Easter 6 - Year C

To filioque or not to filioque.... that was a dilemma I faced in theological college. Gosh, it makes me sound quite the intellectual, does it not? Those who know me better, of course...

What has made me reflect on this? I have been looking at the Queensland Churches Together liturgical resources in preparation for our combined service with our Roman colleagues of St Williams Wednesday week - our combined service in the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Included in those resources is the Nicene Creed - without the filioque, which makes it thus usable by both Eastern and Western churches.

Now, one of my favourite subjects at college was Trinitarian Theology - we had a great lecturer, Don Edwards, whose first words in the first lecture were.... "we begin with mystery"... and whose final words, in the last lecture, were... "we conclude with mystery". As one does when talking of the great conundrum of .. what really is our understanding of the Trinity of God?

Now, don't get too confused, it isn't Trinity Sunday yet, but we are heading there....

Going back to my study unit on the Trinity..... I remember my tutorial presentation, from all those years ago. I was looking at the way the Orthodox church presents the Creed, and thus the interpretation of the Trinity, compared to our understanding, the church of the West. That is, Eastern versus Western understanding. I remember buying a lot of candles of different sizes.

In essence, it is actually about essence - that, very simply, the essence of God, the ousia, is equal and the same in all the expressions of God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The three are of the same origin. In the Eastern church expression of relationship (and remember, this is all about relationship), God the Father is the eternal, uncreated reality and from God comes the Son and the Holy Spirit. Confused ? that's why I used the candles.....

Big candle; 2 smaller candles. It is in the understanding of "begotten not made", that we of the West take that to mean that Christ was part of the original, infinite, uncreated reality of God, and thus the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. And that is the filioque clause. Filioque is latin for "and from the Son". The theology of the East is that Christ does not have equal divinity with the Father. We of the West say in the Nicene creed each Sunday that there is equal divinity and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and Son equally, and that together the three are ‘worshipped and glorified' equally.

So much history of talking about begetting and begotten, and procession and proceeding................

I can just hear you all thinking... and the relevance for us is? Well, one important issue is that this argument has caused huge schism in the church, namely in the eleventh century onwards, and the Eastern and Western churches are still not reconciled. The disagreement is not as fierce nowadays, and there is hope of that reconciliation one day because at the heart of it is language interpretations as much as anything. For the hundreds of years of dialogue and conflict on this issue, I could be struck down for such a simple interpretation. But I believe that if there is a willingness for reconciliation, the common language will be found. Because in the end we all claim the same relationship with God - that of being loved, and loving in return.

The other relevance for us, as we approach Trinity Sunday at the conclusion of the Easter season, is to actually think about the Holy Spirit. What is your relationship with the third person of the Trinity?

This is, of course, the focus of the current pre-pentecost discussion groups as we explore that articulation. Have you ever named that, actually thought that, you have a relationship with the Holy Spirit? We shared in group this week that it is much easier to say yes, we have a relationship with God the Father, and yes, we are in relationship with Jesus... but the Holy Spirit? how does that work? we say the three persons of the Trinity, but perhaps don't image the Holy Spirit in that way.

We are discovering in our group journey this pre-pentecost that, perhaps even obviously, we all talk about the Holy Spirit all the time. When we name the action of God in the world, it is the Spirit. When we proclaim the teaching of Christ in our lives and the life of the church, it is the action of the Spirit enabling us to name this. There it is in Jesus' words we hear today..."The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you." So our naming of Christ's teaching, and our living of it, is the reminding action of God's Spirit amongst us.

The exciting thing that one of the groups I was part of revealed was more understanding in that there is indeed a mutual dependency in this Holy Spirit relationship and action in the world. We were looking at Paul's words to the church in Rome...
When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!' it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ....'

‘It is that Spirit..... with our spirit'.....Whether we talk about proceeding to or proceeding from, here is a real understanding that we only know God in our spirit joining with the Holy Spirit to name that knowing. This is quite exciting, this mutual triggering of action - and it certainly is cemented in Paul's claim that we are joint heirs with Christ. Now, if you think that right through, in the doctrine of the Trinity, then it would seem we are part of that relationship in a real "proceeding" kind of way.

In other words, the action of God in the world is made possible by calling us, each of us and the church, the believers, in our spirit to co-habit God's spirit. To join and thus to enable the action.

Now you may think this is too theoretical and thus not relevant to your daily life, but it is indeed the heart, the essence, of our Christian action in the world. If we believe that we are indeed joint heirs with Christ and thus sharing the God-action in the world, it actually becomes so. That was the other huge dialogue I was part of this week in the groups - what comes first, faith or belief? This discussion occurred because of Jesus' words that we hear at the end of the Gospel reading today....
And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe.

In all the stories we are hearing and sharing through the pre-pentecost groups, there is the common recognition that only in an initial openness to the Holy Spirit, is it thus revealed. This is what Jesus is saying - hear my words, have faith in their truth, so that when the revelation comes of that truth, you will recognise it from God. That's the cycle we Christians belong to - faith in the Word, the presence of Christ, which becomes actions of belief as we embrace that relationship. That's why it is so fitting to travel through this Easter season with the readings of action and word running parallel - the Acts of the Apostles as they took Christ's word and formed the church, and the Gospel of John, expounding over and over the relationship we have with God through the Son.

I say at weddings, to the couple just before they exchange their vows - a marriage only comes into being when you two believe it is a marriage. In other words, when the words and intent of the vows - which are all of actions, to love, honour, cherish, forsake others, etc - are actually lived for the purpose of each other in marriage, the marriage exists. It is your faith in your marriage, I say, that calls it into being - your faith becomes the belief and action.

So for us, perhaps struggling in our marriage with Christ (which is what the church is likened to) we need to know that his Spirit, the Spirit of God, is going ahead, calling us into action. We just need to have that openness to listen to that voice; to rest in God and wait on God, as so many find.

So, to filioque or to not filioque is not the question.... to stir up our faith to believe in the living, created relationship we are in with a living, creator God and a loving, companion Christ is what we need to do to ask THE question - what are you calling me into Abba, my Father?

May you trust that relationship above all things. Amen.