Question for you: Can you think of a piece of ‘good advice’ you’ve received?
Maybe it was personal, maybe to do with health or finances from your doctor or your accountant, maybe it was in the little things like what team to tip in the footy – I’m backing the Panthers to beat the Raiders today, there’s my hot tip for you! We’ll see if that turns out to be ‘good advice’ or not…
For me there are two pieces of ‘advice’ I think of, coming from my high school principal and an old footy coach.
From my principal it was always simply ‘tuck your shirt in!’
He would roam the grounds and he was very hot on this rule, shirts must be tucked in, even at recess and lunch! You had to be ready for when he walked around the corner, you did not want to be caught out!
And my old footy coach – I may have shared this before – every time we got in the huddle he would always say – without fail – ‘Like I say, the onus is on you blokes.’ Every time, and of course there were a few other colourful words thrown in there as you might expect!
And thinking of Mothers Day of course today, we might have some good advice we’ve received from mums or mother-figures along the journey – maybe some things like ‘don’t forget to wash behind your ears,’ ‘eat your vegetables,’ ‘don’t forget your lunchbox’ some we may have heard.
Now that’s a bit from me, but because we’re thinking about COMMUNITY, I’ve actually gone out this week and tapped into the community around us, I’ve been asking people this week in different settings across our community about the good advice they’ve received from mums and mother-figures over the journey.
Here are some responses I got:
‘Do to others what others as you would have them do to you’ > the golden rule!
‘Never give up, just do your best’ > good strong encouragement there.
One around church things: ‘Don’t stay in the pews’ > as in living out our faith, responding to God’s call, putting our faith into action. Good one.
And this one is interesting > ‘If you don’t listen to the whispers of your body they will turn into screams’ > powerful one there, a lot of aspects to that!
The person who shared this also mentioned the classic, ‘do as I say not as I do,’ that we may have heard over the journey as well!
Mothers may have reminded us the Christian life is not just Sunday morning, it’s 24/7! And songs, hymns, our customs and traditions, faith itself have all been passed on down the generations.
So why are we talking about this today?
We’re in the second week of our series on COMMUNITY today, and we’re thinking about this theme of WISE COUNSEL > not only ‘good advice,’ but WISE COUNSEL. What is that, where do we find it, who can we get it from…
Two passages to touch on around that today, two passages that speak not only to WISE COUNSEL but to the WISE COUNSELLOR we all have access to, the Holy Spirit is our WISE COUNSELLOR.
And this WISE COUNSEL we receive is very useful in community life, in community building, in connecting and belonging together as Christian community.
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WISE COUNSEL
In our second reading today from 1st Peter 3: 15 & 16 we hear a few good bits of WISE COUNSEL >
‘In your hearts revere Christ as Lord’
‘Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have’
‘But do this with gentleness and respect’
Good advice there, WISE COUNSEL > and the order of these things is important too.
First and foremost, we ‘revere Christ as Lord in our hearts.’
This is where we start, where we keep coming back to, what empowers us and strengthens us as we do life in community.
To be a community where Christ is revered as Lord in our hearts, that’s the sort of community I want to be part of – same for you?
‘Revered’ as in having reverence for, deep respect, even fear of the Lord as in knowing that God is in fact God, he’s the creator of the universe and our own personal WISE COUNSELLOR as well > we’ll hear more on that shortly.
This is not ‘revered’ as in being ‘scared’ – I was probably a bit scared of my high school principal in the example I shared before! Our relationship to God is not about being afraid as we know, it’s about being comforted in his love, very different things! Comforted but also in awe of how great and how intimate our God is.
So important for us as a ‘web of stubbornly loyal relationships in a complex and challenging situation’ that we have Jesus is our hearts, we have relationship not only TO God but WITH God. That’s where we start, that’s where we return to, that’s who and what goes with us.
And then, with Christ in our hearts, then we move to the next point:
Being prepared, being ready to answer when someone asks a question about our faith, when someone challenges us on the word of God, when we look around at the world around us and wonder how on earth to handle all the challenges we face, all the challenges people are facing.
Get ready, be prepared Peter says – wise words there – so we can know and live out of the hope we have.
This is knowing how to use, how to live out the hope we have > it’s not just something we hold in our own minds, even our own hearts. We share this, it’s for all people to know and receive!
We are not ‘owners’ of this hope, we are only custodians, ambassadors of hope. This is about community, being in and building community, where hope is not withheld but it is freely and lovingly shared > very important for us as church, as community, as beacons of the light of God in the world!
So we’re ready, we’re prepared, and we have Christ in our hearts > good! What’s next?
Gentleness and respect.
NOT coming in all-guns-blazing, impatient, anxious, stressed, pressurized.
We take a breath – remembering Christ is in our hearts and that’s no small thing, that’s a ‘holy charge!’ A ‘sacred calling’ we all have. Serious stuff here.
This is considering others and their needs, not just our own.
Meeting people where they’re at, not where we want them to be > that second part very hard to do, we need God’s help with that!
Remembering this is not about us, but about the hope we have in Christ > of course that’s the perspective we’re going to have when we have Christ in our hearts.
All COMMUNITY things there, things to depend on, to build community on.
Communities of love and hope, of gentleness and respect, with Christ at the centre.
That’s where we want to be, where God calls us to be and to go from, very good place to be.
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WISE COUNSELLOR
Today we’re not only hearing WISE COUNSEL from God’s word, but we’re also hearing about a WISE COUNSELLOR >
I mentioned before how God is our WISE COUNSELLOR, so we have the what and the who coming at us through God’s word.
The WISE COUNSELLOR is not any one person or leader or influential figure in human terms.
The WISE COUNSELLOR we have is the Holy Spirit.
Jesus says this in our gospel reading today, the ‘Spirit of truth’ Jesus says, the Holy Spirit will be with us forever, wherever we go >
The Holy Spirit is our ‘advocate to help us and be with us forever,’ so that means we have an ongoing connection to not only some WISE COUNSEL, but also to a WISE COUNSELLOR.
That’s how God’s word goes from head to heart, the Holy Spirit makes that happen!
So the work of the Holy Spirit here is a bit mysterious, hard to quantify or measure, but this is how the Holy Spirit works.
Jesus hints at that when he says ‘the world does not see him or know him,’ but who does know him?
WE DO.
What a privileged position we’re in > We GET to know the Holy Spirit, we are invited into this relationship, this is for all of us.
Again this privilege is not just for us, it’s not EX-clusive it’s IN-clusive, for all people.
Sharing and growing together and with those around us, essential aspects of what it has always meant and what it continues to mean to be and to do Christian community together.
Lord we thank you for your wise counsel and your wise counsellor who is always with us. Guide us to hear what you have for us and sustain us in community by your word and Spirit. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
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Tom Kitson 