May 21, 2017
Easter 6A

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you. ”I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.” John 14:15-21

As a culture, we are not terribly good about talking about loss. I don’t know if it’s because it challenges the eternally optimistic stance we are encouraged to take, counters our celebration of youth and opportunity, or reminds us of our own mortality. But for whatever reason, we seem as a culture to lack the resources and emotional wherewithal to acknowledge the losses we, and those around us, suffer. Not sure what to say when confronted by a friend who has recently suffered the loss of a loved one or gone through a divorce, we turn away, leaving the person feeling all the more isolated.

Given that we are in the Easter season, it may help to remind our hearers that in John’s story it is Thursday, the evening before the crucifixion. After sharing a meal with his disciples and offering them an example of selfless love and service, Jesus is now preparing them for his departure. He is about to leave them and they are distressed. This is what the threat of loss does — it shakes up our sense of safety and security. In response, he has already told them — in last week’s reading — not to worry, that he was going away to prepare a place for them. But they are still upset, for the fear of loss is not so easily defeated. And so he tells them that he will not leave them orphaned, abandoned, or alone. Instead, he will send to them an Advocate, the Holy Spirit.

Two things…as we think about how this sense of the Spirit’s work… First, Jesus describes the Spirit as “another advocate” — Jesus was the first! Jesus, that is, came along side us in the Incarnation that we might come to know and see the otherwise invisible God. (John begins his Gospel just here in 1:1-18.) Second, when we come along side each other to comfort and encourage and when we act like Jesus, we are living into the Holy Spirit’s invitation and very being.” (David Lose, working preacher website, Communities of the Spirit, May 20, 2014)

“If all of you keep on loving me, you all will guard, watch over, preserve and protect my commandments. And, the Father will give you another advocate…the Paraclete…the Spirit of Truth. The One who holds onto, keeps, possesses my commandments and is guarding, watching over and preserving them is the one loving me.” This is how we would literally translate these words of scripture if we followed the Greek language as they imply. It begins with loving Jesus, not just once in a while, but every day, day after day, through good and bad times, in all aspects of our lives. And part of loving Jesus is guarding and protecting the commandments and the words of scripture. It is something we are compelled to do out of love, not out of blind obedience. And in doing this, the Holy Spirit will fill our lives, and fill the churches where we guard, protect and preserve the commandments. And once we are people empowered by the Holy Spirit, then the works we will do in the name of Jesus and his words, will be great works.

Pastor Dave