Readings: John 14:15-21, Acts 17:22-31
Sarah West
“If ye love me, keep my commandments; and I will pray the Father, that he shall give you another comforter. That he may abide with you forever. The Spirit of Truth.”
These words are used in the Thomas Tallis’ piece “If ye love me”, which is a particular favourite and was sung at our Wedding.
The Gospel reading today has a particular resonance within me, it always has, but particularly at this time and in this strange new normal in which we find ourselves.
I have found some positives during lockdown. I am more engaged with what is happening in the garden, and the birdsong seems louder without the traffic. Although we are both working from home, not travelling has meant that I am spending more quality time with my husband walking and playing games, and I have more time for myself. And Looking around at our community and beyond there has been such an outpouring of love for others.
But for me, life without the freedom to physically gather as a community, which we took for granted, is challenging. And it is an unwelcome challenge. We have had to say goodbye, if temporarily, to things that we expect to be able to do, and to a way of life that we were used to.
In the upper room at the Last Supper, Jesus says the words of today’s Gospel to the disciples.
Jesus is preparing to say goodbye to the disciples. Preparing them for the time when he will no longer be physically with them. For the time when he will die.
I wonder what you would do if you needed to say goodbye to someone special – how would you go about it? Maybe you would give them a book of photographs, write them a letter or a poem, or give them a card? Maybe give them a big hug and try to hold on to them for as long as possible.
Jesus seeks to comfort and reassure the disciples. He tells them that he will ask the Father to send them another advocate who will be with them forever.
An Advocate is one who takes your part, who upholds and supports you, a helper. This word is sometimes translated as Comforter; that is someone who shares the burden, who transforms suffering by compassion and generosity, someone who helps relieve the pain, who helps you to get through it.
Jesus says another advocate, because he is the way, the truth and the life – he is the original advocate – and when he returns to the Father, he will send the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the truth, to remain with us as our guide and strength. Jesus says “I will not leave you orphaned”.
Even so, the disciples must have felt complete abandonment and fear after the events that follow – after Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion – in the time when Jesus had gone, but the Holy Spirit had not yet come.
We all fear that things precious to us will be taken away. That we will have to say goodbye to them. So we try to hold onto them with both hands. Trust that God will never leave you alone.
Paul said “We search for God, perhaps grope for him, and find him, though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For in Him we live and move and have our being”.
If we think about where we are today – the freedoms that we have been used to that we have had to give up, such as being able to gather in groups or socialise in person. There are family members and friends that we have not been able to see. Funerals that we have not been able to attend.
Our contact with others has mostly been reduced to video calls on zoom…. I have a colleague at work, who has just had her first child, baby Arthur, and had to spend 5 days in hospital after the birth – normally her husband and family would have been able to be there with her, but they were not able to do this. Arthur met his Father when they were able to return home. It is a difficult.
Jesus is saying: “the road will not always be easy, there will be difficulties, pain and conflict on the way, but I promise that I will never desert you. I will abide with you forever. I in you and you in me.”
In the reading from Acts, Paul tells the Athenians that:
God does not live in shrines made by human hands – in a time when we find ourselves separated from the church buildings that we are so obsessed with, this seems particularly relevant.
In lent, I always give something up, something that I am in a habit of doing so that not doing it makes me think about my reasons. But if someone told me what I had to give up in Lent, I think that would make it even more of an imposition, there would be a sense of outrage.
There is something about having that sense of control. I heard the Rev Sam Wells say recently, that if we had come up with the idea to separate ourselves from our church buildings in an exercise to reimagine church and find new ways to connect with people then we would probably be quite pleased with ourselves for the progress we have made.
But there is something else about worshipping or just being still in a building set aside for the purpose, set aside for God. A church building is the place where many people feel closer to God.
Perhaps in part because it is where we usually celebrate the Eucharist and proclaim,
“The Lord is here” and respond “His spirit is with us”.
The sacraments unite us to God. They help us encounter and build our relationship with Him. I have found a deep connection with the Eucharist in my experience of the presence of God. This is where, each Sunday, we accept and invite Christ into our lives and our bodies by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is something very powerful and emotive for me. That which brought me to faith – the liturgy, music and rhythm of the Eucharist – has been stripped away.
We are challenged, like the Athenians, to discover new ways of doing things, of being aware of the free gift of Christ’s presence, and to recognise the Holy Spirit working in us and in those around us.
We have an opportunity to re-imagine church and what it means, and how we live as Kingdom people.
Jesus left us the gift of the Holy Spirit to help us through the difficult times, through times such as these. The gift of the spirit is the gift of love poured out in our hearts – the comforter who comes alongside us, who unites us to God through Christ.
We can be agents of the Holy Spirit as we come alongside one another at this time.
The Lord is here, his spirit is with us, wherever we are.
When Jesus actually said goodbye, his last words were “you never have to say goodbye to God because God will never say goodbye to you! God will always be there for you.”
Amen
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