Sixth Sunday of Easter
“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.’”
Summary
“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.” This week’s readings, like last week’s, explore our desire for God and God’s desire for us.
In John 14:15-21, Jesus repeatedly reassures us that that we are not alone, not “orphaned” because God’s deepest desire is to dwell in us. Our journey into God starts with discovering our own belovedness. As we are loved into being we recognize the beloved nature of all God’s children without exception and discover God in one another.
Our service today incorporates our Annual Parochial Church Meeting: an opportunity for us to celebrate the ways in which we have found God in one another, to give thanks for those who serve us with joy and to commit ourselves to sharing the love of God with others in the year ahead.
GOSPEL
John 14.15-21
‘ 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 for ever. 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.’
