If you know it, show it!’ Fowler tells audience
By Parker T. Williamson, The Layman Online, October 29, 2007
FAIR OAKS, Calif. – If anyone doubted the New Wineskins Association of Churches’ commitment to women in ministry – an aspersion often cast by Presbyterian Church (USA) officials who disparage the group’s alliance with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church – keynote preacher Carmen Fowler dissolved those doubts Sunday night. With a commanding presence, Fowler entered the Fair Oaks Presbyterian Church pulpit and set forth Jesus’ words in John 14.
Carmen FowlerMany who traveled across the country for this New Wineskins event came with “troubled hearts.” Lay leaders are facing threats by denominational officials to confiscate their church property. Several ministers are being confronted by administrative commissions with the power to revoke their ordination. Everyone here is aware of “the Louisville Papers,” documents from the denomination’s chief legal officers that outline draconian measures against congregations that are considering leaving the PCUSA for the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. That counsel includes seizing and changing the locks on the congregation’s property, freezing its bank account, defrocking its minister, removing lay leaders from office, and picking a judge who would be most amenable to denominational property claims in the event of a court battle.
Fear factor
Fowler hit any fear factor that may have been in the room head-on. Zeroing in on Jesus’ words, “Do not let your hearts be troubled,” Fowler asked: “What issues trouble your heart? What can the world do to you?”
Finding her answer in John 14, Fowler reminded her Christian brothers and sisters that because they are dead to the world and alive in Christ, the world has no power over them. “Jesus said, ‘you trust in God. Trust also in me,'” she said.
Fowler noted the many times that the word “know” is employed in John 14:1-14. An anxious Philip said to Jesus, “Lord, we don’t know the way.” Jesus replied, “Don’t you know me, Philip? … I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well.”
Knowing Jesus is more than head knowledge, Fowler said, as she pointed to the deeper derivation of the verb “to know.” Knowing Jesus, she said, means identifying with Him, loving Him and experiencing Him in the center of one’s being. “And if we know Jesus, then we also know God. That is the treasure!” Fowler said.
John 14 not only speaks of this special kind of knowledge, she said, it also reveals the imperative that results from knowing God like that. “If you know it, then show it!” she said. “‘Let your light so shine among others that they will see your good works and give glory to God who is in heaven.’ Jesus Christ will do this through us by the power of the Holy Spirit. That is what He promises in John 14 when He tells us that He will send His Holy Spirit to us.”
Fowler pointed to the powerful promises that Jesus makes in John’s Gospel: “I am going to prepare a place for you. … I will come back to take you to be with me. … You will do what I am doing. … Ask for anything in my name and I will do it. … The Counselor whom I will send will be with you forever … Because I live, you will also have life.”
“These are the promises of God through Jesus to those who know not just about Jesus, but Jesus,” Fowler said. “He promises that [being grafted to Him who is the vine] we will bear fruit that will last. ‘If you love me,’ He said, ‘you will obey my command.’ If you know Him, you are called to show Him. … He will reveal Himself through you.”
In the light of those promises, Fowler declared, you can forget about “troubled hearts.” Christians will not be afraid for, in Jesus Christ, God has overcome the world. “Feast on this powerful Word of God,” she said, “so you may know and show the living Christ.”
Parker T. Williamson is editor emeritus of The Layman and The Layman Online. He may be reached at laymanletters@www.layman.org.