”I will not leave you orphaned; I am
coming to you.” May
I speak to you in the name of the G_d who [+] creates, redeems and sustains us?
AMEN.
Today’s Gospel is a continuation of readings
from the second half of John’s gospel which began last week and will continue
next Sunday. This reading comes from the middle of a four-chapter lecture that
Jesus is giving his disciples called the Farewell Discourse. It takes place in
the Upper Room after Jesus has washed the feet of his disciples, eaten the Last
Supper with them and sent Judas out to do what he must do. At that moment, Jesus
launches into this extended final teaching.
Difficult Context,
Difficult Lessons
It’s important to get a sense of the
context of that moment. The disciples are gathered with Jesus for what all of
them fear may be their final time together with their beloved master. Jesus is
trying to tell them two important things. First, he is preparing them for his
brutal death that will come after being betrayed by one of their peers, after
the religious establishment colludes with the hated Romans to turn him over to
them where he will be executed as a threat to the empire. After all the lessons
they have learned, the life-changing experiences they have had, their time
together is over. Jesus is headed to the cross.
The second thing, and perhaps more
important from the perspective of Jesus, is that he is preparing them to carry
on this Way of Jesus that began with him as their teacher and guide. But in his
departure, it must stand on its own two feet and carry on without Jesus. It
will be up to the disciples to embody and propagate these teachings if it is to
survive. And so he gives them this long Farewell Discourse to say goodbye and
to reassure them that, whether they know it or not, they are ready to step into
their roles in bringing the Kingdom of G_d into being here and now.
For just a second, try to put yourself in the place of these disciples. Here is this man they have come to love deeply, to trust with their very lives, who has shaped and reshaped their entire understanding of reality. No doubt, they had hoped he’d be with them to the very ends of their own lives, continuing to teach, heal and embody the Kingdom of G_d which he has told them lies within each of them and all around them.
But that is not to be. The disciples are
learning a difficult lesson we all must learn: Life is a series of lessons
on letting go and the last thing we let go of is ourselves. Now, they must
let go of their beloved Jesus. And they must pick up the mantle of his Way if
it is to survive his death.
Imagine what they are feeling. Fear for
their own lives. Grief at the loss of their beloved master. Anger at their
compatriot, Judas, who would betray them and Jesus. Anger at the religious
authorities who were willing to give up one of their own to protect their vested
interests. Anger at the occupying Romans whose idolatry of power extended to
using human bodies as means of terrorist propaganda. And then there are the doubts
about their ability to live into their calling, the gradual dawning awareness
of the sense of enormity of what lies ahead of them. And they must deal with
all of this without Jesus. That’s why they must listen carefully to what Jesus
tells them at this moment.
Called to Love
Jesus’ use of commandment is more like a
calling, inviting voluntary response, not the demands of a power holder with
the capacity to punish those who refuse. And that becomes clear as he reminds
them what his commandments call them to do.
In the chapter just prior to today’s
lesson, Jesus begins his Farewell Discourse with what he calls a new
commandment. “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another as I
have loved you.” This is a love that mirrors Jesus’ own sacrificial love, a
love whose very nature he will make clear in the next chapter of this gospel: “No
one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You
are my friends if you do what I command you.”
This is a love that is self-sacrificing.
It is a love that is willing to endure hardships, even tragedies, and that will
become clear to the disciples very shortly. Of the 12 disciples, only John,
whose gospel we are considering today, would die of natural causes. But this love
will reveal and embody Jesus after he is gone. It is how the Way of Jesus will
continue to be present in the world, take root, and grow.
I will not leave you as orphans….
Second, Jesus recognizes that this
calling to his disciples is daunting. He knows how devastating his crucifixion
is going to be on them. And he knows how his being taken from them suddenly
will leave them feeling abandoned. The word he uses is “orphaned,” left behind
by a parental figure who has died.
Some of us know that feeling on a personal basis. My Mother lost her Mother when she was 10, my Father lost his Mother when he was 13. Both would be farmed out to relatives to be raised. That very trying experience would mark the lives of both of my parents and prompt them to avoid risk taking that might deprive their own children of one or both of their parents. Indeed, when my Father died 10 years ago, the first feeling that came to me was that I had become an orphan. Much like the disciples, I was grateful for the time I had had with my parents and all they had taught me. But I also knew there was suddenly a great hole in my life that no one else could ever fill. I suspect many of you understand that response quite well.
That is why Jesus reassures these
disciples that he is not abandoning them. “I will come to you,” he says. When
they gather in his name, break bread together, engage the world in the healing
and uplifting of the broken hearted, Jesus will be present with them. We
recognize that presence in our response to the breaking of the bread in our
Eucharistic Prayer C: “Risen Lord, be known to us in the breaking of the
Bread.”
Jesus also assures them that an
advocate, called the paraclete in Greek, will come to be with them. It will
embody the Spirit of Truth, a spirit the world of empire cannot understand or
appreciate. Not surprisingly, the values of the Kingdom of G_d will always be
at odds with those of the kingdoms of Caesars, including our own empire. And it
only takes a half hour of scrolling through our newsfeeds each night to see
that.
Lessons for St. Richards
So what does this lesson have to say to us here at St. Richards?
To begin with, we have just come through an encounter with power that, to paraphrase the words of American patriot Thomas Paine, tries human souls. We know what it is like to watch our community’s beloved leader suffer at the hands of those with power and ultimately taken from us. We know what it means to be faced with carrying on the values our leader had instilled in us, to embody the radical hospitality that the Way of Jesus requires. We know what it means to seek the Spirit of Truth to enlighten and guide us in the face of a reality driven by power holders willing to abuse it and those who cannot or will not hear that Truth. It’s not too hard for us to understand the disciples in that upper room listening to Jesus’ Farewell Discourse.
But it’s important to consider how they responded
to that calling. The fact we are reading this gospel this morning evidences that
they stepped up and carried on the legacy of their beloved master.
There were some who forecast doom and gloom when the crisis with our rector began last fall. Some spoke of the parish falling apart, of parishioners departing, of the possibility that St. Richards might go the way of all flesh. Much like the disciples in that upper room, odds were not high that they or we would survive, much less thrive.
But the naysayers have been proven wrong. Like the disciples, the people of this parish have stepped up, taken responsibility for our worship and communal life together. Our pastoral care to the sick and dying has blossomed along with our beautiful landscaping now recovering from a devastating freeze and a community garden we will bless this day, all under the loving care of dedicated parishioners. Our new mural icon is a tribute to the creative spirit of this parish, the outward and visible sign of its inward and spiritual grace.
This parish has worked hard at naming,
owning and transforming its anger, its grief and its fears. It has taken
seriously Richard Rohr’s observation that when it comes to woundedness, “That
which we do not transform, we transmit.” It has also taken very seriously
Jesus’ calling to obey his commandments to love each another as a mirror of his
love and as a beacon to others seeking a refuge. That calling will inform us as
we continue on our way to locating a new leader. Despite the odds, this parish
is well on its way to recovering from unmerited blows which left us reeling and
which for many parishes would have proven an existential threat. For all of
this I am deeply grateful.
We still have a way to go to fully recover from this long dark night of the soul we have come through. Our search for a new rector has just begun. But today’s Gospel ought to give us encouragement. The disciples did live into the commandments Jesus had given them, as do we. They continued to love one another as a model to the world of the way of Jesus, as do we. They continued to listen to the Spirit of Truth that whispered in their ears even as the empire brought the full weight of its power down upon them, as do we. Like them, we continue to recognize the presence of Jesus with us as we live into those commandments. And that presence will become very clear with the breaking of the bread we will share in just a moment at this very altar.
Collect Appointed for Easter VI, 2026
O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
A sermon delivered on Easter
VI 2026, Sunday, May 10, 2026, St. Richard’s Episcopal Church, Winter Park, FL.
You are invited to listen to the sermon as delivered at the link below beginning at 29:00
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3q9oUgcZc4&t=2540s
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frharry@cfl.rr.com
hcoverston.orlando@gmail.com
If
the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be
it religious or political, is not worth holding. Most things worth considering
do not come in sound bites.
Those who believe religion and politics
aren't connected don't understand either. – Mahatma Gandhi
For what does G-d require of you but to
do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your G-d? - Micah 6:8, Hebrew Scriptures
Do not be daunted by the enormity of the
world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly now. You are not
obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it. - Rabbi
Rami Shapiro, Wisdom of the Jewish Sages (1993)
© Harry Scott Coverston, 2026
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