Storm Warning

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday May 29, 2012, Pentecost Sunday.

Podcast of "Storm Warning" (MP3)


Acts 2:1-21

Psalm 104:24-34, 35b

Romans 8:22-27

John 15:26-27, 16:4b-15

Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.  Amen

A couple of weeks ago, on the day before Administrative Professional’s Day, I went to the florist to order an arrangement for Georgia. (Nothing like waiting until the next-to-last minute, is there?) Walking into the florist, I remembered last year when on the day before Administrative Professional’s Day, I went to the florist to order an arrangement for Georgia. (Do you see a trend developing?) What I remembered was the weather. Last year that was the day that a tornado touched down just south of I-20.

I remember sitting in the closet with Marie. We had our chairs and our blankets and our NOAA Weather Radio listening to the broadcast out of Shreveport. I tried to listen to the station at Gilmer thinking notices from the west would be better than notices from the east, but that didn’t happen. Then there was that moment. Marie heard a sound, a rumbling sound like a great motor blowing. From our closet the sound was muffled and ominous. She asked if I heard it and I said yes, I did.

It was the air conditioner. She heard the compressor, the motor, and the blower. She was relieved and at the same time mildly embarrassed.[i] I told her it was alright. I had the same thoughts but I figured out what it was about ten seconds before she asked.

As we drop into John’s gospel, once again we drop in on John’s version of The Last Supper. By this time, Jesus had prophesied his death and his betrayal. He also prophesied Peter’s denial. They had seen many wonderful and glorious things. They had heard wisdom the likes of which they never imagined. Now Jesus shared devastation they could neither imagine nor stop.

Jesus had given them hope. Hope for new life. Hope for life eternal. They had seen and heard much. They had learned much and there was still much more to learn. For that, they need the Spirit of truth. What Jesus was giving them here was hope, hope that they could not imagine with his absence. Jesus offers them unforeseen hope, the hope which was yet to come.

In John’s gospel, the apostles were promised someone who would be alongside them when the world prosecuted them and persecuted them. They were promised the Paraclete, one who would serve as their counselor. Outside of scripture, the word Paraclete often referred to a lawyer or attorney. The Paraclete is one who advocates on our behalf not before God but in God’s good creation. At this moment, they needed an advocate.

They needed an advocate because they needed the comfort and reassurance that only the Lord’s Counselor can provide. The disciples had received great promises. They had high hope. But the counselor, the comforter, the Paraclete was still just a promise, not a reality, not yet. They may have had all of the hope in the world, but the reality of living in Palestine at that very moment is that they would have been foolish if they had not felt fear.

It was at this very moment, on the day of Pentecost, that they were assembled together in one place. It was at this very moment that from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, filling the entire house where they were sitting.

This must have been even more frightening. They knew to be leery of the princes of this world. They knew the Governor and the Prelate and the Sanhedrin had them in their sights, but now the violent winds rushed down on them.

In our time, we have a tendency to romanticize many of scripture’s narratives. We know the stories. We know what is coming next, so we tend to gloss over parts of the story that don’t seem so impressive anymore. This is to our disadvantage.

We heard from the Acts of the Apostles that “Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.” The problem that comes from familiarity with these stories is that when we read them we imagine sitting in the closet where we hear the AC kick on and think it’s the Holy Spirit. We have to remember that what happened that day was that a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.

We may be talking about this scripture and praising God for the glory of the coming of the Holy Spirit, but on that day, they were in the midst of a violent wind filling the house where they were sitting. We talk about joy, they experienced holy terror.

So how do we hold these scriptures together for our lives today?

Here’s the first thing we need to remember. We need to remember that Jesus, on the night before he was betrayed, broke bread and blessed it and gave it to them and their eyes were opened. We take grain and grape from the gifts we have been given and celebrate with joy the redemption won for us in Jesus Christ.

By His Spirit we are united with the living Christ and with all who have been and will be baptized in his name. This happened so that we may be with him and with them in one ministry in every time and place. We declare that by the fire of the Holy Spirit we are forged into one Body, many and different people together in Christ’s embrace.

By the grace and peace of our Lord, the promises Jesus makes in our reading today from John are realized in our reading from Acts. If that isn’t the first lesson to take it is a lesson worth knowing, Jesus keeps the promises he makes. Death cannot separate Jesus from fulfilling his work on Earth. Death cannot separate us from Christ’s love.

So today, let us all regain that elemental presence of worship. Let us live into God’s storm warning.

We come to the font of many blessings overflowing with living water and remember our baptism. We come to the table with the cup and the plate to partake in the food that feeds our bodies and our souls. We hear the Word proclaimed and even more so, we come to know the Word Incarnate, the Son of God, the one who the Lord has set aside since before the creation, Jesus the Christ.

And today, especially today, we need to allow ourselves to be consumed by the fire of the Holy Spirit so that as steel is forged in the furnace, we may be made strong in the Lord for the Lord’s service. And we do this so that in the words of our Lord, “Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” This is the lesson of the Pentecost. This is how the dry bones live. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Amen.

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[i] Yes, Marie gave me permission to tell that story.

Passing the Baton

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday May 20, 2012, the 7th Sunday in Easter.

Podcast of "Passing the Baton" (MP3)

Acts 1:15-17, 21-26

Psalm 1

1 John 5:9-13

John 17:6-19

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.  Amen

Friends in Christ, there are days, and this is one of them, that I truly appreciate those who have made a life teaching English and foreign languages. Look at the pronouns in this passage! The reason I used the cadence I did while reading this was so that I could get through it with as few slips as possible. I haven’t heard anything more convoluted until I heard John and Paul say “I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.”[1] Of course that didn’t come from the apostles, that came from The Beatles. Goo goo g’joob.

One of the biggest issues I have when reading this is the pronoun references. Some of it’s pretty easy. Our reading comes from what people call the “High Priestly Prayer of Jesus” so that tells us something about the pronouns. Since Jesus is praying, he’s the “I” and the “my” in the passage. He’s praying to God the Father, who’s the “you” and the “your.” As I consider these last two sentences I have just noticed I’ve used nominative singular first, second, and third person pronouns, and an interrogative. Let me guess, I’m not helping much.

Simply, the “I” and the “my” in this passage is Jesus and the “you” and the “your” is God the Father. As for the “they,” “them,” “their,” and so on; we’ll get into that soon. As for the “these things” Jesus speaks, that has been the heart of the matter since the gospel was first shared.

To make sense of this for us today, we’ll look at this reading in three sections. In the first, Jesus prays for his glorification. In the second, Jesus prays for his disciples. In the third, Jesus asks for specific intercession.

Jesus begins by acknowledging the Father, then what he (Jesus) has done: Made God known to the disciples. Jesus describes his disciples with the phrase, “those whom you gave me out of this world.” Verse nine also uses to this wording saying, “I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.”

When Jesus talks about the world, he is talking about all creation. what the New International Version translates as “world” is the ancient Greek word “cosmos.” (Who knew? Cosmos is an ancient Greek word!) So when Jesus says he prays for the ones the Father gave him out of the world, he doesn’t pray for the whole of creation, the kit or the caboodle.

We know of God’s grace and love for all creation, but at this moment that’s not Jesus’ prayer. Jesus prays specifically for the disciples. Jesus prays specifically for those with whom he has cultivated a deep personal relationship.

Let that be our first lesson, God the Father and his Son Jesus the Christ care for those who have a relationship with the Lord. Our reading from 1John reminds us of this, “He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.” 1John offers reassurance a couple of verses later saying “I (in this case John) I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

There is life in Christ and being in Christ is not a passive thing. We can’t wait on Jesus like a bus. We are called to find where God is acting and become a part and partner in God’s work. This is eternal life. This takes us to the second section.

What Jesus does he does for many reasons. Jesus knows God’s glory; glory which has come to him and has come through the disciples. Wonderfully, this glory is part and parcel of a grand design. From the Father to the Son to the disciples and back to the father, this is the path of God’s glory. It’s a cycle that if broken diminishes us. When the path continues, so does God’s glory. On second thought, a circle is a poor image, a spiral is actually better. A spiral which goes up and up provides direction, exultation. A circle just returns to the beginning.

In this section, we also learn that Jesus protected the ones the Father gave him. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled. Now, who is this?

Biblical scholars spend good time and energy trying to figure these things out. For better and for worse, they don’t always agree with one another. You have heard me say that all translation is interpretation. In this case it would be more accurate to say that all interpretation is interpretation.

Some scholars look to Psalm 41 and say this is Judas Iscariot, the one who shared bread with the Lord and then turned against him. Others look to 2Thessalonians 3 where Paul speaks of the Antichrist, a man of lawlessness, the man doomed to destruction. As for me, I don’t know which Jesus was talking about, and all things considered it doesn’t matter so much. I take something different from this.

So rather than trying to figure out who this doomed one is, whether Jesus or the Antichrist, I prefer the truth of God’s love that comes from these words. The better truth is that the betrayal of Christ cannot void his love and care for creation. Neither crucifixion nor the apocalypse, nothing can stop God’s plan for the world.

This is also where Jesus acknowledges that his time in this stage of life is limited. In scripture, Jesus’ arrest, trial, and execution come next. He knows that he will be coming to the Father soon. Knowing this, like any good Rabbi, he explains what he is doing. He does what he does so that the disciples may have the full measure of his joy within them.

Where do we find Christ’s joy? Christ’s joy is a personal relationship with his people. This passage is specifically about his relationship with his disciples. Thanks be to God that through the events that follow, Christ’s arrest, trial, and death, this promise is extended to all creation. In the resurrection eternal life is made real for all the cosmos. A reality which is seated in the promises of God and this is the third section.

 The final section of this reading details the specific things Christ prays for his disciples. He prays the Father sanctify the disciples through his word which is the truth. Jesus prays that they will be sent into the world as he was sent into the world. Then in a motion only God can perform, Jesus sanctifies himself so that the disciples may be sanctified.

Sanctify is a churchy word. It can be translated made holy, but that’s kind of churchy too. An easier way to say “sanctify” is “set aside for the work of God.” In the communion, the bread and the grape of the Lord’s Supper are set aside from common use for a holy one; to feed, both bodily and spiritually, the people of God. In this part of the High Priestly Prayer, Jesus asks the Father to set aside the disciples for holy work.

He doesn’t ask they be put on a shelf; he asks this holiness be sent into the world so that the world might know who God is. In this moment, Jesus asks the Father to bless his children, the ones he was given, so they may continue his work.

In this moment, Jesus passes the baton. Unlike a relay race where each runner races alone, the Father and the Son run with the disciples in the world.

When I was in school, I took grammar and composition classes. One of the things I somehow avoided was diagramming sentences. In every school I attended teachers taught sentence diagramming, and somehow none of my teachers ever taught diagramming. There were many days when doing my English homework that I considered myself lucky, but in looking at this passage, a good diagram would have been worth its weight in gold. But the church, our faith, is about more than grammar.

Our faith is rooted in the relationship God initiates first through the Old Testament covenants. In Christ, that relationship is seeded in the disciples and spread through the cosmos by the truth of God’s word. As we heard in our assurance of pardon based on 1John 5, “The testimony is this: god gave us eternal life, and this life is in Jesus Christ, God’s Anointed One. I proclaim this to you who confess the name of Jesus Christ, that you may know that you have eternal life. Whoever receives the Word of God has life.

It is now up to us to pick up the baton. It is up to us to be sanctified by the word of God so that we may, set aside from the world, go into the cosmos of God’s good creation. Sharing the relationship we have with God with others.

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[1] That’s right, “I Am the Walrus.”