Scripture/Sermon of the Day

15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. 17 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.

18 “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. 19 In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 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.”

Reflection/Sermon: “True Religion”

I. Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments — and God will give you another Advocate (Counselor, Friend) — to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth…”

II. I’ve thought about this, and realized — after sitting with this passage for a while — that Jesus is offering something here that many — maybe most people — don’t want. Think about this — do you want the spirit of truth living in you?

Can you imagine, in our society, in our world, what a disadvantage that would put you at? If from now on you couldn’t keep anything a secret — if from now on when someone asked you something, you had to give an honest answer? Can you imagine any politician surviving if he or she could not mislead or lie any more? There was a politician on a Town Hall meeting last week and almost everything he said was not true — fact checkers couldn’t keep up with all the disinformation. But most of the audience was cheering! They didn’t want fact-checking or truth — they wanted someone to tell them that what they believed was right — even if it wasn’t.

III. One of the reasons I found a therapist when I was in late 20’s — early 30’s was because I couldn’t tell the difference between what was true about myself and what was a lie. After spending some time with this man, Sheldon Kopp, he made a comment one day that it was no wonder I was confused because I come from a family of liars and I was just like them. I knew then that I’d found the right therapist — I knew what he said was the truth.

Two of my earliest memories were interactions I had with my mother — maybe I was four. She gave me a glass of chocolate milk and I took a sip and felt something slimy in my mouth. I looked in the glass and there was what looked like egg white floating in it. I said, “You put egg in this.” She looked at me in the eye and said, seriously — “There’s nothing in that except chocolate milk. There’s no egg in that.” Maybe during the same time she gave me a glass that had yogurt in it — she’d make it from milk on the stovetop and pour it in drinking glasses. She gave it to me and said it was vanilla pudding. I put a spoonful in my mouth and spit it out in the sink. I said, “This isn’t vanilla pudding.” She said, again, serious, looking me in the eye — “Yes it is.” One of the earliest lessons my father told me is that men don’t cry.

That was also not true. My mother and father also led my sister and I to believe that they were both in their first marriage. When I was 17 I found out my father was married, had a son, and then divorced. He said he kept secrets because if I knew the truth about him, and the kind of work he did in the Army and the CIA, I wouldn’t like him.

IV. When my therapist told me that I come from a family of liars, I knew he was telling me the truth. I had a breakthrough in therapy one day when I asked him if we could change one of the days I see him. I explained I had to be someplace else. He asked me about it — I explained. He kept asking questions, as if he didn’t believe me. Then he said, “This is (I can’t think of the word he used here — something like degrading) but I’m asking these questions because I don’t know if you’re telling the truth.”

There was a pause — and then I started sobbing — for a long time. I couldn’t stop. Finally — after what seemed like a crying-seizure, this uncontrollable release of energy — I said, “I hope there’s a time when you know I’m telling you the truth.” He said, “I trust your tears completely.”

V. When that was over, and I was walking to catch the subway home, I felt so light — I felt like I was flying. It was maybe the most spiritual thing that had ever happened to me. I wonder if that experience was the Sprit of truth? Jesus said, “If you continue in my word, you will know the truth and the truth will set your free.” (John 8:32). That’s what it felt like: freedom.

VI. Jesus said today that God will give us the Spirit of truth and it will live in us. But looking at the family I come from, and our country — I think that Jesus is offering something here that people don’t want. If my family knew that if they kept worshipping Jesus he’d give them the Sprit of truth — they’d of changed their religion.

A show I like to watch on public TV is Antiques Roadshow. People bring things that look ordinary and they discover they’re valuable. The expert says something like: “At auction, this piece would easily sell for 100,000 dollars. Sadly — I’f afraid if Jesus were go on the Antiques Roadshow and bring with him the Spirit of Truth — I’m afraid the expert would say something like: “Well, Jesus — right now there’s a soft market for this item. If you were selling something like anger or rage or grievance — or that latest assault rifle — they’d pay a lot of money for that. But today — this Spirit of truth would maybe go for five dollars at auction — maybe you could get ten.

In the reading today, Jesus said the Spirit of truth always comes with love. You can’t separate them. Wherever there’s love, there’s truth. And where truth is, there’s love. Yesterday at 5:00pm I saw it right here. Phyllis Gibbs came to that service and her husband Skip helped her get situated in her seat. Then he left. As the service started, he came back and sat behind her. During joys and concerns Phyllis had a joy. She said one of these days soon Skip is going to come to church with her and stay. There was laughter when she said that because she didn’t know he was sitting behind her — that the joy she shared was happening as she spoke and she didn’t know it. She turned around and looked at him and cried she was so happy.