Year A

John 14:15-21

The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn

The Holy Spirit Mother

Today we celebrate Mother’s Day. It is an interesting tradition that dates back to ancient times, when Greeks and Romans would hold festivals to honor their mother goddesses. Then, later the Christian festival “Mothering Sunday” began when the faithful would attend their mother church for a special service. These days, it’s a day in which we honor the sacrifices and servanthood of all women, mothers who come in all shapes, sizes and varieties, and they are all valid. For example, there are adoptive mothers and foster mothers, step-mothers and spiritual mothers, pet mothers, aunts etc. and they all deserve to be celebrated for doing the hard work of mothering and for loving us. We also remember and honor today our mothers who are now with the Lord in God’s heavenly kingdom.

Despite their hard work, all women, all human mothers at times fall short and fail but for any mother, or parent, for that matter, the essential characteristic needed is love. The subject of love is what John begins and ends the gospel text today. Jesus, as he sits with his disciples in the upper room at the close of his earthly ministry, asks them to live the love he has lived in his life as a goal for their own lives. He can only speak of love and he assures them that the God that loves them, and he knows so intimately as Father, will continue to be with them forever through God’s Spirit who will live in them and help them recognize God’s love.

“Spirit” here is a feminine noun, suggesting that Jesus is promising to send us a mother, one who comforts and advocates on our behalf who will be with us forever.  Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to pass on from this world and that he had “loved them to the end.” He had informed his disciples of his soon departure and they panic but Jesus consoles them and encourages them to continue God’s work. He reaches out to them in love. In his life and ministry, he showed his love over and over again for them. He invited them into a relationship with him. He shared the good news of God’s kingdom, taught them and included them in his ministry. He even demonstrated that love by washing their feet and telling them, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.

The “new commandment” was a reminder that they too were called to love and serve one another, and others. Jesus tells them that this is how all people will know that they are his disciples, when they have love for one another just as he had loved them. If you love me, he says, “Obey my commandments. And I will ask the Father and he will give you another counselor, who will never leave you.” These are impossible high standards. Who among us can love like Jesus? We need help, and God’s Spirit that we received at our baptism is ever present in us to encourage, comfort, and help us love God and love one another other.

It’s not easy to live this commandment and that is why Jesus wanted to prepare them for his departure and for the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost who would empower them to live in the love Jesus showed them. Pentecost completed the transformation of the disciples into apostles, from those who followed Jesus to those who were sent out by Christ into the world in his name, filled with the resurrection power. We read in the NT of their resurrection power. Peter, in Acts, who denied Jesus three times before his death was then charged by the post-resurrection risen Christ to care for his flock. We no longer see the bumbling, slow-to-understand, sometimes cowardly Peter. We see Peter and the other disciples become the courageous, assured apostles who preach and heal in Jesus’ name, enduring persecution and even death with joy.

We read of how Paul’s life was transformed from one who zealously persecuted the followers of Jesus to chief missionary and evangelist. Their lives were transformed, just as lives have been transformed by Jesus and Jesus’ followers in every generation since. We all know stories of people who have lived in the power of the Holy Spirit and passed it on to the next generation: we all know of people today who live their lives seeking to follow Jesus’ commandment to love God and others. We celebrate and honor them today and the work God’s Spirit does through them and though us. Today is also a day to consider how we as God’s offspring, as Peter reminds us, may “always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting of the hope that is in you: yet, doing it with gentleness and reverence.”

Paul’s speech before the Areogapus provides a model for talking about our faith with non-believers when we are invited to do so. Paul does not argue and challenge them, but begins by naming what is admirable and godly among the Athenians, honoring our human longing for the divine that he sees in their midst. He recognizes what is unnamed and seeks to give it a name as a means of inviting the Athenians into a relationship with Christ. Paul shows us how to meet the challenge in our world today; the challenge to find the language and imagery to say to those around us “We see your spiritual hunger. Might we offer sustenance from our rich store of spiritual resource? This is where the Holy Spirit can help us when we seek that help.

I’ve mentioned to you before that many times when I get into situations that are difficult, when I need strength, wisdom or guidance, I simply say to myself…”Come, Holy Spirit.” I know God is with me but that doesn’t mean my human emotions don’t sometimes get in the way, yet I do feel God’s presence and when I look back, I see God’s help. This is why Peter is urging the Christians of his day who are facing persecution, to not be afraid but to continue to live their lives with gentleness and right living as the model of Christian life: for actions do speak louder than words, or as St. Francis was claimed to say, “Preach the gospel at all times. When necessary, use words.” To live this way is to grow closer to living and loving as Jesus did.

We can celebrate today the amazing transformation that happens through a life with Christ. We see it in those around us. We see it in John, Peter and Paul’s lives as they sought to live the model of love Christ left them and now the model they leave us. Coming to full knowledge of the love, power, and resurrection of Christ is the work of a lifetime. It’s not easy work but we are not left on our own, like them we have help. We have an advocate, a comforter, a helper, a perfect mother to be with us and guide us as we seek to love God and each other. God’s love embraced the world and that’s the kind of love Jesus showed in his life and death, and the kind of love God wants to work in and through us. Our Lord leads the way. Our divine encourager helps us. So let us walk in the new commandment of Jesus, and love one another for that is how all people will know that we are his disciples.