Easter 2008

SERMON NOTES FOR EASTER 6 (April 27, 2008: Acts 17: 22-31, Psalm 66: 7-18, I Peter 3: 13-22, 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 forever. 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……”

Love is about being in relationship with other people. There are, of course, different levels of love. We often say as Christians that we love our neighbors without really knowing who they are. There is also the kind of love we feel for friends, for children, for spouses, and even a type of love we reserve for things, like good food and good books. C. S. Lewis in his book, The Four Loves speaks of these types of love closing with the love Christ speaks of known as agape, which Lewis also calls, charity.

 The love that God shows for humanity is a love without bounds. Our God is the God of Creation who brought order out of chaos, our God is the God of Israel who brought slaves into the promised land, our God is the one who when we have gone astray from God’s principles has sent prophets to call us back to justice, and our God is the one who is also Jesus, our teacher, prophet and savior, who tells us that love is not reserved for the powerful but is also for the least of these.

 In this passage from John we find ourselves back in time before the death and resurrection. Jesus is telling the disciples that tragedy awaits him, that one of them will betray him, and that there will soon be a time where he is not with them in the same way he is now. All this bad news is set, however in the context of reassurance. Jesus tells the disciples that they will not be abandoned by God as events unfold. They are told that God will send a new advocate that will help the disciples and future generations discern the will of God as new issues and problems emerge. The advocate, The Holy Spirit, will be the voice of God, of Jesus, and we will never be alone.

 Jesus asked no small thing of the disciples when he said: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” There seems to be a sense in so many of our churches, regardless of denominational affiliation, that following Jesus’ commandments is a relatively easy task to accomplish. Like Christians of all ages, we even confuse our cultural and social norms with Christian values. Slavery, wars, and even environmental degradation have all been justified by people claiming that their actions are Christian. Being a Christian and following Jesus’ teaching takes a great effort.

To be a disciple meant “to follow after.” Whoever would be my disciple, Jesus said, “Let him follow me.” What does it mean to be a follower of Jesus? It means to take seriously what he took seriously, to be like him in some sense. Jesus fully expected we would obey his commands, not to be saved, but because we are saved. As we grow in our love of Christ our obedience demonstrates the character of Christ and the Spirit whom Jesus gives, shapes, molds, perfects and sanctifies the Christian. If we really love Jesus it is a delight and an honor and pure joy to serve him by obeying him.

 How can this advocate or counselor, the Holy Spirit, help guide us today in our quest to be disciples? The Rev. Barbara Brown Taylor, an Episcopal priest and author, has described the Holy Spirit this way:

   “When Jesus let go of his last breath, willing, we believe, for love of us, that breath hovered in the air  in front of him for a moment and then it was set loose on earth. It was such a pungent breath, so full of passion, so full of life, that it did not simply dissipate as so many breaths do. It grew, in strength and in volume, until it was a mighty wind, which God sent spinning through an upper room in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. God wanted to make sure that Jesus’ friends were the inheritors of Jesus’ breath, and it worked.” (Home By another Way, p 145)

 
It was that breath that we read in Acts 2 that allowed the disciples to speak in languages they had never known before and therefore to be able to spread the message of the Gospels across the world.

But it would be a tragedy if we thought of the Holy Spirit as being something that worked just through the first disciples. God uses the Holy Spirit to speak through us still, to challenge us to think in new ways, and to move the church in new directions.

Through our ongoing encounters with the Holy Spirit, we can learn to be faithful disciples of God in new and exciting ways. Barbara Taylor Brown says: “The question for me is whether we still believe in a God who acts like that. Do we still believe in a God who blows through closed doors and sets our heads on fire? Do we still believe in a God with power to transform us, both individuals and as a people, or have we come to an unspoken agreement that our God is pretty old and tired by now, someone to whom we may address our prayer requests but anyone we really expect to change our lives?” (p145)

 If we love Jesus, we have to constantly be taking stock of our lives and our church and asking how it is we are faithful to Jesus’ commandments. How do we let the Holy Spirit guide us on our spiritual journey?

 If we love Jesus, we will keep the commandments. If you’re like me and not always sure what the best way to do that is take a breath and do what Taylor suggests: Pray “Come, Holy Spirit” Ben, Diane and I did this weekly for months (for over a year) as we looked at Nativity’s future back two and three years ago before Michael came. Be open to letting God transform your life in unexpected, unsettling, and blessed ways.