The LCA provides this sermon edited for lay-reading, with thanks to the original author.
Easter 6, Year C
John 14:23-29
Dear heavenly Father, send your Holy Spirit on us so we may learn to keep your words and trust the peace you bring us, through your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Have you ever tried a one way relationship?
For example, a mother might love her child, feed her child, wash her child, clean up after her child, tend her child when he or she is sick, talk to her child, teach her child, hug her child, hold her child when in distress, and pray for her child.
How would she feel if her child never talked to her, acknowledged her, said thank you, hung like a limp and unresponsive rag in her arms, or obey what she says or teaches? Would she feel that everything she did was a waste of time and effort? Would she feel rejected? Despite the love she pours out for her child, would she herself feel loved? Would she feel at peace? Would she receive any blessings from that relationship? Would she feel like giving up and putting her emotional energy elsewhere?
Or, let’s say a wife or husband doesn’t listen to the other, doesn’t talk to the other, doesn’t say sorry or thank you, or doesn’t respond to the love offered. They don’t look at their partner, communicate with them, or touch them. You’d think this wouldn’t be much of a marriage. Love isn’t shared. Forgiveness isn’t shared. Joy isn’t shared. Peace doesn’t exist. The blessings of fidelity during times of sickness and health are missing. The same things would be missing in any other relationship that lives in a like manner.
In fact, you would wonder if the relationship actually exists. Is a one way relationship a relationship at all? Even though some people have long distance relationships, at least most of them still communicate with each other and long to be together again. But if there was no longing and no communication, you’d wonder why anyone would bother. I mean, how would you receive and share any blessings of love, joy and peace with someone if they didn’t respond to that relationship or want to be part of it?
Remembering Jesus was about to be betrayed and crucified - and therefore he knew he would be separated from his disciples - he was telling them how the relationship between him and them would continue once he was gone. They were going to miss him. They would be devastated at his cruel death. They would think the relationship over.
But Jesus assures them of his continuing love. The relationship would continue in his absence in a new way. He tells them that if anyone loves him, he will keep his word. This isn’t just listening to Jesus’ words, but responding to them, meditating on them for their deeper meanings, and living according to his words. The disciples might even talk back to Jesus through prayer.
In this way it would be like a marriage relationship. Just as a husband speaks to his wife, so Jesus will speak to his disciples through his word. In return, a wife will not only listen to her husband, but respond to him and live in harmony with him. In the same way, the disciples will listen to Jesus and respond to his word through love and obedience. Of course, the same would happen in reverse. Just as a wife listens and responds to her husband, so too a husband should actually listen to his wife and respond to her as well.
So, as a disciple of Jesus keeps his words, the promise is given that his heavenly Father will love him, will come to him, and make his home with him. Therefore, while Jesus is absent from them, they’ll still receive the Father’s love as well as his own love. Note Jesus says ‘we will come and make our home with him’ (v23). By keeping the words of Jesus, you receive the love of a community, the love of the Father and of the Son.
Husbands and wives already experience this, or at least I hope they do. If a husband loves his wife rightly, he’ll also receive the love and blessings of her parents. If a wife loves her husband rightly, she’ll also receive the love and blessing of his parents. On the other hand, if a husband or wife doesn’t love the other or keep faithful to the other, they will soon receive the wrath of their in-laws!
This is partly the reason why Jesus warns his disciples that if they don’t love him, they won’t keep his words. It would be like a one way relationship. The best way to show you don’t love someone is by ignoring them, staying away from them, not listening to them, or responding to their words.
So, since we’re also Jesus’ disciples, we want to show our love for him by keeping his words. This isn’t a burden, but a joy since this is the way we grow in our relationship with him. If we don’t love Jesus, then we won’t listen to his words, respond to them or keep them, and the Bibles in our homes will remain closed and gather dust. If we love him, we’ll want to hear him speak to us through his word and respond to that word.
The trouble is we don’t usually listen to Jesus very well. Our Bibles and devotion books often remain shut. And even if we do read them, perhaps even spasmodically, as soon as we read it, we shut the book and think nothing more of what’s been said. Some of our devotion habits can be forced or rushed. We don’t always allow our hearts and minds the time to let those words sink in. We don’t always meditate on Jesus’ words or respond to them in heartfelt prayer. In some ways it’s almost like a parent talking to a child and the child responding ‘whatever!’ and going on their way.
The same happens with worship. As soon as we walk out those doors we’ve often forgotten what we’ve heard and would rather talk about the weather or sport than God’s words or how God’s word might impact on our lives.
Also, if we do communicate with God, it can seem as if it’s a one way conversation. That is, we might pray to him and demand certain things from him, but often forget prayer is most commonly answering speech. We order God around to do our will, but neglect to listen to what God wills in his word. It should be that God talks to us and we respond.
Worship, in one sense, is a two way conversation between God and his people. God first speaks to us through his word and we respond in prayer and praise. In most cases our conversation is scripted as God’s words and our words are written out for us to follow, but there are also opportunities for unscripted conversation. There are times when we bow our heads in prayer, or bring our silent petitions and praise to him as we kneel at the altar.
In worship, God showers us with his blessings of forgiveness, promises of faithfulness and mercy, and with assurances of his presence with us even in our toughest times. God speaks to us and we talk to God. Therefore, if we love God and want to continue to receive the blessings of that relationship, we’ll naturally want to come to worship. If we don’t love God, then we won’t come to worship.
Jesus also promises to send the Holy Spirit to his disciples. The Holy Spirit isn’t just a helper, but also a counsellor, comforter, and encourager. He warns us, advises us, and helps us interpret what God says to us through his Son. The Holy Spirit is Jesus’ continuing presence with us and essential for us in our relationship with God.
Despite the absence of Jesus, the result of keeping Jesus’ words and receiving the Holy Spirit who helps us remember and understand Jesus’ words, is peace. Hearing the Word of God, which is interpreted by the Holy Spirit, leads to peace. This is the Hebrew ‘Shalom’. This is a peace of wholeness and a complete relationship.
To help you understand, you would know that if any of your relationships are strained, there’s no real peace. Of course you might like to convince yourselves there’s peace, you know, by avoiding someone or certain topics, or by forcing someone to your will, but that’s not peace. Peace isn’t avoidance. Peace isn’t winning wars. Peace isn’t making out everything’s ok. Peace isn’t pretending. Peace isn’t forced. Peace is a loving and trusting relationship – a two way relationship.
This isn’t a peace that governments can offer. This isn’t a political or military peace. This is a peace of reconciliation, trust, forgiveness, and wholeness. This peace leads to blessings of hope and joy. This is a peace which calms troubled hearts and drives away anxiety.
In this way, no matter what the world throws at you, no matter how your relationships are strained with those around you, and no matter how your health suffers, you have this deep peace knowing you and God are ok with each other.
You don’t have to worry if you’re good enough for God. Jesus is good enough – that’s what matters. You don’t have to be anxious about those things you did which trouble your conscience because God has forgiven you and washed away that sin. In time you’ll come to believe it and your conscience will also be wiped clean. You don’t have to be troubled about whether you’re going to heaven or not, because Jesus assures you of the Father’s love and will take you home to be with him. This is peace. You and God are at peace. This peace with God leads to blessings of joy, contentment and hope.
There’s a German saying that adorns a number of households, which reads:
Where there is faith, there is love;
Where there is love, there is peace;
Where there is peace, there is blessing;
Where there is blessing, there is God;
Where there is God, there is no need.
As we trust God and trust his words, we’ll naturally want to listen to his words and live according to them, passing on the blessings of grace, mercy, forgiveness and peace to those around us. As we hear God’s words, we hear of God’s continuing love for us, and we respond to it.
As we hear of God’s love and his eternal promises, we receive that peace that the world can’t give. This peace is a blessing to us and as we live in that peace and bring this peace to those around us, our earthly relationships are blessed.
Although we’re not always aware of the blessings we receive from God, as we look back over our life, we can see how we’ve been blessed to receive things that others didn’t. We’ve received contentment, hope, joy, forgiveness, peace, and the promise of eternal life with God. God has guarded us and guided us. No matter what happens in the relationships around us, our relationship with God is the one constant relationship we can trust and rely on.
As we hear God speak to us in worship and in our daily devotions, it’s as if God has made his home with us. God is with us. He is ‘Immanuel’ to us. If God is on our side, who can be against us? And while he’s on our side, we’ll naturally listen to him.
Despite the fact Jesus was leaving his disciples, he assures them how his relationship continues through his Word, and through the reception of the Holy Spirit. Then, despite his apparent absence, the disciples will continue to experience that peace.
It’s the same with us. Our relationship with God isn’t to be a one way relationship. God loves you. You know that. But like any relationship, it needs to grow beyond the ‘just knowing’. A relationship needs communication. God speaks to you through his Word. As people loved by God, you’ll naturally want to listen to him and keep his words in your heart.
As you hear him speak to you, the Holy Spirit helps you interpret what God says, and delivers God’s peace to you. This peace…
…which surpasses all human understanding, will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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