May 13, 2007
The Sixth Sunday of Easter (Year C)
Acts 16:9-15; Psalm 67; Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5; John 14:23-29
Funny how our minds work, or at least my mind. Because often I will experience something, read it, feel it, see it, hear it, and I’m reminded of something else. What often happens is, I will be somewhere, doing something, and I’ll be reminded of a song, some piece of music that I know, and those two things are enriched by being connected to each other. When I am at the beach, at that first step into the water, the words and music of the doxology flood my mind: “Praise God from whom all blessings flow . . .”
When I read the scripture passage for today, or hear the words, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you," my mind and heart call up a portion of the chant Veni Sancte Spiritus. This hauntingly beautiful hymn, sung at nearly every ordination and at the feast of Pentecost, invokes the Holy Spirit, to be with us, to live in us, to teach us and to guide us, to open our hearts to new understanding. The passage from John in our gospel reading this morning brings to mind these words especially:
You are my only comforter, peace of the soul
In the heat you shade us, in our labors, refresh us
And in our troubles, you are our strength
Clearly God does not promise a life free from struggles, or pain, or tragedy. Throughout the gospels we are offered, through the life and stories of Jesus, a glimpse at the nature and heart of God, and in today’s lesson, Jesus is preparing his disciples for the rough times that lie ahead. In the precious time he has left to be with them in person, he offers assurance of his presence, the steadfast and eternal presence of God that will dwell in them, through the gift of the Spirit.
From the moment of our birth, we are formed, as infants and young children, and we begin to develop, for the first time, a sense of our identity; who we are as members of a family, as sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, as friends and acquaintances, as members of an ever-growing community. As we continue to grow, and live into our experiences, our joys and our challenges, we begin to develop our character, what we believe in, what we value and come to know as our own truths. And as we mature, by the grace of God, we may begin to develop that sense of security, of knowing, that inner strength and confidence, secure in the knowledge and love of God.
Because we are engaged in a lifelong process of formation, the Spirit is given, not to bring new ideas, but to keep Jesus, the word of God, alive in our hearts and in our lives, in every moment as we grow in faith. God knows how hard it is to grow into that place of mature faith; He knows the struggles that we face in our daily lives; He knows we are assaulted from all sides with competing ideas and images, temptations and easy promises, the value that culture places on material things, what we acquire and what we accomplish. He knows of our struggles in relationships, and that we respond to all these forces by developing the personality traits that define, defend and protect us. And He invites us into a new way of thinking and being. God and Jesus come, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to dwell within our hearts, with a love so pure that it is unaffected by those things, and to guide us into deeper and fuller relationship with God and with each other. And as we experience that deep and abiding presence, our hearts become lighter, less troubled and less afraid.
In the words of the gospel this Mother’s Day, we learn of a love and a peace that transcends time and troubles. We see God as a comforter, a nurturer, a steadfast presence in our lives, who encourages us to grow into the people we are called to be, and to know that, no matter where we are on this journey of formation, we are loved and accepted and we are never alone. It’s no coincidence that the gospel writers use the image of parenting to help us understand the depth and the breadth of that unconditional love and acceptance. For who among us, who are blessed with having children in our lives, can ever forget that deep sense of knowing what love is, when we met that child for the very first time? I’ll never forget it. I had been around children and parents in all sorts of situations in my life and work by then, and I thought I knew what love was. But that moment changed everything; who I was, what my priorities were, how I saw the world, and filled me with a glorious and frightening vulnerability that will last forever. As I looked at my daughter through groggy, exhausted eyes, the words of St. Paul from Romans came to me, “the Spirit intervenes with sighs too deep for words,” expressing perfectly what my words could never begin to articulate, and brought me that much closer to understanding the preciousness that God feels for each and every one of us.
Because we are human and live in a broken world, we don’t all have memories of that preciousness, that deep abiding love between parents and children. And we must not become too sentimental, because parenting is hard, by far one of the hardest thing we’ll ever do, and it’s not always pretty. We are willful beings and so are our children, destined to grow into their own way of being, affected by forces all around them and called to places and experiences that are their own. But whatever our circumstances, God brings people into our lives at just the right moment, to help in our formation, to nurture, to comfort, to encourage, to give advice, to love unconditionally, and, yes, to forgive freely; people that affect our identity, our character and our sense of security. And God calls us, each and every one of us, into those relationships, to be that source of inspiration and hope for another. So today, on this Mother’s Day, I invite you to ponder some things:
When did you first understand that your life is important?
Who took the risk to offer you the courage, love, support and guidance that took you past sentiment and helped you into a better way of living, a fuller state of being?
What experience has left you filled with the power of the Holy Spirit?
Remember, and give thanks.
In this gift of the Spirit, God invites us to be an Easter people, to live lives filled with hope, to experience the love of God within ourselves, to recognize God in the hearts of others, of all others, and to be bearers of God’s love.
Amen.
The Rev. Maggie Geller
Church of the Good Shepherd