05 May 2013 “Room for Greater Things” John 14:23-29

05 May 2013                “Room for Greater Things”                 John 14:23-29

  A little more than 30 years ago, a teenager named Jadav “Molai” Payeng began burying seeds along a remote sandbar near his birthplace in northern India’s Assam region to grow a refuge for wildlife. Not long after, he decided to dedicate his life to this work, so he moved to the site where he could work full-time eventually creating a lush new forest ecosystem. Incredibly, the spot today hosts a sprawling 1,360 acres of jungle that Payeng planted single –handedly.

 

The Times of India recently caught up with Payeng in his remote forest home to learn more about how he came to leave such an indelible mark on the landscape.

 It all started in 1979, when floods washed a large number of snakes ashore on the sandbar. One day, after the waters receded, Payeng, only 16 then, found the place dotted with the dead reptiles. That was the turning point of his life.

 “The snakes died in the heart, without any tree cover. I sat down and wept over their lifeless forms. It was carnage. I alerted the forest department and asked them if they could grow trees there. They said nothing would grow there. Instead, they asked me to try growing bamboo. It was painful, but I did it. There was nobody to help me. Nobody was interested,” says Payeng, now 47.

 While it has taken years for Payeng’s remarkable dedication to planting to receive some well-deserved recognition internationally, it did not take long for wildlife in the region to benefit from his manufactured forest. Demonstrating a keen understanding of ecological balance, Payeng even transplanted ants to his thriving ecosystem to bolster its natural harmony. Soon the shade less sandbar was transformed into a self-functioning environment where a vast array  of creatures could dwell. The forest, called the Molai woods, now serves as a safe haven for numerous birds, deer, and even rhinos, tigers and elephants.

  It was Payeng’s turning point that made all this happen.

 I can only imagine the moments in Jesus’ life that were his turning points. When he was young and was teaching in the Temple, when he began performing miracles, when he stood up to all authority for the one true authority in his life, when we turned one last time to Jerusalem.

 Like Payeng, I do not know if Jesus knew what he was in for. He must have known something. I wonder, could he have foreseen the resurrection and his eventual turn to heaven.

We do know that along the way Jesus taught, and taught, and taught. Never giving up, Jesus knew his lessons and he knew his responsibility.

 In the beginning, before God created man and woman, God created the earth. God saw that it was good. Then God created humanity, and we know how that turned out.

But God has hope for us. Through Jesus and Jesus’ sacrifice we have a chance for our own turning point. Jesus said, “I give you a new commandment.” It is a new commandment that we love one another. Just as Jesus has loved us, we should also love one another.

How is it this commandment is new? The commandment to love our neighbors as we love ourselves first appeared in the Old Testament in Leviticus. Yet, Jesus insists this is new.

What we may discover if we look more closely is Jesus is taking the old commandment and making in new with a new power. We are not to love alone. We are not to be the sole architect of our love.

God and God’s love will become one with ours. Our heart and soul will be made new in a surprising holy union with God. In this union God will create in us a new person, a new creation. We will be different in our identity and different in the composition of our humanity and different in our intention.

 God will create in us a newness in who and what we love and how we should live. To live this new commandment we will soon realize the intricate web of relationship we have with our created world, with all people in that world, and with God.

  Jadav Payeng shows us, and the world, and God what such love can do.

 Jesus Christ shows us, and the world, and God what such love has done.

  Jesus died for us so we might live free from sin forever. This is the greatest love story the world has even known. God’s love is an unbelievable love. It is a love only God can give. It is that same love that God has infused into each of us, into our heart, and soul. God’s love is alive in each of us!

  Being this truth, God has another lesson for us this morning. In John 14 Jesus promise us that the Holy Spirit has also been sent into us by God.  Finally, we have a voice that will speak to us, teach us, and remind us how we are to live.  How we are to live for the sake of the world and everyone in it.

 The harsh and real truth is that love in this earthly realm is not a fairy tale story. The world is a dangerous place. There are storms and earthquakes and fires and draught and flood.

People are dangerous too. The good princess is not always rescued by the night in shining armor. And love for love’s sake often fades into a selfish mess. How often have we cried out from the wilderness, my mess proves God takes time off from dispensing God’s love!

A friend once told me a story about a woman named Mary. Mary dutifully cared for her loved one with Multiple Sclerosis. After carrying years of bitterness and pain, times when Mary was sure God’s love was gone, God showed Mary otherwise.

Mary found herself being a chaperone on a school field trip. Before they left school folks were asked to divide up and share in a carpool. Soon Mary found herself in a very uncomfortable position. She was left to ride with a women she did not know. The woman was not from her part of town and made Mary uncomfortable. She did not want to ride with her. But she did.

 As they drove along, this complete stranger, from the other side of the tracks, began to share her life and her pain with Mary. She learned that a loved one in her family had Multiple Sclerosis of all things and Mary learned of her despair, her fear, and her sense of being lost.

  

Mary was reliving all over again her own pain and suffering. Yet, she immediately overcame her sorrow and turned to show her love for her neighbor. She knew the right doctors and the best care givers and the necessary support systems that were needed and began to help this suffering woman with the knowledge she had only received as her life was falling apart. Mary knew and Mary shared God’s love from the darkest shadows in her life so this one she now cared for would receive Mary’s great gift of love and hope.

 Mary soon realized God had prepared her for this chance meeting. Painfully God had prepared her to meet a stranger and bring healing and hope and show the love and compassion that God placed in her heart. A love she did not recognize because of her suffering. Mary was able to show the world what a Christian does in the midst of pain and suffering. We love!

  Who in your life has brought this sort of good news to you, with love?  Or, who have you brought good news to, also with love?

 In the midst of it all, do we realize God has prepared us to see that the ultimate source for good comes solely from God’s presence in our lives, especially when times are tough. Especially when we sit down and weep. When the authorities say nothing will grow there. When we, one lonely person, have nobody to help. When we reach that turning point in our lives.

  Jesus came into this world a long time ago and now he is gone. But we are not alone. While he was still alive Jesus promised he will continue to care for us. He promised in his resurrection he will send us his shalom, his peace and wholeness.

  

The Reverend Barbara Taylor wrote about this passage, “I am a little fuzzy on the details, as John himself is, but abiding or having the Holy Spirit live in us, seems to involve becoming part of a large extended family, and a holy one at that. When God and Jesus move in with us, apparently, they make lots of keys – keys for the Holy Spirit, keys for the other disciples, keys for all kinds of indwelling cousins in Christ. Coming and going, we learn to recognize each other, and to call upon each other for everything that people who live together do.”

 These are the words that commit our ministry and mission to the health and wellbeing of our created world and one another. Loving our environment and those folk on our campus and beyond we call upon each other for everything that people who live together do.

 But, there is a price to pay for this act of love. True, God’s love is a gift and God expects no gift in return. But God does tell us to promise to keep God’s commandments. Having the character to live the commandments upholds our ability to love a Godly love.

Living with a Godly love and, like God, freely giving our love away, calling on one another for help and love, our actions then become a reflection of  God’s presence and our life becomes a reflection of Jesus’ teaching others to love.

Over and over again the dynamic of God’s love unfolds and the world becomes a holy vessel of love and ultimately knows heavenly peace.

How else will the world and all in it be saved if not by God’s love found in us? How can we expect the world to not be filled with hate and hurt and sin and suffering if we will not show the world another way?

God started this pathway to peace. God said, “Abide in my love.” 

Now it is our turn to show it to the world. We begin as Jesus did, with one person, in one desperate situation, with one love, holy and united with God, his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and our saving Holy Spirit.

 We begin as Jadav Payeng did planting one seed at a time. For more than 30 years. We begin today planting the seed  of good news through the mission and ministry God calls us to personally and as God’s church. Calling on one another and planting our love on our own barren sandbar. One seed, then another, then another.

 And at our end God will say, “Well done my faithful servant, well done. Go now in peace.”

  

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever, Amen.                                                  

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