When the death of President Calvin Coolidge was made public, someone quipped, "How can they tell?"

How foreign is that lifelessness to the vibrant, dynamic power Jesus offers. Listen to Him: "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I go to the Father."

What a breath-taking promise. On the surface of it, it seems incredible. If this is even remotely possible, then mustn't we admit that we have never taken Jesus seriously? The least we have to confess is that we have certainly been satisfied with far less than He has in mind for us as His followers.

I think of one of Charles Schultz's Peanuts cartoons. Snoopy, the hound of heaven, says of Woodstock, that would-be bird of paradise, "Someday Woodstock is going to be a great eagle." Then in the next frame he says, "He's going to soar thousands of feet above the ground."

Woodstock takes off into the air and as Snoopy looks on, he sees Woodstock upside-down and whirling around crazily. So he has second thoughts and in the next frame Snoopy says, "Well, maybe hundreds of feet above the ground...."

Just then, Woodstock falls to the ground, looking dazed, and Snoopy has to conclude, "Maybe he'll be one of those eagles who just walk around."

Isn't it amazing how quickly we settle for less than is promised and is possible? S.R. Crockett tells us that in his beloved countryside of Scotland there is a churchyard in which lie buried whole generations of a family. On each of the tombstones there is cut the name, and then this, as the summing up of their endeavors and achievements: "They keeped shop in Wigtown -- and that's all." (Preface to John Gait, Anals of the Parish. Edinborough: J. Grant, 1936, p. 17).

We at least smile at that -- "They keeped shop -- and that's all." Probably good people, all of them. But greater works than Christ? What might be written on our tombstones? Good folks, loved their families, kind, gentle, good citizens, giving -- but greater works than Christ?

So what have we here in this word of Jesus? "Greater works than these will you do, because I go to the Father."

That's what the Man said -- the Man who came to save the world. The Man who healed and forgave and loved and washed His disciples' feet. The Man who calmed the storm and took little children on His lap and blessed them; the Man who ate with sinners and flung His life in the teeth of the raw and rampant prejudice of His day by conversing with the Samaritan woman; the Man who finished all the work God gave Him to do, and is now crowned with glory and honor. That's what Jesus said, "Greater works than these will you do, because I go to the Father."

Let's seek to appropriate the message of this word under the rubric, Never apologize for being human.

Isn't that our common response? I'm only human, you know? When some great possibility opens, when some challenge is thrust upon us, when the invitation comes to break step with the crowd? "I'm only human."