FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER
(Cantate)
Readings:
Key Verses (using the World English Bible):
Jas. 1:21b: “Receive with humility the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.”
John 16:12-13a: Jesus said, “I have yet many things to tell you, but you can’t bear them now. However when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth.”
Reflection
The latter half of the Season of Easter begins to prepare us for Jesus’ imminent physical departure from Earth. This is a time when we’re forced to ask ourselves: What does it mean to follow a Savior who pledges “I am with you always,” even as he says “I am going to my Father, and you won’t see me any more”?
I didn’t realize the importance of that question until taking care of my seven-year-old nephew one night a few months ago. At bedtime, he asked me to tell him stories about Jesus, so I gave him the “children’s digest” of the traditional readings for the Epiphany Season: the visit of the Three Kings, the losing and finding of the boy Jesus in the Temple, his baptism, miracles and healings. When I finished, my nephew let out a sigh and said, simply, “I wish Jesus were still here.”
Children especially know the importance of physical presence. As adults, we may be better at controlling our emotions, but it doesn’t mean we don’t feel absence or loneliness any less than a child does. Maybe that’s why Jesus calls his followers “little children.” And now Jesus faces the difficult task of any parent or guardian: How do you comfort a child who may not understand you? “I have yet many things to tell you, but you can’t bear them now,” he says. I get the range of emotions behind that sentence. I have many things I want to tell my nephew about life—I want to inspire him with the beauty of this world, of music and literature, community, culture, falling in love; but I also want to prepare him for its ugliness and dangers, violence, hatred, natural and man-made disasters. The lists go on, but at seven years old, he can’t bear them now.
But there is one thing Jesus thinks his followers can bear, and that’s the “Counselor”. Also called the “Comforter”, “Advocate” or “Paraclete”, we know him better today as the Holy Spirit. Yet at this point in the narrative, the Spirit still hadn’t been fully experienced, and some of Jesus’ followers had never even heard of him. How can you bear something you’ve never known or felt? Well, one answer is that you don’t. Three years ago, I wrote:
Jesus’ early followers recalled how he had prepared them for his physical absence by sending them “the Spirit of truth”. However, many Christians today, myself included, are guilty of ignoring the Holy Spirit. Liturgical Christianity rarely addresses the Holy Spirit directly. It’s as if the Holy Spirit has become the “forgotten” Person of the Trinity, tacked on at the end of a prayer—a sin that’s possibly even more “unforgivable” than blaspheming against him.
It’s easy for us to ignore something we can’t put words to. And yet one of the biggest ironies of our religion is that the more Jesus spoke, the less his followers understood him. The spoken and written word aren’t enough for us to grasp the fullness of God’s infinite essence of love.
So the Word-made-flesh promises to send what the Epistle of James calls the “implanted word”, whose speech we can understand because it’s in the language of the heart. We can bear him because we have to, not as some arduous task, but as a free gift from the same God who also freely gave us his image to bear. We have no choice because he becomes a natural part of our very being. Our hearts receive him even before we know what’s going on, just as a child receives a mother’s love even before understanding it.
The coming Counselor teaches us that God has never left us. Knowing this, we can bear anything that comes our way.
Prayer of the Day
Almighty God,
you alone can bring into order
the unruly wills and affections of sinners.
Grant that your people may love what you command,
and desire what you promise;
so that, among the swift and manifold changes of the world,
our hearts may surely be fixed
where true joys are to be found;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever.
Amen.
—Collect for the Fourth Sunday after Easter, Book of Common Prayer, 1662; adapted using the 1979 edition, where the collect is used for the Fifth Sunday in Lent.
Hear our prayers, O Lord,
so that those things promised by your holy word
may be completed by the working of your gospel,
and that the fullness of our adoption as your children
may obtain that which the witness of truth has foretold;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
—Collect for the Fourth Sunday after Easter, from the 5th century Gelasian Sacramentary; translated and adapted by Joseph A. Soltero, 2015
Hymn: “Holy Spirit, light divine”
(Words: Andrew Reed, 1782-1862; adapted by Joseph A. Soltero, 2015
Tune: ‘Song 13’, by Orlando Gibbons, 1583-1625)
Holy Spirit, light divine,
Shine upon this heart of mine.
Chase the shades of night away.
Turn the darkness into day.
Let me see my Savior’s face.
Let me all his beauties trace.
Show those glorious truths to me,
Which you only know and see.
Holy Spirit, pow’r divine,
Cleanse this guilty heart of mine.
In your mercy, pity me.
From sin’s bondage, set me free.
Holy Spirit, joy divine,
Cheer this saddened heart of mine.
Yield a sacred, settled peace;
Let it grow and still increase.
Holy Spirit, all divine,
Dwell within this heart of mine.
Cast down ev’ry idol throne.
Reign supreme, and reign alone.
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