”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.”
Clyde was 6’ 6” and probably 370 pounds. He was a mostly bald, African American Baptist preacher and I met him in a Lutheran seminary preaching class. Everyone in that class was smaller, younger, more Lutheran, and a lot whiter than Clyde. Clyde had been the pastor of a nearby, rural, Baptist church for years and years. All that time he had been working on his seminary degree, one course at a time.
Our preaching professor was Dr. Ridenhour. He was crusty on the outside but gooey on the inside. The first day we only saw the crusty as he gave us his VERY clear expectations for our preaching. Every sermon BETTER have a “Word from the Lord” in it. That meant it needed Gospel in it… Good News… It needed to remind folks that God’s love and grace, had been given to us as a GIFT in Christ’s life, death and resurrection. It also needed to remind folks of what God has done, is doing and promises yet to do AND it BETTER do all that in language the folks in the pews could understand and not with any highfalutin, seminary words, either! Everyone knew this was not just a suggestion. Dr. Ridenhour was known to stand up during a student’s sermon and hike up his pant legs if it was getting “too deep” and it was rumored that one time he had even climbed up on his desk and hiked up his pant legs when it got REALLY deep!
So, for the first few weeks, Dr. Ridenhour gave us some techniques we could use. He warned us about some common pit falls and maybe even scared us just a little bit. Then, for the rest of the semester, we preached. Each of us had our turn twice that semester. After each sermon, the class shared their thoughts and then you met one on one with Dr. Ridenhour. That’s how it went… a bunch of white, German and Scandinavian Lutherans… and Clyde.
The first time it was Clyde’s turn to preach, he tried to preach like the rest of us did… like white Lutherans. It was heartbreaking. Heartbreaking because clearly he had learned in his life to expect, that in a room full of white folks, he would be expected to do it “our way.” When he finished, we apologized for our part in continuing to create a world that led him to that conclusion and then we asked him to PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE be who God is calling YOU to be the next time you preach.
This is the lesson Jesus was trying to teach the disciples in the Gospel for today. Jesus was reminding the disciples that the Gospel… the Good News… God’s care for them… God’s love for them… God being present with them… would not change… BUT… BUT the WAY that care, that love and that presence would be DELIVERED to them, could be and would be VERY different.
For the last three years those disciples had received God’s care, love and presence by way of Jesus… Immanuel… God with us in the flesh. Soon though, God’s care, love and presence would be given to them by another, different, Advocate… by the Holy Spirit. The delivery would be DRAMATICALLY different. What would be delivered, however, would not change.
The next time it was Clyde’s turn to preach, he felt free to be the preacher God had called him to be. He had his floppy Bible in one hand and his handkerchief to wipe the perspiration from his balding head in the other. He gave us a Word from the Lord! He preached it! The core was there. He proclaimed the Gospel. It had Good News. He reminded us of the gift of God’s love and grace, given freely. He reminded us of what God has done, is doing and promises yet to do and it did it without any highfalutin, seminary words, either! Now, I’m POSITIVE that if it hadn’t had all that at it's core, Dr. Ridenhour would have had no hesitation to climb up on his desk and hike up his pant legs as he would have for any of the rest of us! But that wasn’t necessary… we all got “A Word from the Lord.” The CORE was the same. The DELIVERY was different.
This wasn’t just a lesson for the disciples or just for a seminary class. This is a lesson for all of us, in every place and in every time. Things change. The way we do ministry, the way the church looks, the style of delivery, the faces in the congregation, the gifts of the pastor, the talents of the priest, the places in the community we are called to go… ALL of it HAS changed, is changing, and WILL continue to change… over and over and over again. HOW we love God will look different. But loving God won’t stop. HOW we love our neighbor will look different. But loving our neighbor won’t stop.
Do you see? God loves us LIKE Jesus loved the woman at the well. God doesn’t ONLY love women at wells. God opens our eyes LIKE Jesus did for the man born blind. God doesn’t ONLY open the eyes of men born blind. God turns death into life LIKE God raised Jesus from the dead. But God doesn’t ONLY give Jesus new life… God gives us ALL new life as well… “Because I live”, said Jesus, “you will live also.”
HOW God’s love for us shows up will continue to change until all the world can see it… but God’s love… the Gospel… the Good News of God’s unconditional love, compassion, presence and the new life we have been given in Christ… THAT will never change. And THAT, my friends, is a Word from the Lord! Amen.
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