John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15
26 “When the Companion comes, whom I will send from the Father—the Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the Father—he will testify about me. 27 You will testify too, because you have been with me from the beginning.
“I didn’t say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. 5 But now I go away to the one who sent me. None of you ask me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6 Yet because I have said these things to you, you are filled with sorrow. 7 I assure you that it is better for you that I go away. If I don’t go away, the Companion won’t come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. 8 When he comes, he will show the world it was wrong about sin, righteousness, and judgment. 9 He will show the world it was wrong about sin because they don’t believe in me. 10 He will show the world it was wrong about righteousness because I’m going to the Father and you won’t see me anymore. 11 He will show the world it was wrong about judgment because this world’s ruler stands condemned.
12 “ I have much more to say to you, but you can’t handle it now. 13 However, when the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you in all truth. He won’t speak on his own, but will say whatever he hears and will proclaim to you what is to come. 14 He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and proclaim it to you. 15 Everything that the Father has is mine. That’s why I said that the Spirit takes what is mine and will proclaim it to you. 16 Soon you won’t be able to see me; soon after that, you will see me. ”
Common English Bible
Let the words of my mouth
and the meditations of my heart
be pleasing to you,
LORD, my rock and my redeemer.
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| Photo by Amy Mann |
I watched Facebook with considerable jealousy a couple weeks ago as some friends of mine attended the Festival of Homiletics in Atlanta. Homiletics, by the way, is the study and subsequent practice of preaching and all the mess that goes into it.
The Festival of Homiletics gathered some of the most well-known preachers in the world under one roof. If you’ve ever been inspired by a good sermon or in awe of a really outstanding preacher (and I know that happens to you every week here), then you can imagine the atmosphere.
One of my friends caught this quote from a hero of the craft:
"Like that first Pentecost, God crashes our parties and invites in the people we're trying to avoid." - Nadia Bolz-Weber
Why were the disciples gathered in their cloistered room? Because they were afraid; they were trying to avoid the crowds who had so recently demanded Jesus’ crucifixion.
But you might notice that when Jesus appears to the disciples after the Resurrection, he does so unannounced and often breaking the fundamental laws of physics, appearing on their fishing trips and in locked rooms.
And the Spirit, the Breath of God, does exactly the same thing.
a sound like the rush of a violent wind…
4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit…
God breaks into their everyday lives, into their safely locked rooms, and begins the work that the disciples were ill-equipped to do on their own.
Not only were they not confident enough to preach; not only were they completely unprepared to share in the language and cultural context of that diverse crowd in Jerusalem; but they lacked the broader vision that God had, even after Jesus shared it with them:
The disciples didn’t need a Long Range Planning Committee. The disciples needed a Right Now Organizing Committee.
How many of us has even seen a crowd of 3000 people?
Can you just imagine what that must have been like for the disciples? Can you imagine what that would look like here? This circuit doesn’t typically gather 100 people on a Sunday. To have an explosion of that magnitude would be like everyone in the Nickelsville zip code hearing and being set on fire by the Gospel of Christ.
Why doesn’t that happen?
Maybe it’s because we’re very happy to leave here and go about our lives as usual. And there is good evidence that most of the disciples’ lives were business as usual. But the difference is that under the thin skin of normalcy, something abnormal and exciting was quivering to burst forth from each of them.
And what I am NOT going to do right now is bemoan the fact that our churches in America seem to be lacking that quivering excitement. What good is whining and moaning?
What I am going to do is to encourage you to remember that moment that Jesus got you excited. And I’m not just talking about some big conversion experience. If I’m being perfectly honest with you, I don’t personally have one to point to. My entire life has been a conversion experience, and praise God that Jesus ain’t done with me yet!
On Thursday of last week, we celebrated Aldersgate Day. That’s the day we remember John Wesley, the founder of the methodist movement, stopping in to visit a study on a particularly boring piece of commentary on Romans. He went in rather down in the dumps, but he left feeling his heart strangely warmed, with a new confidence that Jesus loved him.
We celebrate it as Wesley’s conversion experience.
But two weeks later, his journal records his questioning and his despair renewed.
All his life was progress toward perfection, too.
But he had one moment he could point to in which he had a glimpse of the overwhelming, unfailing love of God.
I bet you’ve had that.
And I know it’s hard to grab on to a moment and sustain that remembering to keep being inspired by it. I doubt, as finite human beings, that we are capable of sustaining it, of always realizing the infinite love of God. It’s so much bigger than us that trying to sustain that understanding might just blow our little minds.
But maybe that’s the point.
Take that moment, and hear in it the voice of the Comforter that Jesus has sent us. Jesus doesn’t say that the Spirit of truth will suddenly reveal to us all truth. Jesus says the Spirit will guide us into all truth.
So don’t sweat it if you don’t have all the answers, or if you’re not completely confident in God’s saving power. You don’t have to be!
Just take what you have, take what you know, and hear Jesus’ command:
26 “When the Companion comes, whom I will send from the Father—the Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the Father—he will testify about me. 27 You will testify too, because you have been with me from the beginning.
And here’s the fun part.
[Go outside with everyone’s balloons]
When we are willing to share that testimony - not a testimony of condemnation, because that’s God’s, not ours to decide - but a testimony of love that overwhelms and overcomes all, then the Spirit will take the power of our testimony and spread it through all creation.
When we release these, the wind is going to take them wherever the wind wants. When we release our witness to the people and to the world around us, the wind of God’s Spirit will blow our testimony way out of our control and into the wilderness of God’s creation.
Ready? Go!
[Release balloons]
That’s how amazing God’s love is.
That’s a love worth celebrating.
Let’s sing together because we can trust God’s Spirit…
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