Oak Chapel United Methodist Church

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Only Chapter 14, a third of John's Gospel still to go, and already Jesus is saying goodbye! That shouldn't surprise us, for we know the early Christians, who wrote the New Testament.  They were focused on the final days of Jesus' life and carefully remembered his last words, just as we might attribute special significance to, and carefully remember, the last words and deeds of a friend or loved one.  So, the gospels contain a lot of material we call "farewell discourses."

In this particular farewell, the disciple Philip explains to Jesus (rather naively) that the only thing necessary for him and the others to believe, as Jesus obviously wants them to believe, is for them to actually see God.   "Show us the Father, and then we will be satisfied." "Make it clear." "Show us God." "Cough him up." "Display him for us, like a butterfly on a pin, and then we will see, and believe."

Jesus is the Model

Jesus has just said to Thomas "if ye (Thomas) had known me (Jesus), ye would have known my Father also."  But apparently it hadn't sunk in.  So Jesus replies to Philip even more directly: "he that hath seen me hath seen the Father," Philip. "The words that I have spoken are really God's words.  The power that I have displayed is really God's power. Why do you say, 'Show is the Father?' I have to go, and you have to stop asking dumb questions. You have to understand at least this: I and the Father am one."

What more can he say than to you he hath said,
To you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?

Jesus Is Available to Grant our Prayers

A parting and a promise. " And when I'm gone," Jesus says, "in a wonderful and mysterious way, my divinity will be available to you. If you ask anything in my name, I will do it."  That's quite a promise. Peter Marshall used to say that too often church people reminded him of deep sea divers, encased in suits designed for many fathoms deep, jumping in bravely to pull out plugs in bathtubs.  We have these wonderful promises of Jesus: "Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened."  (Suits designed for many fathoms!)

Yet, in our faithlessness (our "defensiveness", our "fear of failure," our "risk avoidance" -- modern ways of saying "faithlessness") -- we don't ask much, we seldom seek, and we're afraid to knock on God's door for fear no one will answer.  We protect ourselves. We don't hope, for hopes might disappoint; we don't dream for dreams might not come true.  We live stunted, shriveled lives. Who would guess that we are the people who have been given the promise: "Ask anything in my name, and I will do it."

We Wonder Whether We Will Lose Jesus

The underlying question here, in John's Gospel, is this: Will the disciples be able to maintain their love for Jesus, and experience his love, after he is gone?  And will the next generation be able to love him, and know him?  And so on?  "Even if our children can be persuaded to believe without seeing, what about our grandchildren, and their children?  Won't your great love, Jesus, which we have experienced in our lives together, fade as the years go by?  As people change, and the world changes. As you become a distant historical figure (suitable for framing), and not a living, breathing, loving human being?  Won't we lose touch with you, Lord?"

Love the Lord and Keep His Commandments

Jesus gives two powerful answers:

First, "If you love me, keep my commandments."  In English, the pronoun "you" is the same if we're talking to one person or twenty.  But not in Greek.  And the Greek "you" here is plural.  All these "yous" are plural.  Jesus is speaking to them as a group, as the church.  "Whatsoever you ask in my name."  "If you love me, keep my commandments." "Because I live, you (all of you) will live also." He is speaking to them as a group here, when he says, "If you love me, keep my commandments."

The way to keep love alive, among you as Christians, and between you and me (even after I'm gone), is to do what I have taught (and demonstrated) in my life. In other words, Jesus' own life and love will continue, indefinitely, in the lives of his followers, if they keep his commandments and continue to love each other as he loved them. It is not by preserving memories that we keep Jesus alive among us, nor by personal experiences, but by doing his will. It is then that we know him in the church, then that he walks among us as in Galilee.

No Need for Further Revelation

We get that backwards sometimes. We wait for some revelation of God, some sure sign, some religious experience that can't be denied. And when it hits us in the head like that (we say), when we actually "see the Father" (as Philip asked), and there is no more room for doubt, then we will start living as he advised. We're still looking for a sign. But Jesus says to us what he said to Philip: No more stalling. "You've had your sign. You've seen the Father when you've seen me! If you want me to remain with you, if you want to feel my presence when you're together, keep my commandments. That is exactly how I come and how I stay."

The Gift of the Holy Spirit

And then, in beautiful words, Jesus makes a second promise, "I will not leave you orphans." He will be present with them in their joys and in their sorrows, and he will send the Holy Spirit. I'm not sure there's much difference, between the presence of the risen Christ in his church and the presence of the Holy Spirit. I'll take either, or both. Thank you, God. But I'm certain the church can't live without whichever it is.

It's Pentecost Sunday, the birthday of the church, the day God's Spirit alighted on the disciples in Jerusalem, and set them on fire. We think of the Holy Spirit like that: as something that energizes us, gives us spiritual power and courage, grants special gifts enabling us to live far beyond our natural abilities.  But the Holy Spirit is also "Comforter."  Healer of wounds. Mender of broken hearts. "I will not leave you orphans," as children without parents.  The old spiritual says, "Sometimes I feel like a motherless child." We know that orphaned feeling.  Nobody cares.  I'm all alone. There's no way out of my troubles, no one to offer a helping hand. God's Holy Spirit rescues his saints, and his church, from such crushing despair.

Grab Onto God Like You Are Drowning

It's not a frivolous issue, whether God is with us. (We don't choose God as we choose dessert at a restaurant -- a little something to satisfy our sweet tooth, to top off our happiness.  We choose God as a drowning man clings to anything that floats. God doesn't make life better. God makes life possible.) If we do not welcome his Spirit among us, if we do not live by Christ's commandments, and do not love one another in the Church, everything goes backwards.  There is a counter force at work.

The Holy Spirit Fans the Fire of our Faith

John Bunyon's powerful picture of the Holy Spirit at work is still a good one. You remember he saw a fire burning against a door, and no matter how much water people threw on it, it would not be extinguished.  That puzzled him, until he saw that, from behind the door, someone was pouring oil on the fire.  The world tries day and night to pour cold water on our faith, and to extinguish it.  It tries through temptation, through greed, through addiction, through pride, through racism, through grief, through corruption, through persecution, and finally through illness and death. Were it not for the Holy Spirit pouring oil on our faith fire, the flame would be extinguished very quickly.

Praise God and Praise the Holy Spirit

I thank God today, on Pentecost, for his Spirit that comes to me as Comforter, as restorer, as the Good Shepherd who doesn't necessarily make a better sheep -- just finds one that is lost, and put me back in his fold where I belong. If he wants to make something more of me, the Spirit is capable of that. But I begin by thanking him that I am no longer out on the hillside. "I once was lost but now am found."  It is the Holy Spirit that keeps me safe, that keeps me from being a defenseless orphan in a world determined to kill my soul.