Knowing (Not Just Knowing About) Jesus

            Some years ago, I heard a story about a little boy and his view of the church.   He and his parents had been driving by a church building at the time he expressed it.  

The truth is, the boy didn’t know it was a church building.   His parents hadn’t taken him to a worship service or a Sunday School or a VBS like they had experienced as kids.  Like many of their generation, once into adulthood they’d fallen into that valley of the shadow of “spiritual but not religious.”   

As they passed by the church building, the boy expressed a logical conclusion to what he’d seen atop the sanctuary.   “Mommy, Daddy, the people in that place,” he blurted out, “must be really serious. About math.  That’s the biggest plus sign I’ve ever seen!”

            This story is good for a chuckle.  And a little more serious consideration.   It reminds us that common knowledge needs to be taught.    Otherwise, wrong conclusions based on even the most innocent of assumptions come into play.   

It’s common knowledge that churches are where Christians gather.  

It’s common knowledge that Christians worship as Lord and Savior a historic figure named Jesus. 

It’s common knowledge that there are many branches of this faith all across the world.  

 But is this common knowledge enough?  Enough to keep any person’s Christian faith real and relevant to everything that happens in life? 

Perhaps you’ve reached the same conclusion as I have.  Common knowledge plateaus.   It reaches a high and flat place and kind of distant place in the mind.   It’s good that it’s there, but not always something we relate to or use every day.   

Common knowledge only becomes more relevant when prompted by certain lively conversation or life circumstances. 

We all have common knowledge about what a hospital is, why it exists, and who works there.   But it only becomes personally relevant and useful knowledge when we or someone we know is admitted.  

And do you recall when you only had common knowledge about cars?   Back before you had a driver’s license?   Everything shifted to another level of knowledge once you hit the road?

What is it that prompts, sparks, provides lively connection to our common knowledge of the Christian faith? 

What drives it so that we not only admit our beliefs but also really live our beliefs? 

 What helps us and helped countless people to see the “plus sign” in the center of this sanctuary and understand it’s deeply personal meaning as the cross of Christ?

One sure answer found throughout our Scriptures is that common knowledge becomes truly relevant knowledge through the power of the Holy Spirit.   

As part of the Trinity, the Spirit is our life force … breathing with and through us, constantly creating and re-creating.  

It is also the Spirit of our Risen Lord, leading us beyond every reality of sin and death.    

This common knowledge about the Holy Spirit can seem abstract or esoteric. 

What keeps it fresh and a belief we are grateful to acknowledge and rely upon day by day, is when we take the time to inventory all the good gifts given to us by the Holy Spirit.   

Beginning with the gift of faithful knowledge itself.  

What a blessing it is to be able read about and personally come to know the historic story of the Israelites, the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth and his first disciples, the adventurous times and trials of the apostles as they went out into the world with the Gospel.   

It’s common knowledge that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life.   It’s deeply personal, life transforming knowledge when the Spirit helps you to walk with Jesus as you find your way in this world, as you live into holy truth, and as you hope and work for life on earth as it is in heaven.

  As we were just instructed by Proverbs, we are to seek the wisdom of divine knowledge with all the energy and desire we put into seeking valuable worldly things.   All good gifts of the Holy Spirit empower us to go out and do so.  

They equip us. 

They preserve us.  

They are pleasant to our soul. 

They guard us against speaking perversely and walking the dark, crooked paths of evil.    

They actively interpret every moment of our lives according the God’s dynamic Word.  

They fill us with the very mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16).

Have you ever taken a spiritual gifts inventory?

Or had conversations about what you believe are gifts of the Holy Spirit in your life and how you apply them?  

 I feel so strongly about the importance of doing this that I trained for two years to become a certified spiritual director.   So if you feel the Spirit prompting you to do so, please don’t hesitate to reach out for time to prayerfully meet with me.  

The more we all accept and honor our spiritual gifts, the more we all know, and not just know about, Jesus.   

When we close our hearts and minds to the Spirit’s workings, we are left with common knowledge.   And that, I firmly believe, weakens instead of strengthens and grows all congregational life.

As an example, a few days ago I shared in an unexpected conversation with someone whose child I baptized many years ago.   

As is my unwavering best professional practice, I know that I spoke to this family beforehand and explained the full, personal and communal relevance of this sacrament.   

I know I explained why we Presbyterians only celebrate it in the presence of a believing community during worship services.  

Yet I also know that this was a baptism for the child of young adults who had grown up in church but then ceased to be active.   So I was saddened but not exactly surprised when they didn’t continue to participate in congregational life following the baptism.  

Speaking to this the other day, the mom explained she wasn’t particularly religious.  She’d gone through with the baptism because, to quote, “it was the expected thing to do.” From her years of going to church as a kid and from the influence of her family, she acted on the common knowledge that this traditional ritual needed to take place.  

Once it happened, it became common knowledge that it had been “done.”    All of the more empowering, equipping, community building, deeply personal knowledge our Presbyterian tradition also emphasizes seems to have been soon after set aside.  

By disconnecting from congregational life, they’d also distanced themselves from an ongoing, dynamic awareness of the gifts of the Holy Spirit – gifts bestowed for the faithful strengthening of hearts, minds, and communities in Christ.    

I listened with genuine empathy.   I truly understood “spiritual but not religious.”    And I’d heard many times over the other bits of common knowledge she shared when explaining why the family didn’t go to church – Sundays are the only day off from work, the family schedule gets so jammed up, and so on.    

Before ending the brief conversation, I humbly commented on how important I believe it is to be active in a congregation that has good, deep roots to grow up from.   I gave a nod to seeking the kind of knowledge that doesn’t just embrace rituals and milestones, but pays attention to and benefits from spiritual formation and ongoing spiritual growth through involvement with a church.   

She listened politely.  I then invited her to reach out to me in case she ever wanted to discuss all this further.   

In my heart of hearts, I pray she and her children will come to not only know about, but really come to know and have a deeper, hope-filled, Spirit driven and transforming relationship with Jesus Christ.  I pray the conversation about “that place” and the “plus sign” isn’t echoed again and again.

For this month, I’ll keep this conversation going here in the pulpit about gifts of the Holy Spirit.    We’ll keep drawing from the list found in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10.  

Next week, we’ll consider together the gift of faith.  

On the 17^th, gifts of healing.  

Come the 24^th, the gift of prophecy.   

On the 31^st, we’ll wrap it up with a discussion on how we can keep laboring together for the Lord by sharing all the spiritual gifts bestowed upon us for this purpose. 

I encourage you to spend time this week writing down what you believe are the gifts of the Spirit you’ve been blessed with.   And also look throughout the Bible for examples of how the Spirit gave gifts of divine knowledge to all kinds of ordinary folks who experienced extraordinary holy outcomes as a result.   

May you be all the more open to exercising the mind of Christ in your life, with your family, with neighbors, with this congregation, and with the life of the one Body that is the church in this world.   Amen.