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The words Jesus speaks to us in this passage from John 16 are some of the most challenging words you and I will ever hear! He is with his disciples after three years of intense training with them. They have grown as followers of Jesus, and they have learned more than they ever bargained for about God, about themselves, about others, and about life. They have become the world’s leading experts in the Christian way, apart from the Master, and the time has come for them to take over the work of Jesus in the world. You might say that “graduation day” has finally come, and Jesus is about to launch his Church. So he gathers the disciples together and this is what Jesus says:

“I have much more to say to you, but you cannot bear it now.”

Hmmmm…

I don’t know how those words strike you, but they make me think that maybe Robert Fulghum was not entirely correct when he wrote that wonderful book, “Everything I Ever Really Needed To Know I Learned in Kindergarten.”

Now, I won’t dispute that we all did indeed learn some very important life lessons in Kindergarten, but these words of Jesus make me think that maybe there are some things that can only be learned later – that there is much more to be said to us – but we Kindergarteners can’t bear it right now.

And I know that to be personally true because since I graduated from Kindergarten I’ve had to encounter some of life’s realities that I simply was not prepared to face when I was 5-years old. Is that true of you, too?

And Jesus’ words also contradict that adage by which many of us here today live – “You can’t teach old dogs new tricks!”

Well, evidently Jesus thinks old dogs are not as hopeless as we old dogs may think we are! After telling us that he has much more to say to us, but it is more than we can bear right now, he adds:

“But when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.”

So this Holy Spirit we have been talking about – the Spirit that came into the Church on the Day of Pentecost – has as one of its jobs the challenge of teaching us and guiding us into all those things Jesus says we’ll need to know, but we aren’t ready for them yet. The Holy Spirit is to provide us our post-Kindergarten education. The Holy Spirit teaches old dogs new tricks.

Now the reason I think these words of Jesus are so challenging is because Jesus is stating that faith is a journey, and not a final destination. The person who thinks they “know” God is simply mistaken. The person who thinks they “know” what it means to be a Christian is simply mistaken. The person who thinks they “know” the Bible is simply mistaken. You and I may know right now what people in our circumstances and experiences can know about God, or what it means to be a Christian, or about the Bible…but…Jesus says…

“I have much more to say to you, but you can’t bear it right now. But when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.”

I know these words of Jesus to be true. I know them to be true not because I have arrived at some higher level of spiritual understanding, but rather because the Holy Spirit – over the years – has been chipping away at the faith of my childhood and leading me to places I could not possibly have appreciated at other times in my life. Let me share some of the discoveries the Holy Spirit has led me to that are new and different than what I once thought I knew. And these are just simple things, but the Holy Spirit has had to work really hard to help me engage them.

First of all, my faith journey has led me to discover that there is more of heaven in this world than I once thought. That’s one of the reasons I like to tell people that the old song “In Heaven There Is No Beer” is just not true. There IS beer in heaven! That’s one of the reasons some folks think Tellico Village is heaven!

Some of us grew up in a religious culture that saw alcohol products as evil. So did my mother. To her deathbed my mom insisted Jesus drank non-alcoholic wine! And I know the Christian people down in Moore County feel very strongly about their Christian duty of keeping their county dry… as they go back and forth to work at the Jack Daniels Distillery in Lynchburg.

Now I’m not advocating alcohol consumption here, but what I am trying to say is that many of us have a faith that was born with a distinct inability to appreciate that the world is a beautiful place, filled to overflowing with good things, indeed with the very glory of God. The songs of ancient Israel call us to understand that the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof…that the heavens reflect the glory of God…that God formed the oceans and mountains and trees…and even that God gave us these things we call “grapes” that can be made into wine that makes us “happy” – according to the Bible!

My faith began with the idea that the world is an awful place, much unlike heaven, and it would be better for God to just judge it and blow it up. But now I see the world differently. I see the world as God’s craftsmanship – the work of God’s own hands. In the Bible, you know, heaven is described as a place with beautiful trees and flowing streams and people of every color, language and tribe singing songs, eating food and drinking beverages of their choosing!

The heaven of the Bible looks an awful lot like what God created the earth to be! And when God had finished creating it, he looked at the first people and said, “This is my garden. Take care of it.”

You can’t care for God’s garden if you can’t see its beauty and think its not worth saving.

Oh, the earth is full of the glory of God. There is more of heaven here than I once believed.

A second discovery my faith journey has led me to is that there are many more good people in this world than there are bad people.

When I was a kid, we used sit out on the front lawn of my house at 35 Calumet Ave. and help the Catholic kids make up sins to take to confession. We came up with some real doozies and some of those kids never came back again!

What was ironic about those days is that it was considered to be a terrible thing if a Protestant kid married a Catholic, or vice-versa. It was unimaginable that a Jew and a Christian would  marry. In fact, there was hell to pay even if an Irishmen dated an Italian!

Yet there we were – all together on the front lawn at 35 Calumet Avenue – kids of all sorts of religious and ethnic backgrounds sitting around helping the Catholic kids come up with material for the confessional!

We loved each other. But we couldn’t play basketball together at the gym in my church because the Catholic kids were told they’d go to hell if they did – and we couldn’t go to the Friday night dance at St. Joan of Arc church because you know how those Catholic girls would lead us Protestant boys into the depths of sin!

Many of us began our faith journey in the place where we were taught to be suspicious of other people. It was a world of good people and bad people – the righteous and the unrighteous.

I don’t live in that world anymore. Let me tell you why.

The other day, my wife and I were standing in line at the movies and just ahead of us was a young dad holding his infant son. The little boy was facing backwards and caught our attention. Then my wife and the little guy started playing a game of peek-a-boo and trading smiles and making funny faces. The dad noticed the joy of his son, and turned to see the source of the amusement. When he saw the goofy look my spouse had on her face he smiled too. A moment later, the mom and another kid or two came along and then they all walked off into the theater, the little baby boy still looking back, watching my wife and giggling. I have no idea whether they were Christians or Jews or agnostics or atheists – don’t know if they were Democrats or Republicans, Tennessee fans or Gator fans –  maybe the dad had a criminal record, maybe he and the mother weren’t even married. Even so, I found myself thinking, “Gee there are a lot of good people in this world.”

That’s what God said, you know, when he finished creating us humans. God said, “Gee that’s good!”

Jesus saw the good in people – even the people everybody else saw as bad. And because Jesus saw the good in others, he stepped across all the human-made barriers of religion and culture to make friends with them, and help them, and affirm their dignity as children of God.

Jesus saw the good in people. Jesus sees the good in you. Jesus sees the good in humanity.

I wonder what the world could be like if we stopped judging others, and started appealing to the goodness in them. All I know is that when I treat other people like sinners, I don’t get very far. But when I treat people like Jesus treated them, good things start to happen!

Let me share one more discovery.

Religion is a dangerous thing.

It can divide people – it can neglect children – it can justify poverty – it can inspire war. Religion can easily become a weapon against everything God desires for the world and its people. What we need in our world today is not more religion, but more faith. Do you know the difference between the two?

Religion looks at the world and sees sin. Faith looks at the world and sees salvation. Religion looks at people in terms of what they are not. Faith sees people for what they can be. Religion is full of laws that must be obeyed – or else. Faith is overflowing with love – and patience.

And even more importantly, while religion concerns itself mostly with thinking right thoughts, believing correct doctrines, and all sorts of other spiritual mind games, faith is concerned with living and doing.

You see, its really not all that important for you to come to some sort of religious explanation for why bad things happen to good people. It’s much more important for you to go and figure out how you can bring goodness into the lives of those who have had  bad things happen to them. God does not need people who think they understand the mysteries of the heavens. What God wants and needs is people who are willing to do something about making the world a better place to live.

I once thought my faith would help me understand why people die, why some children are born with heart defects, why there are natural disasters, why there is war…

I don’t know the answers to any of those things.

What I do know though is that – even without understanding – my job is to comfort those who lose loved ones, and work to make life better for those with disabilities, and bring relief to hurricane victims, and work for peaceful resolutions to human conflict, and to use my LIFE to love the world in Jesus’ name.

That’s the difference between religion and faith. We need less religion. We need more faith.

Jesus was right when he said there’s more to learn after Kindergarten, and that old dogs can learn new tricks! And Jesus has given us the Holy Spirit to lead us deeper, higher and further into the wonders of God’s creation.

So let’s come together around the table of the Lord. Let’s eat some bread – and drink some wine – and toast the beauty of God’s world, the goodness of God’s children, and the power of faith to transform the world into the kingdom of heaven.

And then let’s leave this place and let the Spirit lead us on!