Year C

John 14:23-29

The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn

God Comes To the World

During this coming week of the Easter season, the church celebrates the ascension of Jesus. Ascension Day is always observed on the sixth Thursday or the fortieth day following Easter and it marks the end of the Resurrection appearances of Jesus to his followers and his return to God. The feast is an ancient one which began in Jerusalem in the late fourth century. To mark the event, a procession takes place to the Mount of Olives where tradition claims the event took place. During the past several Sunday’s, we have heard of Jesus’ promise, delivered at the Last Supper and recorded in the gospel of John, that he will, in fact, leave his disciples. Yet, he tells them he will not leave them without a helper his Spirit who will be with them forever.

So we come to the time when Jesus will take his place with God in heaven, ushering in a new era, a new relationship between God and this earth-home we live on-begins. Now the fruits of the Resurrection will be made known through his community of followers. As Spirit, God enters those who follow Jesus and inspires them to take up the journey and invite others, to be the feet that bring good news, the teachers at whose feet disciples sit, the foot-washers and those whose feet are washed. Ours is a faith that is steeped in and built upon invitation because ours is a faith that is built upon relationships.

Our God is always with us through the Spirit living in us and is always inviting us to come into relationship. There are over 100 verses in the scriptures where the word come is found and twenty-nine about “Come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” God invites us and we in turn invite God into our lives—“Come, Lord Jesus.” And we invite others to “Come and see.” Together, we invite God to come into our midst and into our lives every week in our prayers and at the altar. It’s a theme woven though all we say, do, and sing. When we look though the alphabetical index in the back of our Hymnal, you will find a lot of hymns that begin with the word “come.” “Come, Holy Spirit heavenly Dove,” “Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life,” Come, thou fount of every blessing,” to name just a few.

From the Garden of Eden when God came to Adam and Eve, to the incarnation when the Spirit of God came to Mary, to the manger where the baby Jesus was born for all humanity, to the Good Shepherd who calls all his sheep and searches for the one lost sheep, to the empty tomb: the truth we hear though out scripture and in out texts today, one that is at the heart of our faith and at the heart of God and one we must not lose sight of, is that God comes to us and continually invites us to come to him leading us into a new understanding of life through the Spirit of God.

At the Last Supper with his disciples, Jesus is telling his disciples that he is about to go away. The whole of the Last Supper is overshadowed by the knowledge that it is the end. The disciples may not quite have taken in what is to happen, and how soon, but they must have picked up on the fact that he was trying to prepare them for a time when he would not be with them. Yet, the main message in this passage is Jesus setting out the ways in which he will still be with them, come what may. He will be with them whenever they remember and try to stay faithful to what he has taught them-“Those who love me will keep my word.” By doing this they will continue Jesus’ own work of making God present to others. By their love they continue his work and God is present with them. “My Father will love them, and will come to them and make our home with them.”

But the reality is that they cannot do this on their own. They can’t manage the task of loving God and making him present on their own. Jesus knows this about his followers then and now, and he also knows that the solution to this problem is the coming of the Holy Spirit, as the presence of God, as a gift to enable them to do and to give what God has already given to them. We are given love and asked to love, we are given forgiveness and asked to forgive, we are given God and asked to make a home with him and help others to make a home with him. With the Spirit’s help, we do rise to the task of sharing God’s life and love with the world around us and find that God is already there.

Just look at the story of Lydia today in the Acts of the Apostles. Paul is on his second missionary journey. A journey; where we can definitely draw the conclusion that the Holy Spirit was with him. He has a vision of a man pleading with him to do ministry in Macedonia. Philippi, where Paul and the group land, was also a settlement for retired Roman soldiers who were willing to reside outside of Italy. Soon they come into contact with a woman of wealth named Lydia, who was a gentile probably of Greek origin. After a conversation with Paul, “the Lord opened her heart.” She was hungering for something more in her life. The Spirit inside of her stirred up a holy longing in her soul, as it surly does in each one of us. She and her whole household were baptized.

It is clear that God was at work on both sides of that conversation, before and after making possible what God was asking for. The Spirit prompts and calls and blesses her and she went on to bless many others. She became a part of the new heaven and earth that God will bring to completion at the end of time-the new creation that brings the first creation to perfection. John’s vision of the in-breaking of the new creation from God in the revelation text takes place on a high mountain. High mountains are often looked upon as a “thin place” offering us a closer touch of the Divine. From this vantage point we are positioned to witness the culmination of God’s plan for humanity which reveals the heart of God.

We can see the love of God here: that God’s perfect picture is to dwell in the midst of God’s people. This image is not ultimately of our going to be with God, but rather God coming to be with us. God will make his throne and his home in the midst of the city where we will live. What a promise and comfort this picture of heaven gives us as a city of life, healing, and hope. The garden that was the beginning home of humanity where God came to us is again a shared dwelling place where God comes to us and together we are in mutual relationship. The bottom line remains that those who walk in the way of the Lamb of God will one day see this new life. And on this side of the vision of John, we are empowered by the Spirit and given a way to bring Christ’s presence into the brokenness of our world.

This is the good news that invites us to view the church from a different point of view. Through God’s Spirit, God’s reign is happening and will continue until one day it becomes complete. In the meantime, God calls the church to exhibit the divine difference that is hopeful, hospitable, and evangelical. Perhaps Paul’s dream of a Macedonian beckoning him to visit was not only for Paul. That we go lovingly striving together in this life to bring about God’s goals, is a prequel of God’s abundant life intended for all. God is still coming to us and calling us toward the true Pentecost “for the healing of the nations” and giving us everything we need to make this realty now. “Come, Father, Son and Holy Spirit fill our souls with you and your love.