Introduction: This is the third in a series of sermons on Jesus’ farewell discourses in the Gospel according to John. These words have special importance because in them Jesus is telling His disciples and us what is critical in faith.
John 14:15-21
Jesus said, “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 forever. 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.
“I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They 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.”
Prayer: Holy God, Holy Spirit, You always seek our good and ever gift our lives. Come to us now. Remind us of Jesus’ way and call to love. Empower us by Your presence. Shape us as individuals and community, that our love may indeed be spirited. Amen.
Did you ever notice that there are certain things the Lord doesn’t want us to miss? That’s the way I feel about Randy Pausch’s “Last Lecture.” It was simply impossible to miss. I think the first person to email the link to me was Jim Turk, our music director. He sent it with the words, “This is long, but it’s really worth it.” I was in the midst of going through my emails. I quickly went to the link, saw that it took one hour and forty minutes, and decided I couldn’t take the time.
Then I went to a leadership meeting for Stephen Ministry. They were talking about it and telling everyone to watch Randy Pausch who was going to be interviewed by Diane Sawyer. I knew I had another meeting the night of the television show.
Then three Sundays ago, the Parade magazine with Randy Pausch’s picture on the cover arrived in the Sunday newspaper. I glanced at it, was too tired to read it, and placed it in the pile of reading materials next to my bed.
Then on Thursday, I was preparing for this week’s sermon. I read a lot in preparation. One of the sermons I found was by Barbara Lundblad, a Lutheran pastor in New York City. It was written in 2005. One of the things she mentioned was the idea of “The Last Lecture” which beloved professors are asked to give. The lecture is given as though it is the last lecture the professor will ever give. This is the information the professor wants you to remember forever.
Once again, I remembered all I had seen about Randy Pauschs’ last lecture. I finally realized that I had to stop everything and watch this it. I settled down at the computer and spent two hours watching it. The Holy Spirit finally brought me to hear this amazing man.
If you haven’t seen or read about it, Randy Pausch is a 47-year-old professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University. Last year he was asked to participate in the university’s “Last Lecture” series. A few weeks later he learned that he had only months to live because he was dying of pancreatic cancer. He could have canceled, knowing there was much to do for his family, wife, Jai; Dylan (6), Logan (3), and Chloe (1), but he didn’t. He thought the lecture would give him the opportunity to leave a living piece of himself for his children.
He gave the lecture of his life! He began by demonstrating that despite the cancer, he was still in better shape than most people by doing a quick group of pushups, some one handed, and talking right through it without losing his breath.
I just want to summarize his main points, before we go to Jesus’ last lecture. Here’s was Randy Pausch says:
1. Always have fun.
2. Dream big.
3. Ask for what you want.
4. Dare to take a risk.
5. Look for the best in everyone.
6. Make time for what matters.
7. Let kids be themselves.
It’s a pretty good list, isn’t it? One of the reasons I wanted to share it is that it’s as clear a statement of Christian values as you will find.
I do see a correlation between Jesus’ last lecture, the farewell discourses, and Randy Pausch’s last lecture. And not just in the list, but in the actions. The first thing that Jesus did that night was to take a towel and water and wash the disciples’ feet, just as Randy Pausch did his pushups.
By washing the disciples’ feet, Jesus got their attention. He was demonstrating the love He wanted them to live out. His first point in His last lecture was the “new commandment” to love one another. As Randy Pausch says, “Look for the best in everybody.” If there is one lesson that I find throughout Jesus’ teaching it is to love one another.
The other day I began a little project to make the web page sermons easier to use. We’re going to cross reference them by theme. I went through the sermons we’ve put on pod casting since January. I’ve preached 17 sermons so far. One is on knowing who Jesus is. One is on holding on to hope. Three are about how God treasures each of us. Three are on how to share our faith. And all the rest, nine in total, are about living faithfully—living out the love that Jesus calls us to share.
Jesus’ farewell address starts with calling us to live out His love in our lives. Second, Jesus reassures us. He says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” We talked about that last Sunday, focusing on our reliance on Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus calls us to trust God and trust Him.
Today we are going to talk about another thing Jesus says in His last lecture: He promises to send the Holy Spirit. He promises the disciples and us that He will not leave us orphaned. That’s, of course, part of what Randy Pausch is trying to do for his children. He is finding ways to leave a living part of himself here. I know that that video tape will be important to his children, but he is leaving more than the tape for them. He is leaving his spirit with them through the way he lived his life.
In many ways, the Spirit is the least understood and discussed person of the Trinity. Theologian Elizabeth Johnson ventures a light-hearted guess to explain the neglect of the Spirit. “Perhaps toward the end of their long constructive treatises theologians simply got tired.” She goes on to lament the neglect of the Spirit because what is being neglected “is nothing less than the mystery of God’s personal engagement with the world.”
The neglect of the Spirit leaves us feeling like orphans. It is hard to explain the Spirit. Even Jesus had trouble describing the Spirit in human language.
Barbara Lundblad explains, “One of the ancient Christian teachers talked about the relationship this way: God is the sun, the source of all light and life; Jesus is the beam of that same light streaming toward earth; the Spirit is the point of light that actually arrives and touches the earth with warmth and energy. The Spirit is the point where God actually arrives. God’s active presence in this world.”
Some people are blessed with a dramatic experience of the presence of the Holy Spirit, but most of us experience the presence in subtle says. For me, the way that Randy Pausch’s “Last Lecture” kept coming back to me in so many forms was the work of the Spirit.
We experience the Spirit when we hear the words of the scriptures read and find that we relate to them. We can experience the Spirit in our prayers, but not always. One of the most powerful confessions I have ever heard was when my pastor in San Antonio, the pastor of a 1,500 member church, said he went through a long period when he questioned the purpose of prayer. He was in a dry period of his faith and felt nothing. He says today that the Spirit was with him all along, but the experience of emptiness transformed him into a much more compassionate, understanding man. Now he understands that most people spend most of their lives not sure that the Spirit is with them.
For me the most powerful way to experience the presence of the Spirit is in stories. When I was in seminary, I took a course on the Holy Spirit. The professor required that we write our final paper on one of three documents. I chose the 1978 position paper on the Holy Spirit of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
In the first paragraphs of the position paper, the church writers said that when trying to understand the Holy Spirit we should stick with the didactic writings in the Bible, and dismiss the stories of the Spirit. They meant we should only consider the parts of the Bible when Biblical writers like the Apostle Paul said, “The gifts of the Spirit are joy, love, peace, etc.” They argued that there were too many ways to interpret the stories of the Spirit.
I argued that the different understandings of the stories were exactly why we need to use the stories to experience the Holy Spirit. Stories allow us to enter on different levels. We hear the story from where we are and that gives it meaning. Our own changing lives allow stories to speak to us differently over time.
The Holy Spirit comes to us in friends and loved ones. Sometimes we experience the Spirit in their words and sometimes in their gentle silence.
I experience the Holy Spirit when I stand up to preach. Preaching is not easy for me. It terrifies me. As you know, this year I began preaching from the center of the chancel. I have my Bible and some notes, often a quote or two, but for the most part I’m up here feeling totally vulnerable. It’s like learning to ride a bike without training wheels. I could take a spill anytime, but somehow the Spirit holds me up. It’s good for me to feel so exposed because that’s how I relearn that the Spirit is with me—every Sunday.
Earlier this week, Henry Sakowski, who did the children’s story asked if his idea that the Holy Spirit is like team spirit was appropriate. I assured him that it was a powerful analogy that the adults would get as well as the children.
It is the Spirit who brings us together, keeping us on Jesus’ team. The Spirit is what helps us to do what we couldn’t do alone.
In this month’s Guideposts there is a story about a single mom who was a hairdresser. She had her teenage son and daughter with her every other weekend, so she tried to make it fun for them. She took them to movies, shopping, whatever they liked.
One weekend, she had agreed to do the hair for women from a local homeless shelter. It was only supposed to be four women and they were supposed to arrive early in the morning. She thought she would be done by noon and off to have a fun afternoon and evening with her children, but the van bringing the women got lost. They were two hours late. And there were seven of them whose hair was in the worst condition imaginable.
But once they arrived, her daughter and son pitched in washing, cutting, sweeping up the hair. By the time they finished it was too late to do anything but go home. The amazing thing was the Spirit that surrounded them that day in the beauty parlor. They all felt it. They all caught the Spirit because they were loving those homeless women and loving each other.
We aren’t left on our own to imagine the Spirit. We have the gospel stories of Jesus showing us where the Spirit is blowing, hinting at where the Spirit is moving into the future. And we have the Spirit in us, helping us to be a part of the salvation story being written today. Jesus’ last lecture isn’t over. It lives on through the Spirit. Amen.
