The Passage<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you love me, you will keep my commandments.\u00a0 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him or knows him.\u00a0 You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you.\u00a0 Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me because I live, you also will live.\u00a0 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.\u00a0Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.\u00a0 And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [English Standard Version]<\/p>\n
\u201cBaptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.\u201c\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0[1 Peter 3.21-22]<\/p>\n
\u00a0 In the Name of Christ + Jesus Our Lord<\/p>\n
As we continue to make our way through the weeks of this Easter season, the Lord\u2019s people are aware of the different realities around them \u2013 young people preparing to confirm their baptismal promises as the Pentecost Festival draws closer; illnesses disrupting the lives of friends, leading to healing either in this life or in eternity; members taking the time and energy to consider the future of their parish\u2019s ministry; political life in this country being roiled in ways with which we are not familiar; the Lord\u2019s saving and sustaining actions continually making their way into his parish communities through his Scriptures and Sacraments.<\/p>\n
The Lord\u2019s people, along with those who are not aware of his activity, also recognize that the world in which we live is a tense, absorbing and frightening place.\u00a0 The realities of which we are aware (whether they be political or economic, personal or cultural, powering or controlling) often force us back into thinking we can break away from the fear and tension they are generating in our lives.<\/p>\n
Thankfully, as we make our way through these weeks, we also have magnificent passages such as today\u2019s Gospel slicing through them!\u00a0 As we step into it, we literally gasp as it dawns on us what our Lord has done for us through his dying, rising and ascending!<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s Gospel is a brief passage, but since it is so loaded with meaning we are going to work through it phrase by phrase.\u00a0 It opens with Jesus saying, If you love me, you will keep my commandments.<\/strong>\u00a0 The Greek word that Jesus uses for \u201clove\u201d is \u201cagape.\u201d\u00a0 Recall that this is the unique love of the Father, the Son and the Spirit; it is displayed most concretely in Jesus\u2019 Cross.\u00a0 This \u201clove\u201d is poured out on the people who are not deserving of it.<\/p>\n The Greek word for \u201ckeep\u201d means \u201cfulfill\u201d or \u201ccomplete;\u201d it includes a deep listening to the LORD God along with a faithful obedience to him.\u00a0 What does Jesus mean when he\u2019s talking about \u201ccommandments?\u201d\u00a0 \u201cCommandments\u201d are not simply the Ten found in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5; they unpack the Life given us by the LORD God.<\/p>\n This unpacking includes the following:<\/p>\n The Father commands Jesus what to say and do<\/p>\n The Father commands Jesus to lay down his Life and to take it up<\/p>\n Jesus fulfills and lives out such commands, remaining in the Father\u2019s love<\/p>\n The believers who come to Jesus and are his followers live their lives under Jesus\u2019<\/p>\n commandment<\/p>\n Their obligation is a self-less love, patterned on the love that binds the Father, the Son<\/p>\n and the Spirit<\/p>\n The command that Jesus received from the Father is specifically displayed in his death<\/p>\n for the world\u2019s people<\/p>\n The commands that Jesus received from the Father concern an entire way of Life<\/p>\n The commandments given by Jesus to his followers are THE way of Life with his love<\/p>\n streaming through all parts of it<\/p>\n There are individuals, though, who pull away from these realities or ignore them!<\/p>\n Jesus goes on, And I will ask Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever.\u00a0 <\/strong>To make it possible for us to live in his commands, Jesus promises us a Helper.\u00a0 <\/strong>\u201cHelper\u201d is also translated \u201cAdvocate,\u201d \u201cParaclete,\u201d \u201cHoly Spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n This is the first of five times in the Farewell Conversation of John\u2019s Gospel where the Spirit and his work are mentioned.\u00a0 The Spirit first descended on Jesus at his Baptism.<\/p>\n His work was displayed throughout Jesus\u2019 three-year ministry.\u00a0 Since the Holy Spirit is Jesus\u2019 Spirit, he now carries on Jesus\u2019 work in the world through the followers who are gifted with him at their own Baptisms.\u00a0 There are individuals, though, who pull away from these realities or ignore them!<\/p>\n Jesus goes on, Even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him.\u00a0 <\/strong>Remember that \u201cTruth\u201d is the \u201crevealing\u201d of the only Lord and God who can save the world\u2019s people.\u00a0 The world, however, cannot grasp this because it is so involved with itself; it can see nothing or anyone else of significance.<\/p>\n There are individuals, though, who pull away from these realities or ignore them!<\/p>\n Jesus goes on, You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.<\/strong><\/p>\n We know the LORD God because he establishes a relationship with us through Baptism.<\/p>\n This relationship continues to swarm us through his Scriptures, his Forgiveness and his Eucharist.\u00a0 There are individuals, though, who pull away from these realities or ignore them!<\/p>\n Jesus goes on, I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.<\/strong>\u00a0 \u201cOrphans\u201d appears to be an accurate description of his followers because of Jesus\u2019 approaching death, resurrection and ascension.\u00a0 However, he promises to keep coming to us from and through the holy places of his Scriptures and Sacraments.\u00a0 Jesus\u2019 death, resurrection and ascension will make it possible for us to realize the Life-giving and the Life-sustaining bond that runs from the Father, Son and Spirit to their people.\u00a0 There are individuals, though, who pull away from these realities or ignore them!<\/p>\n Jesus goes on, In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.<\/strong>\u00a0 Jesus will no longer be visible to the world; he will be visible, though, to his baptized people through the faith given them by Jesus\u2019 Spirit.\u00a0Because Jesus lives permanently, the baptized are given the same Life \u2013 unending and indestructible!\u00a0 Such Life begins at Baptism, it deepens as we mature in its Life and it is completed when we pass through death into eternity!<\/p>\n \u201cKnowing\u201d this is not just a reference to the brain cells and the data they accumulate; it describes the intimate and deep relationship between us and the Holy Trinity \u2013 Baptism imbeds us in that Life!\u00a0 There are individuals, though, who pull away from these realities or ignore them!<\/p>\n Jesus goes on, Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me; and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and manifest myself to him. \u00a0<\/strong>The first two lines of verse 21 restate lines of verse 15, but in reverse.\u00a0 <\/strong>Both verses show that the love of Jesus and the keeping of his commands are but two different expressions of the living Life we have in him.\u00a0 <\/strong>Those drawn into Jesus\u2019 Life will live that Life out, driven and sustained by the love (agape) he has given them.\u00a0 <\/strong>Those living in such faithfulness will be loved by the Father.<\/p>\n Through the Scriptures and the Sacraments, the Holy Trinity will love their people and continually reveal themselves to them.\u00a0 Once the baptized receive Life from Jesus, they are able to recognize it is THE Life mutually shared by the Father, Son and Spirit.\u00a0 Such sharing rests on keeping Jesus\u2019 commandments and loving him.\u00a0 There are individuals, though, who pull away from these realities or ignore them!<\/p>\n They are the ones who forget that Forgiveness begins with the words, \u201cO almighty God, merciful Father, I, a troubled and penitent sinner, confess all my sins and iniquities with which I have offended you and justly deserved your present and eternal punishment\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Confronted with Jesus\u2019 Life and commands, they are the people who are so imbedded in themselves they either return to the life in which they were born (often after having been baptized) or who never leave the life of their birth.<\/p>\n For the persons who have been crushed by the realities of sin, Satan and death, however, but now recognize they have been rescued by their crucified and resurrected Lord (having been brought into the brilliance of his eternal Life) this reality of remaining in the world\u2019s life or returning to it is hard to understand.\u00a0 Don\u2019t such people realize the world is using them with its attractive and sensible pitches, that the world will throw them away when it\u2019s done with them?\u00a0 The world seeks to overwhelm such realizations by protesting it is guilty of no such thing; the world insists that the best life comes to those who focus exclusively on themselves and we buy it!\u00a0 Or is it more accurate to say \u2013 we bought it?<\/p>\n Those of us who have been choked and broken down by the unholy trio of sin, Satan and death know what it is like to have our lives crossed by the only Lord who can redeem us!<\/p>\n These people are also loved by Jesus\u2019 Father.\u00a0 Through Jesus\u2019 Helper the Father will continue to deepen their lives in him.\u00a0 When tempted to pull away from the Lord\u2019s Life, they instead let Jesus\u2019 Spirit plunge themselves into it!<\/p>\n Today\u2019s Gospel reveals that we can pull away from or ignore the Lord\u2019s holy places, but such thinking and doing is destructive and deadly.\u00a0 Through this passage the LORD God is teaching us to let his holy places pierce such pulling and ignoring.\u00a0 For it is in that piercing where we, along with the world\u2019s people, find redemption!\u00a0 It is that piercing where we, along with all the baptized people, find that we have been brought into the Life and the Love running between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit!<\/p>\n Now may the peace of the LORD God, which is beyond all understanding, keep our<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0 hearts and minds through Christ + Jesus Our Lord<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n Pr. Carl A. Voges, STS, Columbia, SC; carl.voges4@icloud.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Easter Six (Revised Common Lectionary) | 05.14.2023 |\u00a0John 14.15-21 | Carl A. Voges | The Passage \u201cIf you love me, you will keep my commandments.\u00a0 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2236,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,157,173,108,110,345,109],"tags":[],"beitragende":[],"predigtform":[],"predigtreihe":[],"bibelstelle":[],"class_list":["post-18144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-johannes","category-beitragende","category-carl-a-voges","category-current","category-engl","category-kapitel-14-chapter-14-johannes","category-predigten"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18144"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18145,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18144\/revisions\/18145"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18144"},{"taxonomy":"beitragende","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/beitragende?post=18144"},{"taxonomy":"predigtform","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtform?post=18144"},{"taxonomy":"predigtreihe","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtreihe?post=18144"},{"taxonomy":"bibelstelle","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bibelstelle?post=18144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}