NEVER ALONE Sermon Presented to St. Paul s Church 6 Easter, John 14:15-21, Year A May 21, 2017 Thack Dyson Some of the most inspiring words ever spoken can be found in farewell addresses. One that comes to mind was given by the late baseball great Lou Gehrig. It was given on July 4, 1939 in Yankee Stadium after he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known now as Lou Gehrig s disease. He took the opportunity to express his gratitude to his family, the fans and his teammates. Despite his grim diagnosis, he said, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. 1 More recently you may recall the late Dr. Randy Pausch s 2007 TED talk entitled Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams. This was later published in a book entitled The Last Lecture. His last lecture was recorded a year after he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He died only a year later. In this presentation, Pausch shared the most important lessons he learned in life. Two lessons he shared were, If I only had three words of advice, they would be, tell the truth. If I had three more words, I'd add, all the time. The other was, Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted. And experience is often the most valuable thing you have to offer. 2 You can view his inspiring TED talk on YouTube. What would you say in your farewell address? Would you relate a childhood incident that shaped the rest of your life? Would you share how wonderful your friends and family are and how these relationships impacted your life? Would you share your disappointments? Would you 1 2 http://www.lougehrig.com/. Description of University Lecture Series: Journeys, on the Carnegie Mellon University website. 1
share the importance of your faith, like how your relationship with God sustained you through the difficulties of life? What would you say in your last lecture? One of the most famous farewell addresses was given by Jesus. Found primarily in chapters 14 through 17 of John s Gospel, this section is Jesus Last Lecture, also known as his Farewell Discourse. Our Gospel reading this morning sets the stage for this whole section. The scene is the Last Supper. Jesus has gathered with his 12 disciples in an upper room in a house in Jerusalem. Jesus public ministry is coming to an end. He will die on the cross the next day. Knowing that the end is near, Jesus says, Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, Where I am going, you cannot come. (John 13:33). The disciples wonder what he s talking about. Peter gives voice to what each of them is thinking: Lord, where are you going? Jesus responds by talking about laying down his life for them and going to be with God. The disciples are shocked at the news and become anxious. What will they do after he is gone? How will they manage? First fear, then grief overcomes them as they try to imagine life without Jesus. Sensing the disciples anxiety, Jesus attempts to comfort them. He reassures them that they will not be alone. In verse 16 of today s reading, Jesus says, And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. The Greek word Advocate has multiple meanings that cannot be expressed with one English term. In addition to Advocate, it can mean Comforter and Counselor. This Advocate/Comforter/Counselor is what we generally call the Holy Spirit. In his last lecture, to 2
ease the trauma his closest friends will soon experience, Jesus assures them that God s Spirit will take his place and will be with them forever. Jesus reassures them by saying one of the most beautiful passages in Scripture, I will not leave you orphaned. (John 14:18). Jesus assures his disciples they will not be deserted. They will not be cut off from the one who gives them energy and inspiration. Jesus will not simply be a distant memory, he will continue to be with them as a powerful force, offering them comfort, hope and joy. Jesus is saying I will always be a part of you. Every thought you have, every feeling you experience, I will know and experience. By the same token, you will know what I want for you and expect from you. What Jesus promised his disciples and us, is that by virtue of our baptisms, Jesus will always be an influence in our lives. It s analogous to being a parent. If you are a parent, you have likely had the experience of seeing yourself in your child. If your child is your biological offspring, some of what you pass along is in your DNA. But whether your child is biologically yours or adopted, you quickly realize that part of you is transmitted to your child by other ways. What parent has not heard his own words come out of his child s mouth? (Sometimes they are words we wish the child hadn t heard!) What mother has not seen her child act exactly as she does? Just like adults, children take in the world around them, internalizing sounds, feelings and images. Throughout life we internalize all that we ve seen, heard and done. The same applies in our relationship with God. We sometimes forget that while God is transcendent, God is also immanent. The Spirit of God is within us and motivates us to act in Christ-like ways. Like the influence of a parent, God s Spirit alerts our conscience when we re 3
jealous, mean or greedy. God s Spirit nudges us when we lie, when we treat someone unfairly, or ignore people in need. God s Spirit urges us to take care of God s creation. However, there are many voices angling for our attention. So, how do we know which of our feelings are aroused by God s Spirit? Jesus makes it evident in this morning s passage and elsewhere in scripture. He says, If you love me, you will keep my commandments. (John 14:15). And what is his chief commandment? We are to love God and to love others as ourselves. If our thoughts, words and deed are motivated by our love for God and others, we will know they are from the Spirit. In his farewell address, Jesus said things to his 12 disciples that were intended for all of his subsequent followers. He tells them that once he was no longer physically present, he would not leave them or us orphaned. God s Spirit would be present throughout the world; not only externally, but also within each of us. God Spirit will encourage us to do acts of compassion, rail against injustice, warn us of the danger of self-centeredness, and primarily encourage us to love others unconditionally. Yes, through the indwelling of the Spirit, we are never orphans. God in Christ is always with us. But, don t forget that as Christians, we also have each other. One can never be orphaned in a Christian community. In our love for each other, we are replicating the love Christ has for us and truly abiding with each other. That s why we live most fully in community. Both the indwelling Spirit and the support we receive from each other sustains and empowers us to live for others in the world. This sense of community and mutual support reminds me of the story of Jack Casey. In his book, Preaching from Memory to Hope, Tom Long tells the story of Casey. When he was a child, Casey had to have dental surgery that required general anesthesia, and he was terrified. A 4
nurse said to him, Don t worry, I ll be right beside you, no matter what happens. She was true to her word. When he woke up, she was there and everything was okay. Years later in 2004, Casey was a paramedic and ambulance driver, and called to the scene of a horrific traffic accident. The driver was pinned upside down beneath his pickup truck, terrified, crying out that he was afraid of dying. Casey crawled inside the cab of the truck to reach him even though gasoline was now dripping down on both of them. Rescue workers were beginning to use the jaws of life to get the driver free from the vehicle. Just one spark would have produced a catastrophe. Jack crawled beside the man and said, Look, don t worry. I m right here with you. I m not going anywhere, exactly what a nurse had told him years before. When it was all over and the man had recovered, he said to Casey, You were crazy to do what you did. You know the truck could have exploded, and we d both have been burned up. Jack told him, I felt I just couldn t leave you. 3 The church is not left an orphan by Christ. He comes to us faithfully in the power of the Spirit. I also believe Christ comes to us through each other. That is part of what it means to be baptized into Christ. We share in his ministry. Christ seeks to come to all the world through us until no one feels orphaned or alone. Like the Eucharist, Christ challenges us to be broken and shared, as the sacrament of God's faithfulness and generosity to a world in need. So, may this day be a reminder to us that you and I are never alone. God s Spirit is always with us, guiding, nudging and comforting us. We also have each other. Through community we know that that even in our darkest hour, we are never alone. AMEN 3 Adapted. Thomas G. Long, Preaching from Memory to Hope, (Westminster John Knox Press, 2009), p. 49. 5
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