6th Sunday of Easter
Texts: John 14:15-21;
Acts 17:22-31
BETTER THAN HEAVEN: LIVES
TRANSFORMED IN THE SPIRIT
In a little while the world will no
longer see me, but you will see me; because I
live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in
my
Father, and you
in me, and I in you.
Do you have any notion of what Jesus is talking about here? I have
to
be honest with you and tell
you that, until more recently, I really didn't have the foggiest
idea
of what Jesus was talking
about. I've shared with you over the last year or so that I feel a
deficit in our Lutheran tradition in
understanding the Holy Spirit, what St. Paul calls "life in the
Spirit," and spiritual matters, in
general. This is somewhat of a risky confession since I'm paid to be
a
"spiritual leader."
But as I mentioned, I feel my deficit as one that our whole
tradition
has shared, including the way
we train our pastors and leaders. Thankfully, I think things are
beginning to change. Our synod,
for example, has hired a Director for its Center for Mission and
Ministry, who is a Catholic sister
trained in the longer Catholic traditions of contemplative
spirituality. The first thing sister Nancy
Brousseau has done is to lead classes on foundations of
spirituality. I
had the privilege of
presenting at this class earlier this month, because of my special
knowledge of the work of René
Girard and how that fits into the spiritual traditions. It was truly
an
honor for me since I'm new
myself in learning about these wider traditions of spirituality.
I've
been going to a Spiritual
Director for less than a year.
But this is truly exciting for me to learn and significantly deepen
my
faith journey at this point in
my life. And I'm excited to share this journey with you, and invite
you
along. This morning's
puzzling, if not bewildering, Gospel Lesson is an example. I think I
can help us to begin to
understand it more deeply. For example, it helps us to understand
what
last week's Gospel really
means. We think we know what Jesus means when he says in
last
week's Gospel, "In my
Father's house there are many dwelling places." 'Ah,' we say,
'that's
about going to heaven
when we die.' But here's the thing: it's not about going
to
heaven when we die. It's about
something much, much better than that. It's about spiritual
communion
with God in the here and
now such that even for those who have died and are held spiritually
in
God's power of life, they
are spiritually present to us all the time, because God is
spiritually
present to us all the time.
"In my Father's house there are many dwelling places." In John's
Gospel, the only other place
that Jesus talks about "my Father's house" is at the beginning when
he
so-called cleanses the
Temple in Jerusalem. "You have turned my Father's house into a den
of
thieves," he says. "My
Father's house" is clearly the this-worldly Temple, in this case,
and
not some other-worldly place
we go to when we die.
But Jesus gives us more than a hint that he also means much more
than
just the Temple in
Jerusalem. He tells the leaders of the Temple, "Destroy this Temple,
and in three days I will build
it up." Later to his disciples, Jesus explains that he was speaking
about "the Temple of his body."
So, when in John 14 Jesus says, "In my Father's house there are many
dwelling places," he is
again talking about the Temple of his body. In fact, I think he is
talking about all our bodies as
Temples of God's Spirit, as St. Paul does in 1 Cor. 7. That's why
there
are so many dwelling
places, because there are so many of us. He goes to prepare a place
for
us by dying on the cross,
by letting his Temple be destroyed. And God raises it in three days
as
a new way in which God
can be spiritually present to each of us who come to believe in
God's
very real power of love,
which is the power of life itself.
Now, can we begin to understand what Jesus is saying this week, the
continuation of last week's
Gospel, when he says, "In a little while the world will no longer
see
me, but you will see me;
because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I
am
in my Father, and you in
me, and I in you." It's not about us going to heaven when we die.
It's
about heaven coming to us
through spiritual communion with God, and with all who have died in
God's power of love and
life. The world won't see Jesus, because it has no clue about this
spiritual communion. But we
who believe in Jesus will be able to spiritually see Jesus because
of
this spiritual communion of
Jesus living in the Father and in us, and we living in the Father
and
in Jesus.
As I learn and grow in this way of contemplative spirituality, I
have
new guides for my journey.
One of those is John Shea, a Catholic Spiritual Director and
teacher.
Every week, I read his
commentary and teaching on the Gospel Lesson.
(1)
This week he begins with one of his Spiritual
Director friends, William Shannon, who wrote a very direct letter to
a
woman to whom he was
being a Spiritual Director, a woman who had lost her sister. Shannon
writes to her:
I
hope
you have been able to come to grips a bit more with your feeling
about
your
sister's death. I realize how very hard this is for you. You
need to
keep reflecting on the
fact that, while in one sense death separates us from the loved
ones,
in another and more
ultimate sense it deepens our spiritual union with them. When
there is
only that [spiritual
union], then that becomes most important. And of
course it
should really be most important at all times. We are one with
one
another, because whatever of us there is that is
really worthwhile is from God and in God. And that is something
that
death does not and
cannot change -- though it appears to do so, since we are so
accustomed
to think of a
person solely in terms of her empirical ego. Death is the end of
the
empirical ego, but not
of the person. We are all eternally one in the love of God.
("Thomas
Merton and the
Quest for Self-Identity," Cistercian Studies 22, no. 2
[1987]
172) (2)
And then Shea himself comments,
This seems to be very close to what
Jesus is telling the disciples. The scenario is
not: Jesus is going to God and when they die, they will go to God
and
be reunited
to him. The scenario is: once he has died and is no longer
physically
among them,
he will not be gone. He will be present to them in and through the
Spirit in the
depth of their own beings. They are not being encouraged to hope
for
life after
death. They are being instructed in a consciousness change, to
become
aware of
spiritual presence without physical manifestation.
(3)
In this year that I've lost my mother, I'm beginning to experience
the
richness of this spiritual union.
Not only am I experiencing spiritual communion with her in God, but,
as
Shannon says to the
woman who lost her sister, it is a union with the best of
who
my mother is, because God
preserves and enhances the most worthwhile aspects of who we are.
Does this make sense? Well, not completely to me, either. But I'm
learning. And, Brothers and
Sisters in Christ, it truly surpasses what I grew up learning about
God
saving me after I die to an
other-worldly place called heaven. No, in Jesus Christ, heaven comes
to
earth in the here and
now through the new possibilities of spiritual communion with God --
which transforms my life
today. Listen in our prayers
this morning for the emphasis on
transformation. God in Jesus Christ
seeks to transform each of us into living temples of his power of
love
and life in this world.
I'd like to finish in anticipation of the conclusion of an
incredible
cultural phenomenon: the last
of the Harry Potter movies. I'm increasingly appreciating
just how spiritual these books by J. K.
Rowling are. I can't go into all the aspects of that claim here. But
I
conclude with the relationship
of Harry to his principal teacher Albus Dumbledore. Dumbledore
essentially acts as Harry's
Spiritual Director at the end of the first five books: He helps
Harry
interpret what has happened
to him, primarily in terms of the spiritual power of love. The sixth
book is a bit different, in that
Dumbledore acts as Spiritual Director throughout the book, but not
at the very end -- for the
very good reason that Dumbledore is killed at the end of Book Six.
So
we anticipate that Harry
will miss his Spiritual Director for the final book, Book Seven.
Alone,
Harry sacrifices himself in
a very Christ-like act at the end of the epic series. He means to
die,
but he doesn't quite. Rather,
he has a near-death experience in which he finds himself having his
last session of Spiritual
Direction with Dumbledore. And the very end of that session strikes
the
proper note on the
reality of matters of the Spirit -- on what we've been talking about
this morning:
"Tell me one last thing," said
Harry.
"Is this real? Or has this been happening
inside my head?"
Dumbledore beamed at him, and his voice sounded loud and strong in
Harry's ears even though the bright mist was descending again,
obscuring his
figure.
"Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on
earth
should that mean that it is not real?"
(4)
Paul J. Nuechterlein
Delivered at Prince of Peace Lutheran,
Portage, MI, May 29, 2011
Notes
1. John Shea, The
Spiritual
Wisdom of the Gospels for Christian Preachers and Teachers:
Year
A -- 'On Earth As It Is In Heaven.' Collegeville,
MN:
Liturgical Press, 2004.
2. Ibid., p. 188.
3. Ibid.
4. J. K. Rowling, Harry
Potter
and the Deathly Hallows. New York: Scholastic,
2007, p.
723.