May 16, 2004; The Sixth Sunday of Easter, Year C
The Rev. Marilou Schlotterbeck, Deacon
Have you ever thought of God as being lonesome? I mean he has the whole world at His feet. How could He be lonesome! He created everything He wanted. The problem is, everything He created doesn't always want Him. That would make me pretty lonesome and feel pretty bad.
Jesus knocks at our door; do we let Him in? Or do we, like many others, ignore the knock? Or if we hear the knock, do we say, "It is only Jesus" and walk away?
In verse 23, Jesus says: "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him".
Our home is God's home. If we do not open the door and let Him in, He will go away. To receive Jesus Christ, we have to open our hearts and our minds to who He is. Do we assume that we have plenty of time to answer? Oh, I hope not.
It matters to Christ that when we know He is at the door. It matters to Him that we run to it and throw it open and invite Him in. Choosing God, inviting Him ~ is choosing a path. A path you may never have been down before, but one you will never want to stray from. Letting Christ into our hearts and our homes is opening the way to receive a very special gift from Him, the gift of the Holy Spirit.
In Verse 26: Jesus says: "But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said.” Jesus is preparing His community of followers for life in His absence. He moves the disciples beyond the present moment in which they are living into the future, with the gift of the Holy Spirit. He offers them a vision of a future shaped by the promises of God. A future in which God is always present to them-through their love for one another and through the indwelling of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.
His disciples will not face the future alone and we do not have to face the future alone. The gift that God has given to them, the Holy Spirit, will not leave when Jesus' life ends. Jesus calls us to recognize the power of the love of God that He has made known to us. By opening up our hearts and our lives, we too can receive this love and the power of the Holy Spirit, God has promised.
Jesus promised the disciples, who were eyewitnesses of Jesus' life and teachings, that the Holy Spirit would help them remember what He had been teaching them. The Holy Spirit can help us in the same way. When we study the Bible, we can trust the Holy Spirit to plant truth in our mind, convince us of God's will, and remind us when we stray from it.
We cannot possibly comprehend the fullness of God's grace. We do not understand how far God can take us. We do not know all of what God can offer us. But we can, and should, accept what He gives us. We have a tendency to pinch off little bits of the experience of God and then let it go at that. I don't know if we are afraid to experience more, but we close ourselves to Christ.
Yesterday at the Confirmation Service, the Bishop said, “there are consequences to being Christian.” The consequence, of course, is rejection. By letting Christ in we are opening ourselves up for rejection by our fellow man. Being filled with the Holy Spirit and being of service to God, preaching the good news and remembering all we were taught, can be uncomfortable and at times dangerous. But do we realize how much we miss, or how many adventures God may have for us?
We are meant to grow up in Christ and our growing will never stop. To take a little bit of God and then say we are full and not be filled with the Holy Spirit, is like a child taking a bite of food and leaving the table to play. It is not nearly enough to sustain us. Don't sit back and be satisfied!
Paul felt that all he knew of Christ (and who knew of him better?) was merely a glimpse of Him. He felt that there was far more in Christ than he had thus far grasped. "That I may know Him" was Paul's hope and prayer, “really know Him as He really is.”
The Holy Spirit came to teach us about God, to help us to really get to know Him. The Holy Spirit is in the world today. Those who will listen will be taught, they will be guided and lead deeper and deeper into the truth. The Holy Spirit reminds us of things we learned in the past, things that were possibly taught by our Sunday school teacher. At some point in our lives we need to remember all those things and open ourselves up to teaching others.
Also in this piece of scripture we hear a farewell. Jesus says "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you". This is not the same peace that the world gives to us. But the peace that Jesus gives to us. In those days it was an ordinary salutation thrown to a passer-by. But the peace that Jesus offers is very real.
Christ was going away. But the peace He offered his disciples to bring them through what lay before them was very real, and worth the gaining. He is saying to trust God wholeheartedly, as He has trusted God. He is saying to accept the life God leads us to and lay our whole self at His disposal, hold back nothing. You will come through with a quietness of spirit; calm, steady and unafraid.
In verse 28, He gives us a lesson to which all whom have known sorrow and loss can learn from.
“If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I go to the Father,” a loss to his disciples, but a victory to Christ's cause and to our loved ones as well. They are with Christ and we cannot begrudge them their glory. Jesus is laying the foundation for what His disciples must face: A life without Him, but certainly not alone.
So don't be afraid to reach out to God. Don't be afraid to open the door. Don't be afraid of the Holy Spirit and what it can teach us. Go ahead and open the door, the door that can lead you to wondrous adventures, a journey worth taking.
Reach out and grasp God, invite Him in, get to know Him and then hang on for the ride of your life.
Amen.