Easter 6                                               John 14:15-21                                          5/1/05

                                              “The Gospel According to Peter Pan”

Back in the mid 1960’s Robert Short published a book called, The Gospel According To Peanuts.  Short used Peanuts characters and cartoons to retell the Gospel.

Though the publisher did not originally have high expectations for sales, the book quickly became a best seller.  It was such a hit that thirty-five years later the publisher re-issued it and this re-issue spawned a number of take-off’s including, The Gospel According to Dr. Seuse  and The Gospel According To Harry Potter.   

If I could I would write a take-off entitled, The Gospel According To Peter Pan.  Actually, it might be better to make it, The Gospel For Peter Pan.  I say “for” because it’s more important to me to help people see that the Gospel – the story of God’s deep love and grace – are for the child still living in each person.  

I like the image of Peter Pan because he was a child who never grew up.  And what’s more, like Peter, we want it that way – a part of us always wants to be nurtured and parented.  Of course, that desire to stay a child is somewhat founded in the desire to continue the play of childhood, but it is also founded in the need God placed in each of us for continuing love, guidance and care.  

Yes, all of us have a child inside and I think God intended it that way.  It is clear from what is written in the Gospels that God, particularly in the Person of Jesus, has a real preference for children and He often lifts up children as models of faith and trust.  

Depending largely on our experience as chronological children, the child inside may be whole and healthy, hidden and suppressed, scared and stunted, or abused and hurting.  For some of us the child, abandoned either physically or emotionally at an early age, may give us the experience today that we are orphans.  That child may live out in us a sense of being unloved and unwanted.   While a healthy inner child expresses his/herself in  playfulness, trust, tenderness, and love of life, the unhealthy child expresses the self in opposite attitudes and behaviors.  

No matter what kind of inner child is part of our lives or how our child got to be that way,  every inner child needs love, guidance and someone to watch over them.  The wonderful fact is that even if as adults we are unable to acknowledge the existence of an inner child or lack a human someone who will meet the child’s needs, we are not alone.  Jesus promised that He would not leave His disciples orphaned and He didn’t.  When He left the Holy Spirit came.   

This Spirit of Truth teaches us each day.  The Spirit testifies to the truth of God’s love.  The Spirit helps us remember all the times God has come through for us and been present with us.  The Spirit teaches us that no matter what we do God will always forgive us and embrace us again.  This is God’s grace in Jesus.  It was illustrated perfectly in a little real life story I read this week.  A pastor writes,  

“One day I was stopped for speeding. I knew I was wrong.

I was late for a meeting. I was driving on a brand new four lane

highway with almost no traffic. When I saw those flashing red lights

behind me, I know that I was going to be even later to the meeting.

After the patrolman got my license, he went back to his car. I waited

for him to return with the judgment against my sin. As I waited,

another police car pulled up behind the first. The man with my license

went back to the second car. My anxiety level was rising. He left the

second car and came back to my car. He handed me my license and said,

"The sergeant says that you're a friend of his. Keep your speed down

and drive carefully." He returned to his car and drove off. So did I.

I was guilty. I had broken the law. I deserved the ticket. I deserved

to pay the fine, but because of a friendship, my mistake was forgiven

and forgotten. There was no penalty to pay. That is grace.”  

And that is God’s love.  No matter what we do, no matter how bad or shameful.  No matter if every human turns his or her back on us for some offense or sin, God will not abandon us, will not leave us orphaned.  God will always forgive and love us, no matter what.  We may not escape the earthly consequences or penalties for what we do, but because of Jesus, our heavenly Father will never tell us He is ashamed of us and wants nothing to do with us.  

The Spirit is also with us to tell us the truth of our sin.  It is really easy, especially today with all the pop psychology around, to excuse ourselves for wrongs we do.  We may say,  

“My parents were (take your pick) too harsh or too indulgent, so...”

“I was deprived, so...”

“It’s just the way I am, I can’t help it, so...”

or any of a number of other excuses we use to deny responsibility for sin.  

The truth is though that no matter how we may have been raised or abused or neglected or indulged or left to figure life out for ourselves, we are responsible for what we do wrong now.  This is not to say that what may have happened to us as children was okay or should be ignored in adulthood.  Some of the hurts we suffered need professional help to be healed and some may never completely go away.  But, part of the job of the Spirit of Truth is to help us see where we have done wrong so that we can help the inner child who acts out and so that we can seek forgiveness and God’s healing love once again.  

And the Spirit of Truth also acts as a mother to us, watching over us, caring for us.  One of Peter Pan’s most heartfelt needs was for a mother.  Like Peter, no matter how old we are, we still yearn for a mother.  We need someone to care for us – give us comfort and read us stories.  The Spirit fills this role as well.  The Spirit gives us comfort and strength to make it through all of life’s pains and sorrows.  The Spirit reads God’s story into our hearts and keeps retelling the best parts to us.  The Spirit is Jesus always with us every moment of our lives, right up till we are ushered into Jesus glorious presence.  

All of this is offered to us by Jesus and all we have to do is accept God’s grace, then obey one command:  LOVE.  Love God back – in other words, respond to love with love.  By extension this means also loving others – both our friends and our enemies.  Our response won’t earn us God’s grace or salvation, of course.  But, returning love is the natural response to being loved, and if it is not present we need to check out how receptive we are to God’s love.  We may have shut ourselves off from God’s love, or at least an awareness of it..  

God offers us love all the time, but it is up to us how aware we are of it and how much we let in.  When we feel unworthy or choose to be angry/embittered or want to indulge in sin, we build a wall that keeps God’s love out, keeps us from experiencing it.  It is impossible to feel bitter or angry or a desire to do harm to another when we are filled with love.  So, we have to block out God’s love in order to act out the angry, hateful feelings the devil offers us.  

When un-love (or worse) has taken over we need to open ourselves to the Spirit of Truth to be healed and to be filled once more with love.   

This is not to say that we are or can feel an emotion we call love for everyone or all of the time.  I doubt that Jesus felt an emotion called love for the Pharisees who tried for three years to trap him, for the soldiers who beat him, for Pilate or the crowd who condemned Him, or for those who nailed Him to the cross.  However, the very fact that Jesus didn’t call on a legion of angels to save Him tells us the kind of love He commands us to express.   

We are to desire the best even for our enemies.  We are to sacrifice even our lives and at the very least of our resources for our fellow disciples.  We are to do whatever we can to help and support all God’s children.  This doesn’t require a feeling.  It requires a conscious choice to love as we have been loved.   

In this way, we can live out the Gospel For Peter Pan.  We can recognize the needy child within us and all of the other lost boys (and girls) around us.  We can listen to the Spirit of Truth who sometimes sounds an awful lot like Tinkerbell.  We can rest our heads in Mother Wendy’s or Jesus’ lap while we hear the story we love once again.  And ultimately, if we believe, really believe, we will find that we too can fly, can even soar to the heights, filled with God’s love.  Amen.