"Always At Our Side ”

A Sermon Preached by
The Rev. Jean Niven Lenk

A number of years ago, shortly after my children lost their father, I was sightseeing in the city of Boston with a friend. We were at the corner of Boylston and Copley Streets and needed to get to the other side of the street. My friend stepped off the curb and started walking out toward the oncoming cars, ready to make a dash across the street as soon as there was a break in the traffic. But I stayed safely on the sidewalk, waiting for the light to tell me it was OK to “walk.”

“C’mon” my friend urged, “don’t wait for the light.” “No way,” I was responded. I was acutely aware that I was the only parent my kids had left, and taking care of myself was taking care of them. “I’m not crossing until the light says it’s safe,” I told my friend. “If I die, my kids become orphans.”

Orphan. The word comes from the Greek for “bereft,” and it conjures up images of helpless and abandoned children. But adults too can feel orphaned after both parents die and they are left without the buffer of the generation before.

In her moving poem “The Death of a Parent,” poet Linda Pastan puts it this way: “‘Move to the front of the line,’ a voice says, and suddenly there is nobody left standing between you and the world to take the first blows on their shoulders… This is the place in books where part one ends, and part two begins, and there is no part three.”

This feeling of loss can also occur with the death of a beloved teacher. Just a few weeks ago, my husband Peter was shocked and saddened to learn of the sudden death of his mentor from college. Dr. Merrill Ebner was a professor for over 40 years in Boston University’s School of Engineering, and Peter considers him one of most influential people of his life. Dr. Ebner’s passion and enthusiasm for teaching young people was life-changing for Peter, and when he died, a chapter closed on Peter’s life, too.

In this morning’s Gospel lesson from John, Jesus is saying good bye to his disciples at the Last Supper. He has been many things to them -- part brother, part father, part mentor, part teacher – and together, they have lived as a new kind of family. And now he must leave them. That evening, understanding their bewilderment and anxiety over being separated from their beloved leader and rabbi, he speaks words of solace, encouragement and hope to them, who can’t imagine carrying out without their leader and teacher. And their hearts ask fear-filled questions. How will they survive in the world without Jesus’ physical presence? What will the world do to them when he's gone? How will they be able to carry on his ministry of healing, teaching, and preaching the Kingdom of God?

Responding to their anxiety and uncertainty, Jesus assures them that he will not leave them abandoned but will send an “Advocate” to take his place. In Greek, the word translated into English as advocate is paraclete, and it literally means “one who is called to the side of another.” In the different translations of this passage from the Gospel of John, the word appears as Comforter, Counselor, Advisor, Encourager, Friend, Strengthener, Helper, and Intercessor. In other words, Jesus promises his disciples someone who will comfort them in times of sorrow, counsel them in times of discernment, strengthen and empower them in times of trial, encourage them in times of despair, advocate for them when they are in need of help, and who will always walk alongside them as their friend and helper.

But it was not just Jesus’ disciples in first century Palestine who needed a Paraclete; the audience to whom St. John wrote his Gospel needed one, too. The early church had believed that, after his resurrection and ascension, Jesus would return to earth someday soon. John’s was the last of the four gospels to be written, in the late first century or early second century A.D. By that time, Jesus still had not returned as expected, and members of the early Christian church were beginning to lose hope. On top of that, power struggles were tearing the community apart, and its members lived in dread of civil persecution. How could this band of believers be in relationship with Jesus if he was not among them in the flesh? John’s audience may have wondered if Jesus had abandoned and forsaken them.

“I will not leave you orphaned,” the Jesus in John’s Gospel says reassuringly, “I am coming to you.”

And Jesus says that also to us. Because there are many in our world today who feel abandoned.

A middle-aged factory worker gets laid off when the plant closes, and there are few prospects for another job. Too old to be re-trained, without job skills for another line of work, living off of pension funds that will soon run out – he needs to hear that God has not abandoned him.

An elderly widow, living alone in her home after 50 years of marriage. Sitting all by herself in front of the TV, in a house suddenly too big for her, with her half-eaten dinner grown cold as she sits and stares out the window. Neighbors and children busy with their own live. She needs to hear that God has not abandoned her.

Or the teenager rejected by classmates… the spouse whose partner has left…the executive whose business is failing… the parent whose child had rebelled and left home… the countless, faceless others in our world, our community, maybe even in our own family, who are left alone without hope, feeling lost, alone and rejected. We all need to hear that God has not abandoned us.

And we can all be assured that God has not left us orphaned, for God comes to us as the Holy Spirit. Through the Holy Spirit, God is not just the God “out there,” distant as the farthest star. God is also in us, and with us, and always at our side. Having God so close means we can know the intimacy of speaking to God personally; we can experience the serenity of having God as close to us as our breathing; we can feel the peace of being able to call out God and knowing God is right there with us.

Jesus says to his disciples, to John’s audience, and also to us: I will send you a Counselor, an Advocate, a Comforter and Friend... It is God’s Holy Spirit -- God’s gift to us in our Baptism, the gift that God has given to little Beth and Nora Jayne this morning. God’s Holy Spirit -- God’s presence in life and Christ’s promise and gift to us. The Spirit can console our hearts when we grieve. The Spirit can encourage us when we are down and disheartened. The Spirit can befriend us in our loneliness. And the Spirit can bring us healing and wholeness.

No matter what troubles us, what fills us with fear, what disheartens us; no matter what decisions we face or trials we must endure, we have an Advocate who will always be at our side, counseling, encouraging, guiding and strengthening us; we have the Holy Spirit of God, promised by the Risen Christ who assures us, “I will not leave you orphaned.” Amen.