John 16:12-22

William F. Schnell

May 11, 2008

M. Scott Peck begins his book, The Road Less Traveled, with the proposition that “Life is difficult.”  Considering that most people are in denial about life’s inherent difficulties, it is strange that such a book should have sold over 10 million copies.  Most of us would rather think that if we could only win the lottery or be famous or powerful or pretty or some place where the grass is always greener, then we would not have any problems.  Life would be grand.  We would be eternally happy.

But the fact is that life is difficult for everyone—for the pope, for the President of the United States, for Bill Gates, for Christians, for everyone.  Everyone faces problems, struggles and trials.  Jesus had a cross to bear.  There is no magic or religious formula to spare us of life’s difficulties.  Indeed, if we were to get everything we wished there is an even chance we would be in even more difficult circumstances than we already are. 

Being in denial of life’s difficulties only makes them worse.  Some people abuse alcohol and other drugs because such things make them forget about their problems—at least temporarily.  But after they sober up, their problems are still there.  Indeed, their problems have only been compounded by inattention.  That is why people with substance abuse problems also tend to have escalating problems with their jobs, with their marriages and other primary relationships, and with the law. 

The trick is to acknowledge life’s difficulties and deal with them.  Homework is difficult.  I can procrastinate until bedtime before I crack a book when I am tired, or I can do my homework first thing when I get home from school and then go out and play for awhile.  Dealing with life’s difficulties is what enables us to grow and mature, just like struggling with free weights builds muscle and bone.  Overcoming life’s difficulties gives life meaning and purpose as we will find out today.

Today is Mother’s Day.  And because Easter came so early this year, it is also the Day of Pentecost when we celebrate the birthday of the Christian Church.  All of the lectionary texts assigned for today have to do with Pentecostal themes.  Let’s see, shall I be liturgically correct and preach on Pentecost or shall I keep my job and preach on Mother’s Day?  I told you life was difficult, even for preachers.  I know what I will do, I will preach on Mother’s Day with a Pentecostal passion—how’s that?

Speaking of bestselling authors, Richard Fulghum of All I Really Need to Know I learned in Kindergarten fame used to be a pastor.  He wrote: For twenty-five years of my life, the second Sunday of May was trouble.  I was obliged in some way to address the subject of Mother's Day.  It could not be avoided.  The congregation was quite open-minded and gave me free reign in the pulpit.  But when it came to the second Sunday in May the expectation was summarized in the words of one of the more outspoken women in the church: "I'm bringing my mother to church on Mother's Day, Reverend,
and you can talk about anything you want, but it had better include MOTHER,
and it had better be good!"

Motherhood is not for sissies.  Motherhood is fraught with difficulties, with trials and with tears.  But it is also, if you will pardon the pun, pregnant with possibility for joy and happiness and contentment.  Indeed, today we will find that the joys transcend the difficulties, which brings us to the title of our message for this morning: “Transcendent Joy.”  We return to the Gospel of John and that extended dialogue of Jesus between Jesus and his disciples just before he was arrested.

In his cryptic way of speaking Jesus says to his disciples, “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me” (Verse 16).  Which is it, will they see him no more or will they see him?  Some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me,’ and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?”  They kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘in a little while’?  We don’t understand what he is saying” (Verses 17-18). 

We have the benefit of knowing how the story unfolds.  We know what Jesus means.  He means that in a little while he is going to be arrested and crucified and buried.  The Jesus they have known they will see no more.  But just a little while after that God is going to raise him from the dead, and then the disciples will see the risen Christ in all his glory.  But because the disciples do not know how the story is going to unfold, they have no way of understanding Jesus.  They also do not have any way of witnessing the crucifixion except as bad news—bad news for Jesus and bad news for them.

Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, “Are you asking one another what I meant when I said, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me’?  I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices (Verses 19-20).  Jesus was always telling the disciples things ahead of time so that when they came to pass, the disciples would remember his words.

He told Peter ahead of time that he would disown his master three times before the rooster crowed in the morning.  And so it was that Jesus’ arrest so frightened Peter that he did disown him three times that very night to avoid suffering the same fate.  As it is written, Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: "Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times." And he went outside and wept bitterly (Matthew 26:75).  We may safely imagine that all the disciples who fled from Jesus in his darkest hour wept bitterly too.

Jesus said, “You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy” (Verse 20).  Jesus knew that his disciples were in for a very difficult grief-filled experience, but he did not want them to grieve as those who have no hope.  And so he gave them a foretaste of the resurrection hope.  But just before he did that he shared a wonderful illustration that is just perfect for Mother’s Day.  He said, A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world (Verse 21).

My favorite recording of all time is not one that was made by a celebrity singer, nor is it a speech made by a famous political figure.  It is a recording I made myself when Nancy gave birth to our firstborn, Mary Beth.  Nancy is, according to doctor who delivered our daughter, a real “pioneer woman” when it comes to having babies.  She does it without any painkilling interventions.  My recording registered the building labor pains right up to the moment of delivery, and then you hear our daughter’s first cry, and then you hear Nancy’s unmistakable joy.  There is no recording—no symphony, no nothing--that moves me like that recording does every time I hear it.

A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world.  But don’t think that even sublime joy lasts forever, or that the difficulties end there.  No, the birth of a child is just the first difficulty overcome in a long line that will follow.  As M. Scott Peck said, “Life is difficult,” even for mothers—maybe especially for mothers who faithfully answer their high calling from God.

I’ve got a couple of things to share with you to illustrate this point.  The first is this picture of me as a kid.  As you can see, I have sported buzz haircuts for a long time.  Somewhere after Nancy and I were engaged, or perhaps just married, Nancy talked with my Mom about what it was like to raise a kid like me.  My Mom told her that I was “an interesting child.”  Interesting is an interesting word.  If someone comes through the receiving line after church and says, “That was an… interesting sermon Pastor,” I don’t quite no what to make of it.  Does that mean it was good, or not-so-good?  I suppose it could mean a little of both.

I was a mixed bag as a kid.  In some ways I was an easy-going kid to have around—almost always happy and funny (I thought I was absolutely hilarious).  But in other ways I was a difficult child to rear.  The second thing I want to show you is my report card from 7^th grade that I keep framed on the wall in my office along with my academic degrees.  Let’s see… how about if we review my second grading period: Spelling – C, Geography – F, History – F, English – F, Math – C, Science – C. 

I want you to imagine for a moment, your kid coming home with those grades on his or her report card.  The interesting thing is that all of these grades come with a number 2 attached which, if you look at the explanation below, “Shows Normal Effort” as opposed to “Shows Little Effort” or “Shows No Effort.”  I guess three F’s and three C’s was considered normal effort for a fellow like me.  But my Mom did not buy it.  My Mom volunteered a lot with an organization called ARC—Aid to Retarded Children.  She knew a mentally challenged child when she saw one, and she just loved them as much as anyone could.  But she did not see one in me. 

She had an unmedicated attention deficit kid on her hands who had a great capacity for the enjoyment of life (translation: I was lazy, immature and a few other things like that).  My Mother went to my school about as much as I did.  She visited every one of my teachers while I had to sit in the hallway and overhear the same speech over and over again.  “If he misbehaves, beat him and then call me so I can beat him when he gets home.”  Okay, maybe it wasn’t quite that drastic, but it was definitely a show of support for my educators, and it was a clear indication that she intended to fulfill her partnership in my education.

Still, my excellent and well-meaning advisors tried to talk some sense into my Mom.  As I entered High School they suggested that maybe college prep wasn’t the best thing for a struggling student like me since we had a world-class vocational school in our district.  There was certainly nothing wrong with a vocational school as far as my Mother was concerned, and she knew that forcing kids into college for which they were ill-prepared represented a big mistake.  But in my case, she felt that I would outgrow my issues with time.

Apparently she was right.  The first report card I got my junior year had all A’s and one D—in English.  But my Mom did back flips.  Then I got this hankering to fly airplanes, enrolled in ground school and got the highest grade in my class on the Federal Aviation Administration examination.  By the time I graduated from High School I had a Private Pilot’s License.  That and my strong finish at high school caught the attention of the Air Force and they gave me a full ride through a private college.  What I mean is that they paid for my tuition, room, board, books and gave me a monthly subsistence allowance.

I did pretty well in college, and completed a Master of Arts after that and a Master of Divinity after that and started looking at a doctorate.  My Mom said, “I always wished you would do well in school, but now I wish you would get a job and make some money for a change.”  But don’t you think for a minute that she wasn’t proud of that doctorate.  One day we were driving across the Gahanna Bridge when she saw my old guidance counselor, Mr. Nicholson, walking along the area reserved for pedestrians.  My Mom stopped the car right there holding up a line of traffic, stuck her head out the window and shouted, “Just wanted you to know Mr. Nicholson that the doctor was back in town.

Which brings me to the last thing I would like to share with you, which is this document I wrote in partial fulfillment of my Doctor of Ministry Degree, also known as a D.Min degree in the trade.  A physician gets an MD (medical doctorate), a lawyer gets a JD (juris doctorate), and others get a PhD (doctor of philosophy).  Ministers get a D.Min (doctor of ministry).  I mention this to help explain my dedication page, which reads: “I would like to dedicate this achievement to my mother, Wanda Schnell, for not listening to my high school guidance counselors when they wanted to pull me from the college prep track and put me in a trade school.  Somebody ought to come up with a D.Mom degree.  She’d graduate Phi Beta Kappa from that school.”

Life is difficult for everyone, including mothers.  That’s the bad news.  But if we do the best we can to face up to those difficulties with the help that God promises to provide, overcoming them can give meaning and purpose to our days, and bring us a measure of joy that transcends them all.  And that is the great Good News from God’s Holy Word for this Mother’s Day.