Easter 6A
Grace Lutheran Church, Lakeland, FL May 17, 2020
Psalm 66:8-20 Acts 17:22-31
1 Peter 3:13-22 John 14:15-21
Grace to you and peace from God and from our Risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
He is Risen! He is Risen indeed! Alleluia! Alleluia! Yes, the season of Easter continues, undeterred by social distancing and self-quarantine. As Easter people we boldly proclaim that because Jesus lives, we too shall live, even in the midst of a pandemic.
How goes it for you these days? Are you exhausted from the precautions? Are you angry at our circumstance? Are you lonely for other people? Are you feeling defeated by it all? Or perhaps you are one whose life has not been significantly changed yet you are surrounded by so many whose lives have been dramatically altered. Sometimes it all feels to me like Just. Too. Much.
And into this come the words of today’s Gospel reading; words Jesus spoke to his disciples at their last meal together on the night on which he would be betrayed. Just a little while earlier, Jesus had washed their feet, their tired dirty stinkin’ feet. A lowly servant’s task done with tender and loving hands. Unforgettable – even now over 2000 years later. And Jesus exhorted his followers then as he does even today through Scripture to love one another. We are to love, not because he has commanded it.
We are to love, because he first loved us. This loving one another is no small task, not an item on a to-do checklist to be crossed off when completed. This loving one another is a way of life, a manner of living. The presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church has called following Jesus the “Way of Love.” It is literally at the heart of who we are as Easter people. We look at the reality around us through the lens of love rather than through the lens of power and entitlement.
And, sometimes it difficult to do this. Sometimes my heart does not want to love. Sometimes I just want to go my own way. And that is precisely when the words and the promise of Jesus in today’s Gospel mean the most to me. “I will ask the Father and he will give you another Advocate.” Did you catch that? “Another Advocate.” Jesus, the righteous one, is an advocate with the Father (I John 2:1) and because he will not be staying in the company of his followers, there will be another Advocate, another Helper.
The Greek word here is “Paraclete.” It is a compound word. “Para” means “along side” as in paralegal. And, “kletos” means “summoned” or “called.” The Advocate is one who is summoned to come along side of us. Think for a moment of the times in your life when someone has come along side of you. A friend walking with you through a difficult time. A coach giving you advice to improve your performance. A sister or brother sitting next to you quietly when there were no words to give comfort. The consolation that comes from knowing that you are not alone, not in this by yourself. Jesus said, “I will not leave you as orphans.” Into this time of quarantine and isolation and aloneness comes the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, bringing solace and understanding.
But not only that. In addition to providing comfort, the Advocate is also an active force on the move. The Advocate guides and teaches and inspires and equips. The Advocate calls and enlightens and motivates and empowers. And Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit is “in” us, not just alongside, not merely on the same team. “In us” in a mystical union that defies our understanding. Yet this union is not only transcendent. It is also remarkably ordinary and common because it is experienced in our everyday lives both individually and together as we love and care for each other just as we are loved and cared for by others.
In this time when many of us are “safer at home”, perhaps feeling a bit isolated and solitary, we are not left as orphans but are united in this way of love that is so much more than an emotion; it is a lived reality not an abstract concept. It is a reality that recognizes and honors the value of others. It reaches out to those in need. And this happens even when we may not feel like it because love is a verb.
St. Teresa of Calcutta, known for her selfless love and care for the lowest of the lowly in India, revealed late in her life that she had lived for years in darkness and seeming faithlessness. Yet she kept on in her care because it is the way of love. A way made possible because of the Advocate, the Holy Spirit in her.
In our hymnal there is one titled “Love Consecrates the Humblest Act.” (ELW 360). Here are the lyrics:
1 Love consecrates the humblest act
and haloes mercy's deeds;
it sheds a benediction sweet
and hallows human needs.
2 When in the shadow of the cross
Christ knelt and washed the feet
of his disciples, he gave us
a sign of love complete.
3 Love serves and willing stoops to serve;
what Christ in love so true
has freely done for one and all,
let us now gladly do!
In this time of pandemic know this. You are not alone, the Holy Spirit is within you. You are not alone, we are the Body of Christ together. You are not alone, we are united with Christians across time and across place.
He is risen! And because he lives, we also will live.
Thanks be to God!
