Saint James UCC of Hamburg, NY

John 14:15-31

Preached by Rev. Robert Matlack
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There's a story of a poor mentally challenged person whose companion while working beside him suddenly died. Later this poor man was found holding up his dear dead friend, trying to make him stand and to sit upright. In spite of his best efforts, his dead friend wouldn't cooperate. Finally, finding his efforts to be of no avail, he was heard saying to himself, "He needs something inside him. He needs something inside him."

Now our bodies are still alive, but we all need something inside ourselves if life is to be alive and full. We walk around and while our bodies are alive, when we don't allow that presence of the spirit to shine through us, it is as if we were dead. Something important, something special, the thing that makes everything work and gives meaning to life itself - is missing.

Jesus knew that as he talked with His disciples about the promise of the Holy Spirit. He was trying to prepare them for the upheaval that they would face with His death on the cross. Suddenly instead of followers they would be cast in the role of leaders. They would not have Jesus right there to lean on anymore. Instead other people would be looking to lean on them.

When they didn't know what to do, when they started in the wrong direction - Jesus wouldn't be there telling them what to do, telling them what to say and pushing them to make the right choices. Instead they would be the leaders, the teachers, the source of guidance for others. Jesus knew how woefully inadequate was their readiness for this new role, but He also knew that God would somehow make it work.

The presence of God's Spirit was the key, for that Spirit would bring them the presence of Christ when he could no longer be there with them physically. The Spirit would be there with them and in them. The Spirit would teach them, guide them, help them to remember all that Jesus had taught them. It was the Spirit who would get them through all that lay ahead. By themselves faith, hope and love were not enough, but the Spirit would use those other gifts to make incredible things happen through these followers.

How true that is for us today as well! At times it seems like we too are inadequately prepared for things that we must face. We wonder - how will we endure? Will our faith be strong enough? Where will we find hope and renewal, guidance and counsel? The answer of course is the same as it was for those early disciples - it is God's Spirit that brings us those amazing gifts - the spirit that is with us and in us. We are not made to or expected to face the trials and challenges - and even the good times of life by ourselves. Instead, through the presence of the Spirit, God walks with us always.

The temptation of course is to forget that, to discount it, to ignore it. After all you can't see the Spirit. You can't touch the Spirit. We can feel it, but we've also gotten pretty good at ignoring that feeling. We all know that it can be pretty easy to look around and decide that it's just us - we can choose to do and act and say what we want - within the limits of what's legal and what peer pressure allows. We like to pretend that we're on our own, that we do it on our own - and we only end up fooling ourselves.

The reality is that God can take our humblest efforts and work through them to make great things happen - things that are far beyond us, and that there is no way that we could achieve on our own. At the same time God takes not only our humble and at times woefully inadequate efforts and achievements - but even our greatest accomplishments - things that we're quite proud of, but by themselves aren't all that important - God can take those achievements and efforts and give them real life real meaning....

Have you been watching the Olympics this week? As you know I'm very involved in swimming. Michael Phelps has had an amazing week. People want to talk about him and what he's accomplished because they're amazed. They're inspired. They're proud - and probably a group of other emotions. I expect that some lives will be changed by this experience - perhaps of young people that get involved in a sport they would never have tried otherwise. Perhaps some people who's sense of pride in their country or whose desire for excellence has been awakened in a way that never happened for them before.

But you know, that's not really Michael's doing. He is an incredible swimmer. He works amazingly hard at it, but in the end what he does is just swimming. You get in the water and go up and down the pool. Something more is at work here.

Michael Phelps doesn't have the power to make his swimming change lives. Michael Phelps doesn't have the power to make us feel all that we have felt this week. I believe that God's Spirit is there at work trying to challenge us, trying to teach us - trying to call us, to inspire us, and yes, to give us a nudge. The message from the Spirit is probably different for each person that feels that nudge, but I believe that God's Spirit is taking the pretty amazing swimming achievements of this man and making something more happen - just as God's Spirit takes our efforts and the efforts of the people around us and is able to use them in some pretty incredible ways!

Amen.