Is That a Promise or a Threat?

Homily, 6^th Sunday of Easter Year A

I’ve just returned from a visit with my Dad

He has always had a playful nature

A good storyteller

And a man with a quip for most occasions

These quips were such a hallmark of his personality that

One year, on my Dad’s birthday

My siblings and I designed a coffee mug for him

And it was wrapped with “Ed Sayings”

Many of them only the family would get, like 

C’mon Kisadeetch 

Or 

Omi Cioli Tauni Slau

…ask me at coffee hour;)

And others were common

…quips we have all heard many times

 

Last week, it was one of those common ones that hit me.

 

When I am visiting,

Every time I leave Dad to run a quick errand or take a short walk

I write out 2 notes

One I would put on the ottoman right in front of his chair

And the other I tape to the kitchen door frame right at his eye level

(he would run into it if he went searching for me)

 

The notes say: 

I am going for a walk

Back in 45 minutes

Call me if you need me

And then my phone number

 

As I bring the note to tape on the ottoman

I verbally explain to Dad: going out, back soon, call if you need me

And he always says in reply…with an impish grin

“Is that a promise or a threat?”

 

“Is that a promise or a threat?”

Made me think of the oftentimes,

frustrating language of John’s Gospel 

 

John’s language is so often full of tenderness about love, and abiding and gentle shepherds… 

And then, sometimes, like today

I get confused…

…Is that really how Jesus meant to come off?

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments”

…Is this “promise or threat?”

 

Is Jesus REALLY pointing a finger…waving it back and forth in our direction

“If you REALLY love me…

 

We need some clarity!

 

What is the context of today’s short reading?

Where are we in John’s unfolding story?

What is the liturgical context?

 

ON this 6^th Sunday of Easter

The Lectionary takes us back to Jesus’ Farewell discourse Chs 13-17

This is Jesus’ long and tender preparation/re-cap/pep-talk of sorts

That he gives to his inner circle

 

Before today’s section we have had

the washing of the feet

…the call to humbly serve, 

the last meal shared, 

And Judas’ move to the dark side…

So far we have heard phrases like:

-he loved his own

-loved them to the end

-whoever receives one whom I send receives me, whoever receives me, receives the one who sent me

-a new commandment I give to you

-love one another

-love even as I have loved

Lat Sunday we heard:

-let not your hearts be troubled

And more tenderness today

-I will not leave you orphaned

 

So…if I am concerned about what could be heard as ‘threat’ language

…all I need to do is remember the scene. 

Threat language just doesn’t fit. 

It is promise time. PROMISE…all the way

What will follow the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus…is a promise of another advocate/another paraclete/the Holy Spirit…another one “called alongside”

While Jesus was in the flesh he was all those things. 

 

But in the next time, the meantime, the time of the church, it is the Holy Spirit who makes it possible for us to love as Jesus loved, to do as Jesus did, to live in oneness.

 

And what about the Liturgical context?

Why has the lectionary taken us backwards?

Why ARE we back in that upper room?

 

We read it because we need it!

We read it because like the disciples 

We regularly need to be reminded

Reintroduced

Reconvinced

Of the Promise of the Holy Spirit. 

The promise of being connected to the vine forever.

The promise of never being left orphaned.

 

It’s all a little vague and lofty though…isn’t it?

Its only helpful if it can help us answer the question:

How am I…how are we… to live in light of this promise…in light of the resurrection?

How are WE to live as Easter People?

 

So here we are

In this section of Jesus’ farewell talk

And the themes are love and departure

The promise is that this departure will not leave us orphaned

This departure 
Will not produce in us a sense of LOSTNESS

 

NO, not at all!

The promise of the Holy Spirit

The Advocate

The paraclete

The one called alongside

Is ours…ours to connect the body, to build oneness, to plant the love of God…

So many ways to say it!

 

Get specific:

Talk of the Holy Spirit is notoriously lofty and unspecific.
I can hear your internal voices…Cindy, get concrete!

 

You all have your own examples 

…your own ways of recognizing this companionship of the Holy Spirit 

[and I hope to hear some of them at coffee hour]

 

For me…the best I can do is liken the experience to a 

Nudge/breath/whisper of the Holy Spirit

There is a sense in me that it comes from outside myself

(…without that sense I get suspicious;)

 

For me there are certain parts of our morning prayer 

that almost always break open a space for the Holy Spirit

…a place where I sense that soft breath in my ear

 

In our Confession prayer we end with a purpose statement

…we confess all this because we know that when we do we are more likely to:

“delight in your will and walk in your ways”

This can be very concrete…

as I lay my head on my pillow…

I can recall

When did I ‘delight in your will and walk in your ways? When didn’t I?

 

Or In Canticle 16…one of our regular morning prayer canticles, 

we proclaim...through the words/song of Zechariah:

“in the tender compassion of our God 
the dawn from on high shall break upon us
…to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

how beautiful this invitation to see the dawn breaking

…an invitation each morning

…to allow God to guide our feet…

The dawn, my feet…very concrete…

 

I have to think hard

I have to use my imagination

What is it?

Where can I

Cindy Bernardin of Southern Indiana

Where can I foster life and hope and protection?

 

And then…when I CAN see it…

When it becomes clear…

Can I trust in it?

Can I trust the promise of Christ’s life pumping through me, 

giving me courage and strength to be and do what love commands of me???

 

I used “I” 

But this message is primarily for all of us together

…as one body one spirit in Christ

 

We have to think hard

We have to use our imaginations

What is it?

Where can we…

The Community of St Stephens 

Where can we foster life and hope and protection?

 

My guess is that there is something 

within and among us that needs our care

And ALSO

There is something needed from us.

 

Exciting times!

We don’t need to ask if this contemplation uncovers a promise or a threat

It is Promise all the way!

…all the way!

 

 

 

 

 

SERMON...a poem by Herbert Brokering

 

Sermon

It was a sermon
Not the best but the only one for this day.
I could have slept, with some of the others But I did not.
I dared not.
I never do.
I had to stay ready, waiting and ready for his

sentence,
Ready for the one sentence that was worth it all. I always come to hear all of it for the sake of the

one sentence.
All his preparing and all my listening is for the one

sentence.
When he says it, I will hear it.
There are thought gaps.
Things he leaves out.
Space.
I fill in the gaps as he goes along.
What he does not say to us I say to myself.
He does not try to say it all.
He leaves blanks and spaces for me to fill in.
I do.
He does not know when he says his big sentence.
I know.
It’s when all the words become one word.
When all the thoughts become one thought.
It’s when the words become like flesh and blood to

me.
My flesh and blood, Lord.

Herbert Brokering’s poem, “Sermon,” Uncovered Feelings (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1969) 24-25. Quoted by Roger Van Harn, Pew Rights (Grand Rapids: Erdmans 1992) 159.