A Perfectly Safe Place for God's People...and Puppies!

John 17:1-11

Jesus, raising his eyes in prayer, said:

“Father, it’s time. Display the bright splendor of your Son so the Son in turn may show your bright splendor. You put him in charge of everything human so he might give real and eternal life to all in his charge.

And this is the real and eternal life:
That they know you,
The one and only true God,
And Jesus Christ, whom you sent.

I glorified you on earth by completing down to the last detail what you assigned me to do. And now, Father, glorify me with your very own splendor, the very splendor I had in your presence before there was a world.

I spelled out your character in detail to the men and women you gave me. They were yours in the first place; then you gave them to me, and they have now done what you said. They know now, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that everything you gave me is firsthand from you, for the message you gave me, I gave them; and they took it, and were convinced that I came from you. They believed that you sent me.

I pray for them. I’m not praying for the God-rejecting world but for those you gave me, for they are yours by right. Everything mine is yours, and yours mine, and my life is on display in them. For I’m no longer going to be visible in the world; they’ll continue in the world while I return to you.

Holy Father, guard them as they pursue this life that you conferred as a gift through me, so they can be one heart and mind as we are one heart and mind.”

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What was Jesus doing?

That might seem like a basic and elementary question but it’s one of the most important questions Jesus-followers can ask. What, exactly, was Jesus doing? 

In today’s gospel Jesus tells us exactly what he was doing. He was giving “real and eternal life to all in his charge.” (And since, in the sentence immediately preceding, Jesus claimed he has charge of everyone, that means he was giving real and eternal life to everyone.)

Jesus has given us real and eternal life! That’s great news! But it’s great news in the same way that it’s great news to hear someone tell us “You’ve won a prize.” Our initial excitement and dopamine rush gives way to the important second question: “What prize? What, exactly did I win?”

What, exactly, is real and eternal life? 

Jesus answers simply: real and eternal life is that you know the one and only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one sent by God.

To know God is to enjoy real and eternal life. The entirety of Jesus’ earthly purpose was to help us to know God.

Every insight about the kingdom of Heaven, 

every overturned temple market table, 

every parable about seeds and lost things, 

every physical healing, 

every social norm broken, 

every jug of water turned to wine, 

every prayer to the Father, 

every endured lash and drop of blood, 

every promise of forgiveness…

...everything Jesus said and did was a reflection of the true nature and identity of the divine. 

What was Jesus doing? He was showing us that the world is in the hands of a God who is actively, competently, and compassionately caring for all creation.

In studying the works of philosopher Dallas Willard I encountered a claim of his that, to be frank, I found offensive. He claims “The world is a perfectly safe place for us to be; and if we place ourselves in God’s care, no harm can come to us.” (The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard).

Maybe that suggestion rubs you the wrong way also. I mean, it’s not even safe for us to gather in our church building. 

Dallas Willard follows his provocative phrase with some important nuance. He says harm is different from hurt and clarifies that Christ-followers are not immune to the pain and suffering that exists in this world; however, this pain and suffering are not from God and they will do nothing to negate God’s promises of ultimate grace, love, hope, and peace. This is simply a reinforcement of the scriptural promise of Romans 8:39 that there is nothing in the world that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. 

Jesus believed that the world was a perfectly safe place for him. He had faith that he lived in God’s care and he was never in harm’s way. Pain and suffering? Yes, he felt that in abundance as he navigated the landmines of human sin, greed, fear, and lust for power. Yet, through it all, he was able to see that God was in control, believe that he was loved, and be so filled with God’s grace that he could share it with everyone. 

Jesus’ earthly purpose was to help us to know God. We can know God by looking to and emulating our teacher, Jesus. We can live the same life that Jesus lived; we can have Jesus’ faith, Jesus’ assurance, and Jesus’ love. 

At this point I think a sermon illustration is in order. Now, I need to offer a word of caution up front. I was taught in preaching classes to be careful about sermon illustrations because they can easily take over the sermon and be the only thing people remember.

I am about to show you something and I don’t want this to be the only thing you remember about my message this morning. I hope that you will remember both the illustration and the larger point about how we can look to Jesus to know about God and to trust that the world is a perfectly safe place for us to be. 

This is Obi, our new puppy. 

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Obi is two months old and has been a part of our family for two days now. In the weeks leading up to getting Obi I read a dog training book about positive reinforcement (Training the Best Dog Ever by Larry Kay and Dawn Sylvia-Stasiewicz) and came across a few sentences that struck me as beautiful theological insights. The authors, write,

 “...the bottom line is that a dog is a living, breathing creation of God that desires love and security.”

“A well-trained dog that is truly connected to his owner will feel happy and safe, and have more success in our human world.”

“Good leaders don’t have to act like bullies to command respect–not in the human world or in the dog pack. Pet dogs don’t need to be bullied to become your loyal follower. Pet dogs love to follow leaders who provide food, shelter, and safety; leaders they see as benevolent and fair.”

By virtue of nothing other than his being a creation of God, Obi deserves to feel happy, safe, and successful. The way he will feel happy, safe, and successful is if his human family meets his needs and acts benevolent and fair. If he feels loved and safe, then we will have done our jobs as his dog-parents. 

Everything we do in our training regimen is an attempt to reinforce the idea for Obi that his world is a perfectly safe place for him to be. We cannot promise Obi that his life will be free from pain. At some point in his life he will experience hurt; but we can promise him that we will do everything we can to make him feel loved and safe. 

My friends, allow yourselves for a minute to think of yourselves gazing upon your master (the way, hopefully, Obi will learn to look at me). Gaze upon your master who promises that you are loved and safe. This master provides your food, shelter and safety. This master is benevolent and fair. You feel happy, safe, and successful in the presence of your master. Your mistakes are not met with painful punishment at the hands of your master; but instead are met with a gentle reorientation to the correct path. Your hard work and faithfulness do nothing to gain your master’s favor because you are already highly favored. Your hard work and faithfulness are simply the automatic responses to your master’s loving actions. That’s a good life.

Jesus insists that the good life for you and I is to know the master--the one and only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one sent by God. 

This world is a perfectly safe place for you to be because it is in the hands of a God who is actively, competently, and compassionately caring for you. Allow that image of God’s goodness to take hold of your heart, as it did for Jesus, and you will have the gift of real and eternal life.

Amen.

The Holy Spirit on Zoom - John 14:15-21

John 14:15-21

“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.”

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This morning’s Gospel, on the Sixth Sunday after Easter’s good news, as we’re still called to be celebrating Jesus’ resurrection, we are taken back in time – back a few chapters into the narrative of the story – to before Jesus was crucified, died, and was buried. He had just washed the disciples’ feet. He had just given them the greatest command, to “love one another” the way they had already, first been loved, by him. And then he goes about preparing them for what’s coming next. Jesus is talking to and teaching the people he loves most about what to expect when it’s all said and done.

And not just the crucifixion, not just the dying, not even just his resurrection; but Jesus is talking about what to expect after he returns to the Father, again – when he’s no longer living and moving and breathing in the world in quite the same way they’ve come to know and to love.

And he knows, as you might imagine, that this will be hard for them. He knows they will have endured a lot already. That their faith will have waxed and waned, come and gone, flourished, faltered, and failed in a million different ways by then.

So I think Jesus connects his bodily death and resurrection – his physical death and burial and his physical reappearance – to what will happen for his followers when he is ultimately taken up and taken away again; when the Holy Spirit comes to be with them in the days that follow his ascension into heaven. It seems to me like Jesus is anticipating whatever questions and anxiety and doubts and whatever else they might’ve felt or feared to be without him, yet again.

So, when I wonder about this – when I wonder about what it’s like to be without Jesus and to miss him; to doubt God; to question my faith – I’m drawn back into those moments of despair between Good Friday and Easter morning – when all seemed lost; when death seemed to have had the last word; when evil and despair and sin snuffed out all hope; when his disciples, his family, his friends, and his followers thought God had failed them… because they would have forgotten so much of what they had been told and taught all along… because they would have forgotten what we just heard him promise them:

“I will not leave you orphaned. I am coming to you.” That’s a beautiful promise for the hours between Good Friday’s grief and Easter’s joy, don’t you think? “I will not leave you orphaned. I am coming to you.” And it’s a beautiful, hopeful promise for the days following his ascension, too: “I will not leave you orphaned. I am coming to you.” And it’s a beautiful promise for all of us, still: “I will not leave you orphaned. I am coming to you.”

Because, it’s a short walk from the empty tomb of joy and celebration and good news back into the world of despair and fear and bad news, am I right? Another Friday rolled around after that first Easter morning, after all – for the people of Jesus’ day and for the rest of us, just the same.

There is still a virus to contend with, for starters. There is still isolation and division and racism and poverty. There is still uncertainty about the economy; there is still political division; there is still sexism and injustice and hunger. There are surgeries to schedule and diagnoses to come and death – death still looms for us on the other side of God’s empty tomb.

Which is why we need this reminder from Jesus; this promise that God will not leave us orphaned. God is always coming to us, always coming after us, always making a way into our hearts and into our lives, even when we’re not sure that’s possible.

But what does that mean? Who is this “Advocate?” What is this Holy Spirit? When and how will he reveal himself to me? Where and how can I look for her in my life and in this world? How might I introduce him/her/it to someone who’s even more uncertain and unsure about all of this than I am on my worst days?

To tell you the truth, I probably wouldn’t break out the Bible, at first. I wouldn’t necessarily preach a sermon or tell them to take a class. I don’t think I’d even suggest they show up for worship, right away. Instead, I think I might suggest they take a look in the mirror.

“You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.”

See, when I think about how you explain to someone about the presence of God in their life – or if/when we need a reminder of that for ourselves – I think maybe it would help us to look in the mirror and see, in our own capacity to love our own children, just an inkling of God’s ability to love the world. And if you don’t have children, I hope you were loved well by a parent or a grandparent or a teacher or a coach or a friend, somewhere along the way – loved with some measure of passion, some measure of patience, some measure of grace and mercy.

I think that’s why Jesus talks so much about a Father when he describes God to his disciples. The love of a parent, on their best days, is like a picture of God’s love for the world. The love of a parent, on their best days, is just a measure of how deep and faithful and everlasting God’s love is for each of us. The love of a parent, on their best days, is just a portion of the love that comes our way from the God of our creation.

And I think something like this is true when it comes to the Holy Spirit – this Advocate Jesus talks about in this morning’s Gospel. Jesus says, “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.” 

“You [already] know this Holy Spirit… because this Advocate abides with you… and because this Holy Spirit will be in you.”

So I wonder, again, about the mirror. Or maybe, even, about the digital, pixelated version of yourself that’s looking back at you from your computer screen right now. Can you find yourself on your screen? Can you give yourself a good, long, loving look right now?

And can you imagine that the Holy Spirit looks like whoever is staring back at you? What if the Holy Spirit is you and me – acting like Jesus, for the sake of the world?

“You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.”

What if the Holy Spirit is you, sitting with someone who’s sick or praying for someone who doesn’t even know they’re on your mind or forgiving someone you never thought you could?

What if the Holy Spirit sounds like you, saying “you’re welcome” or “I love you” or “I’m sorry” or “you’re forgiven?”

What if the Holy Spirit is you, taking the chance to do something new for the sake of the Gospel? What if it’s you inviting someone to worship, or volunteering to serve in a new way, or giving more money or more time or more love than you ever thought you had to give?

What if the Holy Spirit is actually you – the face that looks back at you in the mirror, that face you can see on the screen before you – whenever you live out the promise of your baptism into Jesus Christ, as you bear his love and share his grace and work for his kind of justice and peace in the world?

And what if, my friends, the Holy Spirit is alive and well and in and around you in all the faces that surround you on that screen, just the same? (“You know him, after all, because he abides with you and because he will be in you.”)

The Holy Spirit of God is in and through and under all that we’re up to as God’s people, living out our faith the best way we know how. We are called to love one another; to forgive one another; to comfort and share with and support and uplift and pray for and with one another, knowing that we are never abandoned; never alone; never forsaken or forgotten thanks to the love that is ours – and ours to share – in Jesus Christ our Lord, crucified and risen for the life of the world; the Father, the +Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen