Sixth Sunday of Easter
April 27, 2008
Acts 17:22-31
Psalm 66:7-18
1 Peter 3:13-22
John 14:15-21
Today we begin in earnest to prepare for the Feast of Pentecost. And that’s a good thing because our celebration of Pentecost is only two Sundays away. That defining event in our church’s history. That day when the Holy Spirit comes to the many diverse believers who have gathered after Jesus’ ascension to discern just what it is they are to do now that Jesus has left them; how they are to proceed with their lives as followers of Christ in the world.
Today’s preparation for Pentecost comes to us by the way Jesus prepares his disciples for his ascension into heaven. And from our gospel lesson we get a sense of what it must have felt like for Jesus’ disciples to be told that he would soon leave them. To know the anxiety they must have felt when they realized that they would have to go on without him. And to wonder, with them, how Jesus’ promise that he would not abandon them will play out in their lives.
I think we can all relate to the fear and anxiety Jesus’ disciples must have felt. Issues of abandonment are common for people in our world, and there is often nothing anyone can say that will comfort someone and nothing anyone can do to fill the empty and hurting places of one who feels abandoned by someone they love. Jesus, however, seems intent on comforting his disciples before he leaves them and he wants desperately to assure them that he will not abandon them. In our gospel lesson today Jesus appears to be answering the questions his disciples have asked him about his leaving them. It seems obvious that one of those questions must have been about abandonment, because Jesus assures them that he will not leave them “orphaned.”
Jesus’ use of the word “orphaned” says a lot about the relationship the disciples have with Jesus. They are feeling like children who will be without a father. Jesus is more to them than a leader to follow, or a friend who has formed a close relationship with them. Jesus is a father to them. And how fraught with meaning that relationship is. Especially in the ancient world where fathers were revered and obeyed because their sons knew that everything they were and everything they would become depended on the care and guidance of a father. To lose a father in the ancient world meant that a son was on his own. He automatically assumed the role of head of his household with all the privilege and responsibility which come with it, and he is aware that his community will judge him by whether or not he brings honor or shame to his father’s memory by the way he carries out his role.
It could not have been easy for a son to take on his father’s role. Not easy to walk in his shoes and meet the expectations of family and community. It is likely that Jesus’ disciples are feeling the same kind of unease. The kind which makes them feel anxious and fearful. Much the way a child feels when one of his parents leaves their home and family, either by death or by their own choosing; and probably much like a spouse feels who is left to take on this new role in the family. It’s a scary time for people who are left behind. A time when life does not seem to be filled with possibility, only fear and anxiety, blame and regret; even anger and depression. It is a time fraught with questions which often go unanswered, and feelings which are not expressedl But this is not the case in our gospel lesson today. Jesus encourages the questions his disciples ask him, and he answers them in the hope that what he says will bring them comfort in his leaving and assurance that they will have a life without him, a life which Jesus tells us in last week’s gospel lesson will be even more productive and more abundant than his own.
We should not be surprised that Jesus’ disciples are able to tell him what makes them fearful and anxious about his leaving them. It tells us something very important about the quality of their love for each other and the health of their relationship. It also says much about who God is for them. It is clear that in these days after Jesus’ resurrection, as he approaches his ascension, Jesus is becoming more like the Father he came from. And his disciples have been noticing it. They notice because Jesus seems to be preparing them to become the father he was to them, and they are beginning to realize the awesome responsibility of the role they will inherit from Jesus.
Jesus’ disciples are beginning to realize that when Jesus leaves them, it will be left to them to become Jesus in the world, Jesus to the world, and Jesus for the world. Are we surprised that that they are feeling somewhat anxious about that? And should we be surprised at the anxiety we experience sometimes as a people who ourselves followers of Jesus? After all, we have received the same inheritance by our baptism. As Christ’s body in the world God also calls us to take on the awesome responsibility of being Jesus for others in this world. Scary, huh! In today’s Epistle lesson, Peter tells us that it is not easy being Jesus to others in a world where people often suffer for doing what is right for others and good for God’s kingdom on this earth. And in our reading from the Book of Acts Paul tells us that because we are “God’s offspring” God will judge our life by the expectations he has of the ways we honor him in the living of it. Jesus does not promise us a rose garden, either. He never tells us that following him will be easy, but he tells us in this ongoing dialogue with his disciples over these past few weeks that our life will be lived for good purpose. Our life will produce good outcomes for God’s kingdom, and we will live with a sense of gratitude and a feeling of abundance even in the difficult times of our discipleship.
I can just imagine the many questions Jesus’ disciples asked of him before he ascended to God; many more than the ones Jesus has answered in our gospel lesson today. But there are no more important questions than the ones Jesus answers in today’s Gospel. Because as followers of Christ we, too, need the comfort of knowing that we are not alone in this world, and we are not alone in our life. We, too, need the assurance that we will not be abandoned by a God who also claims us as his children. Because sometimes we can feel so alone, and overwhelmed by what the gospel asks of us. Sometimes our own anxiety and fear can render us too vulnerable and weak to become the person God is calling us to be.
Fortunately Jesus knows how our vulnerability and weakness can keep us from representing him to our world. So before he leaves this earth he assures us that we will have the guidance and support we need to be and do what God is calling us to. Jesus asks God to send us an Advocate. Another comforter who will guide us and support us in our life of faith. One who will come to dwell in us so that we can dwell in him. And so our celebration of Pentecost enables us to recognize yet another important paradox of our faith: by his absence, Jesus becomes even more present to us. And this is the most important assurance he gives his disciples in our gospel lesson today.
“Because I live, you also will live,” Jesus tells his disciples. And they are undoubtedly comforted to know that because Jesus’ Father did not abandon him, he will not abandon them either. And they are undoubtedly relieved to know that they cannot possibly be orphaned by a father who lives within us forever. “One day,” says Jesus, “one day” you will know that “just as I am in my Father, you are in me and I in you.” For his disciples that “one day” becomes the Day of Pentecost. The day that God sends them evidence that he lives in them and they in him. On the Day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus’ disciples and they immediately experience the truth of the Spirit abiding in them. The power of that Spirit creates a fire in their belly which sends them into the world to do the work God gives them to do. They become Jesus to the world and they establish the church in his name. And that same Advocate whom God sends to Jesus’ disciples to be their comforter, their helper, their counselor and their defender of the faith, that same Spirit continues to work in and through people like us, believers in every age who seek to bring God’s heavenly kingdom nearer his earthly kingdom.
So it is that Jesus message in today’s gospel is a message meant for us. It is a message which helps us understand that “one day” when the Spirit comes to us at our baptism. On that day we are “sealed in baptism by the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ’s own forever.” But this does not necessarily mean that on the day of our baptism we are awakened to the Spirit within us. And that is most certainly true for infants who are baptized in the faith. All baptized Christians depend on their family, their faith community and God who works through the Spirit itself to bring an awareness of the Spirit within us. Nevertheless, once we are baptized, the possibility exists over the rest of our life that “one day” the Spirit of God will be awakened in us. And when that happens, much like Jesus’ disciples on the day of Pentecost, we will know it. We will be able to identify the Spirit moving in us by the way our life begins to move in the Spirit.
But Jesus’ disciples had no way of knowing how that would happen or even that it would happen until the Day of Pentecost. So they have yet another question for Jesus before he leaves them. I imagine it goes something like this. How will we know when God sends the Advocate you promise and how will we know we have received his spirit and are living in it? Jesus ponders this question for a moment, and then he gives his simple, but profound answer. You will know, says Jesus, if you love me and keep my commandments. And Jesus’ disciples know immediately what he means. Because they do love Jesus, and he has already given his commandments to them and he has modeled them himself by his own life and ministry.
Jesus has commanded them to live by what he deems to be the Greatest Commandment. We are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, and soul, and mind and strength, and we are to love others as well as we love ourselves. They remember also that Jesus gave them another set of commandments for their life, much different from the Ten Commandments they knew so well. They are called Beatitudes, and they are teachings which show his followers, not what they “shalt not” do, rather what they can and must do for others in the name of love and for the sake of the blessing which comes to us in doing them. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments,” says Jesus. And he assures those who love him that they “will be loved by my Father.” This is how we can know that God’s Spirit is alive within us and we are alive in the Spirit. We can be sure of our life in the Spirit whenever we experience blessing in our love for God and for the people God gives us to love and care for in our life.
So now Jesus will be able to leave his disciples. He has prepared them well for his absence from them. He has assured them that it is because of his absence that he can be more present to them. And he will make sure that God will send them another Advocate; his Holy Spirit who will come to them at Pentecost; that same Spirit who comes to dwell in each of us at our baptism. Jesus can ascend to his father now, because he has assured his disciples and that they are loved by God. And his commandments have shown us how our love for God enables us to bring God’s love to our world. Jesus can go to his Father now because he has shown us how we can become Jesus for others. He has shown us how to love the unlovable, to forgive the unforgivable, to be the hope for those who are without hope, to care for those the world does not care about, and so much more…. Jesus can leave us now because we are prepared to do the work he has given us to do. To be the Church for each other and to be his Church in the world. The Church which was born to us at Pentecost; the Church which continues to live and move and have her being in this world by the power of the Spirit who lives and moves and has her being in each one of us, always and forever.