Sunday, April 20, 2008
John 14:1-14
Senior Pastor
If you were here on Easter Sunday you may recall that I shared my hope during the sermon that we all would get at least a glimpse of the power of the resurrection by being together that morning. We were looking at the story of the first disciples, and even though it took them awhile, once they realized that Jesus had been raised – they live changed lives. They move from a scared and hiding group of individuals into a fearless and bold group of witnesses to the power of God’s love to change everything through the resurrection.
Would you like to taste that kind of life? Would you like to live in the power of the
resurrection? I want more of that. I am hungry for a life lived in the power of
the resurrected Christ. I find it is so
easy, even as a minister, to get off track and end up kind of doing ministry on
my own. I allow the demands of ministry
to crowd out the time for devotional life, i.e., time alone spent with
God. Even after all these years of
being a Christian, I drift away -- I get too busy and then I get too tired to
serve well, to live well, to love well.
Does that happen to you? Have
you ever been in that place where you realize that the way you are living lacks
something… maybe lacks the power of God alive in your life?
A couple of weeks ago on one of the news magazine shows they recast The Good Samaritan experiment that was done at Princeton some thirty years earlier. In this experiment they gather a group of subjects and read them the story of the Good Samaritan and then give them instructions to walk to another building on campus where they will be interviewed about this story. But when they send them out they give them different information about the timeline.
To the first group they tell them that they are running late and they need to hurry to get to the other building. To the second group they tell them that they are cutting it close and they need to move along to get there on time. To the final group they tell them that they are on schedule and they have allowed ample time for them to walk across campus.
Now, unbeknownst to the subjects, they have planted an actor along the sidewalk between the two buildings showing signs of being in distress. The actual experiment is not if they can remember details about the story, but whether they will act on the story when seeing a man in need. Guess what happened?
Those people in the first two groups walked right on past the man in distress. In fact, out of all three groups of subjects, only two or three people stopped to check on the man. All who stopped were out of the third group, the ones who were told they had ample time to travel to the next building. The researchers concluded that the pace of our lives, the time constraints we experience cause us to be less caring and less sensitive to the needs of those around us.
It can happen with strangers. It can happen with neighbors and co-workers. It can happen with friends and family. I think it also happens in our relationship with God. We allow the pace of our lives, the time constraints we experience and the ensuing stress of all we do to infringe on our alone time with God. This becomes a problem because it allows us to lose touch with God and God’s guidance and power.
In our scripture reading today from John we hear Jesus saying to his disciples, I will do whatever you ask in my name. (v. 13) Now some people focus on the phrase, whatever you ask and become bewildered when they pray and plead with God for something they want and it does not occur.
A few weeks ago, a fellow United Methodist minister, talked with me about the Bob Challenge I shared a few years ago in a sermon. You may remember it came from a story John Ortberg told about a Christian man mentoring a new Christian in the art of prayer. The new Christian was wondering about the power of God coming through prayer. The mentor challenged the new Christian to choose one thing and pray about it every day for six months and watch to see if something extraordinary would occur. The man chose to pray for Kenya. Within six months a whole series of events unfolded in which the man was able to become personally involved in helping people in Kenya.
This minister friend of mine loved the sermon and told me that he had given it out to scores of people in his ministry. But then he added, “I have tried it twice myself, and once it worked and once it failed.” He did not go on to share what the prayers were, but as I read this text I wondered if perhaps the problem was that he focused on the first part of this promise, whatever you ask and missed the remainder of the sentence, where Jesus says, whatever you ask in my name. Jesus reiterates that in verse 14, If in my name you ask. That means more than saying, “in Jesus’ name” at the end of a prayer.
To pray in the name of Jesus would be to pray in the spirit of Jesus, to pray in concert with the way of Jesus. It would mean to know Jesus and his way well enough to pray a prayer that would be in keeping with his will, which of course would be the will of God. If the direction we are praying happens to be contrary to the will of God, even if we can’t see it, then maybe it is not that Jesus failed us in his promise, but that we have failed in our ability to discern God’s will in the matter.
Too often we think that our prayers are to sway God, are to move God, but perhaps we would do better if we prayed looking for God to sway us or to form us into the image and likeness of Christ, rather than the other way around. It is easy to get ahead of ourselves and assume our will, our wishes and desires, are in line with what is best.
A
friend sent me this prayer under the title Best Prayer I Have Heard in a
Long Time:
Heavenly Father, Help us remember that the jerk who
cut us off in traffic last night is a single mother rushing home to cook dinner
after a nine hour shift, to help with homework, do the laundry and spend a few
precious moments with her children.
Help us to remember that the pierced, tattooed, surly young man is a worried
19-year-old college student, balancing his apprehension over final exams with
his fear of not getting his student loans for next semester.
Remind us Lord, that the odd couple walking annoyingly
slow through the store aisles and blocking our shopping progress are savoring
this moment, knowing that, based on the biopsy report, this will be one of the
last times they go shopping together.
Heavenly Father, remind us each day that, of all the gifts you give us, the
greatest gift is love. It is not enough to share that love with those we
hold dear. Open our hearts not to just those who are close to us, but
to all humanity. Let us be slow to judge and quick to forgive, to show
patience, empathy, generosity and love.
When we consider our limited perspective compared to God’s perspective, most of us would quickly say that God has the better vantage point.
Jesus says in verse 12, Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these. The promise is for the ones that believe, the ones that trust, that Jesus is the way the truth and the life. It is for the ones conformed to his way. But, of course, his way is not always the way of prosperity and niceness. His way involves serving and suffering and giving. His way sometimes involves sacrificing and working and waiting.
I think the Good News in our passage today is that God’s power is waiting. But the question arises: Are we waiting on God’s power? I simply confess that too often I fail to wait on God’s power and God’s timing. I fail to trust in God in those anxious moments of wanting and waiting. Some of you are probably better at this than I am, but I find it a fairly common human affliction – to want it my way, to want it on my schedule, to want life to happen the way I see fit which, of course, is usually to my benefit.
One of you sent me a parable that speaks to this. It tells of a man who was sleeping one night in his cabin when suddenly his room filled with light, and God appeared. The Lord told the man he had work for him to do and showed him a large rock in front of his cabin. The Lord explained that the man was to push against the rock with all his might.
So this the man did, day after day. For many months he toiled from sunup to sundown, his shoulders set squarely against the cold, massive surface of the unmoving rock.
Each night the man returned to his cabin sore and worn out, feeling
that his whole day had been spent in vain. Since the man was showing
discouragement, the Adversary decided to enter the picture through negative
thoughts in his weary mind.
“You have been pushing against that rock for a long time and it hasn't moved.” Thus, the man began to think that the task was impossible and that he was a failure. These thoughts discouraged and disheartened him.
"Why kill yourself over this? Just put in your time, giving just the minimum effort, and that will be good enough." That's what the weary man planned to do in the morning, but as he prepared for sleep he decided to make it a matter of prayer and to take his troubled thoughts to the Lord.
“Lord," he said, "I have labored long and hard in your service, putting all my strength to do that which you have asked. Yet, after all this time, I have not even budged that rock by half a millimeter. What is wrong? Why am I failing?"
The Lord responded compassionately, "My friend, when I asked you
to serve me and you accepted, I told you that your task was to push against the
rock with all of your strength, which you have done. Never once did I mention to you that I expected you to move it.
Your task was to push. And now you come
to me weary, thinking that you have failed.
But, is that really so? Look at yourself. Your arms are strong and muscled, your back shiny and brown; your hands are callused from constant pressure, your legs have become massive and hard. Through opposition you have grown much, and your abilities now surpass those, which you formally possessed. True, you haven't moved the rock. But your calling was to push and to exercise your faith and trust in my wisdom. That you have done. Now I, my friend, will move the rock."
At times in our Christian walk we tend to rely on our own judgment to
decipher what God wants when actually what God wants is just simple faith and
trust. Jesus says, I tell you, the
one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do
greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. (v. 12)
God’s power is waiting; are we waiting on
God’s power?
The end of the parable said, push. P.U.S.H. stands for Pray
Until Something Happens.
Have you ever been in that place where you realize that
the
way you are living lacks something… maybe lacks the power
of ______
__________ in your life?
…they recast The Good __________________ experiment…
…pace of our lives, the time constraints we experience
cause
us to be less caring and less __________________ …
…problem because it allows us to lose touch with ______ …
v. 13 …whatever ______ ______…
…whatever you ask in ____ name. Jesus reiterates that in
verse 14, If in my name you ask.
Open
our hearts not to just those who are close to us,
but to all ________________.
Jesus says in verse 12, Very truly, I tell you, the
one who
__________________ in me…
…Good News in our
passage today is that God’s power is
______________.
The Lord explained that the man was to
________ against the
rock with all his might.
But your calling was to push and to exercise
your __________
and trust in my wisdom.
God’s power is waiting; are we waiting on
God’s power?
P.U.S.H. stands for P______ Until Something Happens.
Kid’s Question: What does P.U.S.H. stand for in our sermon?
Heavenly
Father, Help us remember that the jerk who cut us off
in
traffic last night is a single mother rushing home to cook dinner
after
a nine hour shift, to help with homework, do the laundry and
spend
a few precious moments with her children.
Help us to remember that the pierced, tattooed, surly young man
is
a worried 19-year-old college student, balancing his apprehension
over
final exams with his fear of not getting his student loans for
next
semester.
Remind
us Lord, that the odd couple walking annoyingly slow
through
the store aisles and blocking our shopping progress are
savoring
this moment, knowing that, based on the biopsy report,
this
will be one of the last times they go shopping together.
Heavenly Father, remind us each day that, of all the gifts you give
us,
the greatest gift is love. It is not enough to share that love with
those
we hold dear. Open our hearts not to just those who are
close
to us, but to all humanity. Let us be slow to judge and quick
to forgive, to show patience, empathy, generosity and love.