UNDER THE POWER OF A NEW AFFECTION
John 1: 43-51

There are a lot of stories about sin and preachers. There is the one about the man of few words who came home from church one day. His wife asked him what the minister preached on. He replied "Sin". She pressed him a little further. "Yes, but what about sin?" He replied, "He was against it". Then there is the story about a woman saying farewell to a minister who was leaving the parish. She said to him, "O Reverend, you showed us more about sin than any other minister we've had." Then there was the minister who was preaching on various sins. When he came down on gossip, one of the elders whispered to te person sitting beside him, "Now that s preaching!" Then the preacher exposed greed and the man said a little louder so that everyone around him could hear, "Now that s teaching!" Then the preacher started in on drink and intemperance, and the man got up so everyone could hear and said, "Now that s meddling!"

In reality, sin is really no laughing matter. It is an insidious thing that affects our whole life. It is a condition. It is been compared to a virus. All the sins that people can list are the symptoms. You can treat the symptoms but you really can t do anything about the condition until the virus goes. It is not the bad fruit on the vine, but that which Is within the whole plant that produces the poison berries.

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What is this condition? This condition that we are in can be described as separation. To be in the state of sin, is to be in a state of separation. Who has not experienced separation in life? It abounds.

We can experience it within ourselves. We are our worst enemy at times. We are against ourselves. Sometimes we just don t like ourselves. In the extreme, that can be termed as self-hate, self despair, and can lead to self destruction. That instinct of self destruction can be as strong as the instinct for self preservation. We have all these different forces inside of us. We don't feel like we are in control. We are like Paul and can't do the good we want but we do what we don't want. Paul goes on in the description of himself," Now if I do what I do not wish to do, it is not that I do it, it is sin that dwells within me. He feels estranged. This estrangement he calls sin, it is an irresistible compulsion.

We can experience it as existing between ourselves and others. There is no doubt that we feel the separation from other people. Have you ever been lonely in the midst of a social event, separated from the noise and the talk? And no matter how close we are to another individual, you never really penetrate the hidden center of that other person. Like some of the advertisements that we hear on T.V. and radio, you can know more about your car than about the person that you are married to. The greatest human love cannot break through the barriers of the self. There is a basic estrangement not only within ourselves but between us and others. Our tendency to abuse others and even to destroy others, and to be cruel to others is related to that basic estrangement within.

There is an interesting song on the country charts awhile back about a boy who robs a store and he lets the storekeeper escape, and he knows that the police will come with their guns"a blazing". The interesting phrase that sticks in my mind from that song is :

      He pictures the arrival of the cruisers
      Sees that old familiar anger in their eyes
      He knows that when they're shooting at this loser
      They're aiming at the demons in their lives

You can call it an understanding of sin. Jesus said that is that which is within that defiles a person not that which is on the outside.

We also experience the separation from God. It is where the other forms of separation, from ourselves and others, stem from. We are estranged from the origin and aim of our lives. We don't know where we have really come from, or where we are ultimately going. We are separated from the mystery, the depth, and the greatness of existence itself. We hear a voice at the depth; but our ears are closed. We feel that something radical, total, and unconditional is required of us, but we rebel against it, try to escape the urgency, and will not accept the promise. In its extreme, we can lose ourselves in the meaninglessness of life - the emptiness, the doubt, the cynicism, and the despair. We run from God and at the same time seek God, and despair when we don't find God. We cry out with the psalmist, "How long will you hide your face from me, 0 God."

Sometimes this whole state of being comes in on us. Sometimes the separation we feel is more extreme than at other times.  It becomes unbearable at the times of personal failure, at the breaking of a relationship, and a time of crisis. We look for an answer but there is no answer and we are left with the burden.

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Try to imagine yourself down by the riverside. You are under a particular strain. You feel that what is demanded of you at this time you are unable to do. You don t know what to do or which way to turn. You are divided within yourself. You might describe yourself as "mixed up". because of being in this state, there is a barrier that exists between you and even your closest friends. You are unable to reach out to them. They are unable to reach you. They say, "You are so far within yourself that no one can reach you". Life doesn't have to much to offer. There is no meaning. Another words sin abounds.

You hear voices. There is a crowd drawing near. There is a man who the crowd gathers around.  You have heard of this man.  You have heard him speak.  You have watch him deal lovingly with people.  There is something different about him.  He talks about a new way, and calls people to venture down a new road.  In the past you heard John call this man the "lamb of God, the one upon whom the Spirit rests". you've heard that expression before In prophecy. There was one called the Lamb who would take upon him our sins and in fact the sins of the whole world. He will make God accessible to us. He makes God and humanity at one again. He makes communication possible again. The Spirit of God does not come and go. It stays with him. It is the lamb that will stay victorious at the end of time.

Something stirs within you. His spirit is connecting with his spirit. He looks straight at you as if he had been looking for you and now he has found you. your heart melts. All of a sudden the burden is lifted from your shoulders. Here is one that does bring meaning. He is one who promises a new birth and new creation. Here is one who cuts through the estrangement like you have never experienced before. Here is one who doesn't just deal with a sin here and a sin there but who can change you from the inside out. Our sins are like those stubborn dry leaves that stay on a tree all winter. But now we know that spring has come when new life begins to flow through the whole plant. Something new and powerful and alive is taking possession of our soul. We know the power of sin, but here is the power of Grace, the power of a new affection. 

He says "follow me" .  You hesitate.  You know that to go with him is like a wrenching away from the world that we know - the beliefs, values, and priorities that have ruled our lives till now. We have always thought that wealth, power, possessions, security is to be sought after above all else. There is no wealth, power, possessions, and security with him. To follow him means accepting new beliefs, values and priorities which are completely different than what we have known . It is to pursue love, justice, freedom, and peace.  You notice a few people beginning to follow him. He turns and begins to walk again. All you see is his back as he walks away from you. The spirit within you wont let him walk away with out you. You begin to walk after   him. Then you walk a little faster. Then you run. You don t want to miss this eternal moment. You catch up to him, out of breath, but more alive than you have felt in your life. You not only want to follow him you want to tell others about the one whom you have found. You experience is not complete until you have shared it with others.

If you had this kind of thing happen to you or if you can imagine this happening to you, you know the experience of Philip in the Gospel today. He began another leg of his journey in life under the power of a new affection.

Stories and Quotes

He was impressed Lord.
He followed.
He saw.
He experienced.
His excitement could not be contained.
He could not keep it to himself
It had to be shared.
He sought out his brother and brought him to you.
We have a need to share, Lord.
Life is too big to be possessed by one
Love is not love until it's shared
No man is an island, entire of itself
every man is a piece of the continent a part of the main.
It has to be shared
A woman shares her life with her husband.
A child shares his joy with his parents
A teacher shares his wisdom with a learner.
A husband shares his suffering with his wife.
Andrew knew his experience of you to be incomplete. Lord, until it could he shared.
You reach out to a man, and beyond him.
Your reach has no limit.
It stretches out to me, and yet leaves me behind unless I turn and
follow it's path to my neighbour.

Send me forth, Lord, as your apostle

(From A Kind of Praying by Rex Chapman based on John 1:40-42)

"When He (God) created man, God gave him a secret--and that secret was not how to begin, but how to begin again It is not given to us to begin; that privilege is Gods alone. But it is given to us to begin again and we do so every time we choose to defy death and side with the living."

Elie Wiesel

The Christ comes and assaults some of the expectations we have, or faces us up to ourselves. The Christ comes with the NOW. Some event or some person faces us up to our present situation in which we have become stuck, or causes us to examine our values, or a roles in life. We see the choices that are before us. We see the possibility for new life. Any time that something like that happens it can be called a Christ event in our lives........I've seen it so many times working in the field of addictions. It is quite common for people to blame their addiction on everyone else around them and the circumstances that they find themselves in rather than facing up to their own responsibility in it. "It's my job" they say.  "I'm under a lot of stress" . "It's my @#$%^&* boss. He drives me up the wall. He demands too much from me". "It's my family. They expect too much of me. My kids drive me nuts" "It's my friends, I have to get some new friends." "You know what it is? It's my wife - nag, nag, nag. She's got problems herself. I can't live with her" So his wife leaves him and then he says, "It's because my wife left me." It is always something else. It is always someone else. Then at some point they reach a low point. They run out of excuses. They have no one to blame but themselves. Through some way or another they are confronted with themselves, and they cry, "I need help".  Whatever brings them to that point and breaks through all of those excuses and blaming is a Christ event in their life. They are faced with a choice. It is a choice of life or death.

from an address given by Alex Thomas at the Clergy Day, Diocese of Caledonia, September 9, 2002

William James in The Varieties of Religious Experience distinguishes between two types of personalities: the once-born and the twice-born. The former may be a person born into a Christian family who, as he matures, gradually enters more and more into its convictions and ideals; he may have some ups and downs as to belief and conduct, but in general there is a stability in his life and a continuity in his relationship to God and in his earthly perspective.

But a second type of personality development has repeatedly manifested itself: the twice-born experience of a definitive down-and-up episode.  Something rises as from the inside — and he rises with it. It could be something dramatic by way of a form of revelation; more likely it will be a simple quiet conviction....The word "inner" is emphasized because this experience differs so markedly from that of persuasion from the outside.

But after Moment II, the crucial time of inner change, there is no struggle. . . . In the continuing "changes and chances of this mortal life" (they do not necessarily abate) he is thereafter not basically disturbed. He knows new life, he is a new being, he is born again.

—A Time for Christian Candor Bishop James Pike Seabury Books as quoted in  Pulpiut Resource  ed. Glendon Harris Oxnard California Vol 9, No.1 1981

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