What strikes me about the Gospel text we just heard this morning is that the passage is framed by high anxiety.  Jesus’ followers are distressed and afraid.  Things in their world are going very badly – in fact, they’ve been going steadily from bad to worse.  Jesus’ life is at stake – the one they thought would save them is on a collision course with the Roman authorities.  It’s going to end badly and the followers of Jesus are guilty by association.  So they are in danger as well.  In John’s version, Jesus knows how things will play out – that he will die.  He knows that they are terrified – terrified of life in the absence of Jesus – and ultimately terrified about life in the absence of God.  He knows that they are asking themselves questions like, “Where is God?  Why has God abandoned us?”  A whole four chapters the Gospel of John is devoted to Jesus’ parting words to his followers and his prayers for his followers. It does go on and on.

 This passage from John is, of course, written with the benefit of hindsight, some sixty-odd years after Jesus’ brutal execution.  The Gospel of John is written to a group of the earliest Christians who are extremely distressed and very afraid.  Things in their world are going very badly – in fact, they’ve been going steadily from bad to worse.  Their lives and the life of their community is at stake and they are on a collision course with the Roman authorities.  They are asking themselves questions like, “Where is God? Why has God abandoned us?”  And this long goodbye is like a love letter to them.

What strikes me about the text of our lives this morning is that our passage is framed by high anxiety.  Jesus’ followers are extremely distressed and very afraid.  I’ve heard this from many of you in the last several weeks – and it seems to me like anxiety is on the rise.  Things in our world are going very badly – in fact, they’ve been going steadily from bad to worse.  Jesus’ life is at stake – that is, if the Church is the body of Christ – and we are Jesus’ associates.  We are in danger.  We have had some eye-opening times in this last decade – for many of us who have lived privileged and relatively sheltered lives, our eyes have seen terror, shameful degradation, and our own radical vulnerability.

We have even color-coded our national anxiety from low anxiety of green to highest anxiety of red – we hover around in yellow and orange, depending on the level of discernable “chatter” that intelligence agents gather.  I took a look at the Homeland Security web site and noticed that there is no color in the system to represent “no anxiety.”  Apparently “no anxiety” is not an option.  Most of us don’t actually know what the specific threat is or what specifically to do when the code goes from, say, yellow to orange, except to be more anxious.  There’s no color coding for our environmental anxiety or financial anxiety, but if we colored it, it would probably be vacillating between yellow and orange as well, although if we lived in the Gulf Coast, it would be red.  If we lived in places where people are starving to death right in front of us, it would be red.

Many people have told me that since September 11, 2001, they don’t believe in God anymore.  Or they believe in God but they don’t believe in organized religion anymore – because it seems to them that organized religion is to blame for the terrible and terror-filled state of the world.  People tell me that they’ve stopped going to synagogue or to church because it seems as though God is absent – as though God has abandoned them.  Or it seems as though believing in God just doesn’t make sense anymore – or it doesn’t make any difference any more – or worse, that it actually does harm.

Here, in the Gospel of John, Jesus is teaching about how to make sense of times framed by high anxiety, and how the Divine makes a difference, even in the midst of extreme danger and degradation.  Here Jesus is responding to Philip’s request for confirmation that they are on the right track.  “Show us God,” Philip says, “and we will be satisfied” (because it’s hard to believe in something that we cannot see at all).  So here Jesus is showing us God.  “This is what God looks like,” Jesus says, “God looks like loving presence advocating for community.” Here Jesus’ response does not deny the anxiety at all, but here Jesus offers a promise of presence and sense of meaning to be found in sharing the hard work of loving action, of action that centers on compassion and right relation in the world.  Jesus’s focus is on teaching how to be the change that his followers want to see in the world -- on the expansion of the initiative of loving which comes from God, which IS God.  Jesus offers loving presence and loving works and says this is what God looks like.  You have seen it.

It seems to me that this is what we’re focusing on here today, especially as we formally welcome Francesca, and Reese, and Jack, and Sophia into the Church.  We are focusing on the expansion of the initiative of loving presence in community which comes from God and IS God.  It seems to me that this is what we’re focusing on as we celebrate the confirmations of Emilia, Ann, Jennifer, Matt, and Joy, and the reception of David into the Episcopal Church – expansion of the initiative of loving presence in community.

According to Jesus, the focus – the purpose -- of the commandments – of all the law -- is love.  That’s what all the law is about, he says.  It is not the feeling of love, but the actions of love.  Showing one’s love for enemies, for example, doesn’t mean developing warm feelings for them, or even simply not harming them, but actually doing beneficial deeds for them.  If that isn’t counter-cultural (not to mention incredibly difficult), I don’t know what is. Loving our enemies – doing beneficial deeds for them --  may be the hardest work that we are ever called on to do as Christians.  That’s why Jesus knew we would need help.  The help he offered, he called ‘the Advocate.’ 

The word Advocate (in Greek, paracletos) can be translated: Helper, Advocate, Counselor, Comforter, Intercessor, the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit.  According to Jesus, the focus of the Spirit is presence.  And the Spirit is available to all for the work of glorifying God – of doing God’s work – that is, the work of spreading God’s love.  Love.  It’s not about spreading doctrine or dogma, not platitudes or propaganda.  In fact, Jesus says, it’s not so much about believing.  If you don’t believe in him, that’s okay he says, just believe in his work of spreading love.  Believe in the work of feeding people who are hungry.  Believe in the work of freeing people who are stuck.   

And know this:  Jesus’ promise of the Advocate or the Spirit is a promise to the community, rather than a promise to individuals.  I want you to notice that we have a color code system too.  Red is the Church’s color for the Holy Spirit – it is the color for Pentecost, the celebration of the gift of inspiration to spread actions of compassion and justice near and far.

At the end of our Gospel passage for today, Jesus says, “you know the Spirit because the Spirit has a deep on-going relationship with you and will be ‘in’ you.”  In written English, we use the word ‘you’ as a singular and plural pronoun.  In Greek, the ‘you’ referred to here is plural.  In spoken English we have a way to indicate this, at least in the South we do.  Another way to translate the Greek that gives a stronger sense of community is, “y’all know the Spirit because the Spirit has a deep on-going relationship with y’all and will continue to be among y’all.”  But you’ve got to stick together – you’ve got to stay in community.

According to Jesus, the focus of community is relationship.  According to Jesus, God has a powerful desire, a burning desire, to keep us company when we are in community.  That’s what Pentecost is all about.  That’s what baptism into community is all about.  That’s what affirmation of baptismal vows is all about.   George MacLeod, founder of the Iona Community in Scotland, said that in order to form community, people must be engaged in a “demanding common task.”  I don’t know a common task more demanding than fulfilling our baptismal vows.  In a moment Francesca’s, Reese’s, Jack and Sophia’s parents and godparents will make promises on their  behalf and all of us together will renew our own promises to focus on the expansion of the initiative of love which comes from God and seeks to fill the whole world.  We do this together because we need one another and we need the help of the Spirit of Truth, which none of us receives alone, but all of us can receive together.  So let’s get to it!