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Have you ever had the opportunity to say goodbye to someone? We have all had the occasion either as a child - moving across town and leaving the old neighborhood for the new, or heading off after graduation for a new life and the opportunity to build your own future. Or sadly enough most of us have had the unfortunate and rather painful experience of saying goodbye to a loved one who has passed on to the next life from ths one. Or even the heartfelt 'I Love You' after a parent reads a bedtime story to the son or daughter snuggled up in the bed as the lights are turned out. All of these are ways of saying goodbye.
Yesterday - I had an Ah-Ha moment. I was listening to NPR’s All Things Considered - and heard of a program in Alabama for Inmate mothers and their children. Did you know that the fastest growing population in the correctional system is that of inmate mothers. And given the possibility of re-offending and the trend of longer jail sentences for less server crime – they are often taken away from their children for some of the most important years of the child’s development. A group in Alabama is trying to do something about strengthening the bond between inmate mothers and their children. They allow inmate mothers the opportunity to particpate in their child’s life in a very special way. They let inmate mothers record bedtime stories on an audio cassette to be sent to their child and played – while the child flips the pages. Think of how special and valuable this opportunity is to both Child and Mother.
One of the mothers always has a difficult time recording her weekly story for her children. She starts to read but finds herself losing it and has to turn the recorder of as she wipes her tears and clears her throat. She realizes what is going on – she realizes that in the end if jail does nothing else in terms of punishment it reminds her that she is no longer free to tuck her own child into bed and read them a bedtime story.
But think of parents of young children – what can be more devestating then not being able to read to your child such great classics as "Goodnight Moon," or "The Cat in the Hat," or even "The Giving Tree." Then if that is not enough how bout the pain and discomfort of not being able to tuck them in and kiss them on the forehead as you say a special prayer for them leaving their bedroom door cracked. Not only are they kept from seeing their children each day – they are kept from saying Goodnight each day – not even a Goodbye as the lights go out.
Jesus is saying goodbye in this passage. Many scholars feel that this is the more accurate ending for the Gospel of John. That Jesus left them in the locked room with the commission to go and tell the world. He also, allowed them an opportunity to see him for real "post"-crucifixion and "post"-resurrection. Lastly, he breathed on them the Holy Spirit.
I am not sure whether that would be the way I would say goodbye. But the nice thing about this story is that I am not the Messiah. Jesus is not saying goodbye – rather he is saying farewell, or see ya soon. Jesus is setting up the church for the next phase of the plan. Jesus is ready to go on to the Father and continue his work as the savior.
I am consumed these days with the challenge of how to be Easter people when the party is over. How to maintain the excitement, commitment, and energy – when we have gone back to the ‘normal routine.’ Maybe I am caught up in wanting to make sure that I continue Jesus’ legacy. So, much of our society is obsessed with leaving a legacy. Presidents do it, media moguls do it, heck - even Donald Trump looked into the idea as he pondered whether to make a run at being President of the United States. I get the distinct feeling that he wasn’t pondering over whether he felt the call of political responsibility and leadership. -- rather he thought about how it might be a legacy he could leave for the history books.
But back to the issue of maintaining the excitement, the joy, the commitment of Easter. How do we become a crucial part of Jesus’, ‘legacy,’ for lack of a better word. How do we find ourselves to be well-formed disciples when the master has left and gone away? If we wish to continue to learn how to ‘be like Jesus’ and to care for each other as the church – we should agree on how that is going to happen in the absence of the bodily presence of Jesus.
But the answer to this basic question is in his farewell words to the disciples during that last week. His answer is bound up in studying and embodying his ministry to the poor, and to the neglected. Answering this basic question is a matter of knowing who our neighbor is, and who grows the seed, and who is required to plant it and harvest it. Answering the question is a matter of living his life, of being ‘Farewell’ disciples who follow and live the ‘Farewell Words.’
Think back to my original story about the program for inmate mothers in Alabama. Now obviously Jesus is not headed to Jail. And this is not a situation where the disciples will be cut off from him. But notice the similarities. Notice the heartbreak in the disciples eyes over the loss of Jesus on the cross. Notice how there lives are thrown into disarray. Judas has hung himself. Peter has denied Jesus three times. The rest scattered in fear that they might be next. All of it has culminated with the ‘children’ huddled in a room terrified over the loss of their messiah.
Well, in a way friends these ‘farewell words’ are Jesus’ way of recording a message of love and support to us -- his children. We find ourselves playing the tape over and over again trying to find the story and where it intersects with our life. We long to hear his voice and to feel his presence – and in our lowest times we go to the gospels to be reminded of his words. Like the child we find great peace and solace in knowing these words were meant for us.
I want to close with an illustration that will solidify my point of farewell words – and finding ourselves in the midst of the story of the Gospels.
Have you seen any of the personalized children's books? The buyer sends along with the order the child's name, age, birthday, street address, friends, pets' names, etc. Then the computer prints out a book with color illustrations, but with the child as the main character: "Once upon a time in a place called Bellaire, there lived a little girl named Emmy Cammarano. Now Emmy wasn't just an ordinary little girl. This is a story about one of her adventures. It's the story of the day that Emmy met a rhinoceros."
Do you think Emmy would like this book? Why would it be so special to her? It important and special because it's a "me-book." It's a story about her. We all like stories about ourselves.
Bob Benson calls the Bible a "me-book" and a "you-book." We are in there. In his words, "We all have taken our turn at saying, 'There is no room in the inn,' and we all know what it is like to sadly reverse our paths like the rich, young ruler. We all know what it is to say, 'I do not know him,' or to leave unsaid, 'Yes, I am a follower of his.' We all have bravely said in stirring faith, 'Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God,' and we all have felt or said, 'Unless I touch the prints of his hands.'
It is not just a book written a long time ago about some people who lived way back then. It is about us. It is not just a book about a few people to whom Jesus said, 'Lo, I will never leave you.' It is to us as well that these words still speak. It was not only their sorrow he promised to turn into joy, but he was saying to us just as surely as if he were looking us in the face that the thing that seems like sorrow to us today, he would have us writing poems and singing songs about tomorrow or next week. These things were said to us and for us and about us in this living book of God." (See Bob Benson, "See You at the House": The Very Best of the Stories He Used to Tell (Nashville: Generoux, 1986), 38-39. From Homiletics Online found at The Text this Week)
In the next few weeks we will be looking at three sections of Jesus’ farewell words to the disciples – to us.... We will look at a passage in Luke where the disciples finally have an Ah-Ha moment and ‘get it.’ I have named that sermon "Remember - The Third Time is a Charm." We will share about how discipleship is not something one just picks up in an afternoon... but it is a lifestyle. Then we will look at the ‘Good Shepherd’ passage in John 10. Here Jesus is reminding us that he is the Shepherd and we are the sheep. This is an important lesson – if you have ever worked with sheep. That sermon is named "Remember - You are Sheep." Lastly we will look at the ‘I am the vine’ passage from John 15. Here Jesus is calling us to be fruitful. Disciples must be fruitful - and stay connected to the vine at all costs. That sermon will be called "Remember - Bear Fruit."
Come a long on a journey with me friends... To the place where we learn that every night Jesus longs to tuck us in and reads to us from the Book written about our lives.
These are the farewell words of the savior. These are the words that Farewell Disciples live on. God didn't just speak to Paul on the road to Damascus -- but he spoke to you... and speaks to you. God speaks to Wednesday Night Worship, at Bellaire United Methodist Church at the corner of Newcastle and Bellaire Blvd." God speaks to the Farewell Disciples of his love at Easter. God speaks to you and me. And that friends is Gospel. -- That God still speaks to us today.
In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.