Sixth Sunday after Easter-Year C
Acts 16:9-15; John 14:23-29; May 5th, 2013
“God’s Guidance…in a Whisper”
This sermon was preached at Trinity Lutheran Church by Pastor Jim Page
Dearest brothers and sisters in Christ, grace and peace be with you all.
Music from the 50’s and 60’s is present in our home now that spring has arrived with warmer weather.
On Pandora.com we have the ‘50’s and 60’s Rock and Roll station bringing music into our home at our son’s
request. We listen to Elvis Presley’s “Jailhouse Rock”, Chuck Berry singing ‘Johnny B Goode’ with
contagious energy, and our favorite, ‘Shake, Rattle and Roll’ by Bill Haley and the Comets.
Why do we listen to such music at this time of year?
It’s car show season! You attend any classic car show…you’ll hear such Rock and Roll tunes as you
gaze over cars of a bygone era. Given that our six year old son has a grandpa with a ’39 Ford and two
uncles…one with three old cars-the newest being a Model A and the other uncle with an old car as well…you
can imagine the fun our son Ben has with his relatives.
Amid all those great songs from the past and the musicians that made them…there is the occasional
song by the great blues master Jimmy Reed. A share-cropper’s son, Reed brought the throbbing harmonicaand-guitar driven rhythm and blues of the Mississippi Delta into the popular rock-and-roll mainstream.
There’s an interesting story behind a few of the Jimmy Reed recordings. If a person listens carefully,
there is sometimes heard, ever so faintly in the background, a soft woman’s voice in in advance of the next
verse of the song. There are two different stories describing why her voice was present. One story states that
Jimmy Reed was so absorbed in the bluesy beat and the throbbing guitar riffs of his music that he simply
could not remember the words of his songs. The other story states that his rampant alcoholism led to him to
not being sober enough to remember lyrics while he was recording.
He needed help with the lyrics, and the woman’s voice was that of his wife as she devotedly coached
him through given recording sessions by whispering the upcoming stanzas into his ear as he sang.
Regardless of the whether either story is true or not, Christians surely recognize a parallel experience.
In today’s gospel reading, Jesus tells his followers that the role of the Holy Spirit is, in effect, to whisper the
lyrics of the gospel song into the ears of the faithful. When Jesus was present, he was the one who instilled in
them the right words, coached them through unique verses, and taught them the joyful commandments.
These words today were spoken during the Last Supper; the evening before Jesus was arrested. Now
Jesus approaches his death, his departure is imminent and the disciples will be on their own without him. The
task of guidance that was his will be handed over to the Holy Spirit. “I have said these things to you while I
am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you
everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.” (John 14:25-26)
The primary task of the Holy Spirit is to remind the faithful of the truth, jogging the memories of
Christians about all his commandments so that they keep them in love, whispering the lyrics of the neverending song of faithful obedience in their ears. It is a surprise to think of the Holy Spirit as a quiet, whispering
teacher of the commandments of Jesus.
More common are referrals to the Holy Spirit being in flashier terms: the Spirit evokes speaking in
unknown languages; the Spirit prompts dramatic and miraculous healings; the Spirit was the driving force in
the creation story in the book of Genesis. “The earth was a formless void…the Spirit of God swept over the
face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light.’” (Genesis 1:2) The Holy Spirit of God performs such
acts, but they are all derivative of the one, primary act of the Spirit-reminding the children of God about
everything that Jesus taught and commanded. Whispering the gospel lyrics into the ears of the forgetful
faithful.
I recently came across this unique story from author and preaching professor, Thomas Long. When
Jimmy Carter was running for President of the United States, one of the more vivid moments in the campaign
passed by almost unnoticed. One Sunday morning, candidate Carter had been worshipping at the Baptist
Church in Plains, Georgia. When the service was over, he exited the church into the swarm of press encamped
on the church's front lawn. Cameras whirring, video lights glaring, microphones thrust forward, the media
mavens moved in for interviews, pushing themselves to think of clever questions to ask a presidential
candidate on the way out of a Southern Baptist Church -- "Did you like the sermon?" "Did you enjoy the choir
this morning?" "Do you plan to remain a Baptist in Washington?" -- on and on the banal questions spewed.
Suddenly, a reporter, probably in a stroke of luck, shouted out a question that genuinely mattered: "Mr.
Carter, suppose when you are President, you get into a situation where the laws of the United States are in
conflict with what you understand to be the will of God. Which will you follow, the laws of the state or the
commandments of God?"
Carter stopped, looked up, and blinked into the bright Georgia sun, obviously turning the question
over in his mind. Then, perhaps still "in the Spirit on the Lord's Day," perhaps with the Spirit gently
whispering the lyrics of the gospel into his ears, he turned toward the reporter and replied, "I would obey the
commandments of God." Alert aides, alarmed by this candor, unnerved by their candidate's near-treasonous
remark, hurriedly whisked him away from the press and into a waiting car. Carter the politician should have
avoided the question, or hewed closely to the law of the land, but Carter the Christian had the Holy Spirit of
Jesus Christ whispering in his ear, "Do you love me? The world cannot see or know me, but do you love me?
Do you keep my commandments?"
The reason we need the Holy Spirit murmuring the gospel in our ears is that we are notoriously
forgetful. We soon forget what God calls us to do as Christians. Like the great Jimmy Reed, we soon get
caught up in the rhythms of life, but we forget the lyrics. We know that we are created to love and serve one
another, but life happens. For example, you’ve been hurt by someone by something they’ve done or a harsh
word they’ve said. Pressure builds and the temptation to seek revenge is strong and you simply forget who
you are and what we are guided to do and be in this life as Christians.
Sin is not a momentary lapse. Having lost our memory as a part of our human nature, we choose
forgetfulness again and again, preferring it’s momentary appeal rather the sharp accountability of
remembering the commandments.
God’s mercy is, in part, the grace of memory. As Jesus said would happen, God’s Spirit whispers in
our ear, telling us what we cannot, or will not, remember, refreshing our memory about who we are and who
we belong to as God’s children. When the situations of challenge and temptation come upon us, and we
remember the demand and goodness of the gospel, it is because the voice of the Holy Spirit whispers God’s
guidance into our ear.
Robert was a man I met in the first congregation I served in Balsam Lake and I visited with him on
various occasions after he was moved into a nursing home. His son called me one afternoon asking me to
come be with them since Bob nearing the end of his life. He was having what they called a ‘rough day’; the
effects of Alzheimer’s disease was overcoming his frail body. I arrived at the nursing facility where he had
been a resident for just over a year. His son and daughter, along with their spouses were present. His wife sat
in the chair next to his bed, holding his hand. A vivid look of concern was on her face with sadness in her
eyes. All were holding vigil for the patriarch of their family.
It had been some time since Bob held a conversation with another person. He could not remember
anything. Even though his condition led him to say mean things and at times act aggressively…his family
knew the words and actions was not from the man they loved. Yet, that didn’t hinder their pain and sadness in
seeing him in such a condition.
I moved closer to the bed, Bob was asking an array of questions. He looked at me and said loudly,
“Who are you? What are you doing here?”
His wife was still holding his hand…I then sat down in a chair on the other side of the bed and held his
other hand. I began, “Our Father, who art in heaven…” His wife and loved ones quietly joined me in a chorus
of prayer.
As that chorus of prayer reverberated throughout the room, Bob became calm. The Holy Spirit brought
shed light on the caverns of his memory deeper than any disease, more profound than any confusion.
“Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
Looking up, we could see Bob, with eyes closed, as he, ever so softly, said the prayer with us.
The Spirit of God was whispering the guidance and peace of God into his ear.
Like Bob, our true selves are not of our own doing, but it is from God. God’s story is our story and it
is not of our own making. Where we have no faithful memory, God remembers, and by the grace of God, the
Spirit whispers the guidance, peace, and love of the saving gospel into our ears. Amen.