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THE SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

That's Life! Real Life!

John 14:23-29

           Sylvia and I had a wonderful, wonderful trip to Italy .  We had gorgeous weather and great food.  We saw stunning scenery.  We had plenty of time with each other and with her sister, Sigrid.  It was a most relaxing, refreshing and joy-filled vacation!

            On the flight back – from Paris to Minneapolis – we were in the air for over nine hours.  They showed three feature-length movies, followed by a couple of half-hour sitcoms.  At the end, they showed a nature program from the BBC, called, “Life.”  I wasn’t listening to the sound, but I was watching the images on the screen.

            At one point, I saw three or four jungle cats of some sort stalking through the tall grass.  Then the camera switched to two ostriches who were grazing peacefully.  The cats crept closer and closer.  The ostriches finally realized they were being watched, but it was too late.  They flared up their feathers in the hopes, I imagine, of scaring their predators away. 

            The jungle cats were not deterred.  They ran the ostriches down.  They jumped on one of them and pulled it to the ground.  Despite all of the attempts of the ostrich to get away, the cats had their meal.

            And I thought, “Well, Chris, vacation is over.  Welcome back to real life!”  Because, let’s face it, vacation is not real life.  Vacation is about getting away from it all.  Real life is about facing it all.  Vacation is about peace and quiet.  Real life is often filled with trouble.

            You may never have been to Italy , but you may have had this same experience.  You go away for a few days or a couple of weeks or maybe you just come to church for a couple of hours.  You feel light and carefree while you are away.  But then you get back home.  You listen to your messages or you check your e-mail or you return to work.  And the burdens of your daily life come back – paying the bills; getting the food on the table; dealing with personal or family issues that have been ignored for a time.  Or maybe your boss decided while you were away that he didn’t really need you anyway or a dear friend received a diagnosis of a life-threatening condition.  And the light and carefree feeling you had vanishes in an instant.

             The peace is gone.  And you wonder – where did it go?  Can I get it back?  How can I find a sense of peace that will last?

I think we get a clue from Jesus in today’s reading from the gospel of John.  Jesus has told them he is going away and they cannot come with him.  The disciples must feel as though they have just had the rug pulled out from under them.  They are probably thinking, “No Jesus.  No peace.”

They pepper Jesus with questions – Where are you going?  Why can’t I follow you?  How can we know the way?  Show us the father and we will be satisfied.

Finally, Judas (not Iscariot) asks, “How is it that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?”  So, Jesus talks about the kind of connection he will continue to have with them even though he is gone.

He starts by saying that those who love him will obey him, will keep his word.  What is his word?  Love one another as I have loved you.  Jesus has demonstrated that love on this night by washing the disciples’ feet.  So, those who love Jesus will love as Jesus commanded and did.

As this happens – in loving one another – the disciples will receive a gift – the Father and the Son will make their home with them.  This is a promise that hearkens back to the first chapter of John – the Word became flesh and lived among us.  Before anyone loved Jesus, he came to be with us so that we might love God and one another.  It is a promise that looks forward as well to the reality envisioned in Revelation – The home of God is among mortals.  He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples and God himself will be with them.  (Revelation 21:3)

This is the first promise that Jesus makes before his departure.  The second is that the Father will send his Spirit who will teach them everything and remind them of what he has said.  The Spirit will not teach them anything new, but in every situation they face will remind them of what Jesus taught them.  When they become frightened, the Spirit will say, “Love one another, as I have loved you.”  When they become angry and defensive, the Spirit will say, “Love one another, as I have loved you.”  When they are confronted by trouble, the Spirit will say, “Love one another, as I have loved you.”

Finally, Jesus gives the gift of his peace.  Jesus doesn’t say exactly what this gift of peace entails.  But I think that, because it is something that Jesus gives, it is not the absence of strife or struggle or anxiety.  That is often how we think of peace.   “If this issue would stop troubling me, or if this person would go away, or if this situation would change, then I would have peace.” 

This peace is different.  It is not the absence, but the presence of something.  It is, in fact, Jesus’ own presence, a presence that remains even in the midst of trouble.

On Friday, Sylvia and I went to see another documentary, a French film, called, “Babies.”  We were interested in it, of course, because we like babies (especially Sylvia!).  We had a special interest in it, though, because our niece, Nina, who is Sigrid’s daughter and who lives in Paris , worked on the film in the camera crew.

The film follows, from birth to the first birthday, four babies from different places in the world – Mongolia , Japan , Namibia , and the U.S. ( San Francisco ).  Despite the vastly different settings – a dusty village in Africa, the rolling plains of Mongolia , the downtown skyscrapers of Tokyo – there were remarkable similarities.  For all the babies were cared for by mothers and other family members and even animals.  All the babies had the same challenges of learning to eat and to walk and to play and to get along.  And all the babies ran the same gamut of emotions – sadness and joy, frustration and delight, pain and ecstasy. 

And, as I was watching, I thought, “Chris, this, too, is real life.  Babies are real life.”

There is very little dialogue in the film.  Very few words are spoken.  And the few that are spoken are not translated.  But there is really no need.  Because the kind of language that passes between mother and child has little to do with content.  Yes, as children get older, they need more clear instruction and guidance.  But in the first weeks out of the womb, what they need is connection.  What they need is warm intimacy.  What they need is the assurance of a loving presence.

That is what we need as well.  It is not a need that we outgrow, especially as we navigate the ups and downs of our lives.  And that is what God provides us – the home that Father and the Son make in us as love one another – the work of the Holy Spirit who reminds us of what Jesus has said and what he has done – the promise of Jesus, the promise of peace, not as the world gives, but as a presence – an abiding presence, a reassuring presence, a loving presence – the very presence of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

And that is real life!