Loving God, you come to us in love, inviting us to grow in our love and in our knowledge of you.  Renew us by your Spirit, empowering us to live in you, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

            Relationships can be complicated.  Mother’s Day can be complicated.  Love, it seems, can be complicated.  And into this complex world of human relationships comes Jesus, who embodies the love of God and promises the Holy Spirit, who will abide, not only with us, but in us (Jn. 14:17).  In the midst of this world in which so many experience isolation and loneliness, Jesus promises, “I will not leave you orphaned” (Jn. 14:18).

         When we consider that Jesus was speaking to his disciples before he was put to death on the cross, being orphaned is an interesting image to use.  Has Jesus been like a mother or father to his disciples? – or maybe both?  After all, it is Jesus who uses the image of a mother hen gathering her chicks under her wings to describe his own care for God’s people (Lk. 13:34).  Sometimes language can be complicated, too!

         At the beginning of today’s gospel, we hear Jesus say, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (Jn. 14:15).  Those who were the first to hear John’s gospel would have known that the same thing was said about Lady Wisdom: “love of her is the keeping of her laws” (Wis. 6:18).  This is not necessarily to say that Jesus is some sort of androgenous, both male and female human being.  However, it does invite us to recognize that God is so much more inclusive than the English language implies.

         For centuries, people have spoken about God using exclusively male language.  In today’s gospel, both God the Father and God the Holy Spirit are mentioned.  In Greek, the Spirit is actually non-binary.  Greek words can be masculine, feminine, or neuter.  Pneuma, the word for Spirit, is neuter in Greek.  In Hebrew, the language of the Old Testament, the word for Spirit is feminine.  Yet, somehow the Spirit becomes he and him in English translations.

         Ultimately, whatever language we choose, it is inadequate in expressing how God encompasses all genders and all nationalities and all people, for all are created in the image of God.  In the book, The Shack, the author tries to express the inclusiveness of God through the ways in which God appears.  God the Father appears as an African American woman named “Papa,” and also as an older Native American man.  Jesus shows up as a Middle Eastern carpenter.  The Holy Spirit shows up as a shimmering, translucent Asian woman, and Wisdom also shows up as a woman.  This is a marvelous way to express both the depth and the breadth of who God is.

         The point of all of this is not to start an argument about language, but to acknowledge that the One who created heaven and earth cannot be pinned down to one gender, or one ethnicity, or even one skin colour, for all of us are created in the image of God, and are children of God.  And all of us were meant to live in love.

         Of course, given what human beings are like, many things happen in our relationships that are not particularly loving.  Most of us have been hurt at one time or another, and some have been treated so badly that all trust has been lost.  Still, Jesus comes, embodying God and promising the Holy Spirit, and showing us how powerful the love of God can be.

         In today’s gospel, we find some incredible images of love and intimacy and inter-connectedness.  Jesus abides in the Father, and we abide in Jesus, and Jesus abides in us.  The Spirit – the Advocate – the Helper – also abides with us and in us.  Some of the medieval mystics (e.g. Julian of Norwich) used images like God’s womb to express the kind of love and closeness that Jesus brings.  They imagined that abiding in God’s love was kind of like being in God’s womb, ready for new birth.  The real challenge, however, comes in relationships with other human beings.

         In John’s writings, love begins with God.  “We love because [God] first loved us” (1 Jn. 4:19).  Jesus came, revealing God’s love in all that he said and did, and then commanded those who believe in him to love one another as he has loved us (Jn. 13:34).  And, as expressed in today’s gospel, we show our love for Jesus by loving one another.  However, this cannot happen without the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, abiding with us and in us.

         Left to our own devices, we are not capable of agape love, which comes from God and is expressed in loving service to one another.  We might be capable of romantic love, or the kind of love that parents or siblings or children have for one another, however imperfect it might be.  However, agape love, the love of God, only comes from the Holy Spirit.

         Today, as some celebrate good relationships and others mourn their absence, we are reminded that God does not leave us orphaned.  In the midst of whatever trials we face in this world, the Spirit comes alongside us, advocates for us, and opens us to God’s love.  Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Easter 6(A)                                        John 14:15-21

May 14, 2023

St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church

Pastor Lynne Hutchison

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