We are to testify in the hidden spaces

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/050718.cf
Acts 16:11-15
John 15:26-16:4

Jesus cautioned his followers from falling away from the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit with a reminder to testify. He tells us that testifying keeps a follower in concert with God.

“When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will testify to me. And you also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.”  John 15:26-27

We 21st Century beings were not there in the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. We did not feel his hand on our shoulder as he looked into our eyes, or hear his voice carry up a hillside, or share bread and wine with him in a meal in the way of his Jewish and Gentile compadres. They experienced the revelation of his divinity and purpose in real time. 

Our experience of Jesus comes through the Advocate, the Comforter, that Jesus said testifies to who he is. This reading can be misunderstood as solely for those who were with Jesus, “From the beginning.” We all have a beginning with Jesus, though, and I believe the admonition to testify should be understood by us in the same way as the disciples from the third decade, 30-40 AD.

Our beginning with Jesus provides us with the same course correction offered in John’s gospel. We can best keep our GPS coordinates aligned to God with testimony. The Spirit testifies to us, and we then testify what we have heard and seen and experience. Each testimony from our lips tightens our seal to God, and extends grace beyond ourselves. In fact, we experience “real time” with Jesus through the Advocate. The “Spirit of truth” abides in our temple bodies, and his promptings match the Spirit-filled promptings of the sandal-clad disciples of Jesus 2,000 years ago.

The Spirit whispers in our ear, with his hand on our shoulder. His voice travels in the wind and the hillsides to encourage us. He graces our meals, specifically nourishing our bodies and souls with the life of Jesus in the Eucharist.

“I have told you this so that you may not fall away.” John 16:2

We could justifiably call our falling away the greatest worry of Jesus. He does not want that to happen to us. The startling reality of believers who fall away does not come so much from a willing shift to evil. That’s what I read here anyway. The falling away from God is more insidious, more wrapped up in spirituality, than just walking away from our belief. Believers who fall away from the true God are deceived and twisted away from God. Their falling away comes from a transformation that takes place from another place than the Holy Spirit. 

“They will expel you from the synagogues; in fact, the hour is coming when everyone who kills you will think he is offering worship to God.” John 16:2

The “they” are those who have been brainwashed into thinking that the Christian must be eradicated. Those who fall away are convinced that the repudiation of Jesus ultimately makes more sense than his being alive in our hearts. Christianity continually makes itself problematic for believers in other gods. Our God is a jealous God. He wants us to put no other God before him. He calls this life “temporary,” and yet, a full life begins with Jesus now. This carries us to him for an eternity. Our God says Jesus is the only way to an eternal life with God, because Jesus is the author and purpose of this life. 

Each of us have been faced with the decision to set aside our faith because it expects us to live with our feet placed upon the threshold into heaven. It does not sound respectful to the world and its problems. And yet, only those with their feet upon the threshold offer the Kingdom of God here. They understand where that the doorway to heaven is, and can feel confident that heaven awaits them. These two things, heaven and confidence are the very things required to attend to the world’s problems without fear. We do not carry the burden of success, just the expectation of sacrifice and love. 

It is not so much our own death or our fear of death that Jesus attends to in this teaching in John.

“They will do this because they have not known either the Father or me. I have told you this so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you."

When Judas’ hour came, when he turned traitor to Jesus, his treacherous behavior pointed out what would happen to him. Sure, Jesus was to be crucified, but Judas was identified as a willing participant in evil’s plans to reveal the darkness of the deceiver. The Holy Spirit had no opening into Judas. Deception had overcome him. He had fully fallen away.

We can only fall away when we have known the Father, when we have been touched by Jesus. When we reject the Holy Spirit, we cut off God completely. Those who are misled are not fallen away. They have been taught that Christianity is a warped, odd, or dangerous faith. Not all of those who despise or fear Christianity have fallen away. Their deceptions are like spells, hidden from the Trinity by ones who have much to fear from God. This is the purpose of our witness. 

We move and live in many of the hidden spaces of this world. The way we move and live testifies to those who are deceived that the Kingdom is at hand. Death has been conquered. We fear no one but God. We bring the Holy Spirit with us, and in ways we cannot plan out, the Spirit somehow testifies about the Son, who then reveals the Father to everyone. We need only do what the Holy Spirit makes clear to us.

A community of faith strengthens us to testify. A faith based upon revelation teaches us. The church of elders, anointed ones, and faithful followers nurtures us. The Holy Spirit does not make us lone wolves, or snipers secretly destroying sin. He gathers us without strings attached to money, or celebrity, or even power. We are only attached to him. A light shines from us when we are gathered. That's when we testify.

Do not be afraid to tell others. Not only will you bring the grace of the Holy Spirit, but you will seal yourself to the Father and the Son.

“And you also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.”