THE POWER TO PROCEED

Day of Pentecost

            We look at some of the characters in the Bible and we become amused at their lack of understanding.  They don’t know what we readers of the Bible know.  They look so silly.  But consider this:  Suppose you could see yourself as you were five, ten, fifteen, or twenty years ago.  You look at yourself in home movies and see the way you were.  Imagine that you had home movies of your whole life, all your decisions, all your actions and words.  If you’re like me, you might say to your younger self, “How silly of you to make that decision.”  “How foolish of you do take that action.”  Instead of poking fun at characters in the Bible, it might be more profitable for us to see something of ourselves in them.  What they fail to understand may represent our own situation.  Having some identification with the people in the Bible might be of benefit to our own spiritual journey.

            Now here comes Philip.  He comes to our attention through his appearance in our gospel reading.  He doesn’t understand.  He speaks of his confusion to Jesus.  With Jesus about to return to the Father by way of the cross, unfinished business needs to be concluded in a hurry.  So Philip wastes no time.  How is he to know God?  That’s what he wants to know.  That’s what he asks Jesus.  I don’t know where you are in your spiritual journey, but I have posed the same question, in one form or another.  You, too?  Philip’s question has been our own.  “As a deer longs for flowing streams,” the psalmist says, giving voice to the universal human spiritual thirst, “As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God.  My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.”  I especially identified with those words in my seminary days while I was struggling with my faith.  “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.”  But how are we to know God?  One of the books that I took up to be of help to me in my seminary days was a little book of meditation and prayers, titled God Thoughts.  Author Dick Williams starts out at the beginning.  “I’m going to try to pray,” he writes.  “I’ve got a sneaky feeling that this may be the silliest thing I’ve ever done.  Because I don’t know whether there’s a God or not.  If there isn’t I’m about to start talking to myself.”  In the next meditation, Williams takes a further step.  “And now—now that I’m making the effort, I don’t even know whether there is a God or not.”  And his journey of faith begins there, with his hunger to find God, and with his willingness to approach God in prayer.  Dick Williams joins the psalmist and Philip and countless others in raising the question:  How are we to know God?

            Well, the Gospel of John answers that question.  Jesus is the revelation of God.  The incarnation is the ultimate revelation of God.  God may make himself known through the variety of religions.  And, of course, to some extent, it is fairly obvious that this universe no more invented itself than a watch has no maker.  For us to know the unseen God, God must make himself known to us.  The Gospel of John is clear in its proclamation that Jesus is the way God is most clearly known.  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  You can say these verses from John with me from memory.  “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.”  And the gospel could not have made it plainer than when it declares:  “No one has ever seen God.  It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.”  How are to know God?  In Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, says the Gospel of John.  In Jesus Christ, we see God most clearly.

            The trouble is, Jesus was going away.  The trouble for us is that Jesus has gone away.  The Gospel of John announces that Jesus was going to return to the Father by way of his glorification on the cross and by his resurrection.  With Jesus’ return to the Father, he no longer could be found making footprints in Palestine.  He was no longer available to answer questions or to give instructions about God and the faithful life.  What Jesus did in his Farewell Discourses—a portion of which makes up our gospel lesson for today—was to prepare his disciples for when he will be gone from them.  It is not so hard to understand how they felt about the upcoming loss of their Master.  Just remember.  There is something about when a pastor leaves a church that causes a tizzy in the congregation.  That feeling of being orphaned lasts until the new pastor is called.  Imagine now that it isn’t simply a pastor but the Lord Jesus who is about to leave.  It is one thing to serve the Lord Jesus while he is with you.  It is another to try to carry on his ministry when he is absent.  That’s the point at which we and Jesus’ first disciples have something in common.  We must face continuing Jesus’ work in his absence.  Jesus’ resurrection and ascension to the Father means the absence of the earthly presence of Jesus.  If the earthly presence of Jesus was how we once knew God, then the question remains:  How are we to know God now that Jesus is away?

            Jesus said he will send another Paraclete or Advocate.  Jesus himself was the first.  He promised to send another Advocate.  The Greek word used here for Advocate is parakletos.  When that word is transliterated into English it comes out “Paraclete.”  Sometimes it is best not to use only one translation for parakletos so that the full richness of the word may be kept in view.  Parakletos means “the one who exhorts,” “the one who comforts,” “the one who helps,” or “the one who makes appeals on one’s behalf.”  Parakletos also means “one who stands along side of.”  What is the first image that comes to mind when you hear that definition?  I think of an attorney, one who stands along side of me in the courtroom.  I don’t know the procedural pleadings that need to be said to the court.  One who pleads his own case in court comes to know the benefit of having one who stands along side of you to represent you before the court.  The Paraclete that Jesus sends to the disciples is one who stands along side of them for two important purposes.  The Paraclete, or the Spirit of truth, instructs the disciples and the church concerning Jesus, who is the truth.  The Paraclete, or the Holy Spirit, also reminds the disciples of what Jesus said and did.  The Gospel of John says, “After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered . . . and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.”  Causing us to remember what Jesus said and did is the work of the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit.  Remember.  Remember when you were struggling with your faith.  Or you were struggling over a decision about how to be faithful to Jesus Christ.  It seemed like, for a period of time, you were in the dark.  Then you had insight, remember?  It might have been triggered in part by reading the gospel, or perhaps by a sermon.  You had a moment in which things became clearer.  You began to remember what Jesus said and did, and so you had a more solid foundation for your faith or decision making.  So, even now, as you ponder the question, “How are we to know God now that Jesus is away?” you may do so with the confidence that we are not left alone.  The risen Jesus is with us in the Paraclete.  The Spirit of truth reminds of what Jesus said and did.  When you begin to wonder, “How will I be able to carry on Jesus’ work in my life and through the church?” you may be comforted by the truth that the Paraclete is standing along side of you to instruct you and to remind you of what Jesus said.  As Jesus spoke what he heard from the Father, so the Paraclete speaks to the church what Jesus said.  The revelation we first had of God in Jesus we now have through the work of the Paraclete.  Without the coming of the Paraclete, the resurrection of Jesus would mean our abandonment.  But because Jesus sent to us another Paraclete to replace him, we are not left orphaned.  Because of the presence of the Spirit of truth, we have the power to proceed in carrying out Jesus’ work.

            What’s more, Jesus promised that our prayers will be answered.  How did our gospel put it?  Jesus said, “If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.”  Jesus promised, as a resource for carrying out his work, that our prayers will be answered.  Oh, no, not our every desire.  When we were young, we probably treated God like Santa Claus.  If we were good, we could ask God for anything we wanted.  Some of us maybe still interpret this promise of Jesus the way we did when we were kids.  “If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.”  The Gospel of John doesn’t have Jesus say, “If you ask me for anything, I will do it.”  No.  Jesus says, “If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.”  Jesus promises that we will have every resource we need to carry on his work.  Jesus’ work was to reveal God, including the depth of God’s love for humanity.  Now that is the task of the church, the community of faith.  Jesus has promised that he will equip us with all we need to continue his work.  He promised us the power to proceed.  Indeed, even the young are equipped.  You’re in a Tajikistan classroom.  It is Christmastime.  There you see a Tajik girl from a Muslim background, whose parents have sent their daughter to this Christian preschool.  The children are answering the question, “What will you give Jesus for Christmas?”  This little girl has been attending the preschool for two years, and she has been exposed to the world of God for that time.  Now it is her turn to answer.  You listen carefully, as does the rest of her class.  Then the little girl says, “I want to give Jesus my heart for Christmas.”  You look around the room to notice the teachers sit up straight at her words and their eyes begin to well up.  Those teachers, who surely prayed for their little students to learn the gospel, had their prayers answered that day.  Anything we ask of Jesus to carry on his work, he will do for us.  How can we carry out the work of Jesus?  Because we have the Paraclete and because we will have the power of answered prayer.