5-25-25 6th Sunday of Easter

 

                                                                     

Over the past couple of weeks in our gospels, we are taken back to the upper room where Jesus celebrated the last supper with his apostles.  Because the impact of his message that night cannot be contained in one single homily or reflection, but rather it needs the reflections of many Sundays to underscore the importance and impact of what he said to apostles and through them, to us. 

In the gospel this weekend, Jesus speaks of his leaving but also of his coming again through the power of his resurrection and through, the presence of his Holy Spirit among the community of believers.   He assures them and us that he will be among us forever.

 His ongoing presence, through the power of the Spirit reverberates in the early life of the Church as depicted in the first readings each week since Easter.   These readings show not only the growth of the church, but also some of the struggles that the young church faced.  That gift of Jesus’ peace is shown living out in the spread of the little church, first in Jerusalem and then throughout the known world.  That message of Jesus’ gift of peace continues to live on through his followers even unto this day. 

When we look about the world, often we do not see “peace.” We see division, we see people suffering we see the ravages of war, and we wonder where is this peace of which Jesus speaks?  Is this peace something external or internal?

The poet Ralph Waldo Emerson once observed, “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.  And when we bring what lies within us out into the world miracles happen”¹   The peace of which Jesus speaks, the peace which the Spirits brings, begins first in the hearts and minds of Jesus’ followers.  We are the bearers of that promise of peace.   But first we must look within ourselves to find it through prayer and reflection, .   

Perhaps as we hear the words of the gospel this weekend, we hear them when our hearts are troubled, in doubt, or in the darkness of despair, in a world that present itself as a very confusing place.    When Jesus spoke to his apostles in this weekend’s gospel, perhaps they too wondered that if Jesus was leaving them where was it that they could go to find the peace that he promised.  They too may have heard these words while in their hearts there were questions like how will this peace come from where will it come?  Perhaps Jesus' words about the coming of the Spirit and the peace the Spirit will bring was like what God said to Moses-ⁱ” For this command which I am giving you today is not too wondrous or remote for you.  It is not in the heavens, that you should say, “Who will go up to the heavens to get it for us and tell us of it, that we may do it?”  Nor is it across the sea, that you should say, “Who will cross the sea to get it for us and tell us of it, that we may do it?”  No, it is something very near to you, in your mouth^* and in your heart, to do it.” (Deut. 30:8-14)

The miracle of the coming of the Spirit empowered the disciples to go out and share the message even when they did not know to whom to speak, or who would understand them, or who would listen to them. They just opened their mouths and out came not their words, but the words of the Spirit.  And so it is with the work of the Spirit, as Jesus said --“The wind^* blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so, it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”(John3:8) 

People through prayer and sacrament are empowered by that which lives in them not by that which happens to them.   Jesus lives not apart from us in some heavenly realm, but he lives through his Spirit within us.  That Spirit was placed within our hearts and souls when we were baptized.  We years later confirmed it when the bishop laid hands on us at our confirmation.  That Spirit grows stronger every time we reach out our hands to receive it through the sacrament of the Eucharist.  The more we learn how to trust in the presence of the Spirit within us, the more we learn to trust in what it can accomplish in the world through us.  It matters not how big or small our world is, our family, our neighborhood,  our workplace; it matters not what state of life we are in, sickness, imprisonment, growing old, wherever the Spirit is alive and present, new life will happen; hope can be reborn; healing from brokenness can be restored; and the belief for a different life can be renewed. 

“A group of artists were asked to paint a picture of peace. While there were many and varied interpretations, the winner was a painting of a small bird calmly sitting in a nest built on a slender branch overhanging Niagara Falls.”²                                                                                                      

 Most of us have known the feeling of being in just such a location and many times it may have been without the sense of peace.  Even, St. Paul could relate to this artist’s rendering of what peace is from his own life.  For his was a life of struggle and disappointments even as he tried his best to give witness to the peace that Christ brought to his life.  It was because of that same Spirit of which Jesus spoke that he could eventually, near the end of his life as he awaited trial and execution, write to the Christians of Rome “… since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ… and we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God.  More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s Love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit” (Romans 5:1, 2-5).

1.http://www.goodreads.com                                                                                                                        2. Voicings.com