(Audio)
I have told you this so that you may not fall away.
In order that we may not fall away when we are tested we should listen to what Jesus promised. He did not promise that there would be no persecutions. In fact, he guaranteed that there would be, that, in some measure, we would all be tested.
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.
We may suffer exclusion from the places where our wider community gathers. We already see this to an extent even in our society in the way the perspective of Christians is often excluded from the public square. We see it when Christianity gets lumped in with the evils of Western culture that need to be expunged and canceled. People who lead that charge aren't usually being disingenuous. They really believe that they are serving the good, offering worship to God in the limited way that their modern context allows. In a sense, we can't even blame those who do such things as tear down statues of saints and take Christians to court to make them violate their conscious, because they "do this because they have not known either the Father or me." Is it not likely that it is a failure of both our discourse and our example that makes Jesus and the Father obscure to the world?
The persecutions of the world aren't hitting many Christians in our country hard at an individual level. But this is because of the patrimony passed down from times when the culture itself was more Christian, capital which is diminishing and on the verge of running it. We want to be ready if things escalate. But not only that, we want to be ready to give a better example and have a better discourse so that Jesus and the Father can be clearly seen in us.
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.
We may not meet legal challenge, or lose a job, or sustain damage to our property or to that of our churches. But we will all be called to testify. Society is rapidly moving beyond the point where it will accept toleration for its ideology, but is instead beginning to demand affirmation. Even in our relationships there can be the expectation that we must kiss the idol of this ideology or else be shunned. To be able to meet some challenges with a peaceful heart, with the goal of cultivating peace, and not simply to respond to aggression with aggression, is a gift of the Holy Spirit. On our own we can argue, and perhaps occasionally even be persuasive. But if we want to testify, to proclaim Jesus and the Father in a way that is capable of making them known, we need the Spirit of truth.
We sat and spoke with the women who had gathered there.
One of them, a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth,
from the city of Thyatira, a worshiper of God, listened,
and the Lord opened her heart to pay attention
to what Paul was saying.
We need the Spirit because when we speak to others it is not we who opens the hearts of those who listen, but rather God himself. The world would prefer that, if Christians won't believe outright falsehood, we would at least be so caught up in debate as to be unable to proclaim that which should matter most to us. The Holy Spirit can teach us a better way to use our words. If we choose to let him guide us he can make known the Father and the Son.
Let the faithful exult in glory;
let them sing for joy upon their couches.
Let the high praises of God be in their throats.
This is the glory of all his faithful. Alleluia.
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