The Fourth Sunday of Lent

Luke 15, 1 – 3, 11 - 32 The Parable of the Prodigal Son.

Last Saturday morning we had a visit from the Jehovah’s Witnesses. For some reason they call at our place quite regularly, and have to be admired for their persistence. Prue, asked them which Bible translation they used, and they said they use just about every Bible translation going around. Now there is some truth to a point they might use every Bible translation going around but the claim is also false. As I understand it the claim might be OK with the Old Testament for there is not a lot of difference there. But with the New Testament the claim is false because the JW translation, interpretation, emphasis and substance is very different from what Christians believe. JW does not represent the Christian faith.

There are many differences but I will concentrate on the main ones.

It seems to me that one of the problems for mainline traditions like Anglicanism is that many of us simply do not know what to say when others ask us what it is that we believe. Fundamentally, not many of us are trained and versed in our faith. As a consequence, when we are questioned about what we believe, we often feel awkward and duck and dodge and weave about, not certain that if we say something at all, that we will really believe it ourselves. To some degree that could be helped if we joined a Bible Study group.

However, to feel hesitant and awkward about what we believe is not something new to faith. Consider Moses for example. In today’s reading from Exodus we have this almost amusing dialogue between Moses and God speaking from the burning bush. It’s almost like a telephone conversation. The call comes. Ring! Ring! ‘I am the God of your fathers. I have seen the affliction of my people in Egypt and I want to send you to Pharaoh to deliver my people.’
And Moses responds with, “Have you got the right number?”
Don’t worry, says God, “I will be with you.”
“And who shall I say is calling?” asks Moses. “What shall I say to them?”
During the fourth century, a controversy raged in the Church about a heresy that Jesus was not, could not be, both God and Man. To get one’s head around the notion of Jesus being both human and divine, was a very difficult concept then, as it is today, and, I suspect, will be forever. 1600 years ago, when the Church was just a little over three hundred years old, it confirmed that Jesus was God incarnate – that is, Jesus was God, in human form. So, in response to the heresy, the Church produced the Athanasian Creed, and expelled those who could not accept what it claimed. (Read the Athanasian Creed). Click Here for The Creed

JW’s not only believe and teach the heresy that Jesus was only human and not divine, but also, another heresy, that God is not One God in three persons. What we believe is in our Creeds. There is no need to duck and weave about what you call God or who is God. Everything you need to know is concisely outlined in the Nicene Creed. Our Creeds are a précis of the Gospels and Paul’s teaching. To recite a Creed is to recite what we believe – why we are Christian and why JW’s – and Islam incidentally– are not. Christians believe that Jesus is both human and divine, and that God is One, but in three persons: the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Let me tell you just a little about the JW’s. Although they were not called JW’s until 1931, they were first established by a Pittsburg haberdasher, Charles Taze Russell, in the 1870s. In a court hearing a few years later Russell admitted that although he claimed otherwise, he had never had any formal theological training and he knew no Greek, not even one letter of that alphabet. So with that solid theological background, it is not surprising that in his Introduction to his “Studies in Scripture”, Russell says, “It would be better to leave the Bible unopened and to read his commentary on it, than to omit the latter and read only the Bible”. One of the tragic consequences of a society founded on dubious theology is their rule not to be involved in blood transfusions; another rule denies their participation in birthday parties; another rule prevents them from engaging in military service, and another rule prevents them from taking part in social and political activities outside their kingdom company.

The amazing thing is, people actually believe what JW’s peddle. And they do peddle. JW was set up by a salesman; the Sect is run like a business, with a Board of Directors - known as the Watchtower Society - at the top, Jesus is the heavenly CEO, and every member is taught how to sell the product. JW’s is the Amway of religions and at the local levels, and like the sales business it is, congregations of the Kingdom Hall are called ‘companies’.

Their literature is designed, packaged and presented in a way that will especially appeal to young mothers with small children. However, amongst the products of the door to door salespeople from the Kingdom Hall Company, you will find neither the Trinity nor the Incarnation. And what they teach about the Holy Spirit is a heresy. Of the Holy Spirit, JWs teach the Spirit is God’s ‘influence’, that the spirit is not a Person of the Trinity, not God.

Our Creed tells us otherwise, and I refer you to what Paul has to say in today’s Corinthian’s reading. Paul gives us a sudden, mystical insight, that in some mysterious way, the Holy Spirit (which a Christian receives at baptism, and through which we are embodied in Jesus Christ), was also that which nourished and guided God’s people in that long ago Exodus out of Egypt. The Spirit of God led the Israelites to the promised land. That same Spirit, which Jesus sent upon those early believers, leads the Church to the New Jerusalem. Let me remind you. No Spirit, no Church. The Church is the Holy Spirit and us.

“Whom shall I say is calling?” “I will be with you” – “I am who I am”. Our God is the God in three persons, God the Father who wills, God the Son who acts, and God the Holy Spirit who enables. When the JW’s come knocking, just remember that you are dealing with highly trained, highly skilled, highly effective salespeople. But from the outset, their product is faulty. It is inaccurate; it is inerrant: it blasphemes Jesus, it blasphemes the Holy Spirit, it blasphemes the Trinity.

Today is the Third Sunday of the season of Lent, the season in the Church’s calendar when we focus on Easter; focus on the Cross; focus on what God has done for us on that Cross.

From the very outset, the Church has defended its belief in the Trinity and the Incarnation.
Are these concepts difficult to believe – yes! But this is the faith of the Church – this is our faith.

Ever since Christ’s death, the doubters and the detractors have been at work doing their best to refute who Jesus was, His death, His resurrection. From the outset, the claims of the witnesses have not been deterred by lies, by mis-information, wicked punishment, even death. The claims of the Gospel have survived because, from the outset, the Church has been the Church of the Holy Spirit and, comprised of those who believed in the Lord, Jesus Christ. The Cloud of the Exiles has become the Cloud of witnesses. The Rock on which the Church is built is the same Rock as nourished Moses and the Israelites.

Today, detractors come peddling nice magazines, selling atheistic books and making movies of long ago tombs that would deny the resurrected Jesus – for 2000 years the Church has been assailed by everything that would destroy the Gospel story. The faith of the Church, our faith, has survived.

As we contemplate Easter, we need to go read the Creed anew; word by word, line by line, carefully, prayerfully, to remind ourselves who we believe in, what we believe in. Then, when someone “rings”, or “comes knocking”, we will know what to say to them.

Amen.