North Shore Congregational Church April 27, 2008

The Rev. Karl D. Schimpf Sixth Sunday of Easter

Old Testament Lesson: Ezekiel 36:24-27

New Testament Lesson: John 14:15-21

Last Sunday afternoon, I had the privilege of spending a portion of my day attending the C.F. Meeting. I came away from that gathering thanking God for the work that Rob Fredrickson, Sandra Summers, Laurie Nie, and Mindy Johnson do in providing guidance and programming for those meetings. There was a good balance between worship, fellowship, recreation, and relaxation. It was high energy and good participation.

There was a portion of the program in which Rob informed the C.F.-ers that they were about to begin dealing with what he called "a heavy subject." He told them to get whatever snacks they needed because he expected them to center down and pay attention. That is exactly what they did, and I was much impressed with the discussion that followed.

With the help of the media cart and a laptop computer, Rob presented a video that I had already seen. It was a portion of an Oprah Winfrey show from October in which she invited Professor Randy Pausch, a computer science expert from Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, to speak on her show. He is married and has three young children. This popular professor is dying of prostate cancer. The doctors have done everything they can for him; and while he has outlived the doctor’s expectations, in his words, "I know how the show is going to end."

Carnegie Mellon has a tradition; as do other places of higher education, that when a professor leaves, she or he is offered the opportunity to give one last lecture to which students and faculty are invited. It’s like asking a person to say whatever is on their heart under the supposition that this will be last time they will have that opportunity. Randy’s final lecture has been filmed, put into a book, and has touched many lives in countless positive ways. I highly recommend it to you. I was deeply touched by this video and pleased to watch it again with some of our youth on Sunday evening.

Our scripture text for today is part of what is known in the theological academic world as "The Farewell Discourse of Jesus;" the last lecture of Jesus if you will; one author refers to it as the longest red-letter section in the Gospel of John. This is the last chance Jesus will have to speak with his disciples in any length. I’ve got to believe that the context in which John presents these words are meant to get our attention. If we had a friend and we knew that was the last time we were going to spend time together, I trust that we would concentrate with greater intensity on what that friend had to say. John has pulled together many of the things Jesus said and put them in the context of his preparing to leave the Upper Room and go to the garden to pray. The central word in his thoughts is the word Love. "If you love me, you will keep my commandments. A new commandment I give you, that you love one another as I have loved you. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another."

How do we do that? How are we empowered to love each other? John wrote these words long after Jesus was gone. The gospels are written backwards to a community, most of whom had never met Jesus and for those who had a fading memory. What we need to note is that Jesus didn’t call the disciples to hold up his life as memory; Jesus called his disciples to hold up his life as presence. With concern for these "little children" of his, Jesus said, "I will not leave you orphans. I will ask the Father to give you a Helper." The Greek word is paracletos and we have no single English word that translates cleanly into this word. Para means "alongside" and the root of kletos is "to call." A Schimpf translation might be to say that God has sent us a Holy Companion. Julie Sheridan-Smith is our newest staff member taking New Testament Greek and she confirms that Intercessor or Helper is a good translation. Jesus says that this helper sent from God will be alongside us as an encourager, a counselor, an advocate, a witness, a judge given to us when we receive Jesus as Lord.

Jesus goes on to say that this Paraclete will come "after a while;" and I could preach an entire sermon on "after a while." After Jesus has passed through the torture and darkness of the Cross, after the disciples, lost and alone, have fled in fear. After the glory of Easter morning and the Ascension of Jesus into Heaven; after all of that work of salvation is complete, and after the disciples have gathered again in the Upper Room recalling the promises of Jesus. Then the Counselor will come to jog their memories by whispering the lyrics of a never ending hymn of faithful obedience in their ears. The primary task of the Holy Spirit is to remind us of the truth concerning Jesus.

Our task, having been reminded of all that God has done, is two fold. First, we are to pass on the tradition from one generation to another. It is said that Christian faith is only one generation away from extinction; therefore it is fitting that we have this baptism this morning. Just as these parents have taken on themselves a responsibility for raising their child in the faith; so we have a responsibility to pass it on. It is clear that God calls us to tell the story to our children and to our children’s children.

But that’s not all. There is a second assignment which is ours as part of the Body of Christ, the Church and it is equally important. The second assignment is that we must be open to the winds of the Spirit by which the tradition comes alive in each generation. To me that means that it is our duty and responsibility to pass it on; but also to be flexible enough to do that in the context which makes the message something that the next generation wants to experience. We need the new wine of Jesus to be part of our lives, but we also need to give some thought about new wineskins that will enable us to pass on the faith to the next generation in the realization that we are living in a time of rapid social transformation. To do nothing assures us that things will decline. In this last lecture of Jesus he tells us that we need the Paraclete, the Counselor, that Holy Companion who will guide us into the future.

Seeking the assistance of a counselor has become a normal, accepted part of life today. Seeing a counselor has lost the social stigma it once had. It’s become downright fashionable to be seeing a counselor! Some of my best friends are seeing counselors or are counselors. Even my favorite TV detective, Monk, sees a counselor!

What are the marks of a good counselor? There are various things that might be listed but I would place having personal concern and compassion for the welfare of others near the top. He or she ought to be empathetic and intuitively understand the needs of people. A third attribute is that a counselor ought to be congruent, wholesome, and basically healthy themselves. They ought to have head and heart pretty much together and be non-judgmental; not quick to condemn so that communication is hindered.

In John chapters 14-16, the Spirit is called "Counselor" five times. What does it means for us to say that God is our Counselor? When we think of the Spirit of God as Counselor, we mean that the Holy Spirit is personally concerned about us. God our Counselor is not some detached listener polite for 50 minutes before submitting the bill and inviting us to leave so that the next patient can come in. Jesus reminds us that God is concerned about us.

Scripture teaches us that God the Spirit is an empathetic counselor. Psalm 139 tells us that every step we take, every move we make, God is watching us. Instantly, instinctively, intuitively, God understands every corner of our being. God does not just condemn us in our humanness but encourages us to grow toward wholeness and maturity which is the purpose of this Spirit/Counselor sent to walk alongside us. Not to make decisions for us or to solve all our problems. If I understand this final lecture of Jesus, God the Spirit comes to guide us into new directions showing us ways to remove the blocks that exists in our lives due to bad decisions and choices we have made.

Finally, let’s remind ourselves that God has called us to be a counseling community filled with the Spirit. No problem is too big for God, and no problem is too small for God. The Spirit’s office hours are not 9:00 to 5:00. There is no answering machine with a voice that promises to get back to you later and no busy signal that makes you wonder why you called in the first place. The Spirit of the Living God is there for you and me any time, any day.

I began this sermon by telling you about the video of Randy Pausch. He ended his final lecture with a PowerPoint picture of his three little children, saying this is the reason he gave the lecture in the first place and that some day they will understand what he was trying to say.

This is the day which the Lord has made. This is the day for us to gain new insight from the last lecture of Jesus that calls us to expand his ministry in the power of the Spirit, given us when we accepted him as Lord. We need to pray, "Come, Holy Spirit," as we open ourselves to allowing God to transform our lives in unexpected, sometime unsettling, but always in blessed ways.

May it be so! Amen!