Father John McGinn, Rector
Saint John’s Episcopal Church
Sandwich, Massachusetts 02563
June 3, 2007 Trinity
Sunday
The sermon for today is taken
from the Gospel of John, chapter 16, verses 12-15.
In the name of the
Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
Amen.
War in Iraq and Afghanistan;
terrorists seem to be everywhere; there is violence at home, in our schools,
and in our cities. Many of us call for
some kind of guidance during this time of chaos. Some of you will remember when a passenger
jet, Korean Airlines flight 007, was shot down after wandering mistakenly into the air space of
the Soviet Union. This was of course,
during the last days of the cold war.
Fans of super spy, James Bond, could
not help but note the irony of the flight being numbered 007. Maybe that had something to do with the
Russians’ reaction. It was September the
1st, 1983. Two-hundred and
sixty-nine innocent people lost their lives on this flight because of a navigational
error. Reportedly, the pilots of this
airliner accidentally punched in the wrong set of navigational coordinates
after a refueling stop in Alaska. From
that point on, every new set of coordinates they entered sent them farther off
track. As a result, they unknowingly
penetrated Soviet air space, were shot down by a Soviet pilot and plunged into
the icy ocean below. Improper guidance
cost two-hundred sixty-nine innocent people their lives. In a time of chaos, you need trustworthy
guidance.
Yesterday some of us viewed
on television, or might have heard on the radio, in between the Red Sox game
with the Yankees, we heard about the terrorists at JFK International Airport in
New York. The terrorists’ hope was that
they were going to blow up a major fuel line; they hoped to blow up a terminal
and some airplanes; it would have been catastrophic had they achieved their
objectives.
Homeland Security, the
Federal Bureau of Investigation, local and state police of New York: we ask ourselves, can these institutions of
government and the schools, and the church…can they be trusted during this time
of chaos?
In our lesson from John’s
Gospel this morning, Jesus is teaching his disciples. Jesus says to them, “I have much more to say
to you; more than you can now bear. But
when He, the spirit of truth comes, He will guide you in all truth.”
Last week in our celebration
of Pentecost, I dealt with the Holy Spirit as the source of our power. Today, Trinity Sunday, I want to deal with
Holy Spirit as the source of guidance in this chaotic world.
Think of a car: it will not go far without a motor, we all
know that. But also try driving it
without a steering wheel. When the Holy
Spirit comes upon us, we are given both power and guidance.
I was driving with my wife,
Marion, to a small community here on Cape Cod to attend a dinner with
friends. We had never been in this
particular area before, and we were quickly lost. Seeing a policeman parked in his car, I
pulled over and asked him for directions.
The policeman said, “You go down two more lights, you turn right and go
to a fork in the road where you bear left, you go two stop signs, or is it
three? No, here’s an easier way: make a
u-turn and go back to that little shopping mall back there…you know the one with
the big gas station on the corner…you hear what I am saying? Turn left there and just follow the road down
to the ocean and make several turns, okay?
And you have to be careful not to…ahh.
No, go back to the first way I said, and go down….oh, what the
heck. Look, I’ll take you there. Just follow me and stick close.” So I followed him in my car (first time I
could speed with a policeman among us!).
I followed him and stuck
close, and it occurred to me along the way that this is the invitation of Jesus
to someone who wants to know God. Figure
out the inner self and understand how to live in the real world. Follow God,
and stick close. God doesn’t miss.
Now Jesus knew that his
disciples were going out into a hostel world.
They would need both power and guidance.
And Jesus would no longer be with them in flesh; but he would be with
them through the power of the Holy Spirit.
And when we speak of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we are in essence
saying that we believe in the creator God.
We believe in Jesus, God’s unique presence in the world in human flesh;
and we believe in Jesus’ spirit and work today in the world and in our
individual lives. The Holy Spirit gives us power, and the Holy Spirit gives us
guidance.
Now this is a confusing world
and, in some ways, I think it is a crazy world.
Not long ago, I read a story
about a man who was arrested in Washington
D.C. who had been robbing liquor
stores all over the city. The odd thing
was that he only robbed the stores during the daylight hours. And when the police were interrogating him,
and they asked him, why did you do this?
He said, “Are you kidding? I
couldn’t do it at night; it is not safe to be on the streets with that much
money.” It’s a crazy world - it’s a confusing
world.
In his book, “The Pursuit of
Happiness,” David Myers writes that from 1957 to 1990, per capita income in the
United States more than doubled. But the
number of Americans who reported being happy remained the same.
All the advances in medical
sciences, all the achievements in technology, all the increase in material
wealth and prosperity has not supplied us with an answer to our deepest
yearnings, or fulfilled our deepest needs.
Never have we been so self-reliant or so lonely. Never have we seemed so free, or our prisons
so over-stuffed. Never have we had so
much education or such high rates of teen delinquency, and despair, and
suicide. And never have we been so
sophisticated about pleasure or so likely to suffer broken, or miserable marriages
and relationships.
This is a confusing
world. We need a guide that we can
depend on. Jesus, working through the
power of the Holy Spirit, I believe is that guide.
I was listening to a radio
program. I think most of you have heard
of Paul Harvey, and maybe you have heard his program along the way. And he told a story about a famous test
pilot. And this pilot was flying a
fighter jet in bad weather and about to make his instrument approach to an
airport. The air traffic controller
called and asked how much fuel he had.
The pilot said, “I have plenty.”
Well, the controller said, “We’ve got a little problem…there’s a young
pilot who is not instrument rated. He is
lost in the clouds, and we were
wondering if you could intercept him and lead him back to the airport.” “Sure,” the pilot responded. He found the lost plane and pulled up beside
it. He called on the radio and told the
pilot to look out to his left. And there
the pilot of the small plane saw the powerful fighter jet and the man burst
into tears. As far as he was concerned,
at that point his life was about over.
He would soon run out of fuel, and he would crash.
“Don’t worry,“ the test pilot
said, “Everything is going to be okay. I
am going to pull in front of you several hundred yards and do everything I
do. And when I turn, I’ll turn
gently. And all you have to do is do
exactly what I do.”
So carefully the fighter
pilot and the follower turned on the course to the airport, and they slowly
descended. And when they finally broke
through the clouds at 500 feet, the frightened pilot saw the most beautiful
sight. There in front of him was the
runway, and he was perfectly set up to land.
There are times when we need
a guide that we can depend on where we would be without mentors, or coaches, or
counselors, or consultants; when we are engaged in paths that are beyond our
expertise.
I don’t know, you may
recognize the name, Max Perkins. Max
Perkins died in the year that I was born, in 1947, after exercising enormous
influence over the reading habits of billions of people in the United
States. Max Perkins wasn’t an
author. He was an editor of Charles
Scribner Publishing Company for some years.
He served as personal editor for F. Scott Fitzgerald in his book “The
Great Gatsby, “ and Ernest Hemingway in his book “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” and
Thomas Wolfe in “Look Homeward Angel, “ as well as for less famous authors such
as those who wrote “The Yearling,” and “From
Here to Eternity.” Max Perkins could
take a manuscript of a thousand pages and tell a given author what to cut out
of it, what to retain and what to change.
And all of the famous American authors who worked with Max Perkins
ultimately agreed that his way was consistently the best for their books.
There are times that we need
a guide that we can depend on. So it is
with our daily lives. These were great
writers. But that little bit of extra
help made them greater still. And so it
may be with us. Jesus can take our best
and make it better. The secret is to
yield our lives to Jesus‘ leadership.
Trust Jesus, and let him lead you daily.
When you make it a habit to trust in Jesus’ guidance, it amazing how
life comes together.
Every morning my wife, during
the school year, gets up at 4:30 in the morning. She gets up that early, for one thing because
she needs to get ready for school because she leaves the house at 6:00. But the other thing is that she gets up to
do, what she calls, some inspirational reading.
She reads, first of all, “Forward Day by Day,” and I know many of you
read that. And she also reads something
called ’Guidepost,” which is a wonderful little magazine. She showed me an article in there that I want
to share with you this morning.
There is a lady named Peggy
Pillant, and she tells about an interesting event in her life. She had been planning to make a brown sugar
pound cake, her specialty, for her Sunday school teacher, Mrs. Howell, who had
been in her thoughts. But suddenly the
idea to bake her a cheesecake popped into her mind. And of all things, a lemon cheesecake. The recipe called for fresh lemons, and Peggy
checked her supplies. No lemons, but
plenty of brown sugar. A pound cake
would be so much easier she thought. But
again came that nudge: bake a lemon
cheesecake! And after a trip to the
grocery store to by lemons, she began to make the batter. She cut a lemon in half and removed the
seeds. She squeezed the juice into the
creamy mixture and stirred. (I’m getting
hungry just thinking about it.) And when
she arrived at Mrs. Howell’s, Mrs. Howell’s husband let Peggy in. “She’ll be happy to see you,” he said. Then he explained that Mrs. Howell had broken
her leg and was bedridden. The doctor
says she’ll be fine, but she’s frustrated because she can’t get around like she
used to. And I think she’s
depressed. Peggy walked into the bedroom
carrying her surprise. “I’m so sorry
about your leg, Mrs. Howell,” she said. “Maybe
this cake will make you feel better.”
And as she placed the cake on the table, the tangy scent of lemons wafted
through the air. She looked at Mrs.
Howell, her Sunday school teacher, and Mrs. Howell was crying. “How did you know?” she asked. “Know what?” asked Peggy. “Today is our wedding anniversary,” she
said. “For the past fifty-five years I
baked my husband his favorite thing.”
And she pointed at the cake. “How
did you know that it was lemon cheesecake?”
Now like all of the stories
in Guidepost, they are simple stories.
And this particular one is a little mysterious; coincidence
perhaps. But it is interesting how
little coincidences happen to those who yield themselves to the guidance of the
Holy Spirit.
In today’s lesson from John’s
Gospel, Jesus is teaching his disciples.
He says to them, “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now
bear, but when He, the spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all
truth. We need that spirit today.
Amen