So Much More

I’m guessing we were in what they now call Middle School, give or take a year. My sister was talking to mother about something or other and I wanted to know what she was talking about - probably for the sake of argument. (We did a lot of arguing, my sister and I!) I asked for an explanation. My sister, who was a year younger than I, mind you, gave me a condescending look and said those galling words, “You’re not old enough to understand.”




Forgive me if I’m wrong, but aren’t those about the most irritating words you can ever hear? For one thing, you’ve probably asked a perfectly acceptable question, which in itself is both an admission of ignorance AND a willingness to be enlightened. To have that very vulnerable position made worse by rubbing your nose in it is unbearable. No wonder my sister and I fought all the time. It was all her fault, you understand. She did not understand the protocol of diplomacy, let alone the fragility of the male ego. Come to think of it, she may have understood it all too well. I never appreciated how deceptively cunning a woman could be. Sigh.



Funny that memory should come back to me now as I read John’s account of this final teaching Jesus gave his disciples in the upper room. There is certainly nothing condescending or patronizing in him. I doubt his name would even be known today had that been his personality and character. But if we can get passed the implied insult to our intelligence, there is so much truth in this statement.



More to Learn



For one thing, the story isn’t over, there is so much more to learn. Generally speaking we’re a people who don’t like to be in the dark. I remember Helen. She was under the hair dryer at the beauty parlor and curious what two women were talking about. She could only catch a snatch of the conversation here and there, but it sounded like some steamy goings on were being discussed. Being in a small town where everybody knew everybody else’s secrets, it was unbearable not to know more details. Just who was cheating on who. She was dying to know. When she got out from under the dryer, and the other women had gone, she asked the operator to fill in the details. She looked a little blank at first, then laughed and said, “Oh that. They were talking about somebody on their soap opera!”



A silly story, but it describes our incurable curiosity. How stale and dull life would be if we weren’t always “in the dark” about something or other. There is so much more to life, so much more to learn, so much beyond our eyes and comprehension. When Jesus says he has more to tell us, he affirms that hope - that there is more, infinitely more, and implies that the time will come when we can hear it.



How sad when people forget this. How limiting. How frustrating. The story may be apocryphal but it illustrates my point. I read or heard somewhere that the head of the US Patent Office (date and time no longer recalled!) resigned his position because there was nothing more to invent! In his opinion, everything that could be known was already known. And this before the technological revolution had really gotten started. To think that we are living in a live and pulsing world, one constantly creating and growing, one with discoveries that make the Arabian Nights look childish - and yet confine ourselves to notions that were stale almost from the day we first learned them. How pitiful. A man in a shop that sold computer games told me he had a masters degree in computer science, but had been unable to find a job. Three years later the degree he had was useless.



Unhappily, too many of us have settled for an old understanding of the Bible and religion that isn’t up to coping with the modern world in which we live today. It’s not enough to ask “What would Jesus do?” as much as we might wish it were. What would Jesus do about oil gushing out of the earth beneath the waters of the Gulf Coast? What would Jesus do about the rising suicide rate amongst adolescents, or the increase in juvenile diabetes in our “fast food” society? What would Jesus do about our attitudes toward sexuality in a world that not only offers us the “pill” but Viagra as well?



No, no, no! Although we know so much more than we once knew, there is so much more we don’t know - always. The possibilities are absolutely infinite. But it is always possibility, we never know it all. And we won’t know any of it until we begin by an admission that we don’t know it all. The philosopher Herbert Spencer once observed that “There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a person in everlasting ignorance – that principle is contempt prior to investigation.” Put more simply, this is the person who says, “I’ve made up my mind, don’t confuse me with the facts.”



Jesus tells us to consider there is so much more to know.



Getting Ready



Willingness to learn is essential. Humility is too. It is never shameful to admit you don’t know something. I remember Donny who was having trouble in school. “Did you tell the teacher you didn’t understand the question?” “No.” “Why not?” “I don’t know. I thought you were supposed to figure it out for yourself.” How human. How many of us suffer from the mistaken notion that we were supposed to know virtually everything. We’re too ashamed to admit we don’t. (And to make matters worse, we assume that everyone else does know!)



We all have a bit of Donny in us, don’t we? We are ashamed of our mistakes, ashamed of our ignorance, embarrassed to admit others might know something we don’t know. We’re afraid to look “bad” in the eyes of the world. What Jesus is trying to tell us is we’re supposed to be stupid. The tennis star Billie Jean King got it right when she said, “For me, losing a tennis match isn't failure, it's research” and the esteemed author James Joyce echoed that sentiment when he wrote: “Mistakes are the portals of discovery”. We don’t look bad, we look ready to learn.



I confess this is one of the hardest lessons I’ve ever tried to learn - and I’m still working at it. It’s really all right not to know. It’s really all right to be in the dark. It’s really all right to wonder. Think what we know today because somebody somewhere didn’t know and decided to find out. Leonardo wondered how birds could fly. Now we know. Well somebody knows. We’re doing it! Good heavens, now we’re even talking about going to Mars.



There is so much more Jesus wanted to tell us, but we couldn’t hear it, we didn’t have the experience, the training, the basic knowledge . We could not understand or make use of what he was telling us. My sister was almost right when she said I was not old enough to understand. What Jesus is telling us is we don’t have enough knowledge or experience to understand. And Jesus is right. How were we to understand a God who loved us so much he could die for us, especially when we were the ones who were killing him? All we understood were the Laws of Moses and a God who seemed ready to punish for something or other. This new reality simply didn’t make sense.



Do not be afraid of having wrong ideas about God. God’s used to that. Be afraid of being convinced you have God completely figured out. Too many people live with a God who is too small, one who has to fit into their pre-conceived notions of what he ought to be. When God is trying to open our eyes to new truths, we are getting in the way with our limited vision. Instead of looking through a plate glass window at the universe, we are looking through the peep hole in the door! Get ready to be surprised, to learn, to grow, to encounter a God bigger than anything your brain can comprehend.



Helps Coming



This may be the trickiest part of all, the notion that Jesus hasn’t given up on us. No, we are enrolled in a new school and we have a new teacher. The church has given it a name - the Holy Spirit. He will teach us what we need to know.



One of the unfortunate consequences of the King James Bible is the way it translated the word “pneuma”. It chose the word “ghost”, an invisible entity that floats around in the air, basically invisible, but sometimes dimly glimpsed. I’ve always been a little suspect of that word. “Spirit” helped, for I could associate it to spirituality. Still it wasn’t much better, for it, too, was invisible and seemed somehow foreign to us, basically an illegal immigrant if you will.



Our seminary professor was a big help to me. “The Holy Spirit is the Living Activity of God in the world.” I know, I know - academic garbledegook. That’s one of those definitions that needs to be defined! In a nutshell, The Holy Spirit is our name for the God who has taken up permanent residence with us and in us. Where people love one another, God is present. Where people care for one another, God is there. Where people are considerate of one another, God is ministering to them.



In this passage, Jesus speaks of the spirit of truth. I have been led by wise teachers who showed me truth I could not grasp on my own. And they did more. They encouraged me to open my eyes and look for my truth, truth I could give back, if you will. We’re all on a journey of exploration, and as we follow others who discover truth for us, we too, are discoverers who will expand the horizon of knowledge. The Holy Spirit cannot only be trusted, Jesus is telling us God trusts us as well. But remember, it is in relationships that are respectful, loving, caring.



Jesus once remarked that where two or three are gathered together, he will be in their midst. That is the Holy Spirit. When I am with someone I trust, with someone I know respects and trust me, Christ is there. We are “in” love.



Conclusion



Today is both Trinity Sunday and the day we remember those we love who have gone on before us. Trinity Sunday is the reminder that there is a new relationship between us and God. We are one unity. Memorial Day reminds us that that union is eternal. Not even death separates us from God and one another.



I would remind you of Jesus’ words: Be teachable, be open, be loving and be grateful for the Spirit that is in us and among us, a spirit that is here to stay! Amen.