeed, our entire way of life in following and believing in Jesus is not done to avoid a place called hell.  We believe in and follow Jesus in order to know God, to love God and love other people as fully as possible. 

We are called today to reverse this trend of people turning away from Jesus and leaving the church.  There are a couple of things we must do in order to reverse this trend.  The first is that we need to live our faith deeply and intentionally.  We gather for worship to join together with God and one another sustain and guide us as we live our faith the rest of the week.  We need to live and take seriously the practices of our faith:  corporate worship and our sacramental life, daily prayer, reading scripture, loving our neighbors, seeing and treating others with dignity, practicing forgiveness and reconciliation. 

The other thing we need to do in order to reverse the trend of people leaving the church is to live into the mystery of the Holy Spirit.  Sustained by our faith and the practices of our faith, we need to have the courage of Nicodemus to be led into the darkness of unknowing.  This means while keeping and cherishing our worship together, we also need to explore new ways of worship in order to reach those whose experience of church has led them away from Jesus rather than into an ever deeper relationship with him. 

We must have courage as the church to proclaim our faith and way of life, and we must have courage as the church to listen deeply to the stories of those who don’t share our faith and way of life.  We must be willing to step out into the darkness of unknowing in order to reach those who are there, and guide them to the light of Jesus. 

We need to live into the hole of the do-nut, the indefinable, hard to grasp, Holy Spirit, which leads us places we’re not always comfortable going , but without which we cannot truly live the life of God, the life of the Trinity, the life of Jesus.  Amen.