Question: Authority?

Sunday, May 29th, 2005
Pentecost 2
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Matthew 7:21-29

21 ‘Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. 22On that day many will say to me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?” 23Then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.” 24 ‘Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. 25The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. 26And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell--and great was its fall!’ 28Now when Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astounded at his teaching, 29for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.

There’s a white strip of plasticized paper on the rear left bumper of the little black Mazda 323 that is parked here in the back parking lot. By the time we moved here, the words on it were already faded away to nothing. The bumper sticker, when I first bought it and put it on, was a SLIGHT reflection of what I was dealing with at the time I bought it.

I purchased it during my last semester on campus at Southern Seminary. Though I lived on campus, I was not attending classes. I spent my time working, for the most part, and contemplating whether or not to start back to classes, and the further into that spring I got, the more I realized I would NOT be going back to classes. So everything was up in the air. My 5 year-plan to be back on the foreign mission field after serving as a journeyman was not quite working out as I had … planned it. I was faced with the prospect of really not knowing WHAT was coming next, much less where I would end up being in the next two years.

The words that have faded out were just two: ‘Question Authority’.

I had been an observer, over the previous ten years, and especially over the most recent three years, of the fracturing of the Southern Baptist Convention. The leadership that had gained control of the convention in 1978 was much more focused, much more intent on the concept of Pastoral Authority than Baptists had historically been up until then, where the hallmark had been the priesthood of the believer, and I was, frankly, skeptical, to put it mildly. Southern was still a place that allowed and even encouraged the free expression of dissent back then, and my bumper sticker was hardly radical. There were others that were a lot more … explicit in their views expressed.

I remember expecting to be questioned, if not challenged, about having it on my car, and being prepared to tell whomever it was that “it was either that or the bumper sticker that said “‘Stuff’ Happens”, so I went with this”. The thought process behind the calm exterior was at times fairly contrary, though it never got to an ‘in your face’ level, except on rare occasion, and with just a few close friends.

It struck me as odd that it wasn’t until six or seven years later that I was finally asked about what was up with the bumper sticker by some friends at our church in Virginia Beach. By then, I suppose I’d mellowed somewhat, so that first answer didn’t pop out, but the kernel of truth that made me put the bumper sticker on to begin with was still there. I explained that it was a call to be wary of accepting unquestioned authority, of blindly following someone or something because of a few key words or phrases, or ‘hot button’ topics chosen for their emotional appeal. It wasn’t, in my case, a blanket call to anarchism – the LACK of ANY authoritative structure – but a call to REASONED acceptance of authority, with a clear understanding by both parties that the authority came … what’s the phrase, “by consent of the governed” – something very fundamental in both our nation’s history and our history as Baptists.

In our text this morning, we find Jesus teaching about what it means to be true followers of his – true lovers of God and it can be a scary scenario. Think of it. Prophesying, casting out demons, doing deeds of power – in the name of God – and having it all come down to this – hearing him say “I never knew you – go away from me you evildoers.” The question then becomes “if not that, then what DOES it mean to be your disciples?” in our study on Wednesday nights, we’ve read of how Peter and James and John performed miracles in Jesus’ name, and just this past week we read of how Stephen did the same thing. So what is the difference? How can we tell?

The fact of the matter is, we can’t. We can’t tell genuine Christ followers from fake ones. There may be hints, there may be clues, but in all honesty, aside from outright confessions, there’s no way we can know what ultimately motivates someone to either really become or pretend to become a follower of Christ. There’s no way to know what’s going on inside someone else’s skin, inside their head, inside their HEART.

Here’s the word of … grace, yes, but the word of CAUTION as well:

We are not called to do that.

We are ultimately responsible solely for our own response to God’s call on our life. Yes, we are called to bear witness, we are called to live out our lives as Christ lives and the Holy Spirit acts through us, but as far as motivation goes, we are only answerable to God for what moved US to follow HIM.

We read a couple of weeks ago at the end of the 4th chapter of Acts of how Barnabas, sold some property that he owned and gave the proceeds over to the disciples to be distributed as needed among the followers of Jesus. In the very next sentence, at the beginning of the 5th chapter of Acts, we read of a man named Ananias and his wife Sapphira, who decided to do something similar.

Similar yes, but not the same.

They DID sell their property. They DID bring the proceeds to the community. But they kept some of the money for themselves and presented the donation as being the full price paid for the property. They did something good; they did something noble, helpful, and even selfless. But in the process, they lost sight of where the act needed to come from. They were looking for more than the simple gratitude of a needy group of people. They were looking for the recognition, the applause, and the adulation that can come when people do big things for good causes. And that was their fatal mistake. That was their house on the sand. When confronted with what they’d done, each of them died where they stood. Whether out of guilt or shame or some other element is not detailed, but the fact that they performed the act of charity and twisted it into something blasphemous was enough to stop them in their tracks when faced with the truth – in front of the very people they were trying to impress. THAT is what Jesus was condemning in the passage.

Our nation will be observing Memorial Day tomorrow. By definition, we will be remembering and honoring – appropriately so – the men and women of our armed forces who, following their orders from the chain of command, from those authorities above them, ended up surrendering their lives in the process of bowing to that authority.

We are not honoring the orders, what we are honoring is that giving. The selflessness shown in stepping into harm’s way for the sake of others. Sometimes, those ‘others’ were right next to them. On our bulletin board right through this door to my left are pictures of the D-Day memorial in Bedford, Virginia. Bedford sent 35 men in that single battle, out of a total of 21 who died that day, 19 were killed in the first 15 minutes of action. Those men hardly had time to even get off the transports, maybe they didn’t even reach the beaches. and probably had even less of an opportunity to make any headway against the defending forces at Normandy. And yet, they are honored. Not for what they accomplished, but for what they gave.

So what does that mean for Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton? It is like that for us as followers of Christ as well. I was looking through the Sunday school register from 1948 that is downstairs in the history section last night. I turned to the back of the book, where the totals were listed. The numbers were not that dramatically different from the numbers we see today; slightly higher, but not significantly so. Offerings were not that much different either. Some would see that as a bad thing. Especially those who would preach that bigger is better. There is, of course, truth in the fact that in order to survive, a church must grow. I am not saying that I want us to stay just as we are now. I don’t think any of us want that. I would HOPE not, anyway.

But what we DO want is growth in truth, growth in trust, growth in fellowship, and growth in LOVE.

We have before us a monumental task in the fullest sense of the word. To honor those who’ve given their lives so that we could be HERE. Those who have given of their time and energy, who’ve followed that prompting, that still small voice, that breath of fire of the Holy Spirit telling them to invest their lives in this community of faith – not for what THEY will get out of it, but for what we, and our children, and their children, will get from it – a chance, an opportunity, the possibility to somewhere, someday have an encounter with the living, loving God who has the authority to call them into being, but who calls them by name and waits for the answer.

Let’s pray.

… Therefore …

Sunday, May 22nd, 2005
Trinity Sunday
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Matthew 28:16-20

16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’

The choir had been working toward the competition for months.

The children – nearly a hundred of them – all elementary age – had been looking forward to the trip all year to the amusement park – the place where the competition was held.

The day finally arrived, a perfect spring day – sunny and relatively warm – and they set out. Arriving at the school early that Saturday morning, they piled into the school buses and accompanying vehicles, and set out for the park. They were as excited at the prospect of riding the rides and playing in the water park as they were about competing.

They arrived at the park and they began to prepare themselves for the competition. The kids had been singing the different pieces to themselves and their families more and more as the day approached. They’d done well – extremely well – in the past, and were ready this time as well. Their director was an amazing blend of musical talent, professional expertise, and childlike silliness – all rolled into one.

The moment finally arrived, and the hardest piece – one that began with four young soloists: three girls and a boy– was due to begin. The young boy who had the voice, and the ability, and who had practiced hard, opened his mouth to sing his part and …


***

Turning to our text this morning, we find the disciples on something of an anticipated trip themselves. They’ve been in Jerusalem, the site of Jesus’ arrest, trial, crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection, and the place in and around which he’s spent the last almost two months teaching and spending time with them – POST resurrection. He’s appeared to them as well as to others – later references mention that the number of people who saw the resurrected Jesus was somewhere north of 500.

Although there were a few instances during his earthly ministry of Jesus’ taking time to actually ‘train’ the disciples – the sending out of the 70 is a case in point – most of their time was spent observing, listening, and trying – unsuccessfully most of the time – to understand what Jesus was showing and teaching them.

Aside from a couple of appearances, the bulk of that time that Jesus spent with the disciples and the other followers is undocumented. The Biblical record carries precious few details of what was spoken or of what transpired in those 50 days.

Imagine if you will, it was a rehearsal. More than a normal ‘get it wrong now and we’ll work out the kinks as we go along’ rehearsal, it was … more like a dress rehearsal, everyone off book and in costume, lights and sound and everything. Except for the audience, this is what it’s going to be like.

***

It was nerves, everyone agreed. It HAD to be. When the boy began to sing, the note he started off on was not even CLOSE to where he needed to be. There was really no way to disguise it, diffuse it, cover it up OR ignore it. He was just OFF. WAY off.

It didn’t look like they were going to make the grade this year. The coveted
‘Superior’ rating was finally going to elude them.

Then the miracle happened.

***

The disciples had seen what happened to Judas, who, torn with guilt over what he’d done, tried to return the blood money he’d been paid to betray Jesus. He’d finally chosen to end his life rather than live with the knowledge of what he’d done.

The disciples had also seen what had happened to Peter, who on some level similar to Judas, denied Jesus not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES on the night he was arrested.

But Peter had found redemption. He’d faced his weakest self, and Jesus was right there beside him. Jesus asked him three times if he loved him, and each time, Peter had affirmed that he did. It might just be a literary device that represents the spiritual resurrection that Peter experienced after his spiritual death, the mirror image that negates the darkest hour and those three denials that threatened to weigh Peter down for eternity, but they are, nonetheless, redemption.

***

He stopped the performance.

The choir director stopped the performance.

He knew, first off, that the error was one from which they could not recover. He also knew that he loved those children. He loved hearing their voices and watching their faces when they got it ‘just right’, the utter joy that came through working with them, and getting their attention, their hard work, their following his lead, down to the last note.

And he also knew that for the boy to not be scarred for life by the experience, he had to stop the performance.

The boy was so nervous he didn’t even realize he’d sung the wrong note. He was at first confused by the director’s action. The director turned to the Judges of the competition and spoke to them directly. He said “I’m not going to let this happen. I’m not going to let his nerves do this to him. You can take points away if you want, but HE CAN DO THIS.” In making that declaration, the director was saying in essence, “It’s more important to me that THIS BOY realizes that HE matters more to me than receiving a superior grade in this competition. We’re going to do this for HIM.”

He walked up to the soloist, stood behind him leaned in, and sang in his ear the notes the boy would need to repeat in order to begin again. Then he walked back in front of the choir, drew their attention, and signaled the soloists to begin again.

***

That’s where we are in the story – here in Matthew. It’s commonly referred to as “THE GREAT COMMISSION”. Just like it sounds, all three words capitalized.

It is Jesus leaning over behind the disciples and singing in their ears, “You know that Messiah you’ve been hearing and reading about all these years, the one who will come to set you free? Well, I’m the guy!” The one who has come to set you free from your anxiety, your pettiness, your pride, I’m the one who has been pointing to the loving creator for the last three years and saying, ‘God wants your HEARTS, not your performance!’ In the text, Jesus says – “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me,” And here’s what you do with that: BECAUSE I am – that’s what the ‘therefore’ means – ‘go for that reason’ – and tell people I love them – THEY MATTER SO MUCH TO ME THAT I GAVE MY LIFE FOR THEM – and God loves them – and they are not alone – and they never WILL be alone. You need to tell them that the Holy Spirit will always be with them.

***

And the boy NAILED IT. He opened his mouth and he hit that first note flawlessly. He carried through to the end of the solo and the audience went wild. They gave him a spontaneous ovation so loud that the rest of the choir could not at first be heard when they started in on THEIR part.

Even after having received the applause, it was a tough pill to swallow for the boy. He’d been known for riding others unmercifully when they made mistakes – whether in singing or baseball or at school. He was overcome with shame – at getting it wrong to begin with, and at the embarrassment of being singled out by the director – and at first he was sullenly closed off from the other children after the performance. But one of the chaperones called him over afterwards to speak to him. She told him that he had a choice to make. Only he had the power to make it a negative experience or a positive experience. He could sit and sulk and dwell on the fact that he sang it wrong, or he could concentrate on the fact that the second time he not only sang it correctly, he NAILED IT! He had the choice to take the experience for what it was – an incredible opportunity to learn how precious second chances are.

So how are you with second chances? Have you gotten one recently? Have you looked back and realized “there’s no way I’m going to recover from that”, only to be confronted not with the expected consequences, but a moment of reprieve – a moment of grace so pure that you understand there is something more going on here. It’s not just a bunch of words. There really is a God who gives second chances! And God’s leaning over and singing in your ear the note you need to begin again.

Let’s pray.

By The Spirit of God

Sunday, May 15th, 2005
Pentecost
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
1 Corinthians 12:3-13, Romans 12:6b-8

3Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says ‘Let Jesus be cursed!’ and no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit. 4Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; 6and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. 7To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses. 12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

What is your gift? What is your spiritual gift? Is it one of those that Paul listed in this letter to the church in Corinth, or perhaps in his letter to the church at Rome (Chapter 12), where we read:

6We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; 7 ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; 8 the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.

Does the question alone make you uncomfortable? Does the topic set you on edge, wondering if you actually HAVE a gift to share, wondering if there is anything of value you could bring to the table?

Or are you at the other extreme of that particular spectrum, sure of your gift, or perhaps talents … whether you believe it is on loan from God or not, you are aware of your worth, and confidently and proudly stand forth, chest out, head held high.

How many of us have seriously taken the time to do a Spiritual gift inventory? Though I’ve not asked outright, my suspicion is that, if you’ve been involved in church at all over the last, say twenty to twenty-five years, if you’ve lived through what some have called the Charismatic Renewal, the chances are pretty good that at some point you’ve gone through some study of some kind where you’ve answered a series of questions and worked out some sort of formula or diagram that gave you an indication of what your spiritual gift most likely is.

The questions in your mind today may be ones that fundamentally trump the whole issue: What’s the big deal? Why should I need to know? And what difference does it make?

So let’s go with the first question: What is the big deal with spiritual gifts? We need to step back and consider the basic assumption first: that of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

IF you agree with the assumption that the Holy Spirit comes to live in you when you become a follower of Christ, then you go to the next step. If you don’t, then there’s not a lot of ground we might be able to call ‘common’ between us on the issue. So let’s stipulate, let’s agree on that as a basic assumption, for the sake of argument … or for the sake of getting through the next few minutes. J

What’s the big deal with Spiritual Gifts? The big deal is this: it is by the gift that we identify the presence of the Holy Spirit. There are arguments on whether or not these lists are exhaustive. They do slightly overlap, with the gift of prophecy being mentioned in both passages, but besides that, they seem to list different gifts. To be completely honest with you, I don’t know if they are exhaustive. My inclination is to believe that they are not, simply because I don’t like to put limits on how, when or where God will manifest God’s self. I speak here simply as an individual, not as one who has studied the topic in depth to any degree but the slightest. In other words, I believe there are gifts of the Spirit that are not mentioned here that do exist. It may in fact be a question of semantics – it might be that the words that I would choose to describe a particular gift would fall under one of those terms listed here as a subheading, and I’m simply not in a frame of mind to think that way. That can sometimes happen with words.

What’s the big deal? The big deal is that these are gifts God wants us to have – to use, not for our personal benefit, not for our personal gain, but for the uplifting and the strengthening – the common good – of the body of Christ – that is, the church – THIS church, Jerusalem Baptist, and through it, the Church … universal … the Church around the world, in all it’s glorious diversity of languages, and cultures, and forms and methods and colors.

Pentecost is symbolized by the color red, and the yellow and gold of the flame of the Spirit, but it might just as well be symbolized by the rainbow – it is, after all, the day we remember that the Spirit of God descended on ALL those who were gathered, and they began to speak in the languages of ALL the people who were visiting Jerusalem at the time of the feast of Pentecost, and they came from ALL over the known world. And God sends us into ALL the world to bear witness to him.

So I guess it is a pretty big deal.

Second question: Why should I need to know? That’s actually kind of tough to answer. There’s a part of me that wants to say “who wouldn’t want to know?” Maybe it WOULD be better that you not know your gift, that you go on about your business, living your life for Christ, and letting your gift show itself … naturally … in the normal course of events. As the need arises, the Spirit prompts you to move forward, say, into a situation that you’re really not sure why you are there, but to which for some reason you’ve been drawn. And then something happens and you say or do something that triggers a cascade of events that results in … everyone involved catching a glimpse of the Kingdom, unexpectedly, serendipitously, and coming away all the richer for it. Why should we at least try to have an idea of what our spiritual gift might be? I think maybe because we are called to be intentional in our living. We are called to be prepared to testify, whether by word or in deed, in that, I think we’re called to reflect God’s intentional movement in humanity to draw us to God’s self.

Last question: what difference does it make?

This is the one that you get to answer. What difference has this church made in YOUR life? What difference has being a part of THE church, wherever you attend, or if you attend occasionally or regularly, made to YOU?

Understand that what I am asking goes deeper than simply what difference has it made to your schedule of activities in any given week to walk into a building, meet with a group of people, hear a few songs and read from a passage of scripture and listened to someone speak on it on any given Sunday or weeknight.

What I am asking is this: assuming that you believe that following Christ involves some openness to the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life, can you honestly say that you have spoken, thought, or acted differently than you might have had you NOT at some point chosen to allow Christ to be Lord of your life?

The second part of verse 3, chapter 12 of 1st Corinthians:

No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit.

So it seems that there is one gift before all the others: the gift of faith. Faith the make that statement: “Jesus is Lord.” There’s a reason we have the candidate for baptism give their confession of faith before being baptized. It is a proclamation of the Gospel in three words. No qualifiers. Simply the full story: Jesus is Lord. And according to Paul, that cannot be said – and believed – except by or through the presence of the Holy Spirit.

For Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton, that means this: We rely ONLY on the Holy Spirit, not only as a person of the trinity, but just as significantly, through the Spirit’s presence in each other to serve as the SOLE provider of our strength, to be the encourager of our OWN spirits, to affirm us when we are unsure of ourselves, to surround us when we feel overwhelmed, and to comfort us when we are heartbroken.

Let’s pray.

Motherly Father, Fatherly Mother

Sunday, May 8th, 2005
Easter 7
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Proverbs 31:10-15a, 20, 25-28, 30

10 A capable wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels. 11 The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. 12She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life. 13She seeks wool and flax, and works with willing hands. 14She is like the ships of the merchant, she brings her food from far away. 15She rises while it is still night and provides food for her household 20She opens her hand to the poor, and reaches out her hands to the needy. 25Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come. 26She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. 27She looks well to the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness. 28Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband too, and he praises her: 30Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.

E Frank Tupper was one of my theology professors at Southern. He also happened to be a fellow member at Crescent Hill Baptist Church while I was there. His was the first class I took in “the big room” next to the student lounge and above the old post office. It was a huge auditorium, really, where the seats and desks were arranged in an ascending arch going all the way to the back, where the sound and tech support desk was.

I had Introduction to Theology there with Dr. Tupper. He is from Mississippi, and loves country music. He used to quote Willy Nelson freely, both in class and from the pulpit. And had a sense of humor that always drew a laugh from most of those seated before him.

One of the earlier sessions we had dealt with basic language about God. Specifically, the use of the male pronoun “he” when referring to God, and the inadequacy of human speech to portray or address a transcendent God. The discussion revolved around the fact that God is neither male nor female, but that over the course of history, that “he” has become the common method by which to refer to God in the pronoun form. Dr. Tupper was intentional in mixing pronouns, or in eliminating them altogether, by using the word “God” again and again instead of using the pronoun. To be honest, it was cumbersome to listen to, as well as to use. There are times when it is just easier to use the commonly accepted forms when referring to God.

But the point was driven home to me through friendships with women whose stories made it sometimes difficult if not impossible for them to think of God in male terms, because of terrible things that had happened in their lives, and it is one I hope I don’t neglect. The morning that Dr. Tupper referred to God as neither Male nor female, but one whom the Bible describes as a ‘Fatherly Mother, and a Motherly Father’, was one of those times that I realized that what I’d just heard would probably stick with me for the rest of my life.

There are, of course, plenty of examples in the scriptures of God displaying attributes we generally associate with masculinity, but there are, amidst the images of an avenging, wrathful, angry God, images of a God who gathers his children under his wings, like a mother hen protecting her chicks, images of a God who sets a table for us in the presence of our enemies, or grieves like a mother who has lost a child. And there are images, those that have become so familiar and even the favorite to some, of a God who will do whatever needs to be done to rescue a lost sheep, or a God who wipes every tear away.

So our images of God trigger in our minds not only pictures of the men in our lives, but of the women as well. Can any of us here today recall a special Sunday school teacher who expressed her concern to and for us in such a way that it has made an impact on our lives ever since then? Can we point to some event when an aunt, or a grandmother, or a mother, or even a sister made a statement, whether in word or deed, which fleshed out what living by faith the life of Christ meant to the point where we have carried that with us for the rest of our lives?

You’ve heard me share stories of my mother, my Sunday School teacher, my aunts over the last couple of years. I don’t especially want to repeat them. I want you to picture in your mind such an event, or such a person, whether she was related to you or not, and acknowledge her … to God.

How many women in your life can you think of right now that you can thank God for putting there? How many of those events can you think back on and say to yourself, ‘yeah, God really was present there.’

I had the profound privilege to be present early Friday morning at the birth of Cesar Cervantes, born to Elvira at 3 AM at Mary Washington Hospital in Fredericksburg, 15 or 20 minutes after we got into the Labor and Delivery room (but that’s a whole other story). Elvira has another son, who is two, whom she left back in Mexico with her parents while she came here to make some money to support her family. She’d been told after HE was born that she’d be unable to bear any more children. So Cesar was unexpected.

The situation he has been born into is not an easy one by any stretch of the imagination. His father vanished shortly after finding out that he was going to BE a father. Elvira was taken in by a couple of her uncles and a cousin, and they have become both father figures to her and her cousin has already dropped into the role of doting uncle to Cesar.

I can’t say from here what kind of a mother Elvira will turn out to be. That has yet to be seen. What I can say is that motherhood comes naturally to her. She has a huge dose of common sense, which goes a long way towards balancing out any lack of education in her background. She is courageous, insofar as she chose to travel to this place so far from her home in order to support her family and her son, and she is honestly straightforward in her dealings with me. She speaks simply, doesn’t try to couch things in nice words when she is trying to get her point across. I think Cesar has a good chance. Just as he will have a strong mother, he will also have plenty of men who will be father figures for him. My hope is that, in the absence of the real deal, they, the family, will draw a balance. He will be exposed to both a fatherly mother and motherly fathers. Men who care for and tend to him as much as women would, who will show him the value of being part of an extended family, and women who model for him as much as men would what it means to be strong and self-reliant.

Speaking of families, our family of faith here at Jerusalem was blessed this past week in a way that might have gone unnoticed. Some of you may have noticed the National Day of Prayer flyer and sign-up sheet on the bulletin board in the hallway. Some of you who were here Wednesday heard me say that you could sign up for half-hour slots during the twenty-four hour period the day of prayer lasted, from Wednesday evening through Thursday evening. You also heard me say that signing your name wasn’t necessary in order TO fill a particular slot with prayer. I didn’t get a chance to check the sign up sheet until late Thursday evening.

There’s another image of God that we find in scripture, of the one who waits for us, the one who stays up and watches for us to come home. In a similar fashion, those persons who committed themselves to a dedicated time of prayer – whether they put their names down or not, were fleshing out that image of God in my mind. There were about six or seven slots filled, spread throughout the twenty four hours.

I caught a glimpse of God when I looked over the names. I’m not going to name them to you. They know who they are. But YOU need to know, as a congregation, that if we ever lose sight of a God who loves us like a mother loves her children and gives herself to them, or spends her time praying for the family of faith that we call Jerusalem Baptist Church, we will have lost a part of our souls.

So be thankful to God for the way God shows God’s self to us – whether through men or women, God is God, and God uses us ALL to make God’s presence known. But especially today, be thankful for the women through whom God has shown God’s self to you.

Let’s pray.

IF You Love Me

Sunday, May 1, 2005
Easter 6
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
John 14:15-21

15 ’If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. 17This 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. 18 ’I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. 19In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. 20On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.’

The setting is in the hospital room where Debra Winger’s character, Emma, will soon be dying. The father, Flap, played by Jeff Daniels, brings the three children in for one last goodbye time with their mommy. The daughter, Melanie, is barely a toddler, so there’s no real understanding of what is about to happen to her. The younger son, Teddy, is probably 6 or 7, maybe a little older, and all he can do is cry. The oldest son, Tommy, is supposed to be maybe 10 or 11 years old. He is old enough to understand, old enough to hurt, and old enough to be angry.

What makes movies so compelling, I’ve come to understand, is the luxury of time and thought. Events are scripted, scenes are thought out and measured, each word weighed and pondered. The result is a portrayal of a life we WISH we could live. I don’t mean that we wish we experienced or had everything we see on the big screen or watch when we pop in a video tape or a DVD, but it is in the fullness of the thoughts expressed in supposed times of tragedy, stress, or calamity that we wish we could live. It’s the sense of “I wish I had thought to say something like that in … such-and-such a situation” … or … “why didn’t THAT come out of my mouth instead of the blank stare they SAW?” Emma, after saying goodbye to Melanie and Teddy, asks Tommy to stay behind. The younger children have both had their cry, Melanie cried mainly because Teddy was crying, but Tommy stood back, sullen, silent and withdrawn. When they are alone Emma starts to talk to her son, and it is one of those speeches that you rarely get to hear in real life, unless you happen to be very lucky, or very blessed. She speaks to him in a straightforward, reasonable tone of voice, and quickly lets him know that she realizes exactly what he is feeling and why he is feeling like that, and tells him that it’s okay to feel that way, that even though he is probably going to hate her for dying for a long time, he needs to know that it doesn’t change the fact that, HOWEVER he feels toward her, she will always, always love him. To be honest, I don’t remember if he breaks down and cries and falls on her bed hugging her or if I just remember that in my head, and he actually just stands there and looks at her in that somewhat coolly dispassionate way young boys have sometimes.

What stands out in my memory is that Emma was making the most of the time she had left with her family.

Jesus seems to be doing something similar throughout the 14th chapter of John.

He’s trying to pry the disciples’ heads open and pour as much of himself into them as he can. Last week we heard his words of reassurance telling the disciples that, even though HE wouldn’t be staying with them, he was going to prepare a place for them, where they, and by grace we, will one day join him.

In this second group of verses, he continues in the same vein, telling them again of what – and more importantly who is to come: the Holy Spirit.

As you may note from the title of today’s message, what struck me was that first two letter word in verse fifteen: IF. The great conditional conjunction.

Did you know that “if” can also be written with two f’s? IFF. It’s an abbreviation used in mathematical language, including Logic. I took a class in logic in college the same semester I started working as a night clerk. It was an Eight O’clock class. It’s a wonder I remember ANYTHING from it.

But IFF (spell out IFF) is the abbreviation of the phrase “IF and ONLY IF”. It signals a biconditional statement. In other words, the ONLY WAY that either of the two statements can be true is if the other is true.

So here’s a question: was Jesus using “IF” in a biconditional way?

If you love me, (then) you will keep my commandments.

In reading it, how much weight do you give that little word? Does it stop you, or do you read on to the rest of the verses, dwelling on the coming of the ‘Advocate’, the ‘Spirit of Truth’, the one whom you know because he abides in you? Do you hear him saying “the ONLY way you’ll keep my commandments is if you love me?”

What kind of a burden does that place on us? As believers, as followers, as imitators of his, as disciples, as ‘little Christs’ … do we take on the weight of that expectation unthinkingly, haphazardly, with little thought to the consequences of dropping that ball, or do we take it on knowing ahead of time that we are bound to fail at one point or another? That we are, after all, human, frail creatures of dust?

I think Jesus was presenting us with the goal, and at the same time letting us know that HE knew we wouldn’t always be there for HIM. After all, as we read last week in the last verses of chapter 13, he’d just told Peter that he would betray him three times before the rooster crowed that very night.

This is in the same conversation.

And that conversation continues today. Every time we read scripture, and open ourselves to the Holy Spirit’s guidance in our reading, we pick up that thread. Every time we enter into prayer we pick up that thread. Every time we extend a helping hand, share a kind word, of hope, of encouragement, of love, we are weaving that thread into the tapestry that is the glory of God, the body of Christ, on earth.

Jesus tells us that he will reveal himself to us and that in that revealing we will know that God is in him, and that He, Jesus, is in us, through the Holy Spirit. In some sense, that means we are witness, we are participants, in the trinity, not as equals, but as servants and disciples. We have a high calling. To speak grace and live love to a world that in truth, knows neither.

When we join together in prayer, we are communing not only with each other, but with the Holy Lord God. There is nothing more important for us to do but to spend time with the one who made us and loves us.

This Thursday, we have an opportunity to join with other people of faith across the nation and lift up prayers for the people, for the world, and for our future. Though there will be a meeting at Beulah Baptist Church that evening, it is not necessary that you attend. I’d encourage you to list your name on the sign up sheet for a half-hour session of prayer. You can do that from wherever you happen to be at that hour of the day. You don’t have to be here to do it. As we know, prayer can happen in any context.

What does that mean for Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton?

It means we get to consciously, intentionally, purposely connect with fellow Christians in a concentrated effort to make a difference … perhaps in our world at large, but on a local level, and more specifically, on a personal level. We’ve heard or read the saying “Prayer changes things”. I think prayer mostly changes the one praying.

Let’s pray.