“Abiding With You” – Sermon on May 29, 2011
May 29, 2011
Scripture: John 14: 15-21
Jesus said, “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.”
Sermon: Abiding With You
by Rev. Doreen Oughton
Today’s scripture passage picks up right where last week’s left off. Jesus had spoken of the many dwelling places in his father’s house, about how his followers know the father because they have known him, how he dwells in the father, and the father in him. It is part of the farewell discourse in John’s gospel, the very long talk Jesus has with his disciples on the evening of his betrayal and arrest. The evening began with Jesus washing the feet of his disciples, and instructing that they should do likewise for one another.
There is lots of talk about love in this passage. “If you love me,” Jesus begins. Has anyone ever heard that phrase from someone? If you love me, you will do X, or will stop doing Y and Z. If you love me, you’ll go where I want to go, do what I want to do, what I want you to do, you’ll stay with me even if I hurt you. If you love me you’ll stop drinking, or gambling. If you love me you’ll buy me a ring, or have a child with me. It can feel manipulative, this “if you love me” business. I sure don’t want some teenager saying it to my daughter. I don’t know about you, but I tend to bristle when someone else sets the framework for my feelings, makes it about proving something. I want to be free to show my love in the ways that feel right to me, that mean something to me, and have someone know and appreciate these gestures. If I say it, and I show it in ways that I understand, that should be enough, right?
Even for Jesus. I love Jesus. I truly do. I love to study his Word, I love to talk to him, pray to him, sing songs to him. I love to do meditations where I read a gospel passage and imagine myself there with him, imagine what he might say to me, or I to him. I come to church. I’ve even made it my vocation to spread the Good News. That should be enough, right?
No, Jesus says it is not enough. It is not enough to have loving feelings. It is not enough to follow my own inklings on how to show that love, not my love for him, and not my love for others. Jesus is not manipulating here, he is teaching. He is teaching us what it means to love, because we really have no idea. What a position for me to be in here, trying to unpack Jesus’ teaching on love when I really have no idea. Talk about a blind-folded person trying to describe the elephant. I can at best touch it here and there, describe a piece, and then another, but I can’t pretend that I know the whole. I imagine it is like that for you, also, so let’s try to help each other see more, and let’s be gentle with each other and with ourselves as we do our best to bring this teaching into our hearts and lives. I believe there is a great deal of paradox in these teachings, things that seem either/or that are really both/and, and I believe there is tension and danger also. So I give you the caution one of my professors used to use – exploring this passage is like trying to pick up a snake in the forest. If you’re not careful where you grab it, it will turn and bite you.
Jesus says, “if you love me, you will keep my commandments.” And if you do that, keep the commandments, then Jesus will ask for you, and the Father will grant, an advocate. Actually, another advocate is what the text says, implying that Jesus was the first advocate. The Greek word translated here as Advocate is parakletos. It has a range of meanings, and it is likely that the author intended all of those meanings: advocate, comforter, counselor and helper. It is a Spirit of Truth that will help you, guide you, comfort you, and move and speak on your behalf. That is what Jesus did for his followers, and what he promises them, and us, will continue after he leaves the earthly world.
But let’s back up to the condition set for the request, that our love of Jesus be expressed by keeping his commandments. What commandments is he referring to? The gospel of John doesn’t include any sermon on the mount, full of instruction on how to live. John references the Hebrew scriptures, but mostly the prophets who might help people understand who he is. He doesn’t focus on the ten commandments. The recurring commandment by Jesus in John is to love, to love one another as Jesus loved them. They are to wash each other’s feet as he washed their feet. They are to carry on the works of God as he carried out the works of God. The commandment is about love, love that makes life better for others, love that heals and uplifts, love that forgives and inspires, love that gives and grows and flows. It is love that is not focused on the internal life of the lover, but on the well-being of the beloved. Love will usually make the lover feel good, but that is not the focus of it. The song being played by God, the song that is God is love, and so it ought to feel right to be in tune with it. But the tricky part is that our good feeling is not the point of love. It is a bonus, not the focus. The focus is the song. The focus is the beloved.
And who is the beloved? Is it God? Is it Jesus? Yes, and yes, I believe. But Jesus tells us that the way to love him is to love others the way he loved. So the beloved is whoever Jesus loves, whoever God loves. And who is that?… Everyone. We are to love people not in the way that we want to, not just with a warm heart and good intentions. We are to love in ways that have meaning to the beloved. Now that doesn’t mean you have to say yes to everything someone asks of you. We look to Jesus for an example of how to love. We love non-violently. We don’t return aggression for aggression. We love by giving our time and attention. We ask questions and listen, we leave room for people to find meaning for themselves. We respond to deep needs.
And if we can do that, if we can do that “simple” thing of loving everyone the way that Jesus loved, then Jesus will ask that we be given an eternal Spirit of Truth, a comforter, a guide, helper, an advocate. Now wouldn’t it be better if Jesus got us that guide first? Wouldn’t we be better able to love as Jesus loved if the Spirit was already living in us? Hmm. It’s a puzzle, isn’t it? I also puzzle over the parts of this reading that seem exclusionary – that the disciples of Jesus will see and receive the Spirit of truth, but the world will not. And that those who keep his commandments will be loved by the Father, and by Jesus, who will reveal himself to them. Is this a way of saying we have to earn God’s love by being obedient? Is Jesus saying he won’t love or reveal himself to those who don’t know him or keep his commandments? In some ways it sounds logical, but it doesn’t resonate with my belief in an extravagantly loving God, an amazingly forgiving and compassionate Christ.
I don’t know. Perhaps it is a paradox I will not be able to figure out, and a mystery that humbles me. But I wonder if it is similar to what I learned about 12-step programs. They are not for people who need them, they are for people who want them. The wisdom and fellowship and principles, all the healing aspects of the programs are there for anyone who wants them. But people have to make room, have to take the time to go to the meetings. It’s not that there is any judgment or withholding from someone who doesn’t make the time and space, there’s just no way for it to get in. There needs to be an emptying out in order to make room. When someone is so caught up, so full to the brim in their addiction, there is not much room for grace and healing.
I wonder if its the same for making room for the Spirit of Truth, the Advocate to dwell. We need to clear a space in our hearts and souls. If we are so full to the brim with our own selves, with our need to advance, get ahead, protect our safety, protect our turf, attend to our whims, there is no room. When we are at least willing if not able to empty ourselves, to concern ourselves more with the well-being of another, love them the way they need to be loved rather than the way that makes us feel good, then we make room for the Advocate. Our willingness to love as Jesus loved clears a space for the advocate. Usually the way of the world is to focus on itself – its advancement and advantage, progress and pride. And I’m not saying these things are wrong or bad, but I believe they have become idols, things we put before loving God, loving Christ, and keeping the commandment to love others as Jesus loved. And as long as that continues, the world will not see him, will not know this Spirit of Truth. But Christ promises us that if we know him, if we love him and keep his commands, we will not be left alone to face the world. Jesus tells us that on that day we can know that Jesus is in God, and we are in Jesus, and Jesus is in us. We, through our love for Christ, become part of the Divine Being. God lives in us, and we live in God. Can we see that in one another, do we show that to the world? Do they know we are Christians by our love?
