"You Can't Handle the Truth"
“You Can’t Handle the Truth”
A Sermon on John 15:26-27 and John 16:7-15
Meg Peery McLaughlin
My Bible teacher, Frances Taylor Gench, said that the Gospel of John is like a poolin which a child can wadeand an elephant may swim.There are parts of the Gospel,where our feet touch bottomwhere we can stand firm in the knowledge that:the Word became flesh and dwelt among usGod so loved the world that he gave his only begotten sonsince God has loved us we also ought to love one another.And there are parts of the Gospel,where we are in deepand we can’t even see the bottom.Today’s scripture is one of those parts.It’s about the Holy Spirit. Seems like we should be able to wade comfortably there.We like the Spirit. It moves us. Inspires us. It blows where it will.We at Village talk about God’s Spirit a good deal.Just this week, during a meeting of your Associate Pastor Nominating Committee,someone prayed for God’s Spirit to guide their work.Yesterday, at the Presbyterian Women’s brunchwe recognized how God’s Spirit has shown up at workin particular women in this congregation.On Thursday, at a funeral in the chapel,a quartet of our Youth Choir sang: “It’s your servant bound for glory.O Lord, please hear my prayer,”and everyone sat in the silence following their song,moved, no question moved by God’s Spirit.The Gospel of John tells us about the Holy Spirit.And his description doesn’t sound as simple as we might have made it.For one, John’s Gospel uses a word for the Holy Spirit that no other Gospel does.John uses the Greek word Paraclete as the name for the Spirit.Translated here "Advocate," Paraclete literally means “one who is called alongside.”And this One who will come alongside us will be sent,we are promised, will be sent to guide us in truth.Jesus tells us in John’s Gospel:I have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.When the Paraclete comes, he will guide you into all the truth.Now we’re in the deep end.The Spirit comes because we can’t bear Jesus words?Why can’t we bear Jesus words? Why can’t we handle his truth?Why is Jesus himself telling us we are the in the deep end?Is the Gospel—the good news of Jesus Christ—just too heavy?Perhaps.This week Jarrett and I were sitting on the floor playing with our daughter, Naomi.She’s not crawling yet, but she can roll and scoot, and get where she wants to go.This week, Naomi was moving through her usual-suspect toys, each one making its way to her mouth, when Jarrett’s blue dumbbell caught her eye.It was under the chair and she reached for it. Looked like a fun enough toy.She grabbed a hold of the 8-pound handle: and nothing. No movement.No gratification of getting it to her mouth. She tried. She tried hard.But the weight of it was unbearable.There are some things we just can’t lift all by ourselves.There are some things we just cannot bear alone.The Gospel is like that.Jesus says: Forgive.It’s hard to bear those words.How many times, we ask, “Seventy-seven” Jesus says.In other words, over and over again. Keep forgiving. Make it your practice.It’s a demanding truth to handle.Jesus says: Go, sell what you own, give to the poor, come and follow me.It’s hard to bear those words.What if we earned what we own, we say? What if we are already using our resources to help? Give it all to the poor? Is that what really what following looks like?It’s a complex truth to handle.Jesus says: Ask and it shall be given to you,seek and you shall find, knock and the door will be opened.It’s hard to bear those words.We’d rather manage our own lives than relinquish our cares into someone else’s hands.To pray—to really pray like that would mean immersing ourselves in the precarious water of hope.It’s a risky truth to handle.If we get down to it: the weight of the Gospel is unbearable.Preacher Tony Campolo tells this story about a 19th Century tight-rope-walking legend named Charles Blondin. Blondin walked on a single rope all the way across Niagara Falls.
Before ten thousand screaming people he inched his way from the Canadian side of the falls to the United States side. When he got there the crowd began shouting his name: "Blondin! Blondin! Blondin! Blondin!"Finally he raised his arms, quieted the crowd, and shouted to them, "I am Blondin! Do you believe in me?" The crowd shouted back, "We believe! We believe! We believe!"Again he quieted the crowd, and once more he shouted to them, "I'm going back across the tightrope, but this time I'm going to carry someone on my back. Do you believe I can do that?" The crowd yelled, "We believe! We believe!"He quieted them one more time, and then he said, "Who will be that person? Who can bear it?" The crowd fell silent. Nothing.Finally, a man named Harry Colcord climbed on his shoulders, and for the next three-and-a-half-hours, Blondin inched his way back across the tightrope to the Canadian side of the falls with Colcord riding on his shoulders.Ten thousand people stood there that day chanting, "We believe, we believe!" but only one person really believed enough to risk his life in the hands of the one he believes in.It’s easy to get people to memorize the Catechism, Campolo says, easy to have them mouth back all the right gospel words, and you think you have a Christian because you have somebody who is theologically sound and orthodox. No – you haven’t got a Christian until you have somebody who is willing to risk everything for Christ. To live out the Gospel with their lives.
I think what the Gospel of John is telling us,is that it’s hard to take that risk alone,it’s difficult to bear the weight of the Gospel,and so we are promised an Advocate, the Paraclete,one who will come alongside us,one who will support us as we grow into the Gospel,one who will stay with us in the deep end of the pool,one who will abide with usfor as long as it will take us to get there,one who will lend us strengththat we could bear the weight.The Holy Spirit is promised. To me, that’s a critical part of this good news.For the Spirit’s presence is the only way to bear the challenge of the Gospel,the only way we could possibly live it out.But that’s not the whole of it. There is more to say today.When I was reading this text,all I could think about were the words:you better sit down before I tell you this. Have you ever noticed that when someone says:you better sit down before I tell you thiswhat they are about to say could either be really, really hard newsor it could be really, really good news.We need to sit,we need supportboth in the extremely challenging moments of life,and in the exceedingly amazing moments too.Both are overwhelming.In many of my conversations,it is often when the good news is so good that it seems hardest to bear.I can be having a conversation about tough, tough stuff:and it’s when I sayyou know you’re loved, right? that the tears start flowing.Why then?Why is it when I’m sharing that you, the person sitting in front of me, you are beloved in the sight of God why is it that’s moment that tears flow?I think it’s because that good gospel news is hard to bear. The good news is too good.My friend, Jessica, is a pastor in Fairfax, Virginia.Last week, a group we are in together called The Well, gathered to study together.Jessica told us a story about a woman named Gracie in her church. She said that Gracie became a Christian just a year and a half ago. She grew up without a faith tradition, found her way in to practicing Buddhism and ended up at her church because she wanted community for her kids and she was curious.That church has a practice of offering testimony in worship. A few weeks ago, Gracie got up to share about her first experience worshipping in the congregation.Gracie said:“We got to the part in the service when the minister says,‘In Jesus Christ your sins are forgiven,’ and I thought to myself,‘Can this really be true? Can it really be true?’I looked around and people didn’t seem to be have heard.It was like they had forgotten that this was the best news they would ever, ever hear.”Have we forgotten that we are in Jesus Christ?That we are forgiven?Have we forgotten what the choir just sang: Jesus Loves me?Have we forgotten that we are recipients of amazing, freeing, GRACE?Or do we simply need an Advocate to help us bear it?Do we need the Spirit of God to say:you better have a seat before I tell you this,for it may be more than you can handle.Friends, we need this Holy Spirit that John describes:this Paraclete who comes alongside us.We need the Spirit that we could tiptoe out into the fragile balance of life,and bear the Gospel:the altogether demanding,wholeheartedly complex,and almost-unbelievably good news of Jesus Christ.It is not something we can bear alone,but we are promised a partner, a Paraclete.Jesus said: I will send him to you.Thanks be to God.
