6 Easter/Year A
May 17, 2020
Acts 17:22-31; Psalm 66:7-18; John 14:15-21
Today, I just want to talk to you about spring flowers, and colorful gardens and beautiful places.
This year, it seems as though the colors of the flowers, and the variety of colors in the spring gardens are especially vibrant and beautiful.
Every shade of green, in the trees, the flowering bushes, and the growing grass…seem especially fresh and alive.
As I walk around town and throughout the neighborhoods….my heart is at rest, and at peace…because when I look at the spectacular landscape of spring all around me…I remember God, who made the world and everything in it…I remember that it is God who gives us life and breath and all things….I remember, ‘In him we live and move and have our being.’
And I remember, Jesus…I remember Jesus and his resurrection…his promise of new life, in death; new joys in times of sorrow, new hopes, in the midst of a world that shouts for our attention, and grabs on to our deepest fears, and threatens to extinguish any joy, any hope, any love that we have for ourselves and one another.
I remember all of this. I do believe in Jesus’ resurrection, and in the many ways it matters to me now. I do believe that the way of love that has been revealed to us in Jesus’ words and actions, has the power to transform our all of our lives, as we follow Jesus and his commandments to love God and one another.
But sometimes, in a world that feels so overwhelming at times, it is difficult to believe it and live it out in our daily lives…or sometimes, life just feels too full at times, and we are tired…and we forget this Good News that lives in us, dwells with us, and can never be taken from us.
‘For in him, we live and move and have our being.’
And Jesus reminds his disciples of this.
They are worried and distressed that Jesus is talking about leaving them. They want him to stay with them forever.
Jesus tells them that he is leaving, but he will not leave them orphaned. He assures them, that another Advocate, the Spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit, will be given to them, will abide with them, and in them, and will remind them of every word of love, every act of love, every commandment to love God, and one another as Jesus taught them when he walked his earthly life with them.
They would never be alone. Jesus and his love are only ever a heart-beat away.
This Advocate will provide a seed of stillness to calm and comfort the sorrowful heart.
This Advocate will whisper words of encouragement to support the weary heart.
This Advocate will remind us of the love and the beauty in the world that is still very much alive in this time and in this place, even in the midst of so much grief and loss.
We’ve all been touched in our lives, many times…by the death of a loved one…or the physical separation or leaving of someone we deeply loved. We are heart-broken and grieve over our lives never being the same. We grieve day after day, month after month, year after year sometimes, feeling like we could never find joy again, or hope again, or people and places to love again.
But then, little things begin to happen, in our lives…that remind us, that indeed our loved one still lives with us…they have never really left us. They are coming to us in new ways…new joys and new hopes, that we never knew were possible.
Every time, we see a new spring flower pop up, that was our loved one’s favorite…every time, someone plants a new garden, with the rich variety of flowers, every time the grass starts growing, the day dawns, the night falls and we finally close our eyes and rest…we can be assured that there they will be, they will always be…in our hearts, in that place, where we are all joined to one another by this love of God, that abides in us, and dwells in our hearts…
I’ll always remember my first experiences of arriving in Sitka, in 2015.
When I walked on the seawalk along Crescent Harbor, my thoughts immediately took me back to my grandfather, sitting by the harbor in Cape Cod every day, having his lunch.
When I came back to Sitka to begin serving with you here, the spring flowers took my breath away, and immediately took me back home, to my mother’s gardens and other family member’s gardens that were so lovingly created year after year…winter after winter.
And then my first Easter with all of you, and my first time taking part in the flowering of the Easter Cross….a tradition that continues to grow and flourish and fill my heart with such joy, at the sight of its beauty, year after year.
And, the gardens here at St Peter’s…continue to delight and surprise me every year…and these simple joys are the joys that I want to share with others.
All of these beautiful creations, lead me back to remembering people, people whom I love, near and afar…people whom I love, who have passed on, and left this earthly place, but are still very much alive in my heart, and influencing every word and action, and every invitation to love God and our neighbors.
This Advocate, this Spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit will remind us, that we are never left alone.
We need only to look all around us, to be reminded, in the people, in the flowers, in the gardens, and the many other beautiful places surrounding us…that God is with us, Jesus is still teaching us, and the Holy Spirit is calling us back home to that place of peace and rest that dwells in our hearts, when we remember:
God, who made the world and everything in it…when we remember that it is God who gives us life and breath and all things….when we remember, ‘In him we live and move and have our being.’
May this be our vision, ever held before our eyes, and in our hearts…
Click below to view the video of St Peter’s spring flowers…
Spring Flowers (April/May 2020) at St Peter’s by the Sea - Sitka, AK
Rev. Julie Platson, Rector
St Peter’s by the Sea Episcopal Church
Sitka, Alaska
The Hymnal 1982 - #488 Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart