Church of the Epiphany
6 Easter, May 26, 2019
The Rev. Nancy E. Gossling
Taylor wrote that “especially during an election season, everyone is
worried about family values. People blame the breakdown of the family for the
growing list of our social problems. If children do not learn about honesty,
hard work, responsibility, and faith from their parents, chances are that no
one else would be able to teach them those things.” (end quote) When a father
criticized the church for not teaching his children about these things, I
challenged him. Whose responsibility was it to teach our children about family
values. Parents? Faith Communities? Our society? Who? And what exactly are
family values?
Some days I wonder about us. We seem to be playing a lot of the blame
game. We point our fingers at who is coming and who is going, in which
direction they are leading us, and whose fault it is that we are in this mess.
We speak words that don’t match our actions. We file suits and countersuits in
a society that seems to have become more litigious; and so we frequently turn
to our court systems for judgments. Welcome to the political, civil, and religious
times of Jesus. Welcome to that time in 1995 when Taylor published her book.
Welcome to our troubling times right now.
The gospel medicine for today is commonly called the “Farewell
Discourse.” Jesus is talking to his disciples before his own court case, and
Jesus is trying to impart some family values to his disciples over their last
meal together. “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love
them, and we will come to them and make our home with them,” Jesus said. “Yes,
I will be going away, and yet I will also be coming again.” In the meantime,
we’ll send you some help; so you need not worry. Indeed, you even should be
happy.
I have a hard time with ‘goodbyes.’ Parting is not sweet sorrow for me,
especially when people that I love die, or move, become a bishop in another
diocese, or disconnect from me for one reason or another. At a very basic
level, I feel abandoned and struggle with feelings of anger and sadness. And
yet Jesus peacefully tells his family of disciples not to be afraid, not to let
their hearts be troubled. In today’s jargon, Jesus said to them, “No worries.
I’ve got this!”
I just finished reading an historical novel called The Orphan Sisters,
by Shirley Dickson. In 1929 four-year-old Etty and eight-year-old Dorothy are
abandoned at an orphanage by their mother, who had promised them that she would
return. She doesn’t, and so the sisters are heartbroken by her desertion.
Learning that the orphanage was responsible for them until age 15, the sisters
promised never to abandon each other. As adults living during a time of world
war, they also endured multiple losses.
Parents leave their children for many and various reasons, oftentimes
with good intentions, and yet the effects can be devastating. Children have
been abandoned at the borders of our country, and in their own countries,
because of extreme poverty, political unrest, civil wars, various kinds of
illness, legal battles, and addictions. Throughout our world there are
orphanages overflowing with children who will not know the loving touch of a
parent or hear comforting words when their hearts are troubled. Thank you for
your ministry to the children in Honduras, where children are held in loving
hands, learn new skills and family values, and can find peace and freedom from
a life on the streets!
The disciples of Jesus felt abandoned by the death of their leader and
feared for their own lives. Like some immigrants today, they huddled together
in a locked room, waiting for the authorities to knock on their door and haul
them away. But when it was evening on that day, on Easter Sunday, Jesus came
through the door and stood among them. “Peace be with you,” he said. Then,
after breathing his spirit on them, he showed them the scars on his hands and
in his side.
Peace never comes with the absence of conflict; actually it can
escalate when we try to avoid it. Indeed peace often comes only after our
hearts have been troubled and our minds have darkened with fear. Anger is a
messenger that hides a deep sadness of loss. Today, on this Memorial Day
weekend, we remember those who fought and died for our freedom, defending the
lives of others, and protecting our basic human rights. Peace is fragile; and
so the peace that passes all understanding will come to us through the Holy
Spirit, who gives to us, not as the world gives, but only as God can give.
“No worries,” said Jesus. “We’ve got this.” At that last supper, at the
dinner table with his disciples, Jesus told them, “In the days to come, you
will have an Advocate, a defense lawyer, who will be your Helper, and a
Comforter.” After I am gone, “We will send our Holy Spirit to be with you, who
will fight for you and also forgive you, because I know that you will also
betray, abandon, and deny me.” I know that troubled times will remain, that
peace is fragile, and you will need some help.
The Holy Spirit shows us the way of love and teaches us some family
values. Through a spirit of truth, we are carried far away to a high mountain,
where we can see the “holy city of Jerusalem coming down out of heaven” and
where peace finally reigns. In Christ, we are told that we become a new
creation, where trees bear 12 kinds of fruit, and leaves are for the healing of
the nations. “For we did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into
fear,” said St. Paul in his letter to the Romans; “but we have received a
spirit of adoption.” In this heavenly city, we are all children of God, worshipping as one beloved community, with God
as the head of our family tree, and that tree is the Tree of Life.
I am the grandmother of fraternal twin boys, prematurely born at 25
weeks old. Peter and Nathaniel currently live in the newborn intensive care
unit in a Minneapolis hospital, where our daughter is one of their parents and
a NICU doctor. The boys have had minor surgeries, antibiotics, immunizations,
and endured many transitions. They are learning to breathe on their own. They
are learning to eat. They are learning to live.
Born at two pounds and one pound thirteen ounces, they’re both five
pounds strong today. As a family, we are deeply grateful for their continued
health and growth, and for the modern medicine in our country. We are grateful
for laws that protect them, and the privileges that we have in our country. We
are grateful for our family and friends, and faithful people throughout our
world, who have prayed daily for that heavenly Advocate, to defend them from
all perils, to be their Helper, and to be their Comforter in times of distress.
In the NICU, I learned about “kangaroo care” - how important loving touch is
for babies, and how the recorded voices of their parents can bring them peace.
“Peace, I give to you. Peace, I leave with you,” said Jesus to his
family of disciples. “God the Father will send you an Advocate, in my name, to
teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.” This
Spirit of God cries out in our newborn infants and people of all ages
throughout our world - people who have been abandoned on the margins, people
who are living on the streets or in cities destroyed by war, and people who are
hiding in locked rooms of fear. This Spirit reminds us that we are held by the
loving hands of God. Today we hear the recorded voice of Jesus, who promised us
that we have an Advocate, who is the defender of our cause, our helper in times
of trouble, and a source of comfort in times of fear.
In the Revelation to John, nothing is cursed. God’s gates are always
open. Springs of living water are clean and flowing. There is no darkness at
all, only the light of God’s love, burning like a tabernacle Lamp, shining in a
temple that has no walls, eternally pointing to the grace of God. This grace is
freely given by the sacrificial love of God.
The 14th chapter of the gospel of John is gospel medicine. It begins
and ends with God’s peace. “Do not let your hearts be troubled,” said Jesus.
“Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many
dwelling places, and I go to prepare a place for you.” Until I come again, I
will send you the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, who will give to you, not as the
world gives, but as God gives.”
Just as the Father sent Jesus, now the Holy Spirit sends us; and we
have some family values that Jesus taught us while he was with us. Through the
Advocate He feeds us and teaches us at His Table even now. “No worries,” said Jesus to his family of
disciples. “Be happy.” You are the beloved children of God, and our God will
never forsake nor abandon you. So go, speak truth to power, love others as I
have loved you, and remember, “You have an Advocate, We’ve got this!”
Acts 16:9-15
Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5
John 14:23-29
Psalm 67
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