Amazing Promise; How Can It Be?
May 27, 2007 Pentecost Sunday
Jay Bartow, Pastor
First Presbyterian Church of Monterey
Texts: Romans 8:14-17; John 14:8-17; 25-27
Of all the amazing things Jesus said, his promise in verse 12 of John 14 ranks at the top in my opinion: “Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.” For those who saw him heal the sick, free the demon possessed, multiply the bread and fish, calm the storm, and on at least three occasions, raise the dead to life, these words must have sounded wholly implausible. Well, let’s look at the words and the two millennia since they were spoken and see if Jesus spoke truth here or not.
It is important to read Jesus’ words in context. He has washed his disciples’ feet during his last meal with them at the great feast of Passover, during which time he gave them a new command: to love one another as he has loved them. That is how the world would know they were his followers. (John 13:34-35) Peter asks Jesus where he is going and Jesus says that they can’t follow him then, but will later, and Peter objects. Jesus no doubt was referring to his going to the cross. But he sees beyond that to going to be with God where he will prepare a place for those who trust him, and promises to return and receive them to himself. Thomas, the doubter, says he doesn’t now where Jesus is going and how can he know the way? Jesus replies that he himself is the way, the truth and the life, and that no one comes to God apart from him. Those words seem to many to be the heighth of arrogance, but they were spoken by a man who knelt to wash dirty feet, fed the hungry, healed the sick, reached out to the rejected and brokenhearted and assured them of God’s love and mercy. If we were to emulate him, then perhaps these words would not offend so much as invite others into the expansive welcome of God.
On hearing this, another of Jesus’ followers, Philip, says, “Show us the Father and we will be satisfied.” (John 14:8) He speaks for all those who thirst for God. Jesus takes Philip right back to the last three years he has spent in the company of Jesus and says, “Have I been with you all this time and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father….The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” This Gospel of John begins with the assertion that the Word, the creative heart and mind of God, became flesh and dwelt among us, and Jesus is saying precisely that in his conversation with his Disciples here. The mystery that has mattered most since the dawn of human consciousness: is there a God and if so, what is God like? is answered in the words and person and ministry of Jesus. Paul puts it this way: “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself (2 Cor. 5:19) Jesus is the image of the invisible God. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.” (Colossians 1:15, 19).
During my last years of High school I used to go backpacking in the San Gorgonio Wilderness about this time of year. Sleeping out under the stars of heaven and listening to the music of a trout stream teeming with life made me suspect that there was a God who was mighty and an engineer of infinite skill, but whether this Creator cared about people and their plight and hopes and yearnings I had no idea. Creation doesn’t tell us that, and it might even be taken to suggest that it is a battle of the fittest, all tooth and claw. The person, words and deeds of Jesus reveal to all with eyes to see, that God is for us, that God is merciful and not just mighty, and that God yearns for us to be in right relationship with him and with one another. That makes a tremendous difference in how I live my life. I’m not here simply to survive, but to love God and people and till and care for God’s creation. Jesus shows me what that looks like, and he promises to send us his very Spirit as friend, advocate, counselor: all words that try to translate what the Greek word parakletos means. It means one who comes alongside, and sometimes referred to one who would plead one’s case in a dispute and lend support. In verse 26 of this chapter Jesus says that the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, would teach them everything, and remind them of all that he had said to them.
The Disciples were afraid that Jesus would leave them, and then what would they do? He assured them that he would indeed leave them physically, but that he would return to them by his Spirit and enable them to remember his words to them and would teach and lead them into continuing the work for which he had trained them. In fact, he says that they will outdo him. If you read the Acts of the Apostles you see that his followers did preach and teach and heal, and that they launched out into the larger world beyond their Jewish homeland with the message of Jesus. More people heard the good news through them than had through Jesus during his earthly ministry, and many millions have been healed and spared the ravages of disease because followers of Jesus worked to develop vaccines to eliminate diseases like small pox, and joined with others to defeat polio and leprosy and river blindness and guinea worm and all manner of maladies. Hospices and hospitals were first established by Christians, and the world has seen the goodness and wisdom of such institutions and built on them, sometimes not knowing the initial inspiration for them, but simply knowing that it was the right thing to do. Norval Christy, a Presbyterian missionary physician, performed 75,000 cataract surgeries in Pakistan and trained physicians there to carry on after him. This year a hundred persons unable to walk will receive corrective surgery in a Lutheran hospital in Tanzania thanks to the support of our Monterey Rotary club whose members have raised pledges to support that hospital’s work. The blind see, the lame walk, the poor have good news preached to them because the followers of Jesus dare to believe that his Spirit can empower them to carry on his work, and they set out to do it.
Do you and I want to get in on this promise? Here is how that can happen according to Jesus. We believe his promise and we ask in his name for the grace to carry out his healing and hope giving work in the world. He says, “I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” (Jn. 14:13) To ask in Jesus’ name is not simply to tack on his name at the end of a prayer. Name in the Bible refers to the character of a person. We have some of that same idea when we speak of someone’s good name, meaning his character. Here is how Eugene Peterson renders this passage in The Message: “Whatever you request along the line of who I am and what I am doing, I’ll do it.” (Jn. 14:13 The Message) The key that unlocks the promise is aligning our prayers with the person and way of Jesus and then moving out in confidence that he will provide what we need to carry on his work.
As we read James Martin’s book The Meaning of the 21st Century we came upon al manner of challenges that are nothing short of daunting. Environmental pollution and degradation, terrorism, artificial pathogens that could kill untold millions, overpopulation and overdraft of earth’s resources. Another challenge was the animosity between ardent followers of different religions who somehow think that the world should see things there way or else. I fear that some Christians have read the verses in this chapter in that way and have set out to bring the world to the truth as they see it in a manner that clearly violates and the way in which Jesus spoke and lived the truth. Jesus never coerced anyone to see things his way; he bid us love our enemies and bless those who persecute us. He defined love of neighbor for us by making a hero of a Samaritan, a member of a group despised by Jews of his day, who responded to a person in need at risk of his own life and without checking to see if the person in need was a Samaritan like himself. When the followers of Jesus do his work in his way; “along the way of who I am and what I am doing,” to quote Peterson, amazing things happen.
When we sought to identify the greatest challenge posed in Martin’s book our discussion group felt that the greatest challenge was to stir people to identify these challenges and to collaborate on seeking to meet them. The biggest challenge is to open our eyes to the world’s hurts and our hearts to act with others to heal them. Discouragement, despair, and self interest are the enemies, but these words of Jesus call us not to give up or in, and direct us to carry on his work in his name making common cause with all persons of good will who also see the needs and want to address them in a manner consistent with Jesus’ character.
In a few weeks, Greg Aung, a college student from our church who is studying pharmacy at University of the Pacific, will travel to South Central China to serve persons there for two weeks with a dental and medical team. The members of his team are all Christians, but they will not preach to those whom they offer services, because the government forbids that. However, there may be conversations and friendships that develop in response to the service rendered and members will pray for the grace to say why are there. They are seeking to carry on the kind of work that Jesus, whom they love and follow, has asked his followers to carry out. Before the dark years of the Cultural Revolution in which China closed itself off from the world and expelled all missionaries there were about ten million Christians in China, and they faced great hardship and persecution, and still do in some areas. Most of their church buildings were closed and turned into warehouses. Christians gathered outside those churches at Christmas and sang Christmas carols by memory. It is hard to get precise data on religious affiliation in China, but scholars believe the church doubled in number during those ten years, and the estimates are that today there are perhaps a hundred million followers of Jesus in China. The Christians there had little money, no military or political power, very few buildings or training institutions. But they had the promise of Jesus that by his Spirit he would empower them to carry out his work in his way. There is a lesson there for us as we celebrate amazing promise of Pentecost, the outpouring of God’s spirit to empower God’s work in the world.
It is a fitting day for us to ordain and install elders and deacons whom we have chosen to lead us in the way of Jesus Christ. Let us pray for and work with them to grow in Christ, celebrate God’s love and extend God’s love and word to others.