Easter 5 B – 2006 Acts 8:26-40, Psalm 66:1-11, 1 John 3:(14-17) 18-24, John 14:15-21 The Rev. J. Brian Ponder Church of the Resurrection Starkville, Mississippi May 14, 2006 In the Name of the Risen Christ. Amen. Well folks, I’m just going to name it—the elephant that for many of us may be standing in this very room. How ironic it is that we receive today the story of the giving of the Advocate, that we receive Jesus’ words of promise “I will not leave you orphaned…” when this week, we have also received word of Bill and Diane’s approaching departure from among us—two lesser advocates of course, but two of our own nonetheless. It puts into perspective, perhaps a little more clearly, just what was the context of Philip’s encounter with the Ethiopian eunuch on the way from Jerusalem towards Gaza … the wilderness road … full of surprises, sometimes empty, sometimes offering the unexpected. Yet, beyond this, I believe our scriptures today have a great deal to say to us about what God has left us, what God is leaving and charging us to do this very day—not orphans at all, but fellow pilgrims seeking the Way and the Truth and the Life. Today’s lessons speak a great deal about promise, about abiding, about commandment, and conversion and newness … about belief. I think one of the most profound and lasting images from our gospel lesson today comes through the word “Advocate,” sometimes translated, perhaps a bit more clearly, as Helper or Counselor. Jesus makes promise, cuts covenant with the disciples, that they will not be alone, that they will not have to journey forward without purpose or meaning, though he makes it clear that he will not be able to physically be with them much longer. He makes promise that there will be another, that if there cannot be a guide, there will at the very least be a support for the road ahead through this God-given Advocate, this Counselor, this Helper. And, the promise is not an achievement, mind you. … Jesus doesn’t pledge this Advocate in such a way that the disciples have to earn it—or even that they deserve it necessarily. Rather, this Advocate is a gift, freely given, but one that requires much responsibility. … Because this gift, this One who is to come, is the one who moves across the waters of the lives and loves and labors of the disciples, as well as being the same Spirit acting upon the lives and loves and labors of us far removed by time and space from this encounter; and in all of it we find that we, ourselves, are not far removed from the promise at all. This is the same Spirit that does and has moved across the waters of the lives and loves and labors of many others throughout all time and in all places, connecting us to one another, never separating us from one another, or from the love that is imparted through the promise of this gift. And I think that this is something very profound, very moving, … but it is something we might overlook, if we simply have one understanding of what this Advocate could be. “Advocate,” after all, has a lot of different meanings for us today—often times legalistic … someone who supports, or recommends, or champions, … maintains, favors, who promotes, advances, justifies, pleads, propounds. But this Advocate, this One, the one who Jesus promises, is much more … so much more. … Earlier in the week, at a working retreat for newer clergy and those with new ministries, we were discussing this reading in particular—figuring out how we might look at it with fresh eyes. My friend Melanie told the story of an instance of her mother’s advocacy on her behalf from a time in the later years of her childhood. … A mother’s advocacy … Melanie was a club president in high school, and a major deadline for the group’s work was fast approaching. Towards the close of business at one of the group’s regular meetings, she suggested a weekend meeting time so that the group could put in a good day’s work on their project.  At the time, everyone seemed to agree that this would be a good time to meet. … Well later that evening, while she and her family were gathered around the dinner table, celebrating her father’s birthday, the phone rang. … Melanie answered the phone, and on the other end was the mother of one of the other girls in the group. With little more than identifying herself, the woman proceeded to tear Melanie up one side and down the other. This newly called, special meeting was going to interfere with a scouting trip that had been on several of Melanie’s classmates’ calendars for the better part of a year. And now, this meeting, was—as the mother on the other end of the phone was yelling—ruining everything. … The boiling point had been reached well before the phone call was made, and now, Melanie was catching the brunt of this woman’s anger, because others at the meeting had failed to speak up about scheduling conflicts.  She was blindsided by the call to say the least, … most of all by the way in which an adult would talk to her, the language used, the abusive tone. … She was still a child. Melanie put down the receiver and returned to the birthday table, visibly shaken—in shock over what was said and with tears beginning to well in her eyes. … Well, all it took was for her momma to get a hold of a piece of that story. … The way Melanie tells it, she had never before seen the “momma” that came forth that evening, as her mother returned the favor of a call to this parent. … She rose to the occasion in defense of her child, for protection, for the good of her child, … out of love. There were harsh words exchanged, back-and-forth, and at least one person was put in her place that evening—all of it on account of this wellspring of a response in unconditional love towards her child—advocacy. This was an advocacy that Melanie’s mom took on without pretense, without expectation of returned favor from Melanie, without stipulation, without limitation. This was a “going-the-distance” kind of advocacy rooted in concern and wellbeing and desire, simply done out of love for her child. … And I think this is like the kind of Advocate Jesus is promising his disciples—an Advocate for good times and bad—an abiding Spirit—to support, to defend, to empower them. … If nowhere else, today in John’s gospel we see that Jesus’ message of discipleship, of fellowship, of new ways of being, is rooted to the core in love. It is a message of hope and one of relationship—a reciprocating unconditional relationship.  Is not rooted upon prerequisite or provision, rather it is grounded in mutuality and honor and dignity, and we learn that the giving of the Advocate, the Helper, the Healer, the Counselor, is truly the “gift that keeps on giving.” … This past week the Church celebrated the feast of Dame Julian, anchoress at Norwich, the 14th century mystic and spiritual counselor who spoke in her later years of the Motherhood of Christ—the Mothering Jesus. … On death’s bed, after receiving last rites and on the seventh day of an illness in her childhood, Julian received 15 visions of the Passion of Christ which brought her much joy and great peace. Her pain subsided, and Julian spent the rest of her life discerning the meaning of these “showings”, living into her understanding of them. She much later reflected on the experience: … [L]et us all join with God’s working in prayer, thanking, trusting, rejoicing, … for he beholds his heavenly treasure with so great love on earth that he will give us more light. … I desired many times to know in what was our Lord’s meaning.  And fifteen years after and more, I was answered in spiritual understanding, and it was said: What, do you wish to know your Lord’s meaning in this thing? Know it well, love was his meaning. Who reveals it to you? Love. What did he reveal to you? Love. Why does he reveal it to you? For love. Remain in this, and you will know more of the same. Love is Christ’s gift that sustains us across all time and space. It is the gift that remains when nothing else does or can. It is the gift that guards us and guides and keeps us, if we’ll let it, if we’ll recognize it, if we’ll allow for it and live into it—through moments of assuredness and even more so in times of unknowing. As we embark upon the wilderness road, whether as parish family, or as families and individuals on life’s many journeys, let us never forget the opportunities that await us and others around every next bend: the promises of encounter and mutual aid, the hopes of conversion—of transformation, the possibilities for new days and new ways of being, all the while looking onward, yet giving thanks for experiences and friendships and Love-revealed, old and new. … We are a Resurrection people … and we’re called to a Resurrection way of living. In Christ’s most holy name. Amen. Julian of Norwich, Showings. Trans. with introduction by Edmund Colledge, O.S.A. and James Walsh, S.J. Mahway, NJ: Paulist Press, 1978. Page 342. ISBN: 0-8091-2091-7.