Easter VI A Will Not be Left Orphaned

In the gospel of John, Jesus gives his farewell speech, before the ascension which will be celebrated on June 3.  In it he gives calming words to some anxious followers. Imagine losing your leader to a violent death. But no he’s not lost, this messiah has been resurrected and lives in the breaking of the bread.  But now the followers understand that Jesus is about to depart to be eternally with God.  Maybe they were feeling a frightened about their future, maybe feeling as if they were being left all alone and wondering how they would go forward without the presence of the charismatic teacher and healer, the son of God in their midst to guide them.

So, Jesus’s words bring comfort:  I will ask the Father to give you the Advocate, the spirit of truth. I will not leave you orphaned.

The followers are to be given a presence that will advocate for them, a holy spirit that the world cannot see, but they can see because they abide in the presence of God, through Christ’s intercessions.

I will not leave you orphaned.  In other words, the disciples felt like children without parents to guide them and protect them.  Even as adults, people can feel abandoned like orphans.  I myself was orphaned when I was a young adult, and I have heard others speak of feeling their orphanhood in their 50s and 60s even, as they lose their parents.

No matter what your age, losing parents can challenge your sense of security and identity. When the generation ahead of you has died, you may feel vulnerable no matter what your age.  But you have also lost more intangible things:

orphans lose the advice and guidance that parents can give, someone to tell them what choices are the best, how to live life with integrity, how to be true to yourself;

orphans lose a sense of family and heritage—there is no longer people who can tell you where you come from, how this family lives and what they believe about themselves, about others and about the world. Orphans no longer have direct connection to stories of their family’s past history, so they feel the break in family ties, feel the discontinuity in knowing how their past may lead to their future

And finally, orphans no longer are anyone’s child—they continue alone without the comfort of mother or father, the sense that they are unconditionally loved by people to whom they belong.

So when Jesus says he will not leave the disciples orphaned he is addressing these feelings, he is saying I will not leave you bereft of identity, I will heal the brokenness you feel, I will connect you with the future, and I will give you the comfort of unconditional love. In this way, Jesus stood in for the parenthood of God for the disciples. They learned what it meant to follow the spirit of the commandments with Jesus among them and now Jesus is making sure that they continue to have the guidance of the holy spirit, the advocate who has their interests in mind, to guide and direct and point them in the way to go.

And today, the spirit continues to lead us, we who are never orphaned from God because of the spirit that God has sent, the spirit that continues to make us feel God’s unconditional love, who guides us in the way of Christ, keeps us on the right track in faith.

In Christ, God has given all believers a sense of parenthood that will never die. God has pointed to Christ’s ministry among us first, and then has given us an ever-present spirit of truth that keeps that ministry alive for us.  In Christ and the Advocate, we have God’s promise of undying care and concern for our welfare. 

In our baptism we have been adopted as sons and daughters in Christ, and we inherit the Advocate given from the start by Christ.  Our heritage as Christians remains with us always.  Our family, our community of faith, both here in Holy Trinity, and in every congregation of faithful people, supports us through the continued work of the holy spirit.  Every time we come together in community, we receive guidance, in the words of scripture, in the hymns, in the creed we recite, in confessing our wrongs, in praying for the world, in blessing bread and wine using Christ’s own words, and in taking the holy sacrament at the altar, in the blessing of love that we can be for each other.  We see what it means to be in this family, where our heritage lies, what we hold as important, and we see that it all boils down to the sacrifice of Christ who showed us the love of God and who continues to guide us through the spirit of love and truth.

All of what Jesus says to the disciples before he leaves is said to the community.  When he says you, the Greek is plural—meaning all of you. Jesus is leaving us together with each other and the spirit of truth.  Feel welcome here as part of God’s family, as part of the community that lives with the spirit of truth and love.