It Surrounds Us. Penetrates Us. Binds Us Together.

John 14:15-21

May 14, 2023

 

Last week I told you about my home in Woodhaven,  NY

and that my grandparents lived

in the ground floor and we lived upstairs.

Then my family moved to Houston,

and then my grandfather died,

and then my grandmother moved to Houston with us.

After more than 70 years of living in New York

and over 50 years of living in the same neighborhood,

she left, and left all those relationships and

friends and family, and went to the strange

and foreign city of Houston, TX.

I’m sure she was sad about leaving New York,

But she adjusted very quickly.

 

I think the reason why she adjusted so well

is that she sent cards and letters.

She did this before she left NY and she continued

after she moved with us to Houston.

That was her hobby. She sent A lot of cards and letters

to everyone all the time, every day.

She had a hand-drawn spreadsheet of birthdays

and anniversaries and ordinations and

And then she had a file by months of when

these events were happening and she’d get cards

for each event and put them in the file folder

ready for that occasion.

The people at the post office knew her by name.

 

And then there were cards for holidays

of course there was Christmas, but then

there were others like St. Patrick’s day,

and Halloween, I think I got an Arbor Day card

(when even is Arbor day?)

And in each card she would

hand write a letter about what she was doing

that day or what she was making for dinner

or what TV show she had watched.

 

Even though she wasn’t with all those people she left

behind and wasn’t with in-person,

the relationships she had were still alive.

She adjusted well to moving because she

had already crossed that physical boundary of

for her relationships.

 

Now I don’t know about you, but I did not inherit

that trait of sending cards and letters from my Grandmother.

I’m actually terrible at doing that.

 

But even for those of us who aren’t good at

keeping in touch we know that there is more

to relationships than physical presence.

 

I think we knew that before the pandemic,

But we became very aware when we had

stay away from people to preserve life and health.

 

We know we are linked to our families and friends even

when we can’t see them in person.

We are linked to our church community even

when we don’t see each other all the time.

We are linked with other people around the world

when we hear about their suffering and we feel compassion,

even though we’ve never met them and will never meet them.

And we are linked to those who have died,

even though we will never occupy the same space

on this earth again.

We know, we have connections that exists

beyond our physical connections.

  

My grandmother made that link through cards and letters.

Some of us do it through phone calls.

Lots of people do it through social media.

Many people share that link through prayer and meditation

We share it with our thoughts and our memories.

 

Of course, in person, in present, touching, hugging,

eating together can’t be replaced.

But even though we might not be able to do those things,

that doesn’t mean that we don’t have links

to people we’re not in physical contact with.

There is a link between us.

 

Let’s call that link, the Spirit.

Like Jesus calls it.

 

As I said, Jesus is planning on leaving the disciples.

This is part of what is called his “final discourse”.

The speech given on the night of his last supper.

 

He tells them that he’s physically going away.

They would not have him there in person any more.

But he promises that he will not leave them orphaned.

He won’t leave them alone.

They will have the Spirit.

We will have the Spirit,

we will live in the Spirit, and the Spirit will live in us.

 

The way that Jesus describes the Spirit, is the Advocate.

An advocate is one that supports us,

that stands up for us, that helps us,

that speaks for us when we can’t speak.

 

It is what reaches out – from us to others,

and what reaches out – from others from us.

 

It is the link between us and Jesus.

Between us and God,

and between us and each other. The Spirit.

It surrounds us. Penetrates us. Binds us together.

 

I stole that from Star Wars by the way,

It’s how Obi Wan Kenobi described the Force.

But I think Obi Wan stole that from Jesus’

description of the Spirit here in John.

 

It is the link that exists between us

even without any physical connection.

And that link is also called love.

 

Love is in everything that Jesus says,

he actually can’t stop talking about it.

In the gospel today, Jesus says to us,

“if love me, you will keep my commandments.”

And in chapter 12, Jesus left us a new commandment,

And that commandment was that,

“We love one another as Jesus has loved us.”

So if we love Jesus,

we will keep Jesus commandment to love others.

 

And that love surpasses time and space,

that love is unconditional,

it overcomes faults and foibles,

that love is stronger than sin and death.

That is the Spirit, the Advocate, the Holy Ghost.

It surrounds us, penetrates us, binds us together.

 

There was a pastor in South Texas I met about 15 years ago

who told a group of us something. He said:

 

“Jesus did two things in his ministry,

he built a bridge between us and God and

he built a bridge between us and others.

 

Now, the bridge between us and God was not too controversial,

Everyone was talking about that.

But this bridge between people,

this is what got Jesus crucified in this world.

Talking about the link between us all

is what got Jesus in trouble

and it will always get us in trouble.”

 

I wrote this down then because I’d never heard that before.

But I think it’s true. Because the world is more comfortable with division. 

The world benefits when we fight and hate.

When we isolate.

 

The devil loves it when we feel no link with each other.

When we can’t see that Spirit connection we have

with each and every living thing in this earth.

 

The devil would love it if we were divided

by space and time and distance.

The devil would love it if we thought we were all alone

if we fended for ourselves, and cut off  the connection

that the Spirit provides to all of us.

 

But we know that the Spirit lives in us.

And we know that Christ lives in us.

And we know that we live in Christ.

And we know we are linked to God forever.

And we know we are linked to each other forever.

 

That is Jesus’ final message of love to all of us.