Sixth Sunday of Easter

May 17, 2020
Leif Kehrwald

​Did you hear the subtle shift of message in this week’s Gospel reading? For five weeks, our Sunday readings have focused on the joy of Easter; the awe and amazement of the resurrection, showing us, as Fr El said last week, just who God is – truly awesome and extraordinary.
 
Today, we turn a corner and ask, in light of the Easter miracle, who are we to become, and how are we to live as persons of the resurrection?

​Our lives have been changed. The world has changed.
 
In those early days, surely some were asking: how do we just get back to what is /was normal? Yet, deep down, the disciples know that was the wrong question. Rather, how do we forge a new life for ourselves and for others in light of the change that has rocked the world: Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection?
 
I don’t know about you, but these days I feel caught between these same two questions:
When and how can we all just get back to normal?
or
How do I forge a new path, a new way of thinking, a new way of being in a world that is totally different from what it was just two months ago?
 
I haven’t let go of what normal used to be, and I long for it, yearn for it:

• Seeing you at church
• Hugging or shaking hands with you
• Sharing coffee and donuts with you
• Receiving Communion
• Sitting in meetings in the Parish Center
• Spending Tuesdays with my new granddaughter
• Sharing a family meal with my sons and their families
• Taking a day trip to the beach
• Watching live sports on television and having guy-talk about the latest games or matches

When, oh when, can I do all of these things again?
 
But no, it’s clear I am called to change. We are called to change. Whether or not we get to do those normal things again, it seems that our future beckons us not just to return to normal, but to something new and different.
 
Problem is, right now we’re in the liminal time when basic answers are unavailable and unknowable? We don’t know the new normal yet. And so how do I respond? How do I behave? How do I think? How do I feel? Still learning. I am still learning . . .

• basic Zoom etiquette
• how to work from home or coexist at home
• to take my face mask with me when I go out
• to pace myself on how much news to consume
• to wash my hands everywhere I go
• etc.

 
The early Christians, and the original audience of John’s gospel, were in exactly the same boat, caught between the two questions:
Can we get back to normal? or
What is the new normal?
 
John’s two-fold response to the early Christians is also just what I need, what we need, today.
 

1. Love – allow yourself to be guided by love of God and love of one another. Can’t go wrong with love no matter how upended you feel. In fact, many of you have upped your game in works of mercy, charity, and love for those who most need it. I am deeply inspired by the one who brings lunch to Kathryn in the office at least once a week, the one who checks on parishioners on foot when they can’t be reached by phone, the one who is doggedly determined to make sure all patrons of our food pantry experience extraordinary hospitality, now, and in the future. And so many others. This is what it means to be guided by love.

 

1. Help – the Holy Spirit will help. John makes it clear that I am not alone. We are not alone. We will receive the Comforter who showers us with the strength needed to face adversity, and the peace required to simply live in the moment. (You see, we are beginning to point toward Pentecost – in two weeks).

 
With love as our guide, and with the help of the Holy Spirit, like the disciples and the early Christians, we too are called to change. Yet we can take heart in our song for the day:
Be not afraid.
I go before you always
Come, follow me.
And I will give you rest.