Sermon: “If…….”
John 14:15-21
I’d
like to read you something:
“The prompter in an opera house gives the singers the opening
words of each phrase a few seconds early. Prompts are mouthed silently or
hurled lyrically in a half-voice, audible (hopefully) only on stage. (This is
in contrast to the prompt in a spoken-drama theater who aids actors who have forgotten
their words or lines.)” [Wikipedia,
“Prompter”]
Even
professionals who are expected to remember their lines and phrasing, often need
a helper to remind them of the right words.
In the Gospel lesson today from John 14 Jesus tells his followers that
the role of the Spirit whom they will soon receive is to help them remember the
words and commandments that he has given to them as they struggle to follow the way of
Jesus. He has provided them with a
script, but they – we – may need a little help remembering the lines.
In
verses 15 through 17 he says: “IF you love me, you will keep my
commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another
Advocate, to
be with you for ever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot
receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he
abides with you, and he will be in you.”
In
his translation of the text, Biblical scholar NT Wright translates the word
that we have translated “Advocate” simply as “helper.” The role of the Spirit is to be our
helper. He is there to help us remember
our lines so that we don’t falter for long when stress or fear makes us forget
how we are supposed to respond.
Jesus
calls him the “Spirit of Truth.” The
primary task of the Spirit is reminding us of the truth, available to jog our
memories so that we remain mindful of the commandments Jesus left us and the
style of living defined by his love for us.
Pentecost
is in two weeks, and on that day we usually celebrate by stressing the showier
aspects of the Spirit. You know: tongues
of fire, ecstatic experiences, dramatic healings. A little further on in this 14th
chapter Jesus says: “I have said these things to you while I am still with
you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in
my name, will teach you everything, and remind
you of all that I have said to you.” [John 14:25-26]
The
Holy Spirit will remind you of everything that I have said to you. The Holy Spirit won’t let us forget that IF we love Christ then this is what we
must do.
We
have become a society very concerned about any disease process that causes us
to forget. Alzheimer’s is one of the
most feared illnesses of our time. Any
form of dementia is frightening to us.
But forgetfulness doesn’t have to be as broad reaching as dementia.
According to the Mayo Clinic, “amnesia” doesn’t really resemble the way it’s
portrayed in books and movies. It
doesn’t generally involve a loss of self-identity. “The two main features of amnesia are: Impaired
ability to learn new information following the onset of amnesia; impaired
ability to recall past events and previously familiar information.” [found at http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/amnesia/basics/symptoms/con-20033182]
Most
people stricken with amnesia have severe limitations in their short term
memory, but their intelligence and overall cognitive awareness may not be
limited. It can be caused by damage to
specific areas of the brain and frequently is permanent. Because their other cognitive abilities may
be undamaged, someone with amnesia may be aided by the assistance of a coach to
give them needed prompts to make it through their lives. With the proper assistance many can lead full
and fulfilling lives.
I
think that all of us suffer from some form of spiritual amnesia. The Holy Spirit is there to help us find our
way, to remind us of the directions Christ has already given us. We know that God created us to love and serve
one another, but anxiety, ignorance, prejudice, or perhaps simply our tempers
cause us to forget what God intended for us.
Preaching
professor Tom Long says: “One way to
describe sin is willful forgetfulness.
We choose amnesia; we decide as an act of the will not to remember that
we are God’s very own son, God’s very own daughter.” [from Whispering The Lyrics; CSS Publishing Company, 1995] In those cases perhaps we aren’t happy to
hear the voice of the Spirit reminding us who we are. Sometimes we are tossed about by life,
sometimes we just get caught up in a set of rhythms that take us in the wrong
direction, and we forget who we are.
Memory
is part of God’s grace. It is part of
God’s grace to us that even in the face of overwhelming anxiety we are reminded
of who we are and why we are here. We
are reminded that Christ has brought us in and IF we can remember to love him we shall also remember his
commandments and we know that we shall see him as clearly as if he were
standing here in front of us now.
Many
ministers have had an experience that Karen and I have had. A few years ago Karen and I went to bring
communion to a woman who had been a life long Christian. The kind of person who understood that she
came to worship for no other reason than to praise God. She had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. She had a serious heart problem. She had broken her hip about a year before
our visit to her and because of the heart problem doctors did not think that
she could survive surgery on her hip.
She was confined to a bed and a special wheel chair. She was medicated for the painful discomfort,
but she fought for lucidity. She had a
loving son who visited her daily, and each day she received tender care from
him, and each day she forgot that he had been there the day before.
As
Karen and I prepared the communion, her eyes glistened. We prayed and then sang some hymns, and
inaudibly at first she mouthed the words – the right words – to the hymn we
were singing. When she received the
communion elements she clearly remembered something that brought joy into her
heart. As we left, she was smiling at
us. I’m certain that God’s grace had
touched her memory. She might not have
remembered us ten minutes after we had left, but in that hymn and in that
sharing of the Lord’s supper she was touched by the Spirit with the memory of
Christ’s love and he was revealed to her once again.
We
may forget. We may willfully forget or
we may simply just not remember in the heat of the moment, but God doesn’t
forget that we are his. And the Spirit
has been sent to us to remind us that IF
we love Christ he will be revealed to us once again. And we shall be in him and he in us, one
throughout eternity.
Amen.
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