St. Mary's Episcopal Church

John 14:25-29
Peace and the Holy Spirit Peace and the Holy Spirit What would it be like to have God the Father and Jesus the Son to come and live in your home? Would life be different? Would it be the same? What would be holy in your day? What things would you choose to change, if anything? This is what Jesus threatens, I mean, promises to all those who love him, and keep his word, he promises that he and the Father will come and make their abode, or their home, or their dwelling place with that person.

Jesus is wrapping things up in our Gospel lesson. In the course of the Gospel of John, Jesus has been introduced to us as the Word of God who was present at the beginning of creation, has shown the signs that he is that Word Incarnate, and begins to reveal his glory to those who believe, and prepares them for the death, resurrection, and ascension that is to come.

He makes it clear that he is telling these things to prepare his disciples for what is to come, so that when it happens they will recognize it. They are going to experience all this, and as he prepares them for it he also gives them a gift. The gift is peace. Peace not like the world gives it, but the Peace that only he can offer.

Now, being a person that is perhaps more accustomed to the peace, be it temporary, that the world offers, I wonder about this peace that he offers. Here is a gift of peace I give to you. And soon I will die. This is not a "peaceful easy feeling" as the Eagles might say.

The peace that Jesus offers is, like his promise of coming to live with us if we love him, an abiding peace. The same peace that goes hand in hand with the truth, the way, the life, the light, the joy that he offers. This is about the big picture of our lives, of our understanding about how we relate to God and the rest of the Universe and everyone around us. This is about our life being found in Jesus.

This peace that Jesus offers also has to do with the Holy Spirit, which changes everything. Until the Spirit comes to the church, they knew God primarily through the person of Jesus, yet he promises to send the Holy Spirit to the church. And this Spirit will be many things for the community. The word John uses to talk about the Spirit is translated a number of ways. We heard the "Advocate." It is also translated as Friend, Helper, or Encourager. The word means being along side with, as in parallel. The Greek word is actually Paraklete, a rough translation would read "The one called alongside." So the Holy Spirit is one who dwells along side us, in our Christian journey, just as Jesus had dwelt alongside his disciples.

Jesus teaches his disciples that while he is going away from them, through death, resurrection, and ascension, there will be another one who dwells with them, the one that will be along side of them, binding them as a community, and teaching them about this Peace Jesus gives them as a parting gift.

He makes it clear that the peace he gives is not like the peace the world gives. That is, it is not a temporary peace enforced with violence, or a temporary personal state of peace. Like the abiding Spirit, this is an enduring peace.

It is a peace they will experience in the Christian community. It is a shared, community peace, for the spirit is not given only to individuals, but to the community, the Body of Christ.

In South Africa, I had the opportunity to learn new word for spirituality that focuses on the community. It is ubuntu. Ubuntu is the spiritual principle that we find our identity not as individuals, isolated, but that we find our very identity in community. This is the spirituality that Desmond Tutu practices, and uses in his own theology. I was at first fascinated by the idea of ubuntu. It sounded like a pristine, almost utopian concept. A caring community very different from my usual experience where the individual is the focus. Even being from a larger family, and a strong family, I learned the importance of individualism. Individualism has its importance, and it's teaching that we can learn from, and ubuntu certainly has its challenges. I got to witness ubuntu in action when one of the students left school the day of a test to attend a funeral of a distant cousin (someone he may have only met at similar occasions.) In that moment, the important thing for the family to do was gather, the test only concerned him. Is that peace? There is testing if not challenging side of ubuntu. It constantly calls us back to being selfless, to constantly consider our community. We don't have to go all the way to South Africa to understand ubuntu. You may already know a community that looks like this. If not consider a mother's example: even from a strictly physical level, the relationship of mother to child exhibits ubuntu. Our mother's carry us in their own bodies, and deliver us, and feed us from their own bodies. Of course, usually doesn't stop there. And from what I hear from my friends who have twins, this self giving of both parents is a sort of a peace, even if they do not feel so peaceful during that self-giving during the wee hours. Of course they are in it for the long haul, and they wouldn't' have it any other way. Ubuntu reminds us that we are who we are because of our relationships. It reminds Desmond Tutu of the Trinitarian God we worship, who is community. And the self giving Savior we know who gave of his own life so that we might have life, and peace.

The peace that Jesus gives to us looks more like ubuntu than any temporary state of peace we can experience by worldly standards. It is a peace of community, it is a peace that is in it for the long haul. It is a peace that may not feel like peace if we are sick, or we have lost a loved one, or are lonely, it may not feel like peace, until we realize that God is there, through that suffering. God is dwelling with us in our painful times, as well as our happy times. That is a peace beyond understanding, that is peace that comes from relationship, and a peace we often see in our community, filled with the Holy Spirit, doing our best to remember what Jesus taught us, follow the Spirit's lead, and abide with one another, just as the Spirit abides with us. The spirit who is sent to us to be alongside us, also teaches us to be alongside one another.

We practice this being alongside one another here week by week, so that be ready for the other times we are called to be along side one another, because as much as we may be told that we are individuals as our deepest roots, the truth is that we are, at the very center of our being, in the depth of our reality creatures who are most importantly in relationship. In relationship with God, with our family, with our friends, with our church. The community we are called to may change many times in our lives, but we are always called to be in community, because our God is in Community.

The peace Jesus gives, unlike the peace of the world, comes with the Spirit who binds us together into this community gathered. We are called to enter the community through baptism, in which we die with Christ, and are raised to new life, a life guided by the Spirit, in this community of the Church. It certainly doesn't make everything easy, but the Spirit who is alongside us, is along side us through everything, teaching us, reminding us, leading us alongside others who may need our presence. That is a peace beyond anything the world can give.

So what would it be like to have the Father and Son to live with you in your home? What is it like right now, because God does dwell with us in our homes. Jesus did send the Holy Spirit to dwell with us and to teach us. How does having God living with us change the way you see the world? How does having the Spirit here to dine with us change the way we see Bread and Wine? What is holy to you with God dwelling with us?