“Mystery”
Sermon Presented May 23,
2010
Pentecost Sunday
John 14:8-17, 25-27
Last week I read Kathryn Stockett’s novel The Help – a book that has been on the New York Times’ best seller list for months. It is the story of black maids in Jackson, MS during the early 60’s, and is told in their voices through a white woman who secretly gathers and writes their stories. It is the story of women who became surrogate mothers for the white children they cared for – hoping that they could teach the children the evils of prejudice. It’s the story of both good and bad relationships between employers and their employees.
Stockett could have written an essay admonishing whites for the way they treated blacks in those days and it would have been dismissed as the thoughts of a liberal “do-gooder” white woman, but she didn’t. She told their stories – albeit fiction – and the book is a best seller. We read the stories – and the stories change us.
Now I – as pastor – can tell you that you need to allow the Holy Spirit to invade your life, as I read to you what the Scriptures say on this Pentecost Sunday. I can say that we need to be kind and loving toward those who are strangers or those who are different than we, but my words would be just as ineffective as an essay by Stockett. Jesus finds himself in such a situation when Philip asks his question. Jesus has just said: “If you know me, you will know my father. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” Hear Philip’s question and Jesus’ answer from John 14:8-17, 25-27.
Here we are – invited into a conversation between Philip and Jesus – with the other disciples listening with ears wide open. The question voiced by Philip isn’t just his question, but a question that is on the minds of all of the disciples. It’s also a question that most of us have considered. How do we see God? Well, when we ask that question, we don’t expect to see God with our eyes. We understand that God is Spirit. But how do we know that God is present when we can’t see God? How do we know that God is with us when everything is topsy-turvy in our lives? How do we know that the Holy Spirit is advocating for us when the mystery of divinity is beyond our comprehension?
On this Pentecost Sunday, our text isn’t what we usually read on this Sunday. Instead of the coming of the Holy Spirit according to Acts 2, our text deals with the promise of the advent of the Spirit. It is the groundwork for what comes later. And that groundwork comes as a promise from Jesus – a promise that he won’t leave them alone but will send the Holy Spirit to continue God’s work in them.
Jesus calls the Spirit Paraclete or Advocate. The Spirit – according to Jesus, is “one called alongside to help.” The reason for sending the Spirit is to bring peace and not fear; comfort and not anxiety; understanding and not ignorance. The promise of the Spirit and the coming of the Spirit are so significant for the Christian community that – like Easter and Christmas – the story is told each year instead of every three years as occurs with the rest of the lectionary readings. We all remember the Acts’ story of the coming of the Spirit because it is story. This morning we look at the promise – what precede this story!
Jesus doesn’t lay down a list of rules for his followers, even though he does tell them to be obedient to his words. He tells them to remember what he has done – the stories of his works – because they will also be able to do the same things.
When we think of the works Jesus did, our thoughts immediately go to his miracles, and because we’ve never healed anyone, we somehow believe Jesus didn’t know what he was talking about or that we are somehow deficient in this area of witness. And yet, when we consider that Jesus was just one person when he was here on earth – moving about in one particular area of Israel with a small group of followers, we see that the spread of Christianity today isn’t limited by geography and numbers. There are millions of Christians today, and Jesus’ works are being repeated over and over again world-wide. What I can’t do by myself, I can do with the members of this congregation. What Roundy can’t do by itself, it can do with American Baptist Churches in Milwaukee or congregations in the North Shore area. What Christians in the United States can’t do alone, we can do with Christians – and even non-Christians world-wide. Many people working together accomplish the works of Jesus!
In the current issue of The Rotarian (June 2010, p. 11) there is the story of Kelly Sargent, a member of a Rotary club in Des Moines, IA. Kelly saw a need to help women who entered a domestic violence center in Iowa. She wanted to let these women know that they weren’t alone, and that people they had never met were pulling for them. Since 95% of all women entering a domestic violence center have only their children and the clothes on their backs, she made an initial donation of 150 pairs of new pajamas to a domestic violence center in Des Moines on New Years Eve of 2006.
That initial gift has spread to every shelter in Iowa, as well as some in Arkansas, Nevada, and Virginia. Her goal is to not leave anyone out. Kelly doesn’t do this by herself. She does it through an organization she began that works with Rotary Clubs, churches, and individuals who want to help. The story of the good work begun by one person has spread to encompass many.
This story moved me. Stockett’s novel “The Help” moved me. The story of Pentecost moves me. But sometimes we need to look behind the story and find what inspired it. And that’s what our text does. It brings us back to the reason Jesus gives for sending the Holy Spirit, and it tells us what the role of the Spirit is to be – before the vision of flames, the sound of rushing winds, and people speaking in other languages. This morning we are looking behind the mystery of Pentecost to discover why the Spirit was given.
Jesus knows these fledgling Christians need help. They need an Advocate so that they will have a voice and direction. The disciples are like modern-day nursing home residents, defendants in court, students, immigrants, handicapped individuals, the homeless and abused. They need an advocate, and Jesus knows it. He isn’t going to leave them to fend for themselves, so he tells them what the next step will be. In answer to their question to show them the Father, he promises the Holy Spirit. And this promise was just as full of mystery as seeing God or the actual event of the Spirit’s coming. However, the teaching prepares them for Pentecost.
None of us wants to be considered a fool. And yet Philip made himself vulnerable and asked the probing question. And Jesus’ answer held so much mystery that it was incomprehensible. But then Jesus adds: “If you can’t comprehend the words that I say, then believe I am in God and God in me because of the works that I do.” Once that truth is understood, then they can understand that God in Jesus – God in the Holy Spirit – can work from the inside out to bring peace, understanding, and comfort.
Like Philip and the other disciples, we are all searching. And because we search, God doesn’t leave us alone in our struggles. We have God’s Spirit to lead us to peace, understanding and comfort. Part of the message of Pentecost is that God goes with us and dwells in us individually and as community – so that together we can do what we can’t do alone. This gift mobilizes us for good works in a world of need.
When we are troubled or fearful, we aren’t always able to think clearly. We forget what we have been taught, and we forget to follow Jesus’ example. We need help. We can’t do it alone. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit works through the community – the Church – we can help one another. We can help those who need someone who cares.
Understanding what God wants us to see isn’t always easily discernable. The Holy Spirit, the advocate on our spiritual journey, supports and guides us, but doesn’t lay out a carefully calculated map. Sometimes we need to make detours, but we aren’t alone on the journey. Understanding God’s will comes as a process of transformation over a lifetime. We begin where we are and commit as much of ourselves as we can to as much of Jesus as we understand, and then we move forward. Understanding the works of Jesus for ourselves comes with struggle and often through trial and error. We gain understanding through spiritual growth.
When we believe in our hearts – in our gut – in our minds – that God is in us and available to us – we can move forward without fear, to do the works of Jesus. When the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, the followers of Jesus were filled up with God, and then they knew that Jesus’ words were true. Until that point, the Holy Spirit was only a promise.
For all of our lives, our understanding of how God is in us and with us will be a mystery, and for all of our lives, the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost will hold mystery. But that’s okay! If we could figure it out, there would be no place for God. Come, Holy Spirit, Come!
05/30/2010
