Sabbatical Send-Off

John 17:1-11

After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.

“I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them.

And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.”

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Smarter people than me call this bit of John’s Gospel – and what we’ve been hearing in fits and starts the last couple of weeks, actually – they call it Jesus’ “Farewell Discourse.” There are chapters of it in the Gospel of John … these parting and final words of his before he heads off to his crucifixion. And it’s a prayer: intimate words, intended for God, the Father, but overheard, presumably, by someone close by with a notepad, apparently – possibly someone seated with him at the table of the Last Supper in that Upper Room, sometime before the Cross and Calvary and all of the ugliness he knew was waiting for him there.

I’m not expecting much ugliness in the next couple of months, but it seems like a thing that I get to reflect on Jesus’ “Farewell Discourse” as I prepare to take my Sabbatical leave for the summer. So…

1. First of all, perspective. I’m not Jesus so, while I know there’s some level of anxiety about my being gone for the summer, the weight of what Jesus is up to puts all of that into a different light and a healthier perspective, for all of us, I hope.

My time away will be lengthy, for sure. It’s more than three days, but it’s not quite 2,000 years, either. But still, lots of things can happen in your lives and in my life over the course of these summer months. It might be difficult to miss some of that – for me as much as for you, remember – but, kind of like Jesus, I have every intention of returning. I promise. I’ll be back.

2. Secondly, the point of it all for me. What I get to do is step away from being on call and on task and just plain “on,” in every way that that happens for a pastor – especially for a pastor in a busy, active, healthy, growing congregation like ours. I could try to describe what that looks like and feels like and really is like, here, but I won’t for a couple of reasons. A lot of you already understand that, for which I am grateful. Some of you might not believe it, if I tried to explain it. And others might think I was whining or complaining about my job – which is so very much not the case.

I love my work. And what’s more, I love my work in this place in ways I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t and couldn’t love my work anywhere else, at this point in my life.

But, as one of my friends who received the same grant once said, he felt like he had been running the same lap around the track with his ministry, after a time. He also said he felt like he was running out of magic tricks. If you all haven’t noticed that, or felt that, or wondered about that sort of thing around here, I’m glad and grateful for that, too. But I know what my friend means.

I’m looking forward, not so much to a break from the ministry I love and am still called to, but I’m looking forward to ways this time away means to refill the well of my creativity, enthusiasm and joy for what’s to come.

3. The point of it all for my family. The Havels have been on a physical, emotional, spiritual marathon the last couple of years. Christa’s cancer was icing on the same crappy COVID cake we all wrestled with. And I know so many of you have wrestled and struggled and suffered in your own ways, too, and I’ve been blessed to wrestle with you through some of that.

And I know all of this is relative. I’m not comparing or competing for biggest mole-hill or mountain, here. But one thing I’ve tried to learn these last couple of years is to take the same advice I have and would give to any of you – some of which is to say “yes” to the good and gracious stuff more often and more readily, because those opportunities can be fleeting … few and far between … and because we may not be able to make choices about them next week, or next year, or the next time they present themselves.

4. The point of it all for you – for us – and for our ministry together. Among other things we’ll be learning together … separately … these next few months about the hard, holy stuff of race, anti-racism and social justice. I’m so grateful that so many of you have signed up for the book studies that Francia Kissel and Pastor Cogan will lead. There are only three spots left for the Interrupting Racism workshops the renewal grant has made available, which is potentially life-changing for those who will participate. Pastor Cogan is planning a field trip to the Freedom Center in Cincinnati, with the youth this summer. And we have some amazing preachers lined up to inspire our worship throughout all of this time. You won’t want to miss hearing from them – and I’ll be praying that you don’t.

And, on a more general note, I hope you’ll look and pray and plan for ways to step up and to step into our life together in some new ways while I’m away. (Please pray about adding one new thing to your Time and Talent offerings for the year ahead, if you haven’t already.) Look for ways to show Pastor Cogan the ropes around here. And look for opportunities to receive, welcome and let him be our Pastor. He’s “the whole loaf of bread,” as Janis Janelsins used to say about me and we are lucky to have him among us. I’m not Jesus and he isn’t the Holy Spirit, but I’m not leaving you orphaned. You’re in good, capable, careful, faithful, pastoral hands. I believe it’s no coincidence that Pastor Cogan’s arrival coincides with my departure the way that it has and does and will.

5. And lastly, Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. There are congregations who resist and refuse the practice of Sabbatical for their pastors. It’s an expression of grace that’s too much for too many. It’s a gift that’s too generous for some to give – even when Eli Lilly is paying the bill. But it’s something we’ve made part of our life together because Sabbath is God’s command for God’s children … because we’ve experienced the blessing it brings to bear on our life together … and because it is an exercise in faith and grace and generosity and gratitude.

And, even though I’m proud to tell others about a congregation like ours that lets this happen, I receive your support and encouragement in all of it humbly … with deep gratitude … and I don’t take one bit of it for granted.

So my prayer for you – for me – for us – as I prepare to take my leave, is very much like Jesus’ prayer for his disciples – and his prayer for all of us, too. And it’s not just about the next few months, really, but about our life together well beyond this summer’s Sabbath time.

Mostly, Jesus prayed that his disciples – that we – would be one; that we would be united under a banner of grace and mercy; that we would have all the encouragement and power – all the faith and hope we need – to live together and do life together and carry out this ministry together, as God has called us to do, for the long haul.

It's more joy and responsibility than we deserve a lot of the time, but it is our call and our blessing. And it is God’s hope for us, as we live and work and seek to be a blessing of grace and good news for each other and for the sake of the world, in Jesus’ name.

Amen

Another Advocate

John 14:15-21

[Jesus said,] “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him because he abides with you, and he will be in you. “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me, and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”

Jesus is having dinner with his closest friends for the last time. It’s like he’s on his deathbed and is trying to tell them all the things they need to know before he’s gone: final instructions, things to prepare for when he’s gone, things to instill any hope that might survive seeing their friend hung on a tree and placed in a tomb. So Jesus washed their feet, telling them that this life they are called to, the mission before them is not about being better than someone else or gaining power, but humbly serving any and all people.

The disciples likely appeared confused by Jesus’ strange act of service, so Jesus tried to spell it out plainly for them by giving a simple, new commandment: “love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another”. It’s as if Jesus is saying, this is what’s most important, of all the teachings, all the lessons, all the miracles and signs I’ve done thus far, this is what matters most: love. Loving others just as I have loved you.

At about this time, the disciples are catching on to the fact that Jesus is trying to tell them something that is really hard and really important. They began questioning Jesus, “where are you going? Why can’t we go too, we’ve gone everywhere with you for three years now”.

Jesus tried to give them some reassurance in our reading from last week, “Trust me, there is plenty of room in my Father’s house and I’ll prepare a place for you. You’ll join me eventually, you already know the way there!”

None of this is making sense to the disciples, so, as Pastor Mark pointed out last week, they start to ask questions that only show they're not getting it. You can imagine the worry wrangling their faces. It makes me wonder if throughout the course of this dinner, if Jesus stopped and said to himself, “they just aren’t getting it. They are confused and anxious. What is it I need to tell them, what do they need to hear…”

Put yourself in the disciples shoes… At this dinner, their closest friend is trying to tell them that something awful, but necessary, is about to happen. This person who had been their guide showing them where to go, their teacher telling them how to live and love, their comforter in the midst of the grief, the leader and co-worker in the mission they’ve shared: he’s been their confidant, their companion, their encourager; he’s fed them, protected them, he’s been their help in times of need. He’s been their advocate; And now he’s leaving.

Maybe you know what that feels like, to have lost someone who played such a vital role in your life? To be told that this person would be with you no longer? What did you need to hear from them? Or what do you wish they said that gave some hope for life after them?

I imagine Jesus asked himself these questions and what he settled on is what we hear in today’s gospel reading.

He starts by saying again, what is most important, to keep his commandment, that commandment that's simple to understand, yet not at all simple to do, love one another as Jesus did. It’s hard to tell though if he is pleading or more demanding here. Each of us might hear that line differently. Regardless of how you hear it, you don’t take lightly the instructions someone gives on their deathbed.

Jesus knows this and he knows that his disciples will try to keep this commandment and love as he did. They’ll try to follow his teachings and share them. They will try to be a guide to others, comforters to those grieving, leaders of this mission; all the things that Jesus was, they will try to be.

But Jesus also knows that they would fail. That no matter how hard they would try or how determined and impassioned they were, they’d fall short of being the advocate for others that Jesus was for them. And for anyone who has tried to do that or be that, this comes as no surprise.

Fortunately, Jesus follows up this plea or command with a promise, a gift that would lessen their worry, ease their anxiety, and give them hope for the rough times ahead: another Advocate. “God will give you another Advocate, the Holy Spirit, to be with you forever”. Now this is not the same Advocate; the Holy Spirit and Jesus are not the same. But we know they are a lot alike because both are advocates. Which means the Holy Spirit will also be a Helper, a comforter, a protector; someone who stands up for them in their need; one who gives them words and a voice, one who helps and walks beside them when no one else will, just like Jesus was.

And to give even more reassurance, this advocate will be with the disciples forever, not leaving them orphaned, but rather giving them Jesus real presence to dwell inside them all the rest of their days. Is there anything more or better or hopeful or grace-full than that promise? A promise that Jesus has already made good on.

But you might say, “how do I know Jesus gave the Holy Spirit to us? I’ve never seen it… Jesus never breathed on me like he did the disciples”? Well, I would ask, have you seen someone give food to another who’s hungry? Or water to those who are thirsty? Have you seen someone stand up for people who are looked down upon? Or act justly and generously to those who are poor? Have you heard someone use their voice to cry out for those who can’t cry out? Or work to heal and comfort the sick?

Then you have seen the Holy Spirit! Whenever you see someone being an advocate for someone else, that’s the Holy Spirit at work helping people love like Jesus. And if that’s ever been you, then be assured that our Advocate abides in you, just as Jesus promised.

On this mother’s day, it is right to lift up or remember the women and mothering figures in our own lives who act or have acted as advocates: This morning I think of Ann Jarvis, the mother who inspired Mother's day. Ann was an activist and community organizer from West Virginia.

She had an ardent passion for meeting the needs of her community. In 1858, Ann began Mothers’ Day Work Clubs that focused on improving health and sanitary conditions for women and families. These clubs spread throughout Appalachia, providing assistance and education to families, raising money for medicine that poorer families couldn't afford. She visited households on horseback, going to places few others were willing to, to see if she could help reduce diseases and infant mortality, problems that plagued the region.

When the Civil War broke out, Jarvis gathered teams of women to provide medical and spiritual aid to any and all soldiers. After the war, when her community was fraught with conflict, Jarvis became a peacekeeper and reconciler, holding Friendship Days for the mothers of soldiers from both sides of the war. And throughout her entire life, Ann was a devout Methodist committed to not only teaching Sunday School, but teaching others how to teach Sunday School.

Ann was an advocate to countless other mothers and women; she protected them, taught them, tended to them when they were ill, fed them when they were hungry, and did whatever she could to love like Jesus. Brunch and flowers and what not are great, but celebrating the real spirit of mother’s day is being an advocate like Ann and caring for those for whom no one else is.

Who are we advocates for here at Cross of Grace? Who do we stand behind, speak up for, walk beside, or for whom should we? Who’s been that person for you? Give thanks for them today, and then go be that advocate for someone else. Amen.