“Tall Order, Awesome Aid”
A sermon by Sid Burgess for Edgewood Presbyterian Church,
Birmingham, AL
Sixth Sunday of Easter, April 27, 2008.
Text: John 14.15-21
“If you love me . . .,” Jesus begins. “If you love me”(v.15). Surely, I do love Jesus. From my childhood up Jesus has been a constant presence in my life. “He walks with me and he talks with me and he tells me I am his own.”1 Why do I love Jesus? With the writer of 1st John, I love Jesus because he first loved me (see 1 Jn 4.19). But do I love Jesus enough--enough to qualify, to satisfy this condition? “If you love me . . . .”
Come to think of it, how does one love God? God is Spirit. God is the Spirit of Love and Goodness, of Truth and Justice. How do you get your arms around the Spirit? God is the leading character in the ancient stories of the Bible. How do you embrace a character in a story? Jesus, the long awaited Messiah, fully human, fully God, lived on earth, in a certain time and place. But that was then and this is now. How do you love an historical figure? Yes, we believe that the Spirit of Risen Lord “lives as God with us, touching all of human life with the presence of God.” Yes, we believe Jesus “lives as one of us with God.” But how do we show our love for him; how to demonstrate our affection? Just outside the empty tomb on Easter Sunday, Mary apparently tries to embrace the risen Christ and he says, “Do not hold on to me”(20.17). So how do we love Jesus?
“If you love me,” Jesus says, “you will keep my commandments.”
Now that is a tall order, to be sure! Before we make so broad a commitment, we’ll surely want to know which commandments. Exactly which commandments does Jesus have in mind? Backing up a few verses in John we can read the “fine print:”
I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.
Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another (John
13.34).
“Just as I have loved you.” Jesus has set the pattern, Jesus has led the way, he has demonstrated for us and for all time how to love one another. How to love parent and child, spouse and partner, friend and foe, neighbor and stranger. Just a few moments ago, as John tells the story, Jesus give us a demonstration of love. He sets an example for us to follow. Jesus kneels on the floor, towel in hand, and humbly, lovingly, washes the feet of his disciples. Following this example, we show our love--not in grand gestures, not in extravagant expenditures-- but in simple, humble deeds of mercy. “Yes, little brother, I’ll play catch with you.” “Honey, let me do the dishes.” “Here, let me push the mower for a while.” “Mom, I’ll drop by for a visit this weekend..”
But quickly the plot will thicken. Jesus will raise the bar with a far, far more challenging example. Jesus will lay down his life for his friends--for us, for all humanity-- that we might have life and have it abundantly. Now, loving others as he loves us takes on more urgency, certainly becomes more demanding. Now, to follow him we must demonstrate our love for one another: in self-denial--“living simply that others may simply live;” in sacrifice--giving of our limited time, our meager money, our over-taxed talent; in forgiving--forgiving even those who have offended us. “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”
We know from a critical reading of the text that when Jesus tells the disciples to love one another here he is addressing--not just the 12--but the whole New Testament Church, where there is “no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.(Galatians 3. 28).
To love one another is to love the church, all of its human flaws notwithstanding. To love one another is to love the membership, without regard to class or gender, theological position, or sexual orientation. To love one another is to commit time and money, energy and effort, to building up the Church--the body of Christ.
And there is more: “For God so loved the world . . . .” Oh my, the whole world--“red and yellow, black and white, they are all precious in his sight.” Jew and Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist, and I gotta' love ‘em? Can’t do it. Difficult enough to love the family, the neighbors, the church--mere mortals, all of our flaws clearly visible. But love the whole world? Can’t do it!
Jesus is reading my mind. Before I can get the words out of my mouth, he says, ‘Not to worry; help is on the way.’ “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever”(v.16).
An Advocate. The Greek word is parakletos, or paraklete. The one who comforts, the one who exhorts, the one who helps, the one who makes appeals on one’s behalf. Sounds good to me. Can we just make sure this advocate, the paraklete, has my address?
Of course, but a close reading of the text reveals that the address the advocate will be given is not my personal address, but 850 Oxmoor Road, the address of the church. Help is on the way and it is here, in the gathered community of Christ’s faithful followers, that we will receive this help, this divine comfort, this sacred encouragement.
“The Paraclete (the Advocate/Comforter/Counselor/Helper) will abide with the community . . . after Jesus has gone.”2 Newer Testament scholar Gail O’Day writes:
As the Spirit of truth, the Paraclete shares in the work of Jesus, because Jesus is the truth (14.6). The work of the Paraclete is thus to keep the truth of Jesus present in the world after Jesus’ departure.3
The Spirit of Truth--right here, right now, with us. With us and for us, to support us in proclaiming Truth--God’s Truth to each other, to our children, to our parents, to our community, to the whole world. God’s Truth--that violence and warfare are not the answer; that giving and sharing are far better than getting and keeping; that all people everywhere should be free from oppression and injustice; that the blind should see and the deaf should hear; that every child of God should have enough to eat, clean water to drink, and, a safe place to sleep.
Speaking of children . . . . That is biblical language meaning the people of God, and, specifically, “children” in the Newer Testament means the Church. So, speaking of children is to say, speaking of us. Speaking of us, there is another strong promise of divine assistance coming our way. In addition to the Advocate, the Comforter, Jesus says, “I will not leave you orphaned”
When I was a child my parents regularly took my sister and me to visit an orphanage. The annual family picnic of the Berry Schools alumnae group in Macon, Georgia, was held on the grounds of the Masonic Home for Children. The directors of this orphanage were, like my parents, Berry alums. To my Mom and Dad, there was no better recommendation. My parents let us know that should they die . . . . Should my sister and I become orphans, this would be our home.
I don’t recall ever going inside one of the buildings at the Masonic Home, but in my vivid, child’s imagination, I pictured myself bringing my little Teddy Bear with me to a long dark room of empty cots. I pictured myself all alone there--an orphan.
A lonely, frightened child, so small in a world of big, not unlike a small church in a world of mega churches, a low tech organization in a high tech world, a group of modest means in a world of high finance, a world where church is entirely optional, a voluntary association competing against compulsory obligations. What a comfort to hear these words from Jesus: “I will not leave you orphaned.”
Jesus does not elaborate, and John gives no further details. But St. Paul explains in Romans 8:
14For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of
God. 15For you . . . have received a spirit of adoption. When we
cry, “Abba! Father!” 16it is that very Spirit bearing witness with
our spirit that we are children of God.
17And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with
Christ—
Christ, our brother, God our Father. You and I, adopted children of God, Sons and daughters of our Heavenly Parent, brothers and sisters of Christ, our Lord . . . . Just as he has promised: “I will not leave you orphaned.”
What’s more, Jesus says, “I’m on the way.” “I’m coming to you!” I am coming to you, riding on the pages of Holy Scripture. I am coming to you in the “old, old story of Jesus and his love.” I am coming to you as the community of the faithful gathered to hear the Word read and proclaimed, and to receive the sacraments. I am coming to you whenever and wherever you go in the world to proclaim the saving death of the Lord.
In a little while the world will no longer see me,
but you will see me; because I live, you also will live (14.19).
To the God of all grace,
who calls you to share God's eternal glory
in union with Christ,
be the power forever! 1 Peter 5:10,11
Amen.
1. Miles, Austin C, “In the Garden,” 1912,
http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/i/t/g/itgarden.htm
2. O’Day, Gail, THE NEW INTERPRETERS’ STUDY BIBLE, p. 1938.
3. O’Day, Vol. IX, p. 747.