John 14:23-29 — "Assisted Hearing"
When our children were younger my husband and I took them camping for a weekend in a nice wooded campground just over the Ohio line. We imagined a time away with them would be special and build a beautiful family memory. They were so excited when we set up the tent and built a fire in the fire pit. The sleeping bags were laid carefully in the tent, with all the other gear. We had a wonderful dinner cooked, or rather burnt to perfection over the hot coals of the fire wood we had set ablaze earlier. Night began to descend with a darkness my children were unfamiliar with, living with street lights illuminating sidewalks and boro roads.
I told my son to stay with his father while his sister and I went to the ladies room to get washed up for the night. Zara and I grabbed our shampoo soaps, towels, and tooth brushes heading off into the darkness with our flashlight when we heard a blood curdling scream. Realizing it was Peter my son, I began backtracking in the direction of our campsite with my daughter in tow. By now, other flashlights were joining mine as I combed the darkness looking for my screaming son, my husband calling him from the opposite direction.
Peter had decided not to listen when he was told to stay at the campsite with his dad. He decided to do what was right in his own eyes and follow me and his sister instead. He did not have a flashlight nor did he tell his dad his intent. In the gathering darkness, he tripped, fell over a truck wheel rim used as a fire pit, and gashed his shin wide open. We spent our night as a family together in the emergency room of the local hospital getting the front of his leg sewn up. Rather than counting the stars in the night sky, we were counting his stitches.
We are reminded in John’s gospel today that if we love the Lord we will hear his words and actually do what he says. Luke writes in the books of Acts of such a person who was the first to be converted to Christianity in Europe. Her name was Lydia. She was with a group of women who were listening to Paul when her heart was opened up to respond by the Holy Spirit. She was a purple cloth merchant by profession. Purple was a very expensive dye, it comes from the body of a very small snail. It takes many,many of these little creatures to make the dye and was only used on items of great value. The fact that Lydia was a seller of purple implies that she was financially comfortable. She started a church in her own house as she had enough materially to be able to offer housing to Paul and his companions on many occasions and entertain other saints as well.
Who is this Holy Spirit that will assist us in hearing? The same spirit that opened Lydia’s heart. He is referred to as the advocate, Comforter, or Spirit of Truth, the third Person of the Trinity, the administrator of redemption, if you will, who teaches or reveals to us what we should know and do. If we forget anything, as I am prone to do, the scripture tells us that we will be reminded or prompted by this same holy Spirit. John’s gospel tells us that the Advocate will testify on Jesus’ behalf guiding us into all truth, speaking whatever the Father says to speak and declaring things to come. We don't have to be concerned about having wisdom in a tricky situation. The holy Spirit speaks no other words than what the Father tells him to say so that we always have a right response when we need it . The holy Spirit assists us in our hearing the Word of God, whether it is written or spoken, so that we are not leaning to our own understanding, if we acknowledge him and ask for guidance in all we do. The question is do we want the guidance and help of the holy Spirit? Do we really want to hear what the Spirit is saying in every single area of our lives?
God created us from the beginning to have constant companionship with Him and until sin entered the world, the first man and woman walked in that ever present presence. All of creation was in harmony. The first man and woman lived with no sickness, hunger or thirst, no need, fighting, fear,or death. With the commission of the first act of disobedience, sin entered the world. Adam and Eve were driven out of the sacred garden never more to enjoy hearing the melodic voice of God. The heavenly presence no longer walked with them and talked with them daily, they existed apart in an earth that was cursed. By the first man came death.
By the second man, Jesus, came the resurrection from the grave. We are saved, if we accept it, by the precious atoning blood of our Jesus Christ, but we weren’t meant to stop there. God doesn’t just want to save us, He wants to sanctify us, clean us up. Our salvation is only meant to be the beginning of a long and marvelous relationship with the God of Creation where we daily grow more full of his divine grace. With open hearts, the Holy Spirit counsels us, because while we are children of God we still have within us a ‘carnal mind’ or sinful nature.
The lower nature is enticed by pride,the noises of the world and the lusts of the flesh. It is so easy to forget the things of God. We need to remain disciplined to attend worship on a regular basis and Bible study to feed our faith. A steady diet of secular music and television is going to cause us to have a worldly attitude instead of a heavenly outlook. “Whatsoever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things, Paul writes.(Phil 4-8)
The Greek poet Homer describes in the Odessey, his mythological epic, of boatloads of sailors upon the ocean who were enticed by the singing sea monsters, their voices so lovely, that sailors upon hearing their song, would forget all else and be tricked into steering the boats into the dangerous rocks and shipwreck. Homer wrote, ‘"At sea once more we had to pass the Sirens, whose sweet singing lures sailors to their doom. I had stopped up the ears of my crew with wax, and I alone listened while lashed to the mast.’ The ears of the sailors were stopped up with wax so they could not hear the Sirens song and navigate safe passage in their vessels. We need to choose to ignore the Siren song of the world. It only wants to lure us into entrapment and listen to the voice of the Spirit and true freedom instead.
Lydia listened and she has been recorded through history as the first European convert and a friend of the Apostle Paul. Because of the evidence of the holy Spirit working in her life, matching her words with her deeds, what we call the fruit of the spirit, many people came to know Jesus Christ and Lydia herself and her whole household was blessed. Through the Holy Spirit we too can have assisted hearing, ears to hear.
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