John 16:5-15 (NIV)
There’s an historic chapel maintained by Sheila’s Hungate side of the family. It has 3 bells in its tower installed in 1647, and they have been ringing every Sunday since, making them the longest pealing bells in England. Each of the 3 has a different tone so that they can play a basic tune.
For centuries bells have rung from church steeples to call the faithful to worship or to a meeting. Church bells also rang to warn of danger or to announce victory. In some traditions, the bell would ring when someone accepted Jesus Christ, announcing the work of the Holy Spirit.
This morning’s scripture is part of John’s detailed description of Jesus preparing his disciples for his departure and the subsequent coming of the Counselor, literally the Helper. Jesus will send the Holy Spirit to “convict the world concerning sin.”
This word is not used much in the NT, although it has been a favorite for evangelical preaching. Some translations may use “reprove” or “convince” or “rebuke.” Here it means: to show fault or error and bring the realization of guilt. In essence, “convict”.
Growing up, I often heard church folks talk about being convicted by the Holy Spirit about something they needed to confess or do. Here, Jesus offers three ways the Spirit will convict, making it clear the Spirit of truth that comes to us will guide us in all truth to the glory of Jesus.
I think of those 3 bells in the Hungate chapel as a good metaphor for being convicted: 1) A bell doesn’t ring itself – at least real bells. Jesus sends the Spirit so that the church can sound the alarm about the problem of sin, and the need to believe in Jesus. As a Reformer said, the Spirit convicts so that the world will have nothing to use as an excuse – but that doesn’t stop them from trying!
In Whatever Became of Sin, Dr. Karl Meninger accuses the church of passing the torch of moral leadership to the media. We take more moral guidance from the press, publications and editorials than from Bible study and sermons. Sin is a symptom, not the problem, so we blame parents, genetics, society, politics, anything we can to escape the hard realities of life and the questions for which the Christian faith is the answer (Leith). It’s a form of Cancel Culture.
Imagine a doctor having the following dialog with a patient who clearly has not taken care of his health: “What seems to be the problem?” The patient replies, “My fingers are great.” “Good, but what is wrong?” “Well, my feet are really feeling fantastic, and I walk every day!” “Great, but this is a hospital. People walk in here to get help. Now then, how can we help?” Now imagine the patient saying: “Well, I don’t want your help. There’s a reason it’s called medical practice! I don’t want to talk about what’s wrong with me. It’s not my fault. I need a safe space where people aren’t so nosy and negative.” That’s how some see our faith. So, ring the bell! We need less cancel, more convicted.
As the Spirit helps the church ring the bell to convict the world, the church also rings 2) the bell to welcome the believer into Christian fellowship and worship. The Spirit is at work convincing the convicted of the righteousness of Christ so that we can have a right relationship with God. The Spirit shows us how wrongs can be made right as we commit to Jesus Christ and obeying Him in love.
The 3rd bell announces victory over “the prince of this world”. Satan thought he had won when he heard the ringing of nails driven into the cross, but what he really heard was the sound of his own judgement as the Scriptures were fulfilled.
“Very nice work, brother Dominic,” says the abbot to a monk who has just laboriously copied by hand a few pages of illuminated scripture. “Now, I would like 500 more…” The stunned monk looks glum. Then he brightens with an idea.
As he leaves the monastery, we realize for the first time that this is not the Middle Ages. The monk walks into a modern office. A short while later, he returns to the abbot with a big stack of the scriptures. “Here are your sets, father,” he says proudly. “Five hundred sets you asked for.”
This was an award-winning commercial from 1977 for the Xerox copier. Little did they know that hundreds of years earlier, a Reformer named Pilgrim said the Holy Spirit is the true Copier. No longer would God speak by written word alone, for now the Spirit will copy God’s Word into the hearts of believers, guiding them into all the truth. This is the Good News of Pentecost when church bells ring loudly around the world announcing the gift of the Holy Spirit Jesus sent to us.
Longfellow wrote that church bells are the unbroken song from the belfries of Christianity. Looking around, he discerned the world’s guilt, saying: hate is strong and mocks the song. But the bells kept ringing, and so his final stanza says: Then pealed the bells more loud and deep: “God is not dead, nor doth he sleep; The wrong shall fail, the right prevail… with the Spirit’s help, let it be so. And let’s turn up the volume on our bells!