Each week I go to the
hospital. I usually visit on Thursdays
or Fridays. Pastor Bruce visits at the
beginning of the week and a member of the congregation visits mid-week and on
the weekend. Each week as I drive to the
hospital I hope and pray that there is no one from South Canyon
at the hospital. I hope that not because
I don’t want to see anyone or because I don’t want to do my job, but because I
want people to be healthy. I don’t want
people to be at the hospital. However,
for the past six weeks or so when I have went to the hospital we have had
babies in the hospital. Now, I really
don’t want to see babies in the hospital, unless it is for that short time
after a healthy birth. Then the hospital
is a happy place. The babies I have been
visiting haven’t been healthy babies.
They have been sick babies. For
the past six weeks or so I have visited babies in the NICU: Neonatal Intensive
Care Unit. The first time I saw on the
list that there was a baby in the NICU I had no idea what to do, but now I am
becoming a pro at visiting the NICU. On
all my visits to the NICU I have been surprised to always find the parents or
some member of the family there with the infant. Even though the baby cannot go home the
parents are almost always by the side of their babies. That is the love of parents. That is what parents do. When they could leave their newborn in the
complete care of the nurses and go home, get a good nights sleep and eat a
nutritious meal, all things they will find harder to do when they bring their
baby home, they still spend the majority of their time at the hospital. That is the love of a parent to a child.
Parental love.
That is the love of God to us, too. Jesus uses the language of Father here to
describe God. Now, I don’t think we need
to see that “father” language as a masculine figure. Rather it is the language of parent or a
caring, loving figure. The masculine
language of father is not comforting to all people. The feminine language of mother is not
comforting to all people. Yet, we all
know what a caring and loving relationship feels like. Whether that is a biological parent, an
adoptive parent, a foster parent, an adult mentor, a school teacher, a pastor,
or some other parent-like relationship.
Think of that person who has loved you with parent-like love. Now double it or quadruple it. Imagine that love being even bigger than you
can imagine. Imagine that love being
divine love – God love. That is what
Jesus is talking about here. Big love –
God love.
After Jesus talks about this big, divine love, this God
love, then he mentions that he will send the Advocate, the Holy Spirit. Jesus mentions this because he can’t stick
around on earth. He will soon be leaving
and he wants us to know that even though his earthly presence is leaving, the
Holy Spirit will still be present with us.
Jesus does not leave us alone. He
does not abandon us. God sends someone
to take Jesus’ place. The Advocate will
teach us everything and remind us of what Jesus has said to us. Through the Holy Spirit, God will make a home
in us. God will take up residence inside
of us.
All this leads to peace.
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.” Often when we think of peace, I think we immediately
think of world peace. As I grew up, in
my sheltered world, I can’t really remember a time without world peace, until
9/11. Still, I was a high school
freshman at the time. I can’t say that
9/11 really threw me off guard for more than a couple of days. However, in the past few months, the lack of
peace has become more obvious to me.
From Aurora, Colorado
to Newtown, Connecticut,
to Boston, Massachusetts we have been short on peace in
our own country, let alone in our world.
Of course, that is one part of peace.
When it comes to defining peace is it about the absence or freedom from
disturbance? Or is it about the presence
of something else, something completely different from absence? Maybe peace is actually about the presence of
God, which gives hope and confidence in the future?
At
its core in our text today, I think this peace is referring, first and
foremost, to our relationship with God.
Before Jesus’ death, he wants to make sure he is at peace with his disciples
and they are at peace with him. Jesus is
also giving to us inner peace. He wants
us to have peace in our hearts, peace in our souls, and peace in our lives. In fact, I think that is where we have to
start. Then Jesus wants that inner peace
to spill over into our relationships with others. He wants us to have peace with other
people. If we cannot have peace within
ourselves and peace within our relationships then we will never achieve world
peace. That kind of peace is born out of
peaceful people living in peaceful relationships with others. All of this peace comes from the indwelling
of God’s spirit in us. Jesus says that
both God and himself will come to us and make their home within us. That home is love taking root in us. That is big, divine, God love living in us. God sends the Holy Spirit to us and Jesus
leaves us with peace. This is all done
because God does not want our hearts to be troubled or for us to be
afraid. God does not want us to live in
disturbance, but wants us to live in peace, with hope and confidence in the
future. And that comforting peace leads
us to love ourselves and others with that parent-like love that God first loved
us with.
Can
you see the cycle here? God is
love. God shows us parent-like
love. That love leads God to send an
Advocate, the Holy Spirit, to dwell within us.
That indwelling of the Holy Spirit gives us peace, which leads us to
love others.
So
know that God loves you so much that the Holy Sprit wants to make its home
within you. Let that indwelling of the
Spirit give you peace. Peace that is
comforting. Peace that only God can
give. Let that peace infiltrate your
life, your relationship with God, and your relationships with others. Let the presence of that peace turn into love
and let it have an effect the world. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment