Sunday, May 25, 2014
Sixth Sunday of Easter
Sermon Audio
Jason Smith
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6th Sunday after Easter – John 14:15-21
In the summer of 2006, I had the opportunity to serve as a social services case worker at an organization called LUCHA Ministries, and I had the opportunity to work with many families who were recent immigrants to the US, but took up a special case with a man named Antonio. Antonio was from Peru, but worked as a janitor at the Spotsylvania County mall and late one evening, he was attacked by an colleague who was intoxicated. The man stabbed Antonio’s face with the broomstick, and eventually poked his eye out. The mall hesitated calling the authorities; Antonio lost his eye.
After LUCHA was notified of the case, I was assigned as his caseworker, and was with him nearly every day. Antonio’s progress was slow but I tried to be there with him through all of it; I attended doctors appointments, legal consultations, and other meetings with Antonio, who was now handicapped and partially unemployed. It was heartbreaking, difficult and exhausting. But I remained with him through the beginning stages of his finding wholeness and peace. Somewhere, in those few months, I accompanied Antonio as he moved from a place of despair to a place of hope and life.
After the summer, I went through a real discernment process trying to figure out what had happened, and how this experience with Antonio had an effect on me.
Apart from wondering what this was teaching me about what I wanted to be when I grew up, I wondered, what do I now believe based on this experience?
Well as we have been talking about this Easter Season, we’re exploring different ways of believing. We repeat the refrain, “Christ is risen,” but why is it that we believe? Maybe through hearing a personal testimony, maybe through growing relationships with others, maybe through touch, and embrace. We acknowledge that every one of us brings doubts, bring uncertainty, and reservations; maybe we have heard the resurrection how do we come to believe?
In today’s Gospel reading from John 14, we have Jesus giving the disciples his final discourse, his farewell address before he faced his final days on earth. In this final discourse, Jesus wants to make sure the disciples are certain of who Jesus was and what their purpose is to be once he is gone, to make sure that they know how they will be supported by the Holy Spirit once Jesus is gone, and to make sure they have a framework for coming to believe. Throughout this discourse, the disciples must have been filled with the fear of losing their leader, the person they had followed and had questions about throughout all of Jesus’ ministry. And throughout John we the readers join the disciples in asking “Who is Jesus, and what does his example cause us to believe?”
Turn with me if you would in your Bibles to John 14 as we take a look at our passage for today, beginning with verse 8 and looking closely at how Jesus is responding to the disciples questions and concerns. For the full effect of understanding this story, we have to place ourselves in the room, knowing that we one day before the Passover Festival according to John, on the day of Preparation for the Passover, and after they had shared a meal together Jesus washes the disciples feet, and then gives them the new commandment in chapter 13 verse 34, “Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”
Philip is scared; he’s frustrated and he turns to Jesus and asks “show us the Father and we will be satisfied.” the Greek word is “arkeo,” meaning this will be sufficient, to see the Father ourselves will be enough for us to believe.
Jesus’ reaction to Philips question is pure frustration. “All of these years I have been with you, and you still do not realize that the Father is in me? You still do not realize that to come to believe, one must accomplish my works! Loving your neighbor? Don’t you understand that even if you do not believe the words that come out of my mouth, believe in me because of the works themselves. Let them stand on their own as living breathing testimonies. Through living out my works, you might come to believe.
Jesus moves on in John 14 to explain how doing God’s works in the world is intrinsically linked to belief in Christ, and in turn this belief may allow individuals to perform even greater works. Verse 15 says if you love me, If you love me, you will keep my commandments. If you love me, you will move toward a life that embraces Christ’s love, a life that must be filled with keeping up the work of Christ, embodying the hands and feet of the Christ here on earth, realized, right here in this place, right now and embracing this reality will bring you closer to believe.
But in order to come to believe in Christ, how is it that we can carry out Jesus’ commandments on our own?
Throughout the Gospel of John, the readers understand that Jesus is going away, Jesus is leaving us here, Jesus is going to be with the Father. But are we by ourselves? Are we to do it alone, as individuals?
Jesus looks the disciples in their tear-filled eyes, and promises that he will personally send God’s Spirit to dwell with them. Jesus promises that The Spirit of Truth is the connecting force between humanity and the Father and Son, and the darkness cannot overcome the Spirit of Truth. And he promises a return, that he will not leave them orphans, and he will not leave them without direction in this present reality. Remember to love one another, remember to wash each others feet, remember to keep Christ’s commandments.
Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, the prominent American Jewish theologian, helps us to understand how coming to belief can come through actions. The simple act of building community, embracing relationships, love of neighbor, living in a spirit of moral responsibility, honesty, loyalty or love, and creativity brings us toward belief. In Kaplan’s words, Don’t merely expect to find or to believe that life is worthwhile; make it worthwhile.” “Transform the conditions of life so as to make the world liveable physically, socially, and spiritually.” We can be brought to believe through our actions.
In the context of our tradition, sometimes, the belief in a God that encircles the vast expanse of reality begins with practicing the love of Christ and enacting Christ’s commandments.
In the same spirit of Kaplan, each of us as dedicated volunteers should ask “if I love Christ, shouldn’t I keep Christ’s commandments by looking for more ways to serve?”
Through the power of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth that sweeps over this world and floods us with God’s presence, we are invited to keep Christ’s commandments. And we may not always start from a place of firm belief, with contemplating about the intricacies of what you believe.
It sometimes starts with opening up to the movement of the Spirit and doing, acting, and giving what you have to support the work of this place, right here, right now.
In our context, Keeping Christ’s commandments means being open to serving, open to giving, open to acting out the love of Christ in the world, and our lives are measured up to the life of Christ, the one whose love embodied giving, sharing, acting in love on behalf of others.
Even if you don’t believe, start with the works themselves. These works of giving and doing, act as expressions of the love of God in our world, these will lead us to believe.[1]
Keeping Christ’s commandments means realizing the importance of individuals who embody the openness and love of God in the world. And I encourage you to be open so that you might become filled and compelled by the Holy Spirit which comes down to abide with all of humanity and live out Christ’s commandment to “Love one another as I have loved you.“
During the summer of 2006, I came to believe in resurrection, and the power of the example of Jesus Christ, through walking alongside someone in agony and pain. With Antonio that summer, I sat with him in the doctor’s office with the plastic surgeon as he was fitted for a glass eye, I stood beside him and helped him to understand the prosecutor’s plan for obtaining justice,
and I sat behind him when the verdict was read and justice was served. I saw him move from despair, to hope. I think that maybe that summer, I came to believe. That summer, I recall an infusion of the Holy Spirit made a special calling to care for a man who had been marginalized, and through the act of keeping Christ’s commandments and standing alongside many individuals who are marginalized and in suffering, I came to believe in the importance and power of the Resurrected Christ and the hope that God offers the world. May we all come to believe through our actions of loving each other.
Thanks be to God, Amen.
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[1] Shea, John. The Spiritual Wisdom of the Gospels for Christian Preachers and Teachers. Collegeville, MN: Order of Saint Benedict. 2004. Print.
Works Cited
Brown, Raymond. The Anchor Bible: The Gospel of John. New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, 1992.
Hahn, Scott. Catholic Bible Dictionary. New York, NY: Random House, LLC. 2009. Print.
The New Oxford Annotated Bible: With the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books, New Revised Standard Version. Michael D. Coogan, editor. New York: Oxford UP, 2001.