Delegated

John 14:15-24

I marvel at this. God could choose to accomplish what he wants to do any way he chooses. But he lets us “help.”

A lot of times, as a leader and as a parent, I’m tempted to just do things myself. In some ways it’s simpler. But one of the ways my church, Knox, is growing, is in expanding leadership and involvement. That’s what makes it especially exciting these days, and a great sign of the new thing happening in Midland in and through Knox Church. To release leadership and ministry to others is arguably the greatest joy, and reward, of effective leadership.

In the realm of parenting, I find that our boys are at the stage where letting them do things is no longer a matter of humouring them. In other words, they can really help. Again, sometimes it would be easier, Melissa and I find, to just do things ourselves. It would be less hassle, some mornings, to just make their beds rather than insist that they do it. But that wouldn’t really help them, and persisting in such a discipline develops in them stuff that they will appreciate in the long run (one hopes).

I think this is the kind of experience from which we could approach this text. When Judas (not the betrayer) asks why Jesus is revealing things to the disciples and working through the them rather than manifesting himself directly to the world, I think the answer is that God sees great value in doing what he wants to do through his kids. His kids are first of all those who are such through adoption, an adoption effected through belief in his “begotten” son. We therefore become his adopted children, and come under his care and loving discipline. He seems to think it’s better for all concerned if he works through his adopted children walking this earth than through some cosmic sign revealed to all that would probably get explained away as mass hallucination or something anyway.

Our great resource in this enterprise is the Holy Spirit, probably the most ignored aspect of divinely-empowered life in the church tradition of which I am part. I’ll stay with this passage another day to talk about the Holy Spirit.

Prayer:
Jesus, make me more and more a doer of your will, that in my obedience I may experience your presence, and have some small part in the acknowledgment and welcoming of your Kingdom. Amen.