Dr. J. Lawrence Cuthill

May 9, 2010

Winter Park Presbyterian Church

He’s preparing them. Something’s coming … or better said, something/someone is going. True to form, they don’t get it, like so many other things He said and taught. I guess you could say they didn’t have a frame of reference for someone like Him. He was unlike anyone else they had ever met. Some will say they were just uneducated, “ordinary Joe’s,” incapable of comprehending. Don’t believe it. Just because they didn’t have initials after their names, or credentials to point to, doesn’t mean they weren’t smart. I seriously doubt any of us would have done better.

The fact that they didn’t understand did not mean they couldn’t appreciate Him, perhaps be captivated is a better description of the regard they had for Him. And now, He says the time draws near for Him to leave. Fred Craddock says it brought to mind a picture of a couple of siblings playing on the floor. When Dad gets up, collects his keys, coat and hat and starts for the door, “Where ya’ going?” they ask. “An errand,” he says. “What is it? Can we go?” They plead. “No,” he says. “You’ll be O.K., I’ll be back.” They must content themselves with that promise.

Jesus has begun informing and preparing the disciples for His departure. Maybe they didn’t get it because they didn’t want to get it (i.e. didn’t want it to happen … but it would).

We tend to attribute special significance to what is said just before a person draws his/her last breath. Famous Last Words we call them. “I regret that I have only one life to give for my country.” Nathan Hale. Not all are so dramatic nor profound. “Et tu brute?” Julius Caesar. When Lady Astor awoke briefly from a terminal illness and found all her family gathered around, she said, “Am I dying, or is this my birthday?”

P.T. Barnum’s last words were, “How are receipts today at Madison Square Garden?” A vivid contrast with the One who said, “Father, forgive them, into Thy hands I commend my spirit.”

In this particular section; in what is called Jesus’ farewell address, He emphasizes something they (and we) miss or misunderstand. It is so basic … It’s Christianity 101 and yet … Something seems to work relentlessly, and often very effectively, against it. It necessitates remedial action, reiteration, re-emphasis. In our passage, did you hear Jesus say, “If you keep my word, I will love you?” Yes?. . . Then you heard it wrong. Terribly, woefully wrong.

Good, God-fearing folks often make that mistake. It’s not a conditional, “If you behave, then I and the Father will love and live in you.” It’s declarative. In effect; the one who loves me will want and seek to keep my word.

Will Willimon tells of a new member class in his church. They were going around the room sharing the reasons why they had joined the church. One man replied, “I grew up in a very strict, religious environment. Basically, what that meant was for 35 years, I thought God was mad at me. My conversion – if you could call it that, was when I figured out that God, whom I thought was my critic and judge, turned out to be my friend.”

Where did we get this hard-wired notion; that is, we are loved only if we measure up, perform, behave properly? Was it as small children when we were being socialized and somehow got the message, misinterpreted in most cases, that if we misbehaved we’d be put on the curb, abandoned? Did our experience of the “real world” teach us we were only loved if we were lovable? That we were only valued if we produced, conformed? And we believed it!

We might deny it, but this “conditional value” shows up often enough to rob us of our peace, and sow doubt in our minds and hearts. “You may fool everyone else, but the truth is you can’t cut it,” a voice in our head chides.

If Jesus was saying “If you mind, I’ll love you,” where is the grace? What makes it any different from any other Old Testament prophecy? Unconditional Love – Grace. It must be so. It is so! The handiest illustration on Mother’s Day is this: Do you love your children only when they behave? Of course they make you angry, sometimes disappoint, make bad choices … really bad choices, but you don’t stop loving them. They’re yours. You can’t NOT love them unless, of course, no one ever loved or cared for you. They do! Jesus is the vessel, the conduit, through which this Grace flows from the Source, God, to us.

Now with the time near for His departure, they must let go, for He must go. Letting go is a tough job for disciples. It’s a tough job for parents. It’s a tough job for anyone -- whether in a relationship, a habit, a time in your life, childhood, young adulthood, middle age and ultimately life itself, at least mortal life. Is it to be feared, denied, and avoided?

Listen to this excerpt written by columnist Ellen Goodman upon her retirement. “How shall I describe this rite of passage … the phrase that kept running through my head was ‘I’m letting myself go.’ ”

She imagined what people might conclude seeing that phrase; out of shape, indulgent, slovenly. “But,” she continues, “I love the idea of reclaiming that phrase. Where will you go when you let yourself go?” To pot? Or, might you not embrace the freedom of doing all those things you couldn’t give yourself permission or take time to do … to embrace the next chapter in the journey.

“There’s a trick to a graceful exit. It begins with recognizing when a job, a life stage, a relationship is over – and the letting go … it’s not denying the validity of what’s passed and its importance. It involves a sense of the future, a belief that every exit line is an entry, that we are moving on, rather than out. … It’s hard to realize life isn’t a holding action, but a process.” What awaits, ultimately, is much better than what we find so hard to let go. Besides, going back to famous last words, consider these by Thomas Edison – “It is very beautiful over there.”

Jesus knew and trusted that truth, but He would not leave the disciples (vis a vis, Us) bereft. He does not say “I’m leaving you with this book of instruction.” No; He said he was leaving them (Us) in the care of a teacher, a friend, a guide, who in this instance, is referred to as The Advocate.

You’re probably familiar with the Greek word Paraclete. It means ‘One Who Comes Alongside’. In other words, we are not, nor will we ever be, alone.

The term Advocate is used to characterize the third member of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit. Sounds like a legal term, doesn’t it? This Advocate not only teaches and guides; the Advocate pleads our case and handles our situation in a way we could not on our own. If you were accused of a crime in a foreign country, guilty or not, you would want the best representation available, someone who speaks the language and knows the laws of that country, and whose consuming desire is to see you exonerated and safely home.

We don’t have to do this thing called LIFE alone. The Spirit is offered to us, the same Spirit that was in Christ; in fact, the Spirit of Christ who now is not confined in time and space as a human, but available in all times and in all places, as Spirit. Receive the Spirit and with it … peace.

In summation: (1) His love is unconditional. (2) We must let go … and trust the future into His care, and, with the Paraclete, (3) receive a peace unlike what the world offers. “Do not let your hearts be troubled and don’t let them be afraid.”

AMEN