6A Easter                                            John 14:15-21                                           April 27,2008
When I first read this gospel lesson, I was skeptical and unsure about where to go with it.
As members of our Daily Discipleship Bible Study will tell you, of the four Gospels, John’s is not my favorite, as he tends to be more philosophical and circular than direct and linear.  
I like direct and linear.
Besides, it has been my experience that this is one of those passages that I’ve associated with funerals – especially the part about Jesus not leaving us orphaned is a text often used to bring comfort to those who feel alone in a time of loss. And yet, as I studied this passage it became apparent that today’s reading offers more than suitable scripture for funerals and those times when we might feel orphaned or abandoned.

In my study I was reminded that in today’s passage, we find Jesus trying to prepare the disciples for his departure. This chapter comes late in John, but before the crucifixion. Jesus is trying to tell them what to expect, so that things will not come as a surprise to them. But most of all, he is trying to reassure them that things will be OK even when they can no longer see him and be with him day to day. He wants his disciples to be able to carry on the mission and the teachings that he has been instilling within them for the last three years. But he will only be able to do that if he can also convince them that he’s not really leaving them in a lurch at all. And so Jesus is working to show them that they will not be orphaned. So he tells the disciples they will still see Him, even if the world can’t, and they will live because He lives within them. In John’s somewhat poetic language, we are told that Jesus dwells within the heart of God, and so Jesus dwells also in our hearts, and we in his, he says – that is the intimate relationship we are promised with God. If we believe this, know this and live this, then we can truly and confidently continue with the work that Jesus has started, as we let the Spirit work through us.

Jesus has a hard sell to make, I think. How could the disciples believe that he wasn’t ditching them? They so wanted him to take another path than the one that would lead to his death, and it was hard to believe that his plan was a better choice. As you read your Bibles it becomes apparent that the disciples had a hard time on a good day understanding what Jesus was trying to pass along to them, let alone all this talk of this Advocate thing, and how they will see the Spirit that the world cannot see.

For folks like me who tend to prefer direct and linear—this is all very confusing. Jesus does try to tell them directly that he will not leave them orphaned, but I imagine that if I were one of the disciples, all I would hear out of Jesus’ efforts at comfort was that he was leaving. I suspect that I too would have found myself wondering if everything that Jesus had done with them and taught them about going to come to nothing after all? Was nothing really going to change? Was he going to leave them how he’d found them?

I think we can relate to the disciples fear of abandonment. We humans seem to be a lonely bunch.
Our lives seem full of evidence that the thing we fear the most, perhaps second only to fear of our mortality, is being alone. It’s that feeling you get when you are surrounded by lots of people at a party, but still feel like you are not connecting to anyone. The feeling of wondering, despite the fact that you have loving friends and family, if anyone truly understands you, knows you, really loves you. The fear that you are somehow on your own, despite living and moving in this busy and crowded world of ours. It is, maybe, the human condition.

Perhaps you’ve seen the movie Castaway, with Tom Hanks, that came out a number of years ago.
In the movie, Hanks’ character is left alone on a deserted island for years after a plane crash.
Starved for interaction from anyone, companionship from anything, Hanks ends up forming a relationship with a volleyball he calls Wilson, after its brand name. He talks to the volleyball as if it were a real person, and he tries to protect it from harm as if it were a real person. When he and Wilson are finally separated, Hanks’ character is totally crushed, and viewers find themselves on the verge of tears on behalf of this lost friend, the volleyball.
To me, this movie epitomizes our human need for companionship, the extreme loneliness and isolation that we sometimes feel. We’re so in need of relationship, so desperate to end loneliness that we will form any and all kinds of relationships to avoid the pain of our isolation.

We don’t just see this desperation in people who land themselves on deserted islands though, do we? All around us, people are doing crazy things to avoid loneliness.

When I was single and serving the churches in Pillager and Cushing, I lived in a parsonage I shared with my Chocolate Lab named, Cutty. I’ll readily admit that Cutty always made me feel better – I can still envision that big old dog greeting me at the top of the stairs wagging her tail and smiling with pure stupid joy. On those quiet and sometimes lonely nights it was comforting knowing that I was not alone.

That need for companionship has also shown up in nursing homes that will sometimes have dogs to provide companionship for the residents. I also remember visiting a Bed and Breakfast in SE Minnesota along the Mississippi River that has cats you can have stay in your room during your visit. (At the risk of upsetting those of you who are cat lovers…I have never been that lonely to resort to our feline friends!)

But unfortunately not all of our quests to end loneliness are as harmless as feline or canine companionship. For example, to avoid loneliness, we’re willing to settle for destructive relationships instead of healthy ones, seeking comfort from wherever it is offered. People continue to live in such abusive relationships, and I think in part this comes from a fear of being alone. Or we try to surround ourselves with material things, and somehow hope that all of our possessions will fill the void that’s in our life. We’re always hoping that our next purchase will be the one that will finally make us happy and fulfilled – the new outfit, the new car, and the new entertainment accessories.
We can even fill our lives with busy-ness, convinced that if we just fill up our days with enough tasks – with work, or with school, or even with extra-curriculars, even with church activities – if we fill up our calendars, then we can avoid that loneliness.       

Jesus tries to show us a different way out of our loneliness and isolation. Jesus want his disciples – want us – to believe that our relationship with him is the one that will never fail, never let us down. But I think we wonder if we can trust Jesus, really. Can we really depend on Jesus? Is God going to be something strong enough for us to lean on, and strong enough to make the emptiness go away, when we most need it? Will we be left orphaned? Despite everything we have heard about God loving us unconditionally, I suspect we still wonder if God will really want to stay in relationship with us?
Keep talking to us?
Keep listening to us?
Keep loving us?
Especially once God really gets to know us inside and out.

The truth is…Jesus begs us to believe that the answer to our questions is YES – yes, God will always, always love us, never ever abandon us. Everything else in our life can change, for better or worse, but God is a constant. God can’t and won’t orphan us because, Jesus tells us, because God abides within us. “You will know that I am in my Father,” Jesus says, “and you in me, and I in you.” You can’t have a more intimate relationship than that – you can’t be closer to anyone than to carry that someone within you, abiding within you. This is the offer and invitation God makes to us – we can be carried in the heart of God, and we can carry God inside of us.

The only question remaining, in my mind, is why we do not choose to take advantage of this deal – this invitation to abide with God our Father. Why are so many of us still choosing other paths, hoping for fulfillment, when we know that God’s offer is on the table?

Let’s go back to the beginning of our text for today. Jesus says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Here my friends lay the answer.
Jesus eventually convinces the disciples, doesn’t he that he will continue to be with them, even if not in the human form they’ve been used to seeing? It takes more work from Jesus – more teaching – but the disciples eventually get it. And we know they get it because we see what happens to them – how they live and how they act after Jesus is crucified and resurrected.
We know that they continue to be disciples, and continue to try to follow God’s Word.
So we know that things aren’t always easy for the disciples. They are rejected by many, and even persecuted. They have to give up a lot of creature comforts, share all things in common, travel far and wide for the sake of the Good News of God’s love.

Because it turns out, when you trust Jesus, when you abide with Him, you find yourself equipped to do all sorts of crazy things you wouldn’t have done otherwise, like feeding the hungry, visiting those who are imprisoned, preaching the good news, sharing God’s love, chairing a committee, starting a Bible Study, going on mission trips to developing countries, directing the choir, teaching Sunday School, and on, and on.
It seems as though second-guessing Jesus is our last-ditch effort – our last hope that in seeking fulfillment from sources other than God we will be left able to not bother with following those difficult teachings of Christ either. But the only one we’re fooling is ourselves.
In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and heave-laden, and I will give you rest. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
This promise sounds like the best of both words to me. God seeks our discipleship.
And God gives us everything that matters in return – God’s own self, carried within is.
Abiding within us. We are never abandoned, but forever cradled and comforted in God’s loving arms.  Amen.