Down the Up Staircase

Acts 2:1-21; Romans 8:14-17; John 14:8-17, 25-27

Sometimes we make odd requests of God. My mother prays for parking places. Have you ever done that? Just as she turns into a parking lot, she starts praying, "O Lord, I just ask you to open up a parking place for my car!" And, what is amazing is that nine times out of ten her prayer will be answered!

Or, then, there are those prayers that we pray when we are really desperate for something we really think we've got to have. One of these prayers that has stuck in my mind over the years is Janice Joplin's song, "O Lord, I Want a Mercedes Benz." And we pray prayers like these thinking that if we get what we want then we won't need anything else.

I've prayed prayers like this. I guess we all have. When I was eight years old I prayed for swim goggles, a snorkel, and swim fins. Even though I didn't know how to swim, for all the world I wanted to be like Lloyd Bridges on "Sea Hunt," even if all it meant was paddling around in three feet of water in the shallow end of Haskell Pool in Flint. So, I prayed for these pieces of aquatic apparatus as though nothing in life could be more important. And, low and behold, when my birthday came there they were -- swim goggles, a snorkel, and swim fins -- just my size. Amazing, isn't it, how God sometimes uses parents to answer kid's prayers?

So, I took these priceless treasures to the pool and tried them out. But, when I went under water the goggles leaked. And, when I tried to breathe with the snorkel, all I did was choke on the water that came down the little pipe. And, I hadn't worn the swim fins for more than ten minutes when the little strap that holds it on broke. So much for "Sea Hunt!" After all of that praying I had done to get them, I then and there decided to learn how to swim without the dumb things! And learn to swim I did! So, in a way, God had, indeed, answered my prayer by giving me something better, the ability to keep my head above water!

Our gospel lesson for today talks about such misplaced requests. Here we have Philip asking Jesus for something he already has. "Lord, show us the Father," he asks, "and that will be enough for us." How well Jesus knew how misdirected this request was! For he responded by asking, "Don't you know me, Philip, after all this time? Don't you know by now that the Father and I are one?"

Perhaps the greatest danger in Philip's request was in what it would mean to him if he actually saw the Father. His question betrays him, a bit: "Show us the Father, and that will be enough for us."

All too often that's what many Christians think about their faith. All they need is the religious experience. All they need is a touch of transcendence. All they need is proof that God is watching. All they want is some bit of knowledge that God is real and a part of their life and that will be enough for them.

That's all Philip wanted. He had just begin in his spiritual journey. He had barely stepped foot within the arena of discipleship. All he wanted was that one big spiritual experience, and that would be enough. But, as far as Jesus was concerned, what Philip thought was enough was hardly anything at all. For Jesus had so much more in mind for Philip.

But, there are a lot of people just like Philip. They plod through their lives in search of the religious experiences or simply remembering the one they had in the distant past. What they forget is that God wants so much more for us. God wants us to share our faith. God wants us to serve and love one another. God wants us to live out a daily life of fellowship in Jesus' name. So, there's no way that simply meeting God can be enough. Granted, it is an important beginning. But, it's hardly enough.

Most of us know that Pentecost is the birthday of the church. It is a vivid reminder that simply meeting God is not enough, but that there is much more. The disciples had all met Jesus; they had all had encounters with God. But, as they prayed together that special day, the Holy Spirit came down upon them and blessed them with gifts to actually go forth and build the church.

Essentially, that is the purpose of the gifts of the Spirit. They are ultimately meant to build up the church. And they are given to persons who have met the Lord in a meaningful way, but really want more in order be effective disciples of Jesus Christ.

Pentecost is the birthday of the church. But, at the same time it is a reminder that we are also born of God. The apostle Paul put it fairly succinctly when he said that it is by the Spirit of God that we are able to call God "Abba, Father." As Paul says, "The Spirit testifies with our spirit that we are God's children." And when we realize that we are God's children, doesn't that bring heaven a little bit closer to us?

Ernest T. Campbell once wrote "Some people have the idea that if you raise hell, you're prophetic." I have the idea that if you lower heaven, you're prophetic.

The question is how we can do this for other people. We may have been touched by God in our lives. But that is not enough, for God wants us to share that touch with others. God wants us to make heaven a little lower, a little more accessible for others.

I am reminded of how King David once puzzled over what to do after one of his wayward sons, Absalom, had created a family scandal and then run for cover. According to 2 Samuel 14, David came to a kindlier feeling for his son, but couldn't quite bring himself to make the first move. What would people think? How would it look in the press? Maybe it's better to let the matter lie....

"A wise woman brought him around with this insight: 'God does not take away life; instead, God devises ways so that a banished person may not remain estranged from him' (v 14).

That is our ministry today. Estranged, banished people are huddling in caves all around us. It is our duty to take the risk of guiding them gently back into the sunshine.

Amen.