John 14.23-29
Jesus answered him, ‘Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me.
‘I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, “I am going away, and I am coming to you.” If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe.
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This reading is part the last discourse Jesus has with his disciples. He knows that he is on the way to the cross. He knows that he is going to die. But what about those that he leaves behind? What about his promise to bring the kingdom of God to earth as it is in heaven (something that we pray for every communion service in the Lord’s prayer). Will Jesus abandon those who have followed him, in order to complete his mission? Will he leave them orphaned and alone?
When I was younger, Christianity wasn’t really a faith to me, it was a religion, I grew up not too far from here, in Over Hulton just down the A6. I was taken to church by my dad and I went to a church school. I learned everything about the faith in church and in school growing up and remember thinking to myself that it is important to go to church. This continued even into my teenage years even when many of my friends stopped going
I was confirmed at fifteen years old. And then I stopped going to church.
There was no community around me of my age in my church, there was no ‘sharing of life’ or being a family together. I felt that, apart from head knowledge there was no point in me being there, and ultimately I felt completely lost, and alone.
And so there was a few years of searching, not sure what to believe. I had a look at Buddhism for a time which, although full of wisdom, didn’t hold the answers that I was seeking. I eventually studied philosophy at master’s level at university; and it was there that I realised that Christianity makes far more sense then it’s detractors think it does, so I returned to church.
After a few years (a story for another time) I put myself forward for ordained ministry and the church agreed and sent me to Trinity College in Bristol to train for three years before curacy. Up until now, Christianity was a ‘head’ religion for me, it was all about believing the right things and having the right knowledge. It wasn’t really about love. I spent so much of my life being told that God loved me, but I never really felt it.
It was at college that I began to really feel it. There was a community of people studying, sharing life together, and they clearly loved each other and cared for one another. There seemed to be something different about them. in the previous chapter, from last week’s gospel reading where Jesus says, ‘love one another as I have love you,’ we also read ‘by this shall everyone know, you are my disciples. If you have love for one another.’
There is something inherently attractive when you see true love on show, and that is what I found at college. Those who love each other sacrifice for each other, care for each other through thick and thin, they go the extra mile. They forgive even when it’s hard to, it seemed different. It felt different.
Jesus answered him, ‘Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.
I found that when I was studying in community with other Christian’s, the more time I spent there, the more I felt ‘strangely warmed’ inside. The more i felt this whole Christian thing go from my head to my heart, the more I felt able to love, and to be loved in turn. And over time, I have felt God’s love for me grow in my heart, but not only his love for me, but my love for him as well. I found myself responding deeply to God’s love for me. It took about two years before it really began to happen, that sense. And I have found that it has only grown since.
Telling people that Jesus loves them is all well and good. I have done that from this pulpit, for years. But if we haven’t experienced much love in our lives, it can be hard to really know this in our heart.
So, back to my question. Will Jesus abandon his own? No of course he won’t! He loves his disciples, and they love him as well. Earlier on in this very chapter Jesus says, in verse 18
‘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.
And then later in verse 26:
‘but the Advocate, the holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you.’
Jesus gives us his Peace, he gave us the Holy Spirit after his resurrection and ascension, to give us that assurance and to continue his work, and to teach us how to be God’s people.
The Holy Spirit is ‘God in us,’ literally. He comes into our lives, filling it with power and purpose and meaning and that assurance of salvation and that we haven’t been left orphaned by God. But he’s not just in us. he is present amongst us. In a couple of week’s time, the church will be celebrating Pentecost; fifty days after the resurrection, when the promised Holy Spirit came upon the first disciples and went out to proclaim the word.
They took the verses at the beginning of our passage to heart. ‘Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.’
For most of them, following Jesus cost them their lives. But that’s the thing about Love, it’s costly. It could cost us everything, and yet it’s worth it. And deep down we all know that.
There’s that old song by Meatloaf released in 1993, ‘I’d do anything for love.’ If we knew in our hearts that God really loved us, and if we truly learned that and felt that, what would be we willing to do for him?
And this ultimately that is what Christianity is about. It’s not a religion, it’s a faith, it’s about trusting in somebody who is trustworthy, it is about love, love for God, love for each other, and love for our world. It’s about everything that matters.
My prayer, is that we will have an increased sense of God’s love for us in our hearts. That we would know, deeply God’s love for each of us, but not only this, that we would respond to this love more and more, and not just on Sundays when we come to church but every day. The Holy Spirit is always with us. Never forget that.
Amen