Terabithia or Bust!
Sermon for Sunday 7 June 2025 – Pentecost – All Saints Kesgrave
Text: But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. (John16v13)
Without wanting to steal the thunder of next week’s preacher, who will be exploring the mystery of the Trinity more fully than I ever could (good luck Gary!), I would like to recommend a trinity of what are called ‘coming-of-age movies’ involving children that have touched me deeply. Perhaps they may even make it to our Monday Silver Screen sessions sometime… (stop begging, Andrew)
Fried Green Tomatoes tells a story of friendship and reminds me of the friendship offered to each of us by Jesus.
The Secret Life of Bees tells of the comfort found in fellowship and family and reminds me of the Hoy Spirit.
And The Bridge to Terabithia tells the story of two young people carried away by the grandeur of creation and reminds me of the love of the Father.
In A Bridge to Terabithia the young heroine attends her friend’s strict church where a hellfire and damnation sermon is in full swing. Afterwards she and her friend run off to the woods to spend time in their fantasy tree house. On the way she says, ‘I seriously do not believe that God goes around damming people to hell’ then pointing to the natural beauty around her says, ‘He’s too busy running all this.’
Do you know what? I too ‘seriously do not believe that God goes around damming people to hell’. If we search our hearts we know that the idea of a loving God who created and sustains everything is incompatible with any picture of a ‘god’ who chooses to threaten creation with destruction if it refuses to comply with ‘divine’ edicts.
Somewhere during the twenty Century long history of Christianity, especially when I look at the extreme edges of our faith, it seems as if we have got the message about God a bit muddled.
It really is as simple as it sounds. God loves us and, to show our thanks, all God wants from us is that we love others and love God in return. So why do so many outside the church (and even some inside it) see the church as a place of condemnation and rejection instead of love and acceptance?
We read in John 3v17 that ‘God did not send his Son into the world to be its judge, but to be its saviour‘. Jesus is not our judge but is our Redeemer.
We have just read that God does not judge people but instead it is ‘the prince of this world [who] stands condemned.’ The Father is not our judge but is our Creator. (John 16v11)
We have also heard that the Spirit is not sent to be a nagging guilty conscience but to lead us into truth. The Holy Spirit does not condemn us but is our Comforter who will ‘guide us into all truth’. (John 16v13)
Hebrews reminds us that Jesus has destroyed ‘the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and [has freed] those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death.’ (Hebrews 2v14-15) The book of Romans tells us, ‘There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus’ (Romans 8v1)
So I’ll say it again, and the words of the Bible back me up on this again and again.
‘I seriously do not believe that God goes around damming people to hell’.
What then are we to do with all this freedom?
Our freedom from fear,
Our freedom from damnation,
Our freedom from death?
Firstly, we must live as people who know they are loved perfectly.
This is not as easy as it sounds. I know the inside of my heart all too well and am amazed that anyone may see anything remotely good, let alone lovely, inside of me. In common with many of my generation I have invested too much time in the lie that says ‘God is out to get me’.
The Spirit is sent to lead us into all truth and this is the truth. God is not out to ‘get you’.
You and I are loved perfectly, unconditionally, and eternally.
Secondly, we must live as people who are committed to loving the other people whom God loves, and we know that means ALL the people, everywhere in the world. How many of us learnt this song in Sunday School?
Jesus loves the little children,
All the children of the world
Red and Yellow, Black and White,
All are precious in His sight.
Jesus loves the little children of the world.
But how many Christians, perhaps even we ourselves, struggle to believe that God can love people who look, speak and believe differently to them?
The Spirit is sent to lead us into all truth and this is the truth. God doesn’t only love the people you or I love.
God loves us unconditionally so we cannot afford to set conditions to our love for any of God’s children. How dare we even think to respond to God’s generosity with selfishness!
Finally, we must live as people whose lives overflow with joy and praise for the One who loves us so perfectly. Today, until next Easter, is the final Sunday when we will regularly use ‘Alleluia’ in our worship but that does not mean we have to stop leading ‘Alleluia’ lives. When I was at Boarding School for fear of being bullied, I learnt to keep quiet about my faith. I chose to hide my light under a bushel, and a time in my life that could sometimes be dark (as happens in the lives of most teenagers) became darker still. I believed the lie that faith was for Sundays only and so I spent decades of my life living one kind of life on a Sunday and a different one the rest of the week.
The Spirit is sent to lead us into all truth and this is the truth. God’s love is not just for Easter (or Christmas for that matter).
We are called to celebrate that love in our every waking moment.
Alleluia is not a word for Easter alone but a word by which to live every day of our lives.
And this is where we need to be if we ‘seriously do not believe that God goes around damming people to hell.’
Michael Perham, a friend and the late bishop of Gloucester, lived this way. He knew he was dying and before going home on an Easter Monday some of his final words were from an ancient liturgy. These were them:
We are an Easter people and Alleluia is our song. We are an Easter people and Alleluia is our song.
Today, on this feast of Pentecost may we not, as we remove the Paschal Candle and turn our vestments back to green, bring Easter to an end.
Instead may we;
Learn that we are not damned or condemned but loved perfectly.
Learn that God’s love covers even those we find difficult to love.
Learn to make ‘Alleluia’ our song, today, tomorrow, and for all eternity.
oooOOOooo
The Promise of the Comforter
[Jesus Said] ‘I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you, 5 but now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, “Where are you going?” 6 Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things. 7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8 When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 about sin, because people do not believe in me;10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11 and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
12 ‘I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.’
(John 16v4b-15 – Book of Common Prayer Lectionary)
Note: an earlier version of this sermon was published in May 2018. These words add to that.
Suffolk Vicar 