How do we live the life Jesus spoke about and experience the peace he promises to give? How do we express our love for Jesus? And what is the role of the Holy Spirit in connecting us with Jesus and with God? These are all questions that arise from our Gospel reading this week from John chapter 14.
There is a small phrase that is easy to miss in this week’s reading: because I live, you also will live. Yes, Jesus is going away and the disciples are anxious and troubled. But Jesus will not leave them alone as orphans in the world, adrift and separated from God’s love. Rather, looking ahead to his rising to new life, Jesus promises that God will send the Holy Spirit in his name to live within and amongst the disciples – for always. This is how they will continue to live in the way of Jesus even when he is no longer physically present with them. The Spirit will remind them of all that Jesus taught and especially the command to love one another.
Rather than seeing this command as a duty or a prerequisite for experiencing God’s loving presence, Jesus turns it all around. Because of God’s love – illustrated through the ministry and ultimately in the death of Jesus for his friends – we respond in a similar way by loving and serving one another. As we do this, we will live the life Jesus spoke of – the abundant and overflowing life – even as God’s Spirit brings us into the heart of relationship with God. That is when we will also experience the deep and abiding peace that Jesus promised.
Our current circumstances with corona virus provide us a way to better understand this message. Living in the way of Jesus – the way of love – will not shield us from suffering or anxious thoughts or uncertainty about how the next few weeks and months may turn out. But it may just give us the peace we need and the assurance that God – and indeed Jesus – is with us every faltering step of the way.
How have you been experiencing this peace in these challenging times?
What new ways are you finding to love and serve others?
And what are you learning about Jesus and yourself in the process?
Click here for worship@home resource If you love me - 17 May 2020
This week is another collaborative streamed service at 10 am from the Maroondah Uniting Churches, prepared mostly by the Ringwood congregation. Go to https://nruc.online.church/ to watch the service. We will follow this with morning tea by Zoom for Croydon and Croydon North people. Email the Croydon office for details to join us.