God & TikTok
John 14:15-21
‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you. ‘I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.’
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Introduction
For a while, we've heard about the declining rate of "Christianity" in America, especially among younger generations. Yet, those claims appear to be greatly exaggerated. It's not that younger generations aren't religious; they are; it's just that they aren't finding the same meaning in "traditional" expressions of religion. Social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok are becoming places where sources of information (about life in general and spirituality) are accessible in various forms that redefine our traditional sense of communication. It's why a Church of England priest by the name of Rev. Chris Lee has more followers (many of who fall into the younger generation) than the Church of England because he's found a way to talk about faith in a relatable context outside the traditional church.
God's on TikTok now, or I should say that people are finding God in places that were not conceivable 10 or 20 years ago. So how do we listen for the Advocate in the changing landscape of spirituality? And how do we adapt our calling to meet the yearning of a new generation and the hungry hearts that are here right now? Or even better, how do we adapt our calling to meet the needs of our hearts so that they do not become stagnant?
Revelation & Tradition
We hear Jesus telling the disciples in the first part of the reading, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." So how do we keep Jesus' commandments? Often we take the teachings of Jesus and form religious traditions. And with time, we pass down these traditions from generation to generation. Yet note that the tradition we find meaning in differs from the commandments of Jesus. Tradition is a vehicle by which we've come to understand how the sacred and the secular intersect at the crossroads of our lives. However, that crossroad, that intersection of the sacred and secular, is not the same for everyone.
I recently had coffee with a friend and former head of staff of mine. As we caught up, he mentioned something interesting to me. In research he was doing for a book, he noted that the word for tradition and betray come from the same Latin root, trado ("I hand over / surrender," "I leave behind"). And that is the essence of tradition. When we pass down or hand over our interpretation of Jesus' commandments and how to practice them, we betray the free-moving nature of the Spirit of God to a certain extent. If we aren't careful, our love of tradition over the commandments of Jesus will hurt us and those we are trying to reach.
The Paraclete
If there is a part of the Godhead that doesn't let us stand on tradition alone, it is the Holy Spirit, the Advocate. In Greek, this word is paraclete, which also can be translated as meaning a "counselor" or "helper." If we are familiar with the Holy Spirit, we would know that it calls us to go out into the world and live as a reflection of the life-giving love that comes from God so that our faith can find renewal and vitality. It's not because tradition is a "bad," but because if we only know faith within a particular context, we miss out on experiencing faith holistically
When we pay attention to the movement of the Holy Spirit, we become aware of things in life that go beyond the mundane and the ordinary. Our taking in the Holy Spirit should help us see the value and the beauty in the world around us. Though sometimes, we get stuck in a rut and focus too heavily on one thing or tradition, and that is when the Advocate helps to move attention back to the abiding presence of God that dwells with us and gives us directions to living out the commandment of God’s love.
Keeping The Greatest Commandment
You might wonder if Jesus had a particular commandment in mind when he told the disciples, "They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by God, and I will love them." Though if we were paying attention, we might recall the greatest commandment as comes from Matthew's gospel, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and all your mind," "And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'" (Matthew 22:37-39)
In this season of turning or rediscovery, what else do we have but the promise of love? God's love, God's steadfast love, and the promise that creation will one day be made whole again when we allow love to be our guide. There is no one way to love, no one way to love God or our neighbor or creation. We may have a tradition that is familiar and reassuring. Still, we can never forget that Jesus, with the Advocate, continually reveals the truth of God's heart in new and profound ways that breathe new life into our faith today.
Conclusion
God's on TikTok; it's a fact we cannot avoid as we consider our modern evangelism and the good news of Easter hope. God's on TikTok, and God is in the faith we hold close to our hearts. Like the disciples, we may not always get it right when it comes to expanding our spiritual horizons, but we must not let our mishaps or failures keep us down:
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.(“Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver)
"The world offers itself to your imagination," Mary Oliver says—this world created by our God of ceaseless wonder. So take the time to experience new expressions of faith and faith-seeking. Open your heart and mind to the guiding presence of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God is moving, and this Advocate, this Helper, is calling out to us to live in God's presence that continues to move into all corners of creation.