19 May 2014 - the big reveal

19 May 2014 - the big reveal

The disciple in today's reading wonders why Jesus will reveal himself to him but not to the world.  Jesus reveals himself to us, too.  But often we wish he would be more quick to reveal himself to the world.  We ask the same question which the other Judas asks this morning.  Does this disciple marvel at his apparent position of exclusivity?  Or does wish to share what he has found with the world? 

He hears Jesus say he will not be with him much longer.  He knows that he needs the words of Jesus to open him to the grace in which he stands.  He thinks that if Jesus will only be around for a short time then there will be no way for the world to know the grace that this Judas knows.  They won't be able to experience Jesus and the Father making their dwelling with them because it all starts with keeping the word of Jesus.  We ourselves hear Jesus speak at moments of conversion moments of profound intimacy and conversion.  He speaks the words that open us to love him and keep his commandments.  But then, later, in what we come to think of as the real world, when we want to share his good news, we don't know how to find him in order that he might speak these words to others.  We take come to take it for granted that he is gone and that he revelation is something which is just for us.  It is now something in the past.  It is something we treasure, to be sure.  It is still something on which we base our lives.  But it is no longer a living word that can actually speak into our circumstances with power.

But Jesus tells us how to find his living word at any moment we desire:

“I have told you this while I am with you.
The Advocate, the Holy Spirit
whom the Father will send in my name
he will teach you everything
and remind you of all that I told you.”

Even though his concrete and visible presence is restricted to a certain point in history, to a certain people and culture, he nevertheless wants to speak to all men in all ages.  Even before Jesus comes to us God "did not leave himself without withness" among the Gentiles.  But now he speaks to them directly.  He does so through his Spirit alive in his Church.  He wants his relationship, where he dwells in us and we in him, to be just as real for us as for those who walk with him in Palestine.

This is the Spirit that fills Paul and Barnabas.  It anoints their healing and their preaching.  It speaks so directly to the circumstances in which they find themselves that those around them are tempted to worship them.  They tell the crippled to stand in the power of the Spirit and the crippled don't just stand.  They leap to their feet.  The Holy Spirit manifests in Paul and Barnabas so strongly that the crowd is tempted to sacrifice to them.  The humility that allows them to be so filled with the Spirit quickly turns aside any praise directed at them to the LORD who is the source of all mercy, truth, and blessing.

Not to us, O LORD, not to us
but to your name give glory
because of your mercy, because of your truth.
Why should the pagans say,
“Where is their God?”

But this is not meant just for them.  God uses Paul and Barnabas to speak to that generation.  He wants to equip us with his Spirit so that we can speak just as directly to this one until all peoples  say with the psalmist, "Not to us, O Lord, but to your name give the glory."