Sermon: Sixth Sunday of Easter, John 14:15-21, May 14, 2023Faith-La Fe Lutheran Church, Pastor Jonathan Linman

Sermon: Sixth Sunday of Easter, John 14:15-21, May 14, 2023

Faith-La Fe Lutheran Church, Pastor Jonathan Linman

John’s Gospel is filled with great sayings from Jesus. Today’s passage contains a

moving promise that echoes and reverberates through the centuries and speaks

powerfully to us in our day. Jesus said, “I will not leave you orphaned.” I will not

leave you orphaned, or I will not leave you bereft, or bereaved, or comfortless. Or

most simply: I will not leave you.

Often, when I read this or hear this, I am moved to tears, for this promise speaks to

me personally. My mother struggled will illness throughout my childhood and was

therefore not always there for me in ways that I needed. She died of cancer when I

was in high school. Thus, I had my own issues with fears of abandonment. To hear

Jesus say that we will not be left orphaned strikes a very deep chord in me. Hearing

this promise today, on Mother’s Day makes it all the more poignant.

And maybe these words speak to you as well. Take a moment to let it soak in: “I will

not leave you orphaned.” These words address us not just as individuals, but they

speak to all of us communally.

The Greek word that translates orphaned here is, in fact, the word orphanous, which

means to be without parents, or teachers, or guardians. And I might add, to be

without leaders.

So many leaders today in commerce and government act like greedy, petulant

children. I keep waiting for the adults in the room to show up and really tackle the

problems and crises we face in ways that genuinely solve problems and promote the

common good. It’s as if in key areas of national and international life, humanity has

been left orphaned by the persons, mostly men, who are otherwise expected to lead.

On this Mother’s Day, perhaps we should pray for more elected leaders who are

women, who have a sense of how to really care for others and nurture the common

good.

To be bereft of parental figures, teachers, guardians, leaders takes an enormous toll on

society and adds to the anxiety and suffering that our many intersecting, global crises

cause.

But Jesus promises, “I will not leave you orphaned.” And he adds, “I am coming to

you.” That’s good news for us who may feel left behind by the persons charged with

leading and caring for us.

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Jesus spoke these comforting words to his anxious disciples on the night of his

betrayal and arrest, the day before his death by crucifixion, reassuring them that the

Father, almighty God, would give them another Advocate, namely, the Holy Spirit, to

be with them forever.

The disciples, and we as current day disciples, are not left orphaned because we are

given the promised Advocate, the Comforter or Counselor. The biblical Greek

suggests that the Advocate is one who calls out beside us, who walks along with us.

And it’s kind of like having a defense attorney at our side at all time – an appealing

image in a world that can feel so dangerous.

And here’s the thing: Jesus was not promising something to the disciples that was

going to happen in some distant future. Jesus makes the promise on what we know as

Maundy Thursday – it’s all part of the table conversation at the Last Supper. In three

short days, on the Day of Resurrection, the promise was fulfilled when Jesus showed

up alive again in the locked room saying, “Peace be with you.” That’s when he

breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” In short, Pentecost in John’s

Gospel happens on Easter Sunday. And the promise of not being left orphaned is

fulfilled on Resurrection Day when the disciples received the Holy Spirit carried on

Jesus’ very breath.

And we, too, in these latter days, have also been given the gift of the Holy Spirit, the

Advocate, the Spirit of Jesus who does not leave us orphaned, for it’s the Spirit that

helps us see with God’s eyes the meaning of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Think about it: Jesus does not leave us orphaned in the times and circumstances of

our deepest suffering because he himself knew that deep suffering on the cross where

he carried the weight of the whole world’s sin and brokenness and depravity.

And Jesus does not leave us orphaned at the time of our death, because he’s been

there and done that, too, having lain dead in the tomb for three days, making the

grave a bed of hope for us because of his resurrection.

Moreover, Jesus does not leave us orphaned when his very words of promise echo in

our ears, our minds, our hearts as those words are carried to us on the winds of the

Holy Spirit blowing from the pages of scripture.

And Jesus does not leave us orphaned when his Spirit is given to us at baptism when

through water and the word we are made to participate in the very life of the Holy

Trinity, as we are baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy

Spirit.

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On that day, the day of our baptism, because Christ lives, we live also, and we come

to know that Jesus is in the Father, and that you and I are in Christ, and Christ is in

us, individually and communally in the church (cf. John 14:19b-20). As the writer of 1

Peter suggests, baptismal life becomes for us a journey on a metaphorical Noah’s ark,

where we are saved from the raging flood of sin and death through the resurrection of

Jesus Christ (cf. 1 Peter 3:20-21).

Jesus also does not leave us orphaned when we meet him again through the Holy

Spirit active in, with, and under the bread and wine of the holy meal. It’s here at this

table where Christ in the flesh through the power of the Spirit abides with us and is in

and among us (cf. John 14:17b).

When we know that we are not left orphaned, comfortless, bereft and bereaved,

because Christ abides with us in the en-Spirited word and sacraments, our faith is

renewed, our trust is strengthened, and we are given the courage and the power to

engage in the work that God has called us to do in and for the sake of the world.

Thus, the world is not left orphaned when we, with gentleness and respect, according

to the author of 1 Peter, make our defense to others, giving them an accounting of the

hope in Christ that is in us (cf. 1 Peter 3:15).

And the world is not left orphaned when we, like Paul, find our way to our versions

of the Areopagus in Athens to proclaim in word and deed to those who fumble

around seeking God that what is feared to be unknown is in fact knowable in Christ

Jesus, whom God raised from the dead (cf. Acts 17:22-31).

Finally, the world is not left orphaned when the Advocate, the Spirit, gives us what we

need to communicate God’s unconditional love in all that we say and do. For it is the

love of the Father for the Son and the love of the Son for the Father, and the Father

and the Son loving us, too, that makes our love for the world possible. We love

because God first loved us (cf. 1 John 4:19). In the end, it’s all about love: “For God

so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him

may not perish but may have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

Oh, what a gift that we bring, proclaim, and embody in word and deed to a world that

feels orphaned, abandoned, bereft, bereaved, comfortless, and unloved. For in our

ministries of loving service and justice-seeking, Jesus continues to fulfill through us

his promise, “I will not leave you orphaned,” for Christ is risen. Christ is risen

indeed, alleluia. Amen.