“Keeping it Real”

John 14:23-31

A Sermon preached by the Rev. Douglas M. Donley

May 16, 2004

University Baptist Church

Minneapolis, MN

 

            It’s graduation time for people and it’s that time of year when we assess and reassess what is important and what isn’t important.  So, I encourage you to do that examination.  But more than that, I encourage you to do more than pass a test of acceptability in the eyes of some professor or student body or even co-worker.  I encourage you instead to keep it real.  Focus on what is really important.  Focus on what is the truest thing for you.  Then we start finding out who God is.  Then we start finding out what is important.  When we do that, we run risks.  We risk our jobs and our friendships.  But to not do that is to not be true to who we are and what we are called to do.  When we fix ourselves upon truth, we can be persecuted, but we can also cling on to a power greater than ourselves which will restore us to sanity.  That power is called God.  And God, do we need you!

            We have so much fake stuff that passes for real.  Think about it. 

We have fake reality TV. 

We have campaigns where we expect our politicians to lie to us about what they will do. 

We expect campaign commercials to exaggerate or even forsake the truth. 

We have celebrities whose bodies are filled with fakeness.

When I was living in San Francisco, there were beautiful Victorian houses with ornate moldings and the such.  But from my office window I could see behind some of these facades.  The front went up two and a half stories, but the house was only two stories high.  There was a fake front designed to make the place look bigger than it really was. 

We learn how to do what we need to do to survive in this world.  We know who we need to say what to.  We know how to keep up the facades.

And yet we come to church, longing to find a way to keep it real.  That’s the challenge for us as we seek to be faithful Christians. 

When the truth comes out as it did in the videos and pictures from Iraq this week, it is almost too much for us to deal with.  You remember people saying on September 11^th, “it seems like a movie”, only in a movie the good guys the heroes seldom get hurt and the good guys win within two hours.  What this week has taught us is that the brutality of war will continue to challenge us and it will appeal to our more base instincts.  And it’s not a pretty picture.  It’s so much easier to deal with fiction than fact.  So our challenge is to make the facts of our lives worthy of God’s ideals.  I have to believe that in the midst of all of this chaos, a new creation will emerge.  For according to Biblical precedent, that’s where creation happens—our of the primordial soup of chaos.  It feels like we’re there right now, scared, but on the cusp of something remarkable or at least creative.

            I took Amanda to a worship service last night at United Theological Seminary.  I told her she needed to act like a grown-up and listen real well, follow along sing the songs and be quiet!  You won’t be overly surprised with how she did.

            Actually she did quite well altogether.  Even though she spent some time looking for Lynn Welton and Susan Peterson and once walked right across the front because it was the shortest way to the drinking fountain.

She’s not used to sitting next to me in church, let alone listening to a sermon.  She kept saying, “this is boring.”  That was her reality.  I’m glad she didn’t share it with anyone else but me.  I’m also glad she doesn’t critique my sermons.  The good thing is, she was keeping it real.  She was wanting to know what’s relevant.  What’s going to really make a difference in her life.  We long for that too, don’t we?  I encourage you to keep it real in all you do.  

Here’s the good news.  The one we follow is the embodiment of truth.  That one sees through all of our fakeness.  And everything is real for God. 

Jesus knew what he needed to say in order to stay alive.  He knew that he could just say the right words and he could live a long healthy life.  But he knew that the cost of that would be his soul and maybe ours, too.  So, he encouraged us all to live into a higher calling.  He said that he would not leave us alone.  He would not leave us without a comforter, an advocate.

            A few nights ago, our five-year-old daughter Rebecca had one of her moments brought on by too much sugar, not enough sleep, and us saying no to her about something or other.  She had a tantrum and locked herself in her room crying.  After telling us that she hated us, we heard her screaming, “I want my grandma and grandpa.”  You know, she sees her grandparents a couple of times a year and it’s always good with them.  After this went on a bit, she started yelling, “I want my Spirit.”  This one caught our attention and I went into her room, calmed her down and eventually got around to asking her what she meant when she said “I want my Spirit”.  She explained that she was saying that she wanted her other grandfather, who died 20 years before she was born.  But she knew he existed as a spirit that gives her comfort.

            When we feel out of control, sometimes we want to slam the door in the confines of our rooms and plea, “I want my Spirit.”  It’s another way of saying,

“I want comfort. 

I want healing. 

I want clarity. 

I want peace. 

I want inspiration. 

I need to know what’s real and what isn’t.”

Today’s scripture is for those times when we feel abandoned.  When wade through all of the flowery language and get right down to it, it’s Jesus’ answer to our deepest longings.

The answer is, “I have not left you comfortless.  I will send the advocate, the Holy Spirit, the comforter.  It won’t necessarily solve all of your problems, but this one will be with you and hear the primal screaming of the child inside of you.

What do you want?

What do you really need?

The answer to “I want my Spirit” is that that same spirit is there and will always be there.

I remember counseling a student who was preparing for a performance for her high school youth group when I was a Student Minister in Scarsdale, New York.  She was having great anxiety about her singing debut.  I encouraged her to pray to God, and imagine that it’s not only her singing, but God’s Spirit singing through her.  I told her that she always has an advocate alongside of her, telling her that she’s never alone.  People told her afterward that they had never heard her sing more beautifully or powerfully, nor with such poise.

Sisters and brothers, sometimes we need the Spirit, an advocate to help us to keep it real.  And when we connect with that power, we can do amazing things and we can begin the work of putting this broken world back together and even some of our own broken lives.  That’s our work.  That’s our gift.  When we do it right it will even set us free.  So let’s keep it real, shall we?