Easter 6A
May 21, 2017
John 14:15-21
In what
seems to be a constantly bad news cycle, this week I read some good news. Seven
children, all from the same family, who have been in foster care for nearly
four years, were adopted by one couple, who were previously parents to only one
young son. The seven children, ranging in age from 5 to 14, moved into the
couple’s three-bedroom home last summer, and as of last week, they have been
officially adopted. The family of three has become a family of 10! The article
I read featured some family photos, with the kids being silly together, smiling
and looking very comfortable. The photos that really got me were with the
adopted kids holding a sign that said, “We were in foster care for 1359 days.
But today, we’re adopted!” and the biological son holding a sign that said, “I
was an only child for 1426 days, but today, I became a little brother!” While
I’m sure the new situation has plenty of challenges, the faces in the photos
exuded pure joy. (Read the story here.)
Stories like
this are so heartwarming – for the sheer generosity and love of the couple, to
be sure, but also for the recognition that so many children lack the generous,
loving presence of parents in their lives, either because they are orphans, or
because their biological parents are unable to provide that for them. Our
hearts truly ache to see an orphaned child, especially a young child, and that
has always been the case – the Bible repeatedly implores us to care for the
widows and the orphans, because both groups are particularly vulnerable.
That feeling
of being orphaned, though – it is not only for those who have experienced an
untimely loss of their parents. We all might now and then “feel like a
motherless child,” as the old spiritual says. We feel it whenever we cannot
find our footing, when we feel lost in this world, when we are without
direction and can’t find the love and support we need. We might feel that sense
of being orphaned any time we lack the connection we humans so desperately
crave. When we lack genuine and loving connection, the other challenging
aspects of life can seem insurmountable. Sometimes, we even see such a lack of
connection end tragically.
Which is why
Jesus’ words to his disciples on the night he was betrayed, these words we
heard just a moment ago, are so important. “I will not leave you orphaned,”
Jesus says. What music to their ears, as they come to realize that their
friend, teacher, and indeed their advocate is fast approaching his death.
Remember, these guys, the disciples, are a bunch of nobodies, and Jesus has
made them somebodies. He has called them, empowered them, taken the time to
teach them, and to send them out to care for others. Perhaps this is the first
time they have felt like they actually mattered to someone – mattered, even, to
the world!
This week, I
read the obituary of my beloved 7th and 8th grade
language arts teacher. Mrs. Hinman was an incredible and inspiring person in
her own right, but the role she played as teacher to so many middle schoolers
made a remarkable difference in those students’ lives. I have been watching
this week as my childhood friends have posted her obituary on Facebook with
their own testimony about what she did for them during those tumultuous years
of a person’s life. For me, as I endured the usual smattering of self-esteem
issues, friend issues, and a feeling that I was completely misunderstood by
everyone, Mrs. Hinman taught me how to see beauty and purpose in brokenness.
She taught me how to think, and how to feel, and how thinking and feeling can
go together. She taught me how to use literature to be self-reflective, and to
then use that self-awareness to find a deeper sense of compassion for others.
I’m not alone in this – my friends have said similar things, that when they
truly needed support, love, connection to the world, she showed them how to
find it.
School teachers
often play this role for us, and often in really critical times in our human
development. But as important as teachers are, even this does not compare to
the promise Jesus offers us. For not only does Jesus promise not to leave us
orphaned, he tells us how he will remain constantly present with us, even
though he is bodily absent: he will send an Advocate, the Holy Spirit, to be
with us. “This is the Spirit of truth,”
he says, indicating that by this Spirit we will be comforted, guided, and
supported by the truth of Christ’s promise. This Spirit, Jesus says, will abide
with us, remain with us, and be familiar to us – so that we will never have to
feel like we are orphaned, like we lack connection. In the Spirit of truth, we
will always be connected, to God, and to one another.
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| Holy Spirit, mosaic from Ravenna Baptistery http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=54495 |
I know I
shouldn’t play favorites with the Trinity, but I always gravitate toward the
Holy Spirit. Part of the reason for this is that there is so much symbolism
around that person of the Trinity, that I seem to see that Spirit everywhere.
For example, this past week, as I was sitting in the Cardiac ICU waiting room
with the Alexanders, during Jim’s surgery, I kept seeing something moving
outside the window. I realized it was a pigeon, which kept coming to perch just
outside the window. From my angle, it looked like the bird was perched directly
behind Mary Lou’s head. The Holy Spirit is often portrayed as a dove, a bird
that is related to the pigeon, so it seemed as if the Holy Spirit herself kept
coming and perching there, offering comfort and connection during a scary time.
Then, when the family got called back
to talk to the doctor, the first thing the doctor said to them was, “You can
breathe – everything went well.” Breath – another way the Holy Spirit is
manifest, as we saw a few weeks ago when Jesus breathed his Holy Spirit on the
disciples after the resurrection. After waiting for that surgery, the family
was invited to breathe in that comforting peace that all had gone well.
Then, this
week at Prayer First, it was warm and sunny outside, but also windy. In the
Pentecost story we will hear in a couple weeks, the Holy Spirit is described as
a rushing wind – so as we prayed, it felt as if the Holy Spirit, the Advocate,
was caressing our cheeks with her warm embrace, carrying our prayers to heaven,
and promising us God’s counsel, guidance, and comfort as we lifted our needs up
to God.
How many
ways there are to experience the Spirit’s presence in our lives! How many
reminders that we are not orphaned, that indeed, through the Spirit we are
immensely connected – to God and to one another. Jesus’ promise to his
disciples that night that he was sending an Advocate means everything, as one
blogger writes: “You have an advocate! Someone who is looking out for you.
Someone who is on your side. Someone who encourages you and supports you.
Someone who speaks up for you and is willing to hang in there with you through
thick and thin.” To hear this is good news no matter who that advocate is, but
the one Jesus promises is God, Himself. And that God will not ever let us go,
nor leave our side – not when we feel orphaned, or abandoned, or misunderstood,
or overlooked. Not when we feel vulnerable and helpless. Not when we feel
unloved, or even unlovable. And that Advocate wants for us health and healing,
community and blessing – in short, abundant life.
God gave us
Christ so that we would have that abundant life. But God didn’t stop there –
for we also are given the Holy Spirit, to encourage and look out for us, to
care for us and stay with us and walk alongside us. In other words: the Spirit
came to be like Christ for us, every day. Thanks be to God!
Let us pray…
Holy Spirit, when we feel disconnected or
alone, you come to us again and again in your many and various ways. Help us to
remember to look for you whenever we are in need of comfort, counsel, and
support, and connection. In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
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