sermon on... blasphemy against the Holy Spirit!

A Sermon for the First Sunday after Trinity

Gospel: Mark 3.20-end

What is the right Christian attitude to the Bible? What do we – no, what should we – think about the Bible? I wonder if any part of us thinks this: If I were a proper Christian, I’d find the Bible always clear, and always comforting. I’d understand it all, agree with it all (of course), and learn from it, day by day, how God is good and loving and forgiving, and all the rest of it. After all, God must be so good and loving that he speaks clearly to us, and so the Bible must be clear in all it says, and it must be our own stupidity or sinfulness that complicates things.

Sometimes Christians are taught this kind of thing, either explicitly taught it, by people like me, or implicitly taught it, by church culture. I’ll be frank: there was a time when I thought it. The Christians who taught me at one stage said: the Bible, if you read it without the clutter of the different denominations’ different teachings, is simple and consistent. So just get on with it and read. But brothers and sisters, I have to say: I no longer believe this. And I am so relieved that I no longer believe this. It was something of a liberation to drop this unrealistic attitude to the Bible. Now, it’s more the other way round. Now, I read the Bible – as much as I ever did – but positively relish the fact that so much is alien, weird even, and full of stories which are so very different from my own. The story of salvation is bigger than me, than us, than all of us, than the Church as we know it. And that it is a good thing, a life-giving thing.

Why am I saying this today? Because I feel compelled to say something about Jesus’ words on blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. This surely is one of the difficult passages from the gospels. For it seems that Jesus is saying quite clearly that there is a sin which cannot or will not be forgiven. Commit this sin, and there is literally no hope for you. There is an ‘eternal sin’. And this seems to contradict what we learn about the mercy of God. I mean: we learn it here, in this very passage, where Jesus says: ‘people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemy they utter’, and we learn it countless times elsewhere as well. Think, for example, of the thief on the cross, who admits that he is a thief, and hears these words from out Lord: ‘Today you will be with me in paradise’. So, what are we to make of this blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?

Well, this shows me that here as elsewhere in the Bible we have to do a lot of discussing, praying, reflecting, pondering and then more discussing, if we are to understand the text. That said, I don’t think we need be all at sea. Some things can usefully be said. First, notice that Jesus does not actually say that the scribes have committed blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Yes, they have said that Jesus himself is working with demons, and Jesus certainly resists that. But he is (I’d say) sending out a warning, rather than a judgement. He is warning his opponents not to pursue that line of reasoning or antagonism.

Secondly, if we are to take seriously the mercy of God, and God’s will to bring everyone to salvation, it must be that the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is an exceptional thing - the exception that proves the rule. A number of sinful things must come together before there can be any possibility of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. This is what the Church has taught. In fact, to commit blasphemy against the Holy Spirit you must have a long record of choosing to see things the wrong way round. You must choose to call evil good, and good evil. You must choose vindictiveness and resentment over mercy and forgiveness. You must, then, refuse to forgive, and refuse to be forgiven. I stress: all of this must be your free choice. If these things come together, then, yes, we may have to speak of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. It means this: if you freely, deliberately, seriously and persistently choose to reject forgiveness, God will respect your decision. God will not forgive you against your will, as it were – if it really is against you free, deliberate, serious and persistent will.

Why would anyone perfectly freely reject forgiveness? It’s hard to know. I mean: we all know what it is to be wounded. When life wounds us, we react in all kinds of illogical ways. When life wounds us, we do things which we know are harmful, to ourselves, to others, to all. That is all part of the human condition. But, when we react in that way, we are not acting freely. Our freedom to choose the good is constrained by what life has done to us. It’s sad and we may end up wanting to call it sinful, but! But it is a million miles away from blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which can only be committed by perfectly free choice.

So, I ask again: why would anyone perfectly freely reject forgiveness. And I say again: it is hard to know. And maybe nobody ever has. Jesus does not say that anybody ever has committed, or ever will commit this blasphemy. But, the point is that, if we take human freedom seriously, it must be possible. And did you realise that this is also what the Church has taught about hell? Hell must exist, as, if this mortal human life has eternal importance in God’s eyes, it must be possible to reject God, deep down, freely and seriously. However, hell may be empty! The Church has never claimed to know that anyone is in hell. Two reasons: we never know how constrained a person was when they sinned; we never know if they sought forgiveness from God, even at the last minute.

I think I can bring things together. What all of this means is that if (God forbid!) you are anxious that you might have committed blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, then you can be confident that you have not! If you want to avoid blasphemy against the Holy Spirit then you are at heart oriented towards God. It may be complicated. Your motives in most of the things you do may be compromised. Welcome to the human race! But if, at depth, you are oriented towards God, then you have not freely, deliberately, seriously and persistently chosen evil over good, chosen un-forgiveness over forgiveness. You can be sure of that. Your sins, even your blasphemies, will be forgiven.

Sisters and brothers, as you know, I like to think that we are getting to know each other. I think I do know you well enough to know that you are not necessarily the kind of congregation that regularly worries about the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. I don’t think what I have said today will be revolutionary for you. But I also think that you are a congregation who wants to attend to the biblical texts we hear, week by week, and, well, here we are, today, with this far-from-easy text about a sin which cannot or will not be forgiven. But we are about forgiveness!

Actually, it occurs to me that all the great world faiths speak about forgiveness and mercy first. Judaism calls God ‘the Father of mercies’. In Islam God is ‘the most merciful one – and the one more merciful even than that’. In Buddhism there is a saying that every morning on waking one can say: ‘I am alive; there is still time’. And so on. Christianity is surely at least as insistent on forgiveness as other faiths. I say yes. The blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is nothing less - but also nothing more - than the exception that proves the rule. Let us go on bearing the message of the mercy of God to all we meet. And let us go on, finding the Bible – all of it – fascinating, but not necessarily easy. We need each other and all our discussions, to hold all of these things together. And that, too, is a good thing. Amen.