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On hearing the news that John Webster (English theologian) has died

On the sad news of the death of John Webster. Here is a small section from Ivor Davidson's chapter entitled 'John' in the very recent festschrift written in Webster's honour. 

Quite a few moons ago, I had occasion to introduce a public lecture by John Webster. In the usual way, I took a quick look at the CV I had been sent to see what he had been up to since the last work of which I had known. As I ended up saying to the folk who gathered that evening, looking at John's resume can, in honest, by bit depressing: you are confronted with all the themes on which you suspect there is little point in trying to say much ever again ... It is not just the range [of John's work], but the sheer quality across that range - the depth of learning, the precision of thought, the distinctiveness of approach, the elegance of style - that makes John's work so exceptional.

For those who knows its author, all of it has been done by probably the most unassuming scholar they have ever met. John is firm in his convictions, no question, and crystal clear in presenting them. He is equally devoid of personal grandeur, and suspicious of quests for scholarly prestige which jeopardise the uniqueness of theology's vocation. His life's work has, in truth, been motivated by different ambitions than those that typically sway in the realms of academic culture. 'The matter to which Christian theology is commanded to attend,m and by which it is directed in all its operations, is the presence of the perfect God as it is announced in the gospel and confessed in the praises and testimonies of the communion of saints' (Confessing God). Most scholarly prose does not sound like that. For John, the idiom is standard issue, and deeply felt. As he sees it all theological work occurs in the history of grace, its mandate and possibilities determined solely by the miracle of divine generosity.

Ivor Davidson, 'John' in Theological Theology: Essays in Honour of John Webster (Bloomsbury T & T Clark, 2015)

 

Naming God: A sermon for Trinity Sunday

Today is a day in which we take joy in the life and mystery of God.

Properly speaking every Sunday is a day in which we take joy in the life and mystery of God,

for we do not worship a different God on other Sundays,

but this day

we give ourselves to consider what it means to know God

as God has made himself known.

The church names today Trinity Sunday

and it is the day given to saying why

we say these three – Father, Son and Spirit – are one.

As Christians have read the Bible

            they have found it testifies that

                        God remained all powerful and transcendent, and yet

                        Jesus, who died and was raised by God, was somehow God;

                        moreover the Spirit, poured out on the Church, is also God, and yet

                        there is only one God.[i]

One God, three persons.

I want to ask this morning,

what is God’s name?

How do we address God?

I want to suggest we answer it in three ways: [ii]

theologically – in other words, we listen to what God says;

christologically – in other words, we listen to what Jesus says;

and pnuematologically – in other words, we listen to what the Holy Spirit says.

To begin with God,

we turn to Moses before the burning bush

and his question to God,

when I’m asked what is his name who shall I say sent me?

God answers,

‘I AM WHO I AM’

or

‘I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE’

God gives us his name.

In Hebrew it is Yahweh.

God says this is his name for ever.

It is his proper name.

This name is so holy that Israel would not speak it or write it,

instead they used the word LORD.

Whenever you read in the Old Testament LORD in capital letters,

remember this means the name God gave to Moses, Yahweh.

If this is God’s name,

we find it is the name that he gives to Jesus.

For Jesus is given the name Lord.

The Psalmist says ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord’

And the gospel writers say this is Jesus.

Jesus is given the name that is above every name …

and every tongue will acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord (Phil 2.8)

In Jesus we meet God himself.

The God of Israel is the God of Jesus,

who is the only God.

And we find that we can only confess Jesus is Lord

through the work of Holy Spirit (1 Cor 12.3),

who Paul says in 2 Corinthians is also the Lord (2 Cor 3.17).

In the Holy Spirit we meet God himself.

The God who declared his name is Yahweh,

in the New Testament he is known thrice over

as God, as Jesus and as the Holy Spirit.

The song in heaven is ‘holy, holy, holy is the LORD almighty’ (Is 6.3).

This name – Yahweh, which is substituted by Lord – distinguishes God as unique,

God as present – God is ‘I am’

And as one who delights in blessing,

as the LORD says to Moses:

            ‘where I cause my name to be honoured,

                        I will come to you

                                    and bless you’ (Exod 20.24b).

When we turn to Jesus,

we find that Jesus addresses God as Father.

It is from Jesus we learn to speak of God as the Father, the Son and the Spirit:

‘I am in the Father and the Father is in me …’ (John 14)

and ‘I will send the Holy Spirit from the Father’ (John 15.26)

We know that God is Father, Son and Spirit,

because we are invited into this mystery.

Through the Spirit we are drawn to Jesus,

and we too cry ‘Abba Father’ (Gal 4.6)

and the Father is conforming us by the Spirit into the image of the Son (Rom 8.29)

We live in Christ.

The doctrine of the Trinity is not abstract theology,

but the gift of language to speak to and about God.

The Baptist theologian Paul Fiddes speaks

of our ‘participating in God.’[iii]

We are baptised into the name of God,

what is called elsewhere ‘the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,

the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit’ (2 Cor 13.13).

The gift of the Holy Spirit is to find abundant ways to speak of God.

The breath of languages and tongues,

are enabled by the Spirit to praise God,

to speak of God and to name God.

We consider the ‘I AM’ sayings of Jesus which name God as bread, life, shepherd, gate, truth.

Or the different names given to God in the Old Testament.

Jesus is named as Word, Image, Imprint, firstborn of all creation.

And the Holy Spirit is named as a dove, wind, tongues of fire,

the Spirit of holiness, of life, of wisdom, of glory, of grace,

as advocate, pledge and seal.

No one image or name is enough.

Here are some ways Christians through history have spoken of God as Trinity:[iv]

Lover, beloved and love (Augustine)

Source, wellspring, and living water (David Cunningham)

Root, tree, and fruit (Tertullian)

Glory, image and light (Basil of Caesarea)

Sun, ray, radiance (John of Damascus)

Speaker, word, meaning (Karl Barth)

Revealer, Revelation, Revealedness (Karl Barth)

Playwright, actor, and producer (Wesley Vander Lugt)

Womb of life, word in flesh, brooding Spirit (Ruth Duck)

Awesome judge, healer of souls, distributor of gifts (Armenian Orthodox)

Creator, redeemer, sustainer (Iona)

Truth that sends, truth that comes, truth that is conferred (Charles Wesley)

We are always finding new language to address God.

What all these different ways of speaking God’s name

demonstrate is that God is beyond reduction,

our grasp of God is inexhaustible.

To speak of God, inspired by the Spirit,

‘is to gather up the language of the everyday,

often meagre and unpromising in itself,

and transform it into praise of the everlasting Trinity.’[v]

Our songs and prayers are an opportunity to declare

The breath and depth,

The wonder and majesty

The joy and delight

That is God.

In the gift of the Spirit we experience the blessing of God

and as we share in God’s blessing

we return it too him in praise.

The first way of speaking of God in the name revealed to Moses,

is a reminder that God is God and so we are not.

God is unique in that God alone is creator and all else is creation.

God is beyond us.

The second way of speaking of God as seen in how Jesus prays to the Father

is to find ourselves, as those saved,

sharing in this relationship.

We have been adopted as God’s children

through Jesus our brother.

To be is to be in communion.

God is with us.

The third way of speaking of God in the multitude of words and images,

Under the Spirit’s inspiration,

teach us a new language

and to call others to join the song of praise:

Praise and glory,

And wisdom and thanks and honour

And power and strength

Be to our God for ever and ever.

Great and marvellous are your deeds,

Lord God Almighty.

Just and true are your ways,

King of the nations.

Who will not fear you, Lord,

and bring glory to your name?

 

Hallowed by thy name.

For thine is kingdom the power

And the glory for ever and ever. Amen

 

[i] David S. Cunningham, These Three Are One, p.55.

[ii] I borrow this from R. Kendall Soulen, Divine Name(s) and the Holy Trinity and much of what follows.

[iii] Paul Fiddes, Participating in God (DLT, 2000).

[iv] For a longer list see Soulen, Divine Name(s), pp.249-50

[v] Soulen, Divine Name(s), p.251.

The Difference the Spirit Makes: A Sermon for Pentecost

 You can’t tell the story of Jesus

without the Holy Spirit

This is the point that Luke wants to make clear.

The story of Jesus is

the story of the Holy Spirit resting on the Son.[i]

The Spirit comes upon Mary and in her womb conceives a Son.

The Spirit comes upon Jesus like a dove while he is praying at his baptism.

The Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness and out again.

The Spirit fills Jesus for his ministry – ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.’

The Spirit, as cloud, covers Jesus at his transfiguration on Mount Tabor.

The Spirit is the agent through which Jesus’ whole life is offered to God.

The Spirit is the one through whom Jesus is raised.

One early church father called Gregory says this:

Christ is born; the Spirit is the forerunner.

He is baptised; the Spirit bears witness.

He is tempted; the Spirit leads him up.

He works miracles; the Spirit accompanies them.

He ascends; the Spirit takes his place.[ii]

The Holy Spirit and Jesus come together.

From conception to ascension

the Holy Spirit rests on the body of Jesus.

 

The truth of Pentecost,

the miracle of Pentecost,

is the Spirit continues to rest on the body of Jesus,

that is the church.

The church is the body of Christ

and says the story of Pentecost,

we are filled with the Holy Spirit like Jesus.

We read that ‘tongues of fire … came to rest on each of them.’

If you can’t tell the story of Jesus

without the Holy Spirit,

you can’t also tell the story of the church,

without the Holy Spirit.

What this means is Pentecost,

The birthday of the church,

does not leave Jesus behind,

for the Spirit is the go-between,

the bridge, the mediator,

the means of our participation

between Christ and the church.

The life of the church

is taken up into the life of Christ.

His life is now our life,

His story our story,

through the same Spirit resting on him and us.

The outpouring of the Spirit

upon the church

is to find our lives forever intertwined

with the risen life of Jesus.

The Holy Spirit comes rushing into lives,

setting us aflame,

with the newness that Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension

have created.

 

We might ask what is different about the work of the Spirit here

to the work of the Spirit that empowered the prophets,

judges and kings in the Old Testament story of Israel.

It is the certainly the same Spirit.

The Spirit that hovered over the waters at creation

is the same Spirit that hovers over Jesus at baptism

and hovers over the church at Pentecost.

The difference about the work of the Spirit is

found in the words of the prophet Joel that Peter to the crowd.

I want to highlight three in particular.

 

First, is the reference to ‘in the last days.’

This is the last days of the old world,

a new world is breaking in.

A new world made through cross and resurrection

and the sign of that new world is the gift of the Holy Spirit

as God promised through the prophet Joel.

The gospel always announces the end of the world

and the beginning of the new world.

And if the new world begun in Jesus,

Its population begins now to grow

as the Spirit descends

with wind and fire.

As the church we live between the worlds,

We are an outpost of the new world,

We are a colony of Christ,

on whom the Spirit comes to rest.

 

The second words are the reference to ‘all people’ or literally ‘all flesh.’

Where the Spirit worked in the past it was on particular individuals,

but Joel prophesied and Peter says today it is fulfilled,

that the Spirit is poured out on all people,

all flesh.

Pentecost is the day the Spirit goes all democratic.

All people, even those who previously voiceless

and hopeless

will be enabled to speak up and speak out God’s name.[iii]

No one will get left out.

The evidence of the Spirit in the church is its diversity.

Where else would you find old and young,

women and men,

black and white, poor and rich,

freely gathering?

And its not just that there is diversity,

there is also communion, community and communicating.

The Spirit makes us a body.

Our differences are not eradicated,

but we are made one people

through baptism.

In the words of one of my theological teachers, Colin Gunton:

‘the Spirit liberates us by bringing us into community:

by enabling us to be with and for the brother and sisters

whom we do not ourselves choose.’ [iv]

In God’s new creation,

where the Spirit rests

is not determined by race, age, gender, class,

but by the grace of God.

To embrace Pentecost,

to receive the Spirit,

is to learn what the former Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

calls the dignity of difference[v]

or what Stanley Hauerwas calls ‘God’s new language.’[vi]

Back to the story:

when the Spirit falls upon the believers,

they begin to speak in other tongues,

and it is this that draws a crowd.

Those who had come to Jerusalem from across the world

for the Jewish feast of Pentecost,

suddenly hear the believers (mostly from Galilee)

speaking in the dialects of their homelands.

Some suggest that this incident is the reversal of Babel.

The story of Babel in Genesis 11,

sees God scatter the Babel people, with their one language,

and their attempt to be God-like

and so confuse them,

leading not to humility but to division, to separateness.

Rather than a reversal of Babel,

Pentecost is a parody,[vii]

for the Spirit does not make everyone speak one language,

but where following Babel there was confusion,

here at Pentecost there is understanding.

God’s new language of the Spirit

is the gift of being able to listen, hear, understand,

communicate.

The church, where the Spirit rests,

resists all attempts to make us all the same,

instead the church is called to learn

the language of patience, peace and forgiveness

in other words the language of Jesus.

 

The third words are the reference to calling on the ‘name of the Lord’ for

salvation.

For Joel the name of the Lord,

was the name of God, Yahweh.

For Peter and the believers,

the name of the Lord is not only God,

but also Jesus.

The meaning of ‘Lord’ is expanded

to include Jesus.

Peter calls the crowd

‘to repent and be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ’ (Act 2.38)

And in a latter sermon,

Filled with the Holy Spirit, he says

‘salvation is found in no one else’ (Acts 4.12).

In 1 Corinthians Paul says that no one can say

‘Jesus is Lord’ with except by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12.3).

The pouring out of the Spirit is salvific.

Those on whom the Spirit rests

recognise the Lordship of Jesus.

And to recognise the Lordship of Jesus

is witness to this truth,

to be a ‘living narrative of the gospel.’[viii]

Peter’s sermon proclaims Christ.

The gift of the Spirit is the gift of becoming a witness,

in other words, involved in mission.[ix]

The difference the Spirit makes is that

the Spirit comes to

            enliven

            encourage

     and enflame

the church into active witness.

The gift of the Spirit is not an end in itself,

for the Holy Spirit is a missionary Spirit

and turns the church into a missionary people.

The work of the Spirit

is always the means of enabling

the world to believe in Jesus as Lord.

The work of the Spirit

is to fire the church with passion and power,

courage and compassion

and then blow it into the path of the world,

and its winners and losers,

helpless and hopeless, lost and alone,

hurt and ignored, broken and poor.                                  

 

[i] I’m drawing here on Eugene Rogers Jr., After the Spirit.

[ii] Greogry of Nazianzus, Fifth Theological Oration cited in Rogers, After the Spirit, p.56.

[iii] Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon, The Holy Spirit, p.37.

[iv] Colin Gunton, Theology Through the Theologians, p.201.

[v] Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference.

[vi] Stanley Hauerwas, Christian Existence Today, p.53.

[vii] Joel Green, “In Our Own Languages” : Pentecost, Babel, and the Shaping of Christian Community in Acts 2.1-13’ in The Word Leaps the Gap, p.213.

[viii] John Colwell, The Rhythm of Doctrine, p.98.

[ix] David Bosch, Transforming Mission, p.114.