Sunday, April 27, 2008
John 14:25-27
Senior Pastor
In this brief passage Jesus makes a huge promise to his followers. I mean this is huge. Jesus has already predicted his suffering and death and resurrection. But now he adds that God, the Father, is going to do even more than that. Not only will Jesus be raised from the dead; but the Father, Jesus says, will send an Advocate, a comforter, a counselor, in my name. God will continue to be absolutely present as the risen Christ in the form of the Holy Spirit. That is a mind-blowing, a mind-altering promise.
God is right here with us, just like Jesus was with the first disciples. For this Spirit is sent in my name, Jesus says. The Holy Spirit extends the ministry Jesus started. Jesus was limited to human form and the Holy Spirit is not, so the scope of this ministry is probably much larger than we usually consider. But perhaps our human limitations are not what we think.
Dr.
Larry Dossey has
written several books; perhaps his best know title is, Prayer Is Good
Medicine. But he is not a
doctor of theology or a minister; he is a medical doctor that has developed a
keen interest in the unseen powers at work in our world. Particularly he is interested in how these
powers impact health.
In his
research he has discovered that there are literally hundreds of medical
scientific studies indicating the reality of these powers. In one article I read, he notes the
relationship between Dr. Norman Shealy and Carolyn Myss. Dr. Shealy is a Harvard-trained neurosurgeon
working in Missouri. Myss is an author
and speaker living on the East coast.
He would phone Myss in New Hampshire and only give the patient’s first
name and birth date and Myss would help him with the diagnosis. Her diagnosis has been accurate over 90% of
the time.
How does
one explain such a phenomenon? I am not
sure, but surely it points to the fact that there is more going on here than
what we normally recognize.
Dossey
also examines subjects transferring information over long distances. He says there have been hundreds of studies
done of this sort, the most famous ones done at Princeton under the direction
of Princeton’s former dean of engineering, Robert G. Jahn. The studies give an image to a sender in one
location and they try to mentally transmit the image to the receiver in a
remote location, often on another continent.
Many times the receiver is able to replicate the image with stunning
detail.
That
would be remarkable enough. But even
more perplexing is that often the receiver gets the image up to three days
before it is sent, before it is even selected randomly by a computer. Did you hear that? Often the receiver gets the image before the sender.
Dossey says the
implications of this are profound. For
indeed, if humans are more than merely a physical mass located in one place and
time, then there is a connection between science and spirituality. As science grapples with this evidence, it
pushes on medicine and other sciences to come up with a new definition of
humans. He calls it the nonlocal view.
“Nonlocality implies
infinitude in space and time, because a limited nonlocality is a contradiction
in terms. In the West we have
traditionally defined ‘soul’ as something unborn, something that does not die,
something that is infinite in space and time, something that is therefore
omnipresent, eternal, immortal. That is
why making a nonlocal model of the mind is essentially an act of recovering the
soul.”
(Eternity
Medicine printed in Light of Consciousness, Wtr/Spr 1994, Vol 6, No. 1)
Jesus tells his
disciples that the Father is sending them the Holy Spirit and this Spirit will
teach them everything and remind them of all that he said. I am not saying that all these phenomenon
that Dossey documents are the work of the Holy Spirit. I am saying that it is interesting evidence
that there is much more going on around us than we normally recognize. Perhaps we limit ourselves and our God
far too stringently.
Did you notice the beautiful slide of the iceberg on
the screens as you came in today? It is
a real photograph. A Rig Manager for
Global Marine Drilling Company sent it out
from a rig near St. Johns, Newfoundland.
They actually have to divert the path of these things away from the rig
by towing them with ships! Anyway, in
this particular case, the water was calm and the sun was almost directly
overhead so the diver was able to get into the water and click this stunning
photo.
But that is just the
tip of the iceberg as they say. Look at
this next picture that he got.
Is that not
amazing? They estimated the weight at
300,000,000 tons. What would you
say: Maybe 10 percent or so of the
iceberg is showing above water?
When I looked at
that picture this week, I thought, this is kind of like the Holy Spirit. We only perceive the tip of the iceberg
in terms of how vast are the workings of God, through the Holy Spirit, in
our world. God is doing more than we
can see. God is still coming to us in
more ways than we typically perceive. Maybe
Jesus is the tip of the iceberg and the Holy Spirit is all of the ice under the
surface, which is easy to forget about, because we cannot see it as readily
from our vantage point.
There is a story I
heard recently that I understand comes from the Cherokee tradition.
It tells of
a young man’s initiation into the realm of manhood. His father takes him into the
forest, blindfolds him and tells him that he is leaving him alone for the
night.
He is required to sit on a stump the whole night. He is not to remove the blindfold until the
rays of the morning sun shine through it. He is not to cry out or
move.
Once he survives the night, he is a man. He cannot tell the other boys of this experience, because each
lad must come into manhood on his own.
The boy is naturally terrified throughout the night. He can hear all kinds of noises. They
may be wild beasts, or some human who may take advantage of him or wishes to do
him harm.
All through the night the wind blows and the sounds come and go and
once it even seemed as if the earth shook and his stump was trembling. But he sat still and never removed the
blindfold for he wanted to grow and become a man. This was the only way.
Finally he felt the warm sun shining on his face and he removed the
blindfold. It was then that he
discovered his father sitting on the stump next to him. His Father was not gone, he had been on
watch throughout the night; he was there with his son throughout the
ordeal. He never left his side.
We too are never alone. God is
there. God is here. God is everywhere. Even when we don’t know it, God is sitting on the stump next to
us. Even when we cannot see God,
God is indeed present with us.
As one of the Psalmists put it, God’s spirit is closer than our own
breath.
God is here to help us, Jesus says, even in
times of fear – even in times of facing a future that is
uncertain, as he was preparing the disciples to do. Jesus says: Peace I leave with you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do
not let them be afraid. (v. 27)
Via the Holy Spirit, Jesus says we can receive his peace. Now the word peace is translated from the
Hebrew word shalom. Shalom has a
broader meaning than the absence of war or the absence of conflict or
noise. Shalom encompasses a sense of
wholeness, suggesting a state in which everything we need for life is
available. It some ways it parallels
the meaning of the word salvation.
I don’t think Jesus is simply saying I leave you with a sense of quiet
– “it’s going to be peaceful now.” It
really was not going to be a peaceful time for the disciples in that sense of
the word peace. In fact, it was going
to be a tumultuous time and difficult time for them. But Jesus promises them peace or shalom. He seems to be promising them a source of
sustenance, a connection to a presence and a power that will provide for them
despite external circumstances, in all of life’s situations. Can you hear it?
Peace I leave with you.
I do not give to you as the world gives.
Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not
let them be afraid. (v.
27)
…Jesus makes a huge ______________ to his followers.
Dr.
Larry ____________… Prayer Is Good
Medicine.
…there
is more going on ________ than what we
normally
recognize.
…a new definition
of humans. He calls it the nonlocal
view.
Perhaps we
__________ ourselves and our
God far too
stringently.
Did you notice the beautiful slide of the ______________…
We only perceive
the tip of the iceberg, in terms of
how ________ are
the workings of God,
Maybe Jesus is
the tip of the iceberg and the Holy Spirit is all
of the ice
__________ the surface…
It tells of
a young man’s ____________________…
His Father was not gone, he had been on
__________
throughout the night;
…God’s Spirit is closer than our own
____________.
God is here to help us, Jesus says, even in
times of fear –
v. _____
But Jesus promises them peace or shalom.
Peace I leave with you.
I do not give to you as the world gives.
Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not
let them be afraid.
Kid’s Question: God is closer than our own ____________ ?