Sermon by Sheila Plant - Text only this week!

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Sermon for Easter VI – By
May 5, 2013
John 14: 20-27

O, Lord, take my lips and speak through them. Take our minds and think through them. Take our hearts and set them on fire with love for You. In your name we pray. Amen.

On the night of the Last Supper, Jesus spoke to his disciples of his impending death and he tells them that someone in their midst will betray him.
He also talks about where he is going and emphasizes that he will be going alone. When he says that, they become confused and hurt. After all, have they not followed him for the past three years? Have they not watched him heal the sick, comfort the afflicted, and performed many miracles? Not a day has gone by when they have not been together and now all of a sudden they are faced with the thought of life without him. Where is he going that they can’t continue to follow him? Only Jesus knows that what will happen next will upset them terribly. He does, however, assure them that they will receive consolation; he would send them the Holy Spirit who would be a support and comfort to them and who would remain with them always.

Like a child in a department store, these disciples are afraid, uncertain, confused and nervous. It is here that Jesus continues by saying to them: “I leave you my peace; I give you my peace.” This peace that Jesus gives is unconditional—an eternal gift to his followers in every time and every place. That’s why he does not give peace to us as the world does. For the world, peace is often conditional, temporary, or fragile and is frequently reduced to mean only the absence of war and strife. But this peace that Jesus gives us, this inner peace, a peace of the heart enables us to look at the world with hope. The peace from God also supports us so that we can contribute, quite humbly, to building peace where it is jeopardized. World peace is so urgent in order to alleviate suffering, and in particular so that the children of today and tomorrow do not live in distress and insecurity.

In his gospel, John expresses who God is in three words: “God is love”. If we can grasp only those three words, we shall go far.
But what captivates us about those words? The fact that they transmit this conviction: God did not send Christ to earth to condemn anyone, but for every human being to know that he or she is loved and to be able to find a road to communion with God......an inner peace. But why are some people gripped by the wonder of a love and know that they are loved or even cherished and yet there are those who feel that they are neglected? The people who know they are loved have that inner peace. How many times have we heard someone who is troubled and in turmoil lash out and say, “If there is a God he wouldn’t let this be happening to me.” We try to help them and we can only pray that at some point they will come to see and feel God’s peace.

If only everyone could realize that God remains alongside us even in the depths of our loneliness. God says to each of us, “You are precious in my sight, I treasure you and I love you.” All God can do is give his love. That sums up the whole of the gospel.
What God asks of us and offers us is simply to receive his infinite mercy. That God loves us is a reality that is sometimes hard to comprehend. But when we discover that his love is forgiveness above all else, our hearts find peace and are even transformed. And then, in God, we become able to forget what assails our hearts; this is the wellspring from which we draw freshness and new vitality.
Whoever lives a life rooted in God chooses to love for out of the peace that Jesus leaves springs love. A heart resolved to love can radiate goodness without limits. Life is filled with serene beauty for whoever strives to love with trust. All who choose to love and to say it with their life are led to ask themselves one of the most compelling questions of all: how can we ease the pain and torment of others, whether they are close at hand or far away?

But what does it mean to love God? Could it be to share the suffering of the most ill-treated? Yes. Could it mean having infinite kind heartedness and forgetting oneself for others? Definitely. For peace is the flow on of God’s love into the rest of our lives. It has a positive and profound effect on our health and well being.
Loving means forgiveness, living as people who are reconciled. And reconciliation always brings a springtime to the soul. Loving can bring peace. In the heart of each person, Christ still whispers today, “I will never leave you all alone; I will send you the Holy Spirit. Even if you are in the depths of despair, I will remain along side you.” That is love. Peace is the Holy Spirit in our lives as friend, counsellor, comforter, teacher and healer. God has promised never to forget us and so sent his Son to go all the way and die for us in order to reclaim us as his own. Welcoming the comfort of the Holy Spirit and what it gives, means seeking in silence and peace to surrender ourselves to him. Then, though at times dire events may occur, it becomes possible to go beyond them. The Christ of communion offers this enormous gift of consolation. To the extent that the Church is able to bring healing to our hearts by communication, forgiveness and compassion, it makes a fullness of communion with Christ more accessible. When the Church is intent on loving and understanding the mystery of every human being, when tirelessly it listens, comforts and heals, it becomes what it is at its most luminous: the crystal clear reflection of a communion.
Each month at St. Luke’s we hold a Taize service. In the stillness of the Church, lit with candles, and through the comfort of prayer and reflection we seek to find that communion with Christ: to open our souls and our hearts to him and to feel his presence in us. We seek a peace, an inner peace to make our hearts more encompassing. That sprit of communion is profound kindness; it does not listen to suspicions. It allows us to walk forward in our lives on the road of trust and of a constantly renewed kind-heartedness.

On this road called life, there will be failure at times. It is then that we need to remember that the source of peace and communion is in God. Instead of becoming discouraged, we shall call down his Holy Spirit upon our weaknesses.

And so, throughout our whole life, the Holy Spirit will enable us to set our path again and again going from one beginning to another towards a future of peace.

My prayer for you this day is that your communion with God will bring you that inner peace and that you will welcome the comfort of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.