John 14:15-21
“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.”
***
We don’t get to see Jesus. We don’t get to
arrive at the the tomb and mistake him for the gardener. We don’t get to race beating the
other disciple. We don’t get to meet him on the road and see him in the
breaking of bread. We don’t get to sit with him on the beach and notice his
face in the sharing of fish, that communion meal. We don’t get to see Jesus,
but I wouldn’t trade it. That earthly Jesus is fleeting, but we are given
something that hovered over the the waters before creation was, and will
outlast the stars when they are no more. Yet, despite it’s reign in that
infinite space, that eternal gift abides here, and it is the Holy Spirit. This,
this I would not trade for the world itself. I wouldn’t trade the shape of the
squirrel circled up arched back meeting rounded tail perched on the skinniest
of branches in my view. I wouldn’t trade the way sweet pea vines up the handle
of a hanging basket. I wouldn’t trade that tuft of down floating singularly on
the breeze. We don’t get to see Jesus, but the Spirit is everywhere. Have you
looked to the hills in this Sound of Music Season, or smiled at the calves in
Cute Season, or yet smelled the summer rain? This is the Spirit.
Jesus, as a man aware of his mortality,
knew that he too would not walk the earth for eternity, but he wanted to give
us something that would last. Something for those who would never see his face,
and something for those who would see his face no more. This chapter of John is
in what is called the, ‘Farewell Discourse.’ Like an elder on their deathbed,
Jesus is trying to impart all his wisdom and truth. He is also trying to
reassure those who will be left behind and shore up his loose ends. He is with
the disciples before his death, resurrection and assention, and knows, in his
humanity, he cannot last forever. He told them, “I will ask the Father, and he
will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever…the Spirit of
Truth.”
Isn’t it true that when we are gone, we
hope the things for which we stood, carry on. This is what Jesus sends, an
Advocate, a Spirit of Truth. We did not get to see Jesus withhold from throwing
the first stone. We did not get to witness Jesus befriended the tax collector
and the leper. We did not get to watch Jesus welcome the children. But when we
see other’s failings in light of our own, or when we have a dozen youth signed
up to study and serve the impoverished in L.A.,
or when we remember to that it is okay for children to leap from these stairs,
Jesus lives on. It is in these moments we see the Spirit of Truth. It is in
these moments, the life of Jesus speaks through the Advocate. When have you
known the truth to prevail? When is the last time you saw truth reign supreme,
even in the tiniest of ways? When have you seen it here in this place, in the
communion and in all the created world. There Jesus is. You know him, because
he abides with you, and he will be in you.”
That Spirit is in you, and alive in the
world, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world, or even to see Jesus’ face. I
have seen more than anyone could ever ask. I see the Spirit, in the way despite
the smashing of ballot boxes and attempting to disrupt elections, voters in Ukraine are
turning out in droves for the election. I see the Spirit, in the way the world
is outraged that young girls were stolen for seeking an education. I see the
Spirit in the way the Pope sought to create peace talks for Israel and Palestine.
The Spirit of truth is still speaking, and Jesus is alive in its the words of a
ballot, in the Spirit shepherd seeking out the lost girls, and in the Spirit of
Peace at the Vatican.
This is Jesus’ final gift to us. This is what he is trying to tell the
disciples. This is the promise that still remains. This I would not trade for
the world, or even to live in the world which got to witness the face of our
Lord, because there is a holy witness in the living of this life right
now.
Jesus says, “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.”
Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are
already at the tomb, we have seen the stone rolled away, and found our Lord
speaking to us, in the mystery of a floating feather of down, and in the
mystery reveled in the breaking of bread. In the mystery that through this
Spirit this ancient text still speaks and will never fall silent. In the
mystery that Christ was not a man who once was, but who overcame death, by
sending us a Spirit, who was then, and now and ever shall be, who is Alpha and
Omega, the beginning and the end, and with us now. Have you seen it, have
you heard it, have you felt it blowing through the wilderness, calling and
free. It is here. Alleluia, Amen.
