If you believe you’ve been abandoned, you have two
choices: either you can indulge in something that may soothe
you temporarily, or you can watch for the power that will lead
you out to success. If someone that matters to you has
walked off and abandoned you, you can either pretend it
hasn’t happened and just play games, or you can wait for the
power to move on.
It must be horrible to be abandoned. Several years ago a
prominent educator, a college president in southern
Maryland, left his office one day and never came back. He
completely disappeared for a long, long while, turning up
eventually, as a garbage collector thousands of miles away.
That college went through a nightmare. There were
decisions to be made that nobody understood. There were
agreements, but no one was clear about what they were.
There were papers and contracts that no one could find.
And most of all, the empowering vision was gone. The man
who had inspired others, who had encouraged faculty and
challenged students, had abandoned them. It would have
been bad enough if he had been in a fight with the trustees
and had given up in disgust. It would have hurt if he had
been in a dispute with the deans and had quit in a fury. But it
hurt much more that he had just walked off and abandoned
them without a word.
If you believe you have been abandoned, you go into a
panic. But remember, when it happens, you have two
choices: either you can indulge in some distraction that will
soothe you for a little while; or you can watch for and receive
the power that will give you success.
Our recent trip to England brought out a lot of stories from
Margaret’s childhood. On one occasion, Margaret’s mother
was sick, and her parents decided she should go to stay with
the grandparents for a while. Margaret’s father was to take
her on the train to the distant town where the grandparents
lived. It was wartime, and the rail station was crowded with
soldiers, and there wasn’t much time between trains. So
Margaret says her dad told her to hold on to his coattails
while he steered her through the crowds to the proper train.
Well, a four-year-old’s grip is not that strong, and soon she
let go and fell behind. Her dad, probably pondering some
deep theological issue, kept right on going and she fell
hopelessly behind. It felt like being abandoned. Margaret
says she was very frightened for a while – but when her
father found her, she was at ease, because four burly
soldiers had taken her over and hd joined her in cutting out
paper dolls!
When you think you’ve been abandoned, you can indulge in
something that will soothe you for a while. But it is only a
distraction, and does not get you on to your goal. You have
to watch for and receive the power that will lead you to where
you need to go.
The single most critical issue in contemporary Christianity is
that we act as though we have been abandoned. We seem
to believe that we have been abandoned, so we sit around,
distracting ourselves, cutting out spiritual paper dolls, instead
of watching for and receiving the power that would transform
us and lead us forward.
Why do I say that we act as though we have been
abandoned? Because for all of our pretty language about
being led of the Lord, most of us operate as if everything
depended on us. We settle for distractions and easy
entertainments instead of for serious mission. We do not
deeply believe that it is God who empowers the church. We
think that if something goes well, it’s us. Our energy, our
resourcefulness, and our smarts got it done. We believe that
God has abandoned us, and that if we are going to do
church, well, we’ll have to do it ourselves. And that means
we will end up doing little things, trivial things, self-serving
things, paper doll things, instead of God-sized things.
I am here today, first, to affirm that we are not abandoned.
We are in the presence of the Spirit of the Living God. And
second, to argue that therefore it is time for us to turn from
petty distractions and to turn to serious mission, empowered
by that Spirit. God has not abandoned His church. God has
not abandoned this church. In fact, He has promised that we
will never be abandoned. We are in the presence of the
Spirit. That’s a given.
But when that Holy Spirit comes, He comes not so much to
give us comfort as He comes to empower us for mission. He
comes to make us uncomfortable, not comfortable, and to
drive us out into dangerous places. The Bible says that the
Spirit drove Jesus out into the wilderness to be tempted. Not
exactly a comfortable place. And when the Spirit came to
the early church on the Day of Pentecost, He stirred them
out of their fear and uncertainty and gave them power.
When the Holy Spirit comes, He comes to empower us for
mission.
The 14th chapter of John’s Gospel is much beloved when we
are in distress and need a spiritual Band-aid. I guess I have
heard it read at a thousand funerals. And that’s all right, as
far as it goes. But I am going to ask you today to read this
well-known passage of Scripture from another perspective. I
am going to ask you to see it as a sign that not only are we
never abandoned, but also that because we are not
abandoned, we can give up playing church, playing
Christian, give up cutting out paper dolls, and we can turn to
the real thing. We can turn to mission.
I
First, I want you to notice that we are never abandoned if we
are obedient to the will of the Lord. The presence of the
Spirit will be felt and known when we are obedient to what
God wants.
“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.”
Keep my commandments .. Advocate to be with you
fore4ver. Do you see the connection between obedience
and the Spirit? Keep the commandments, and the Father will
give you an Advocate to be with you forever. Do what He
says and you will know His supporting presence. Our issue
is that we got those two things backwards. We want to
receive first and then we’ll consider obedience. Lord, if you
will give us power in abundance, then we’ll consider doing
what you want. Lord, if you will just fix us up with talented
members and money and a comfortable fellowship, we’ll
think about doing what you want us to do. Lord, if you’ll give
us a better building and a nice comfortable church that
serves our desires, then we’ll go about spreading your word.
But that’s got it backward! That’s got it turned around. The
Lord does not first give us gifts and then wait for us to figure
out how to use them. He instead calls us to be faithful in the
tough times, to be obedient; and then, if we are obedient, He
will give us what we need. No, He will not abandon us. But
neither will He let us play indulgent games and soothe
ourselves with paper dol, trivial, pastimes.
Just think of that early church. They had nothing. Nothing.
No buildings, no budget. No carefully honed methods, no
time-hallowed patterns. All they had was a little team of a
dozen or so disciples and a congregation of maybe a
hundred and twenty. If we were to gather here on a Sunday
morning with that few, we’d think the bottom had dropped
out. But when this little crew were told that the Holy Spirit
would come on them and would give them power, they took it
seriously. When they heard the command to be witnesses in
Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the
earth, well, that’s what they set out to do! They set out to
take over the world for Christ, and within months it was being
said that they had turned the world upside down! And did it
all without air conditioning, without a hundred committee
meetings, and without computer printouts! How DID they
manage?!
Well, they managed because they obeyed the Lord’s
command first and as a result received the power to carry
out their mission. They saw that they had never been
abandoned, but that their very lives were swept up by the
strengthening Spirit of God. I could say much more on this
theme, but let me just leave it at this – that we here at
Takoma Park need to discern what God wants us to do and
then go right out and do it, just do it, and worry later about
where the money and the manpower and the rules and the
regulations are coming from. They do not come from us
anyway. They come from the Spirit. Obey first and then you
get the power.
“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.”
II
But now notice too that the issue of abandonment has
something to do not only with obedience, but also with
perceiving truth. Whether you feel abandoned has much to
do with whether you admit what your situation is. It’s a
matter of knowing and understanding where you really are.
Admitting the truth. Jesus puts it this way:
“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.”
The Spirit of Truth. If we feel powerless, if we feel
abandoned, it just may be because we have been too lazy to
deal with the truth. If at times it seems we are not moving
ahead, it may just be because we have been intellectually
dishonest and spiritually lazy. We have not admitted the
truth that was staring us in the face.
You see, truth is a demanding thing. Truth requires
commitment. If I know that something needs to be done, that
lays a claim on me. If I cover it up, I can float for a while, but
I will soon be in real trouble.
Several years ago I began to notice that the wooden
staircase leading down from my back door to the yard below
was being attacked by carpenter bees. I saw several
immense bees coming in and out of big holes in the wood. I
was told that carpenter bees burrow into untreated lumber
and eventually consume it, that I needed to act quickly to get
rid of them. But I thought I knew better. I could see the
steps, and except for a few holes, they looked fine. I could
climb the steps, and except for a little springiness here and
there, they felt all right. I have a tendency to operate on the
theory that if I ignore a problem, it will go away. So I used
some sort of bug spray and did nothing more.
Well, one day I started up those steps, and my foot plunged
straight through one of the treads. That released, by the
way, a thousand little black and yellow demons from hell all
around my foot! Those bees had burrowed all the way
through that step and most of the others on the staircase, so
that the whole thing was a sham. It couldn’t carry any weight
any more. It had to be abandoned. It had to be abandoned
and replaced because I did not see or admit the truth about
its weakness.
Brothers and sisters, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth. If
He is present among us, He will not let us ignore the truth.
Or else, if we do, we can be abandoned. There are some
truths we need to acknowledge.
I believe that the Spirit is telling us to look very closely at our
community, and to admit that we have some problems. Right
around us car thefts, muggings, and scams are
increasing. That calls for our deepened involvement,
especially with youth. Let’s see the truth. The Spirit is telling
us that family life is deteriorating. That calls for redemptive
ministry. The Spirit is showing us that people from all over
the world are moving into the apartments and houses around
us. That calls for more outreach. We might like to think that
the Takoma of today is just as middle-class and American
and settled as the Takoma of yesterday, but the Holy Spirit is
the Spirit of Truth, and He calls us to see what is really here,
to know who is hurting, who is lost, who is in need. Either
we address the needs that are around us, or else one day
we will find that we are surrounded by devouring bees and
have only a weak church to lean on! Churches that do not
see new days and new people soon fall of their own weight.
They think they have been abandoned. It’s that we just don’t
admit the truth even when it is right in front of us.
In England we visited several churches associated with
Margaret’s family. Two of them illustrate what I am talking
about. One of them was Hay Hill Baptist Church in Bath,
where Margaret’s dad served his very first pastorate more
than sixty years ago. Hay Hill now has a remodeled building,
a contemporary style worship service, a strong presence with
youth. Hay Hill says that it is a church which exists not for its
own members, but for those outside. I think these folks have
heard the truth and have responded to it. They have not
been abandoned.
But then we went to find the second church my father-in-law
served, Oxford Road Baptist Church in Mosley, near
Birmingham. As we neared the church building, we thought
we were in Delhi or in Islamabad rather than Birmingham.
Every face was Indian or Pakistani. Clearly the
neighborhood had changed since the Rust family lived there
more than fifty years ago. And when we got to the church
building, we found that the Baptist church had dissolved, it
was gone. Another group was using the building, and it was
all locked up so that we could not get inside. Doesn’t it make
you wonder if the carpenter bees had gotten to those folks?
Doesn’t it make you wonder if somebody just did not want to
see and hear the truth about that community?
Some folks tell me that Takoma doesn’t need more work in
evangelism, because everybody around here knows where
we are and can find us if they want a church. Other folks tell
me Takoma doesn’t need more ministries for human needs,
because everybody around here is self-sufficient. Still others
tell me our church doesn’t need to get more involved in
missions, because we’ve done plenty of that. Well, I’m sorry,
but I feel compelled to follow the Spirit of Truth as I
understand Him, lest we be abandoned and left to crumble.
A new day is arriving in our community, and I believe that we
dare not dilly-dally. I believe that we must respond, and
quickly. More evangelism, more ministry, and more missions
work. That’s the truth!
“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.”
We are never abandoned when we follow the Spirit of truth.
III
Never abandoned. We are in the presence of the Holy Spirit
of the Living God. And that Spirit gives us peace. A
wonderful, beautiful, strange sort of peace. Not as the world
gives, but an unusual peace. A kind of divine discontent
peace. For the good news is this, that when we wake up to
the fact that we are never abandoned, but are always in His
presence .. when we discover that we are to be obedient first
and then we’ll get the power we need .. when we discern the
truth that is all around us and respond honestly to it .. that’s
when peace comes. A divine discontent, but it brings peace.
Jesus promised it:
“Peace I leave you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as
the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let
them be afraid.”
Peace. Divine discontent peace. The kind of peace the
apostles felt as they fanned out, one by one, over the ancient
world, and turned it upside down, though most of them lost
their lives doing it.
The kind of peace that missionaries today feel as they go
and live in fetid slums among impoverished people, bringing
hope at great cost to themselves.
The kind of peace I heard about in England, listening to how
Margaret’s grandfather used to go and bear his Christian
witness in pubs and bars, stepping right into the middle of
bar brawls to share Christ.
The kind of peace that I pray those who went through the
waters of baptism today feel, knowing the presence of the
never-abandoning Spirit.
The kind of peace that motivated these others to join us.
One of them said, “I didn’t intend to join this church, but I feel
compelled to participate in your ministries and outreach.”
The kind of peace that asks not how to keep money, but how
to give it; the kind of peace that asks not how to be quiet and
settled, but how to be in the thick of the fray; the kind of
peace that seeks not to be fulfilled, but to fulfill. The kind of
peace that comes when a people of God wake up and know
that His Holy Spirit is among us. He will never abandon us.
He will give us power. That peace is worth waiting for. No
amount of paper doll cutting can ever satisfy when the Spirit
comes to take us forward.
