When’s the last time you dropped a name to impress somebody?

Be honest…everybody does it. We love acting like we know somebody important. We want the inside scoop on everything, the behind the scenes dirt. If we can impress people with who we know, we’ve ARRIVED.

Several years ago, when the Yankees were winning the world series again and again, their third baseman Scott Brosius was getting a lot of recognition. In fact, in 1998, he was the world series Most Valuable Player. So, of course, I just happened to mention to people that I played against him several times in high school. He was a third baseman, I was a third baseman…we stood on the same ground during the exact same game! It’s like it somehow made me a better person that I’d had a “personal connection” with him. And now the last time I dropped a name is five seconds ago!

We LOVE any kind of personal connection to famous people. Tell-all books sell big; shows like “Entertainment Tonight” and “Access Hollywood” let us see Reese Witherspoon and Orlando Bloom walking their dog in sweats. Even movies are marketed differently now; when a DVD comes out, most people want to know about the “Special Features”, the behind the scenes interviews, the scoop on “what really happened” as the movie was filmed.

If you’re like a lot of people, you probably love this stuff, too…even if you feel like it’s sort of a guilty pleasure.

I won’t make you raise your hand and admit it, but if you ARE one of those people, if you do like the behind the scenes, juicy details…then you are going to love this section of the book of John.

Starting last week in chapter 13, with Jesus washing the disciples feet, and all the way through the end of chapter 17, we are treated to the inside story. We get an intimate look at what it was like to be an insider with Jesus at the end of his life.

This is where the most important teaching is spoken. This is where Jesus is so real, so connected to his disciples. This is where he longs for the disciples to understand and live into what he hoped and dreamed they could become.

We find out what Jesus really desires for his disciples, and in doing so, we find out what Jesus wants for you and for me as well.

What I’ve been wrestling with this week is the fact that internally, I’m resisting what’s said in chapter 14.

Jesus’ words seem too good to be true.

Jesus makes it crystal clear that he is claiming an intimacy with the Father, with the creator God, that is beyond our imagining. He is promising the disciples and us that there will always be room for us forever in the presence of God. He’s promising that just as he is always with the Father, we can always be with him.

Jesus even goes so far as to say that we who believe in him will do the things that he does, we will do even greater things than he has done.

We get the inside scoop, the behind the scenes secrets, and it seems too good to be true.

Some of us are more jaded and cynical by nature than others; but the truth is, just about all of us get more guarded, more careful as we get older.

Some might say we just get more realistic, while others would say we get more pessimistic. The world being what it is, there are very few people who keep a sense of idealism and hope all the way through life.

I remember in grade school, we had a teacher who was really loved by all of us. Part of the reason was that she believed in us. She told us we could be whomever we wanted to be, we could do whatever we wanted to do. And she was so energetic, so loving, that we believed her. We loved her for it.

In some ways I’m sad to say that I see things differently as an adult. Right or wrong, I can’t help but think, when I look at a classroom of kids at school, that there are some things some of them will never do. It’s not that I don’t want to give them hope, but I think that I would at least find myself inwardly cringing at the same teacher I loved as a kid, cringing because I wouldn’t want her to raise hopes in a child that were just going to be beaten down by a world where dreams don’t often come true.

We all know we’re not SUPPOSED to be jaded and cynical about Jesus’ words.

We all know that we are SUPPOSED to just believe them and accept them and happily live by them. But we find so many ways to NOT take Jesus at face value, so many ways to qualify and limit and compartmentalize what he says.

Sometimes we just don’t understand it, don’t really allow our brains to comprehend what Jesus is saying. Thomas is like that here in chapter 14 (and I’d invite you to have your bible open to John 14 if you don’t have it open already.)

Jesus has already told them a seed has to die for a harvest; he’s been pretty clear with them the choice he’s going to make to die. He talks about going to his Father’s home, which pretty clearly is heaven. It’s not that hard to put two and two together, except that we’re not used to people talking about going to heaven and then coming back to get their friends.

So Thomas says, “Uh, no, Jesus, we don’t really know where you’re going, so we don’t really know the way.”

“Yes, you do, Thomas. Think about it.

“I’m the way. I’ve always been the way. The things I’ve done have shown time and time again that I am so closely connected with the Father that I can do things 0nly God can do. I’m the way. I’m the connection. I’m the true way of life. If you’ve seen me, you know the way to the Father, because I’m it! If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father!

Then it’s Philip’s turn to not take Jesus at face value. Maybe it’s an honest question Philip asks, but I have this hunch that it’s a little bit of the cynical human nature coming through, a little bit of that desire for more, a little bit of the sense that it really can’t be this easy or good or true.

“Show us the Father, Jesus, and we’ll be satisfied.”

I get the feeling Jesus got a funny look on his face, pointed to himself, and said, “Hello? Here I am!”

Jesus treats it like a case of mistaken identity. Have you ever had one of those moments where you don’t realize who you are talking to?

Ron Thomason, the pastor at Godsong Community Church here in town, did something I am just not brave enough to do. He likes to sit in different places around the room when they meet for church on Sunday mornings, not just the front row where it’s expected.

One time, he saw somebody who was at Godsong for the first time sitting near the back, so he went and sat next to them. He asked them if it was their first time, they said yes, and he said, “Oh, you’ll love our church. It’s a great church! Have you met the pastor?” Nope, haven’t met the pastor. “Oh, you’ll LOVE him! He’s hilarious! One of the funniest guys I’ve ever met. And really smart, too!”

Then he watches their face later in the service when HE’S the one who goes up to speak!

Jesus thinks Philip should already realize that he and the Father are one.

But Philip wants something more. “Come on, Jesus, show us something big. Give us something beyond doubt. Show us the Father, and that will be enough.”

Bigger than raising a man from the dead? Bigger than a crowd shouting “Hosanna”? Bigger than gentiles coming to find truth from a Jewish rabbi?

In this behind the scenes moment in chapter 14, we see Jesus working so hard to put the pieces together for the disciples; yet it is so difficult for them to really grasp who he is and what he is doing.

Jesus’ words are designed to help them re-interpret all that they have seen as they’ve walked with him and listened to him and watched him.

“I’m not just a miracle worker. I’m not just a teacher. I am one with the creator God!

“And it’s even more than that! It’s deeper than that! I am the way for you to experience that same kind of intimacy with the creator God forever. It’s for you, too!

“The reason I have to go away, the reason I have to die, is because I’ve got more in mind for you than just learning some facts about the world and getting to spend eternity in heaven someday.

“The reason I have to die is so that you will never be without my presence in your life. I want to give you my presence through the Holy Spirit. I have to die so you will do what I have done in the world, so that you’ll do even greater works than I have done.

“In fact, I am the way for you to experience this same kind of intimacy with God, so that the things you do and the things you ask will bring glory to God. I want your very life to be lived in my power and to bring glory to God!”

This is the truth of what Jesus came to do!

This is the inside scoop, the real deal, the inside story behind the good news of Jesus Christ.

And we have a hard time not neutering the message of its power.

Here is the bald faced, radical, life changing message of God, in all its bold glory: If we believe in Jesus, we will be empowered to do what he does. We can experience a forever relationship with the Creator God that begins NOW.

Yet so often we reduce that message. So often we make following Jesus about lists of rules, lists of facts to believe, a simple prayer to pray one time, a ticket to heaven someday.

Jesus is inviting us to join his close relationship with the Father. He’s inviting us to do what he does in the world. Kathy Watson wrote it this way this week:

For me it means extending Jesus’ reach into my time, into my culture, into my world - a place he can only get to through me.

What would happen if we took this at face value? I know there are “buts”. I know there are disclaimers. I know there is the danger of raising false hopes. I know that for some reason, we don’t all experience the power of God in this life like we would like.

But what if I promise we will deal with those “buts” and “what ifs” and “wait a minutes” next week and the week after that? Next week, we’ll talk about becoming so intimately connected to Jesus that we learn to want what he wants, to do what he does. But what if we set aside, just for today, our realism, our pessimism, our cynicism, our fears, our past disappointments? [PAUSE]

In your worship folder, you’ll see a responsive reading of verses 12-14.

What if, just for today, we agreed together we won’t talk about the dangers of those who “name it and claim it”? What if, just for today, we agreed together to let these be Jesus’ words to us? What if we agreed, just for today, that we will speak and listen to these words without watering them down or thinking of the “buts?”

What if, just for today, we let ourselves imagine what it would be like to take Jesus at his word and live in the power of his promised Holy Spirit?

Please read these with me, and let God speak to you in the silence of open worship when we finish.