Easter 5

May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

SEASON: Easter 5
PROPER: B
PLACE: St. John’s Episcopal Church, Kingsville
DATE: May 18, 2003


TEXT: John 14:15-21 - The farewell Address
“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.

ISSUE: John gives us Jesus’ farewell address to his disciples. He reminds them to keep his commandments, and to be assured that they will not by left orphaned or abandoned. He remains or abides with them, and they with him. In that promise and relationship that will always have hope through their faith and his abiding presence. While the world today distracts us and creates much evil spiritedness the presence of Christ remains to be embraced.
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Here’s a beautiful passage from the Gospel account of St. John. To realize the beauty of such passages we need to have a background, and understanding of the context of some of these passages to really appreciate their meaning for the time, as well as for ourselves.
Some of the sections of John’s gospel seem strange to us, like this one today, where Jesus is talking about his abiding in the Father, and the Father in Him, and his disciples abiding in him, and he in them. This language for us seems a bit cumbersome and distracting to the passages. It is helpful to understand that the Gospel of John was directed to what was probably a relatively small group of Jews and Gentiles, who had joined the early Christian movement. By joining the movement, the Jewish members particularly became disinherited from their family and old friends. They were tossed out of the synagogues. Remember to lose family was to about lose your life. (Remember the prodigal son.) In order to survive an outcast had to attach themselves to some kind of fictive family. For many Jews and Gentiles of the time, the new family was the Christian movement.
What we have in this passage is John giving to his community an address from Jesus to his disciples. It is a farewell address that is given at the Last Supper where Jesus has also washed his disciples feet. It is some of his last words, or at least what John felt would have been needed to be said by Jesus to his disciples in this difficult time when he is facing crucifixion. But whether the farewell address is before the crucifixion or before the Ascension of Jesus to the heavens after his Resurrection, the farewell message is essentially the same. Now, the issue of abiding in Jesus, and he in the father, and the disciples abiding in Jesus is what some scholars refer to as a kind of anti-language different from the world. Various groups all have their own lingo. The military has a jargon or lingo that they use. There’s a psychiatric lingo which talks about various kinds of complexes. Computer folks have the lingo of bytes, rams, etc. Persons in the Cursillo movement in the church today have a form of Spanish lingo: cursillistas, altreas, de colores. It becomes a lingo that gets understood by the “in” group. John’s gospel is like that it has its own way of speaking, and the word “meno” in the Greek , to remain or abide is used in the Gospel of John some forty times. In all of Matthew, Mark, and Luke the word appears just twelve times. This fact may not seem terribly important to us, by abiding with Jesus Christ was a significant point in this Gospel and time.
To abide or remain with Christ was a significant call to loyalty and faith in Jesus Christ as the leader and father of the movement. Jesus abides remains in the Father with great devotion and loyalty. God the Father will be loyal to his Son Jesus, whom he will raise from the dead and reclaim in the Kingdom of God. Those who remain or abide in Jesus in a loyal and faithful way will reap the benefits of God the Father and of Jesus in their own hope of and assurance of resurrection and belonging to the sustaining family of God. They will not be orphaned. Keep in mind that many of these people were already orphaned by the world. Their own families abandoned them for becoming Christians. Many of the Jews had even lost the comfort of the destroyed Temple in Jerusalem. This fact meant that they had lost all that made them feel close to and in union with God the Father. The destruction of the Temple symbolized the destruction of their homeland, their economy, and political identity as a nation. John has Jesus saying, “I will not leave you orphaned.” Stay with me through thick and thin, abide, remain with me; stay faithful and loyal and you will have life in the Kingdom of God. You will not lose hope of being the children in the family of God the Father, and God the Son. Even though the world does not see Jesus, that is, even though many people of the nation of Israel does not accept the presence of God in Jesus Christ, the faithful will always know and feel the living presence of Jesus Christ. The concept of abiding with him was a genuine, heartfelt call to be loyal and faithful, in spite of what ever may come in the life of Jesus. Abide, Abide, Abide is a refrain in the Gospel of John.
Another important aspect of this Gospel of John to his small early Christian community is the requirement of keeping the commandments of Jesus. To keep the commandments of God in the Jewish concept was a way in which the Jewish person expressed their love for God. Sometimes Christians have rejoiced in a kind of separation from the Jewish law as unimportant. But even the orthodox Jewish person will tell you today that they have no problem keeping the laws of Judaism. They do not see it as a burden at all, because it is the way they show God their love for Him.
From the Christian perspective we believe in the grace of God, that is, the freely given love and forgiveness from God that is not something that we earn or purchase through doing good things. God’s love is freely given. Remember, again, the prodigal son parable. He returns to his father, having squandered his life, and before he can get the words of sorrow and repentance out, the Father orders the robe, the shoes, and the fatted calf for his son. That parable is expressive of the great love of God we call grace. The unspoken hope is that the Son will respond to his father with a greater allegiance, and show his repentance by his new life and actions in the family. What John’s Gospel also stresses is that the children of the Father, and of God will respond to the grace, forgiveness and love of God by keeping the commandments of Jesus. Now granted that the commandments of Jesus and the actions of Jesus himself was not inclined to keep all of the Jewish laws regarding the Sabbath and not healing on the Sabbath, not eating with so called sinners. Jesus himself was not terribly concerned about what pot dinner was cooked in. I do imagine he had great respect however for these kinds of laws, provided they did not get in the way of something far greater, and that was his laws of compassion, mercy, forgiveness, understand, and love for other human beings. Jesus had a high priority for respecting the dignity of all, including the sinners, outcasts, widows, children, and beggars. The way of Jesus was indeed the way of service for one another. For Jesus to love one another was to serve one another, and those actions expressed you love for God. You participated in such service not because it would get you into heaven, which was already an accomplished fact. You did it because this was the way you participated in and expressed your faithfulness, and loyalty to the way and teaching of Jesus Christ and the Father.
Keep in mind love was not something emotional, as we often see love today in Jesus’ time. People question, “How do I love a God I cannot see? How do I love a person that is hard to have some kind of an emotionally connection with because of their personality or behavior?” Love in Biblical times was not emotion, but it meant, “to stay attached.” To love God meant to stay attached, loyal, faithful to the way of God. Cling, embrace God by the expression of actions that are congruent with the longing of God. In this kind of devotion God’s way becomes revealed in a genuine and authentic way. You become enveloped in the Spirit of God, in the Spirit of Jesus Christ’s, the Holy Spirit of God.
See the flow here in this passage. Abiding in Jesus Christ, being faithful and loyal, is you protection from being orphaned and losing all hope. With God you will never find yourself in the pigpen, at the garbage dump, or in hell. God has attached himself to his creation and to his people through Jesus Christ. God has come to his people, with all the grace, the unearned benefits, that implies. Responsible folk express their love for God with respect of all of God’s people spreading the spirit of God in compassion, mercy, and forgiveness, all of which are another way of talking about God. We stay attached and the Holy Spirit of God prevails keeping us bonded, glued together with God.
This passage also sounds to me a little bit like the section from the Hebrew Scriptures of Job. There is that beautiful section in Job, where Job has suffered dreadfully, and for what seems to be without rhyme or reason. Job’s friends tell him his suffering is the result of his sinfulness. But Job stands up and says, “ I know that my Redeemer lives, and though this body be destroyed, I shall see God, and He shall not be a stranger.” Job means is that his Redeemer will be his Advocate, his attorney. Regardless of what happens His Divine Advocate will stand before God and declare his innocence. He will not be defenseless nor ultimately abandoned by God.
Jesus is saying essentially the very same thing. Even if he must depart, The Father will send an Advocate, an holy attorney, who is the Holy Spirit who will always be with His creation. The truth of the matter is that the Spirit of God will never abandon his people to whom he has attached himself, if they in their loyalty stay attached to Him through carrying out the compassion, mercy, understanding, love and forgiveness of God and remain channels, a pipeline of God’s grace.
Here’s our world today. There are many orphans of many kinds. People separated by from their families and loved ones. There are thousands upon thousands of orphaned children due to the plague of HIV-AIDS in Africa. So many people today have lost touch with God Father, and God the Son, and have no concept of a Holy Spirit that can present them faultless before God. Drug addiction ruins lives and leaves many people homeless and orphaned. There are many depressed and alienated from hope in God. Yet we know the living Spirit of God abides and works with us and in us.
In that story of Philip and the eunuch that we read earlier in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, the eunuch in spite of his position and wealth has no hope of family, but Philip talks with him, and enables him to receive the Holy Spirit, the way of God’s servanthood expressed in the loving Christ. The eunuch through the rite of Holy Baptism and the Spirit of God working in Philip enables him to be born into the family of God through the ways and teachings of Jesus Christ. May we never lose sight of the presence of the Spirit of God and Jesus Christ within us, and not fail to let that Spirit live within us and through us.