Introduction:

At some point, back in high school, I believe, somebody taught me about the "Five W's and Two H's". Every week I use them. Every time I write any kind of story or announcement, I look for them- "Five W's and Two H's". Every St. Paul's Messenger is based on them. Every poster, every brochure, every announcement is based on- "Five W's and Two H's". Every story in the newspaper, every TV news story, and every web page has to be checked to see if they're there. If they're not all there, communication doesn't happen. "Five W's and Two H's":

-Who - What - Why- When- Where- How- How much?

Those are the "Five W's and Two H's". They have different names in other languages, but they've been the basic of human communication forever.

If you have the specifics, you can tell any story. If you have the "Five W's and Two H's", you have everything. If you don't have all that information, you just can't communicate

I remember back when I was a youth director, we sent out a mailing to dozens of other churches. It told about a great event, who would be there, what would be going on, why we were doing it, where, and how to sign up, and what was the cost- but we missed one tiny piece of information.

We had so much information- we had planned a great retreat. Everything was coming together so very well. But we forgot one tiny piece of information. We missed a "W". We forgot to add the "When" -- the date. They had no idea of when this was to take place. We started getting phone calls right away- oops. "Five W's and Two H's".

I) A Matter of When

For us to understand John's gospel, a key idea that keeps coming up is how Jesus knows when to do what his Father wants him to do. When his mother, Mary, wants him to turn water into wine, he balks, because he'll make no wine before his time. Then he senses the go-ahead from his Father. He describes it this way- (John 5:19-20)

Jesus said to them, "Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. [20] The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing; and he will show him greater works than these, so that you will be astonished. Do you think we can understand exactly what it meant that Jesus "saw" what the Father was doing? I think that's beyond us. Somehow, the Father demonstrated to Jesus' spirit what he was to do.

I think about a particular summer day about 1958 or '59. We had a deep concrete well pit that needed a sturdy cover, so no one could fall in. The old cover had rotted away, so my dad had purchased a few redwood boards, and was building a wooden top. He invited me to watch him. He wanted this cover to last, so he had bought special wood, and even aluminum nails, so they wouldn't rust and cause rot. It was a whole morning's project. He measured, hammered and sawed; I pounded nails with my hammer into an old piece of 2x4. 45 years later I remember that day, because Dad explained everything he was doing. That was my introduction to building stuff. That day I learned to love to work with my hands, because my Dad showed me how, when I was five or six. It's a vivid memory. I learned by watching, by doing, and most importantly, through the relationship. Jesus somehow "watched" his Father, and did what he did.

In our text today, somehow, Jesus sensed the timing of going up to Jerusalem. He had told his brothers he wasn't going. He didn't lie. He says, "The right time for me has not yet come." They lecture him, in the text we read last week, about how to be famous. Jesus wasn't talking about strategy; he wasn't talking about being smart. He was talking about obedience. He wanted to be perfectly obedient to God his Father. He knew that he had to obey his Father- his Father had a plan for his life. Anything outside of that plan was "sin." When he did go, he didn't follow the instructions of his brothers on how to be famous- he went up to Jerusalem in secret! He knew that he had to follow the Father's will perfectly, anything else would be other than the Father's will, the Father's plan. It would have been what the Bible calls "sin."

II) Obedience- Not "Missing the Mark"

Let's look at that- the Bible word for "sin" is an archery term. It means "to miss the mark." Maybe you remember a few years ago when I shot an arrow across the chancel here - and hit the center of a big target. Of course, it was a 100 yard archery target- about four feet across- pretty easy to hit at 20 feet! "To miss the mark" means to do anything else but the best that God has for you. God's "mark" is much finer- it's the best, your one specific path in life. To do anything else, even what seems "good" to us, but different from God's will, is "sin"- missing the mark.

Jesus came to live a sinless life. He was without sin, so he could perfectly understand the direction and leading of his Father. Sin makes hearing God's voice hard; like a very distorted cell phone that keeps dropping out. Jesus had perfect digital! The biggest difference between Jesus and us is that he could perfectly understand and perfectly do his Father's will.

So what does this text have to do with our lives? We have a hard time hearing and understanding God's will. Back when my dad was a kid, almost 100 years ago, if kids wanted to look at a solar eclipse, they would find an old piece of glass, and hold it closely over a candle flame, until it was covered with soot. With this piece of "smoked glass" they could look through it and see a little bit of the sun without hurting their eyes. Paul says that that's about level at which we now understand God's will at best. He says we see in a "glass darkly." He's actually talking about the very poor mirrors they had back then- a polished piece of metal, which gave a very poor reflection, an image like looking through smoked glass.

Our human brokenness, our "sin" separates us from God. God loves us, but it's as if our radio is broken. God is calling; God desires to lead, but our receiver doesn't work anymore. But that doesn't mean that God doesn't desire to lead us or be close to us. On the contrary, he's trying every minute to break through our deafness and blindness.

III) More Than "Not Sin"

The good news is that God desires to lead us, to develop in us a sensitivity to God's direction and leading. The key way he does this is that he has given us his Word. Jesus says, (John 6:63) the words that I have spoken to you are Spirit and life. Those words have in them God's living Spirit. The Living God promises to always and faithfully meet us in his Word. When we turn to his Word, he will speak. He will somehow make the words on the page come alive and apply themselves to exactly our situation.

And because that Word has come to us, God's Spirit lives in our hearts. All who trust in Jesus, who can say "Jesus is Lord" are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. God's Spirit lives in them! (I Cor 12:3) God himself comes and lives inside of the bodies, hearts and minds of his people. And God desires to call, gather, enlighten and sanctify us- to make us like Jesus.

The kind of obedience that Jesus had toward his Father is our example; our goal. Jesus wills to produce a desire to know and follow him!

Can you imagine in life full of freedom and peace- to live knowing that what we want to do are all things that will make life happy? Can you imagine relationships that are whole and peaceful and fun? Can you imagine a life free of regret, shame and guilt? When we do wrong, when we aim our life at something short of God's best, we feel the natural consequence of that separation- we feel guilt and shame. God doesn't do that- our conscience tells us that.

God desires something even more carefully tuned than a conscience; he wants to make us aware of the leading of God's Spirit. Agreeing with God's Word, the Spirit will speak to our heart and tell us the specifics- who to tell about Jesus; when, and where and how and so on. He will lead us to go, to tell, to help, to serve, to live a life as a disciple. God's Word and God's inner leading serve to fill in all "Five W's and Two H's " to make us "hit the mark" of being all God created you to be- to have a life that is what God designed to have you do. Wouldn't that be great? To know and live in that freedom?

In fact, for the believer, there are some wonderful promises- not only does God want to protect us from "missing the mark" in sin, but he wants us to exactly hit the center of the target! There is a very special Greek word for the target- it's telos-it's the target, far off, we aim at that God sets before us. (It's the word we get television and telephone from, but the Bible uses it as the perfect target of a life.) It's the target of our whole lives. Like Romans 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect "telos". Or again, (Romans 6:22) But now that you have been set free from sin and have become servants of God, the return you get is sanctification and its end (telos), eternal life.

All of this happens by the power of God. God doesn't demand "Be good!" God creates the desire and ability to know and do God's will. He creates the obedience as we study his Word and surrender to him. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become servants of God, the return you get is sanctification and its end (telos), eternal life.

Conclusion:

That "end", that "telos" is the best life and eternity for you. What could be better than to live the life God created you for? He didn't create you to be a round peg in a square hole. He created you for a purpose. That purpose is his best. It will be a life that is worth living, and it means to follow Jesus with your whole heart, in surrender to him. Ironically, that's where freedom is.

Invitation, amen.

John 7:6-13

Therefore Jesus told them, "The right time for me has not yet come; for you any time is right. [7] The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that what it does is evil. [8] You go to the Feast. I am not yet going up to this Feast, because for me the right time has not yet come." [9] Having said this, he stayed in Galilee.

[10] However, after his brothers had left for the Feast, he went also, not publicly, but in secret. [11] Now at the Feast the Jews were watching for him and asking, "Where is that man?"

[12] Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him. Some said, "He is a good man."

Others replied, "No, he deceives the people." [13] But no one would say anything publicly about him for fear of the Jews.