Pascha VI

Pascha VI 2017 – Cycle A Acts 8:5-8, 14-17; Psalm 66; 1 Peter 3:15-18; John 14:15-21

Did you ever consider that all of us at some time in our life will become an orphan?  And for most of us the transition will happen later in life.  We will not be orphaned as children á la Harry Potter or Annie or Oliver Twist or Matilda.

I am not orphaned as yet.  It is coming soon I expect.  The bond between parents and their children is unique.  When orphaned there will be no one to call.  Mother’s and Father’s Day become the annual reminder of our orphaned status.  Who will be there to always receive and accept us?  Are you an orphan?

But being orphaned does not only mean that our parents have died.  Orphans are also people exposed to the cruelties of life, being denied protection, shelter and sustenance, having no advocates to plead on their behalf.  Prisoners are like orphans lacking the basic freedom of sons and daughters within a family.  Are not people with addictions orphaned, cut off from life?  Do we not become orphaned when seriously ill, hospitalized for an extended time, or imprisoned by our homes?   Refugees and immigrants are orphaned; orphaned from country, home, family and friends never to return.

Jesus says, “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.”  Being orphaned is inevitable.  Remaining an orphan is not.

What is unusual about the Gospel passages for the Easter Season is that they are not the words of the resurrected Christ but the words of Jesus at the Last Supper hours before his arrest and being taken away.  The disciples will feel orphaned and abandoned as they in turn will abandon and orphan Jesus.  Have you ever felt orphaned?

But Jesus will not leave us orphaned.   “I will come to you.”  he says, “I will plead for you and I will provide another Advocate, the Holy Spirit, so that together we will stand up for you and you will not be alone.”  The two, Jesus and Spirit plead for us, stand by our side and defend us.  Thus when we consider the opening phrases of the passage, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”  And what are the commandments Jesus is referring to?

It is the commandments he lived out,

• feeding the hungry,

• touching lepers, that is, physically touching people, embracing people who are not only diseased and expelled from polite society but who smell and are dirty. Physical touch is necessary for wholeness.  The isolation of people is one of the great sins of our culture.  This is difficult in a society overly concerned about cleanliness and hygiene,

• speaking with care and regard toward women, homosexuals, immigrants, the mentally ill.

But love is not only a life of service and compassion but of fierce protest against those who abuse God’s vision that each person is valued.  This is a love that has as its goal the well-being of all human beings.  Jesus is calling us to advocate for people so that no one is left orphaned.

• When was the last time any of us spoke up and defended another person? Defended them from slander, from being bullied, from someone taking unfair advantage of them?

• Have you and I ever walked with another person in life to alleviate their fear, to give them confidence and strength?

The Holy Spirit, our Advocate is a force on the move for us.  We are called to be a force for others.

Pentecost is not just the day of sweeping wind and blazing fire in which the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples.  Pentecost also shows us the forcefulness with which we are to stand up for those who are abandoned, in need and orphaned.  “I will not leave you orphans…” 

Whom do you and I need to release from the bonds of being orphaned?