5 Easter, Year B

“THE KEY TO THE PUZZLE”
Deuteronomy 4: 32 - 40; Psalm 66: 1 - 11; I John 4: 14 - 24;John 14: 15 -21
A sermon by The Rev. Gene Tucker, given at Church of the Redeemer, Cairo, IL, by Mr. Eugene Sandow Myers, Licensed Lay Worship Leader; Sunday, May 14th, 2006

My wife, Deb, loves crossword puzzles….Every day, as part of the routine that begins the day, I carefully open the newspaper to the crossword puzzle page, and put it in front of her….She revels in the New York Times crossword puzzles, especially the Saturday editions, because they are more difficult than the other days (or so I’m told).

Now, especially when she’s trying to solve the New York Times puzzle I am told they are consistently the most difficult to solve), she will struggle for quite awhile, trying to figure out the key to the puzzle….Apparently, there is a common thread that one must discover in order to see how the major clues in the puzzle are to be answered: and, they all fit together, following a theme….From there, it’s relatively easy to fill in the remaining blanks.

Many times, Deb will struggle for quite awhile, trying to decipher the meaning behind the clues (no doubt, the puzzle designers go to great lengths trying to make the clues as devious to figure out as possible!). She will ponder this angle, and then that one, trying to see just what might be the meaning behind the mysterious words….

Finding the key to the puzzle: that’s a major part of our Gospel reading from John, Chapter 14, for today….

In it, Jesus says to His disciples, “on that day (that is, the day that they will see Him again, raised to new life) you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” In other words, Jesus is essentially saying, “the things you’ve been wondering about will make sense on the day that you see me alive again.”

But, we are getting a little ahead of the story…..Perhaps it might be best if we put ourselves in the shoes of those original disciples, as they sat and heard Jesus’ discourse, His “last will and testament” as Biblical scholars often nickname it, as we find it in Chapters 13 – 17 of John…..

Jesus’ makes clear to the disciples what His relationship is to the Father, and the Father’s relationship to Him. He also makes clear that the disciples are going to share in that relationship. Jesus’ instructions to them are critically important, for these disciples will soon be transformed into apostles, as they are “sent out” into the world to keep the commandments of Jesus, showing the love that the Father has for the Son, and that the Son has bestowed upon them.

To Jesus’ original hearers, a whole lot of what Jesus had to say probably didn’t make much sense….it must have been pretty much like looking at the clues in a New York Times crossword puzzle, trying to understand how the words they were hearing fit the meanings that are intended.

Most likely, it was the first time they’d heard words like, “I am going away, but will come again to you,” or, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.”

Perhaps these first hearers of Jesus’ “last will and testament” figured that He was trying to be really difficult to understand….It may also have dawned on them that if Jesus was about to leave them, that perhaps Jesus’ instructions ought to be as clear as possible.

But, in retrospect, Jesus’ words make perfect sense….they make perfect sense in the light of the resurrection on Easter Sunday morning….They also make sense in light of the giving of the Holy Spirit, poured out on the disciples as they huddled behind closed doors on Easter Sunday evening, and then a little later, on the infant Church at Pentecost.

For the resurrection and the giving of the Holy Spirit are the keys to knowing the meaning to the major clues in the puzzle that we call “faith”….

Why call faith a “puzzle”? The reason is that we humans are engaged in trying to understand the workings of God….so long as we are human and God is divine, there will be a sense of mystery, a sense of incompleteness to our knowing…As St. Paul says in I Corinthians 13: 12, “now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror, then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”

If we grant that we know what God does and why God does what He does only in part, then the question remains, “do we know enough to base our hope and faith on God, and in Jesus Christ, His Son?”

The answer to that question has to be “yes”….For, if we understand only this one fact of Jesus’ death and rising to new life again, then we have found the key to the “puzzle of faith”, for we can understand that, if God raised Jesus Christ to new life, then God will also raise everyone who is in Christ to new life. Death is no longer the final word, for in Christ, we have found the key to solving the puzzle of death.

How do we know that God offers us new life, beginning with this life and leading into eternity? What proof do we have that Jesus resurrection is the key to understanding God’s mysterious workings? The apostles, those who were transformed by their encounter with the risen Jesus, face – to – face, offer us proof…as a result of their encounter with Jesus, being able to touch Him and to watch Him eat, they knew that new life had become a reality. By the working of the Holy Spirit, they were enabled to understand more and more of the puzzle that seemed to hard so understand when they heard Jesus originally tell them how the plan of salvation was to be worked out in Him.

As we grapple with the mysteries of faith, we have the experience of the Apostles, the witness of the Church Fathers, the martyrs of every age, and the witness of faithful believers to help us see the proof of Jesus’ power to grant new life…..We are also blessed with the presence of the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, the Helper, to assist us in understanding the key parts of the spiritual puzzle that life spreads before us.

Thanks be to God for the new life that is our in Christ, and for the gift of the Holy Spirit, Advocate and Guide, to assist us in this life to see new life in God.

AMEN.