Enough

Sixth Sunday of Easter
Gospel: John 14:23-29

Speaking about how human beings spend their time and thus may be pictured in novels, E. M. Forster says, "When human beings love they try to get something. They also try to give something, and this double aim makes love more complicated than food or sleep. It is selfish and altruistic at the same time, and no amount of specialization in one direction quite atrophies the other" (Aspects of the Novel [Orlando: Harcourt, 1927] 50).

On the verge of his departure from them, Jesus says to his loved ones, "If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I" (John 14:28b). This is so hard! How can the disciples rejoice that Jesus is leaving? What makes possible that kind of atrophied selfishness and robust altruism?

When all you can see is scarcity, the temptation is to hold on to what you have even tighter. "No, Jesus, you can't go! Stay here!" Like Mary at the tomb, we cling to our Teacher, Lord and Friend. That makes perfect sense in this world's economy. We cannot rejoice at the news that things are changing.

But in the economy of the whole new age, the age inaugurated by Jesus' death, resurrection and ascension, things are calculated differently. Here it is possible to release Jesus so that he may be reunited with the Father and still to rejoice. The variable that changes an economy of scarcity (If Jesus rejoins the Father, will he still care about us? Or: If Jesus loves you, then will there still be enough love for me?) into an economy of abundance (an economy of abundant life, one might say) is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit makes the power, love and presence of Jesus available to the disciples in his absence. The Holy Spirit also makes the power, love and presence of Jesus available to us who live centuries later than the disciples. The Holy Spirit is, after all, the reason we know Jesus at all.

And speaking of knowing Jesus, one of the things we know is that there is enough of Jesus to go around. Jesus takes time to listen to the woman with the hemorrhage, and still, he can give Jairus' daughter back to her parents, alive and ready for lunch (cf. Mark 5:21-43). The story demonstrates what "enough" means, even when, in the midst of it, we think that time or some other commodity is running out. Jesus, by means of his Holy Spirit, finds time, place, love and life enough for all of us.

Comments

[Sara Quigley]

I was doing some research for John 14:25-31 for a sermon that I'll be giving this weekend at a women's retreat when I found this link... and thought that I would drop by to say hullo from Alaska! Do not ask me why this text was chosen for the All Alaska Women's Retreat as I have noooo idea, but it was. The theme for the retreat is "wholeness" and both texts for the worship service have to do with the Holy Spirit, for it's this text and Psalm 139:1-18, so I don't know if they are trying to say that HS or the Trinity promotes wholeness? But I like what you had to say about not holding onto what we should be giving away and simply put it's by giving it away that we're given more. I could see how that fits into wholeness...

Sara

[Gail Riina]

I'm preaching at a service for seniors and their pasrents and friends after graduation. It seems that the letting go with hope is what these students are doing and must do - and what their parensts have done for them for years. The perspecctive of Enough both comforts and challenges - what do they hope for - things or relationships - living out their vocation?