Still with Us
Highland Avenue Church of the Brethren
Pastor Katie Shaw Thompson – May 21, 2023
Still with Us – John 14: 15-21
Today’s scripture text is part of the Farewell Discourse Jesus gives his disciples in John 14, and it takes place at the last supper after Jesus has just washed his disciples’ feet and commanded them to love one another as he has loved them.
The disciples do not yet know the grief of seeing their Lord and teacher crucified. But that is the grief for which Jesus is trying to prepare them. What’s more the early hearers of the Gospel of John had experienced their own grief as a community. They had experienced a painful expulsion from the Jewish community of which they had still considered themselves a part.
When Jesus tells the disciples “I will not leave you orphaned,” those words may well have fallen on ears and hearts in grief–on those who did wonder if they had been or would be abandoned by God.
My friend Gary is good at reminding folks they are not alone. He texts me every Tuesday at 7:00 am. I like to think I’m special, but I also know that I’m part of Gary’s list of Tuesday text messages and that Gary has a list of folks he texts on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, too. He told me he takes Saturday and Sunday off.
He just sends a simple message like “How you doin’?” “Show some love today.” or “Have a great day.” Things like that. I always write something simple and kind back, but I know that if ever I text back “And how are you doing, Gary?” he will reply “Blessed and Grateful!” Blessed and Grateful.
Now, I’ve been on Gary’s text message list since at least 2019. So, I got Tuesday morning text messages all through these last three pandemic- altered years. And there were Tuesdays when I wanted to write back and say, “Are you sure, Gary? How blessed and grateful are you today, Gary?”
Because there have been some hard times for so many of us. And even now that the World Health Organization has declared an end to the emergency part of the COVID-19 pandemic, we know that the virus is still with us and our lives are still different than they were before.
Our churches are still different than they were before. It’s not just Second Baptist Church or Highland Avenue Church of the Brethren. It’s most churches across the country that are experiencing challenges that the pandemic only hastened. In our personal lives, too, many of us have suffered stress and grief either related to the pandemic or experienced alongside of and on top of it. There may well have been some days, weeks, or months when we wondered if we had been left to fend for ourselves all on our own.
I think Jesus knew about that feeling. If we believe that he was fully God and fully human, I think we can entertain the idea that there were times Jesus felt alone and afraid, too. I think he knew those days come for all of us in this life.
I think those are the days he is speaking to in today’s text when he tells his followers they will not be alone. He will not always be with them in the flesh as he was then, but his spirit will be among them, and he will send another to be with us forever.
This one we know in many Christian traditions as the Holy Spirit. In John 14 though, Jesus uses a word for this one that has been translated as Advocate, Friend, Counselor, Helper, and Comforter. The Greek word is parakletos or paraclete, and the English definition of this word I most appreciate is “one who goes with.”
Lutheran Biblical scholar Karoline Lewis writes about the power of God with us in her teachings and book and blog. She tells a story about the difference it makes not to feel alone and the ways we can embody God’s love by being with each other–not fixing each other, not ignoring each other but, like God, being with each other.
Karoline has a friend and colleague she talks to about life and ministry, and in the years since Karoline lost her dad and her friend lost her husband, they talk increasingly about grief. One of the things they have noticed is how even well-meaning Christians don’t often like talking about or dealing with grief.
Grief can be uncomfortable –our own and other people’s. A lot of us would rather move past it as quickly as possible or explain it away or ignore it altogether.
Karoline’s friend recounted to her an experience of being at a larger church conference that included time for sharing, learning, and offering mutual support with pastoral colleagues. For Karoline’s friend it was too many times when she was asked to tell her still too raw story of losing her husband and too many times of needing to care for how uncomfortable that grief made other people.
Her friend ended up crying a lot that day. She thought about going home early. After one of the sessions, she went outside to sit on a bench alone. A woman she didn’t really know came over to her and asked, “Is there anything I can do for you?” Karoline’s friend responded, “Just sit with me.” And the fellow pastor did. No words. No touching. Just sitting. Just being with.
I think I would like it if I could fix other people’s pain. But what I have found is that’s not my job. My job as a pastor and a Christian is being the kind of person who will do what I can to help, sure, but my job is also not being afraid to just be with other people in their joy and in their pain just the same way God is with us. For God is still with us. Even when we feel alone. Even when the grief closes in. Even when other people let us down. Even when nothing seems to be going our way, God is still with us.
As Jesus says, the world may not see it, know it, or perceive it--we, too, may sometimes feel our faith tested–but God is with us whatever we go through. God will never leave us abandoned. God is with us, and because God is with us we know we are loved and we can love others. Because God is with us we can say all is well not because everything is easy or right or just or good, but all is well because through Jesus Christ we are loved, known, saved, and made whole by the God of all Creation. Yes, grief will come our way, but even so we can say we are blessed and grateful. Because God is with us, we can still know ourselves blessed and grateful every day of the week.
My friend Gary says sometimes he thinks about giving up his texting regimen. Some people don’t text back. Sometimes so many people text back or call back that it becomes a major time burden. But he told me every time he thinks about quitting this ministry, he remembers one story in particular. There was a time he got a call from someone in tears–grateful tears. He had been texting this man religiously every Wednesday for three months or more. The man had never once written back. When they got on the phone together the man explained that for the last three months he had been in jail.
His mother had had his phone, and she never turned it off. She even kept it charged. So, every Wednesday morning at 7:00 am she would hear the son’s phone ding, and it would be another text message from Gary–always something uplifting and kind. Every Wednesday without fail for three months the son’s phone dinged even though no one ever wrote back.
When the son got home, the mother told him where he could find his phone. And she said, I don’t know who Gary is, but you better text him back because he obviously loves you and cares about you. When the man picked up his phone and found three months of Wednesday messages, he was overwhelmed to know that anyone was still thinking about him, especially after all he had been through. He felt grateful and blessed and better able to start the new chapter of life in front of him. So, my friend Gary keeps texting because he knows it matters.
It matters when we live out Jesus’ commandment to love one another as he has loved us. It matters when we take action to be with each other. We won’t always see the change it brings but we can trust that God will do something with our loving action, because we know how much it matters when someone will take the time just to be with us.
I give thanks for all the ways our two churches have been with each other for all these years. We have crossed lines of race and specifics of belief and the historic dividing line of the Fox River to be with each other. I believe it matters. I believe it has made a difference. I believe God is praised every time we dare to be with each other. Every time we do so, I believe we declare God is still with us. God is still with all of us.
May it be so. Amen.
