"O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire…."AMEN (Collect for Easter VI, BCP)

This is a Sunday rich in images…it is Rogation Sunday, when we remember the earth and our charge to care for it, and we celebrate the many gifts it gives us. It is also Mother's Day, a secular holiday, when we remember our own mothers and all those who serve as mothers, caring for those who cannot, for whatever reason, care for themselves. Both are generative, calling for love and care for the earth and for one another. They provide a perfect segue to John's Gospel for this morning. That Gospel is about peace, about casting out fear, about allowing the greatest love of all to enter our hearts and minds. I would like you to do something a bit different this morning. Would you please turn to the Gospel in the insert in your service leaflet and let's walk through it together.
We hear that those who love Jesus will keep his word, which is God's word…that they will hear and act as he did. God will love them and, as Jesus said, "…we will come to them and make our home with them." What a wonderful image, God and Jesus making their home with us…and not just as individuals but as a community. Jesus is speaking to the community gathered, one that he charges to love one another as he has loved them. Jesus then, after referencing those who do not love him, promises that the Holy Spirit will come when he leaves. The Holy Spirit will come immediately, not tomorrow or at the end time, to help our unbelief, to help us to trust and have faith in the unseen, to teach and to remind.
As his parting gift Jesus promises that his peace will be with them, not the peace of the world which is law and order, but the peace that casts out all fear and calms all troubled hearts. This is not a promise of a pain-free life, but a promise that we shall never be left alone and, if we trust, the fear that often under girds our lives will be banished.
He asks that we celebrate that he is going to God, that we be happy for him as God is greater than Jesus. In that he is calling the disciples and us to a love that will let go, will let be the Beloved. Finally, he says that they and we have been forewarned of the coming of the Holy Spirit that we might be prepared to allow that Spirit to enter our hearts and lives, to fill us with the richness of God's love.
We remember that this is written for the "in between time" that time between Jesus' leaving and the Holy Spirit's coming. It challenges the disciples to forego despair and to be open and ready for the Holy Spirit. This is far more difficult to trust than the presence of Christ himself. They are called to trust in the unknown even as they face the difficult times ahead, times when they will suffer persecution and rejection.
If we take Jesus' words seriously we must too prepare for tough times ahead. Keeping his word means we may be dismissed as foolish 'Polly Annals,' and be force to take huge risks and be vulnerable. The world we live in is driven by a striving for power, money, success and dominance. We are in the midst of a devastating war and seeking peace, yet in the newspapers we read that new defenses are being planned and new jet fighters are being ordered. For the Christian the greatest defense is to love our neighbor, at home or abroad, to learn from him, to be open to her. It is risky to truly believe that in the world today we are no longer in the days of conqueror and the conquered, but rather deeply interdependent in every possible way.
I wept when the cartoon, Calvin and Hobbes, ended. It was my favorite. One of those cartoons showed "Calvin and Hobbes marching into the living room where Calvin's mother was seated. She is amused and amazed at how Calvin is dressed. His head is covered with a large space helmet, and a cape is draped around his neck and dragging on the floor. One hand is holding a flashlight and the other a baseball bat. 'What's up today?' asks his mom. 'Nothing so far,' answers Calvin. 'So far?' she questions. 'Well, you never know, ' Calvin says. 'Something could happen today.' As he marches off he says: 'And if anything does, by golly, I'm going to be ready for it.' Calvin's mom looks out at the reading audience and says, 'I need a suit like that!'" (Copied)
Since 9/11 we have lived in a world that is riddled with fear. Our national and local policies are grounded in it. Yet we, as Christians, are called to a radical trust, a trust that believes that God WILL made a home in us! This home will be heralded by the Holy Spirit, not with an ecstatic arrival but a certainty of peace, of focus, the heart of which is love.
So we have faith, a trusting love that allows us to do the works of Jesus. We are to work for justice, to love and care for others, to listen to those who differ from us, to work for political, religious and domestic peace – all works of love! All of this is impossible for us alone, all requires God's presence in our hearts giving a peace that strengthens and empowers. Jesus Christ is speaking to us as well as to the disciples. He is calling us to unity and interdependence, as a community as a country and as a world. He is calling us to trust and hope and to welcoming the coming of the Holy Spirit. And so we are called, in the words of Theresa of Avila:

"Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours, yours are the eyes through which to look at Christ's compassion to the world, yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good, and yours are the hands with which he is to bless us now."

AMEN