The Christians in Smyrna are subject to the scorn and abuse of their neighbors who hold to other beliefs – not because their neighbors are devotees of the Roman and Greek gods -- Jupiter and Zeus and that crowd. By this time virtually none of the populace credited or believed in those colorful, albeit fantastic, myths. The hot topic on the religious scene here in Asia Minor is the Mystery Religions – their saviors or heroes are presented as powerful, strong and mighty. They appealed, therefore, to the fighting men of Rome. Our Christians are gripped by one who is seen, by those outside the faith, as weak; He had, after all, been executed as a criminal.

Our little Church in Smyrna is to be the home, within a few years, of one of the great fathers of the early Church – Bishop Polycarp, whose influence in the Church is to extend even to the 21^st Century.

The Christians in Smyrna meet weekly for worship on the first day of the week in remembrance that it was on the first day that Jesus rose from the dead. Their service of worship is comprised of hymns, readings, prayers, a homily (or instruction) and an offering for the poor. In all, it is very like the service in a synagogue of the diaspora (and, in all candor, was virtually identical, in its parts, to the forepart of the Sunday Service of worship in Messiah Church in Santa Ana, California, U.S.A., 1900 years later).

But there is something else, an addition, that makes the corporate worship of the Smyrna Christians quite different from the worship in the synagogue. Attached to the prayers and preaching is a meal. Known as the Agape, this meal is a kind of pot-luck supper in which the believers share food; there are special words spoken during the Agape by one of the leaders of the community -- words about Jesus and the bread and wine he shared with his disciples at His Last Supper. This part of the worship is called eucharist, thanksgiving, and the thanks is for their crucified and risen Lord.

It is roughly about this time, 100 A.D., that the Smyrna Church comes into possession of a writing by one who has adopted the name of one of Jesus’ closest followers – John. This writing tells of the life and ministry of Jesus, a biography if you will. But this biography is dissimilar in many respects to the other Jesus biographies that have made their way to Smyrna. This one is more Greek in spirit, couched more in the thought forms and speculations of Hellenistic philosophy.

The last third of this biography – Jesus as told by John – is given over to the run-up to Jesus’ crucifixion. Specifically, the author reports Jesus’ farewell words to the apostles and His other followers. The farewell is replete with instructions for what to do, how to act, what to expect, even what to believe after Jesus departs. He promises to send to His followers one who is to be their Comforter and Advocate.

That information is useful to our Smyrna Christians. They are, after all, beset on all sides by the faithful of other gods – Ahura Mazda, Isis, Mithras, Dionysius; by those who have no time for religion, who want only money and the things it can buy, and by those who want to create Jesus according to an image and a set of ideas that are very different from those taught by the Apostles.

That last bunch is mightily insistent in the experience of our Church here in Asia Minor. Some traveling men, itinerant preachers, show up regularly insisting:

"Jesus was not really human, he only seemed so."

"Jesus didn’t really die on the cross, he was spirited away."

It would be fair, at this point, for you to ask, "Duane, does any of this have something, anything to do with me?" Well, it really does. William Faulkner wrote, in Requiem for a Nun, "The past is never dead. It’s not even past." The point is, historical circumstances may change; human nature changes but little. The past speaks to us as we strive to live out our lives usefully in our todays.

The Christian community, this Church faces challenges that are startlingly similar to those faced by the early Church in Smyrna and in the regions beyond:

Disparate and unusual, speculations about Jesus

Atheism

It is our relationship to the God revealed in and by Jesus Christ and a life lived in the Spirit that allows the Church to meet and prevail over its challenges.

If you look at the Hymn Board or glance at the very top of your Order of Worship today you will see that today is Trinity Sunday. Very simply, this is the Sunday during the year that Christians recall the ways in which God has revealed Himself to human kind. As Creator and Sustainer, as Lord and Savior and as Presence and Advocate: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

That last person of the Trinity is what our readings from the Gospel of John have talked about today and in recent weeks. Frankly, Episcopalians don’t often talk about the Holy Spirit. The reason is clear enough: There have been times and circumstances in the history of the Church when persons and groups, claiming the guidance and authority of the Holy Spirit, have engaged in behaviors that are bizarre – handling snakes -- or even anti-Christian – persecuting, even killing, those with whom they disagreed.

What is remarkable about the early Church is that there was a sense in which it had to "make it up as it went along" – these early Christians had to find TRUTH using their own resources, trusting in the guidance of the Holy Spirit and they got it right for the most part. The Great Creeds of the Church, Nicea and Chalcedon, the ones that said authoritatively, "This is the way it is," did not come along for another 200 years. But the early Church was sensitive to the prodding of the Spirit, the Comforter and Advocate, whom Jesus had promised. And it remained faithful to the gospel proclaimed by the Apostles. And those two things: The leadership of the Spirit and faithfulness to the Gospel as delivered to them by the Apostles were the foundation on which the earliest Church was enabled to survive and prevail.

The Holy Spirit is vital for the Church. But what about you? What about the individual believer? Can you trust God Present, the Holy Spirit, to lead, comfort, guide you?

I am certain the answer is "Yes"! Jesus said, "Seek and you will find." In the language of today, we might say the issue is intentionality. If we intend to find and be responsive to the Holy Spirit in our lives, if we really intend to get in touch with God Present, we will be successful and we will be led into the fullness and riches of God’s will for us. What does intention mean? It means setting aside time to be alone, time for prayer, time to read, time to contemplate, time to find the wonder in God’s creation, time to give of ourselves, time to love. Doing these things, engaging in those acts that are God-intentional will put us in touch with our Comforter and Advocate.

So what exactly is the point? God is Present and if we can access Him, and as we do our lives will be deepened and our faith will be sure. The Spirit is available and the ways to access the Spirit are easy for those who seek a "Closer Walk."

The Comforter and Advocate served well the Church and the believers 2000 years ago. We may count on the Holy Spirit today.

Hear how the hymn writer said it,