John 14:23-29

Easter 6 - Year C

John 14:23-29

Who did Jesus respond to and what question was he dealing with? Pericopes that begin as this one did, "Jesus answered...." are beginning too late. Every response has a context and without that specific the response attaches strangely anywhere it lands.

Jesus has said that he would be seen by his friends after he was no longer seen by others. A Judas by any other name asks about this limitation. Is it a voluntary decision on Jesus' part or a blindness by others?

As per usual, Jesus steps aside from the direction of the question to better respond to it. The bottom-line is that, as a result of learning from their experience of Jesus after he has gone, they will be able to reframe the question and act in a different way. They will grow congruent in their past experiences of Jesus and their present experience of G*D (spirit teaching talk here), which will lead them to trust the arc of the future so strongly that they will act in the present in light of what they yet expect. Responses by others will not raise a question about willful blindness or a limited, predestined, rejection. The focus will be upon what Jesus' followers have continued to learn and enact.

Peace is connected with a teaching of how to remember and anticipate. In this connection comes a strength and focus of action that would otherwise be dissipated over too much time, space, and opportunity. Want peace? Trust your action to make a difference, whether or not you can see it.

This kind of peace lets you see not only Jesus, but to recognize every other saint in any other tradition.

Try this song by Small Potatoes,
and see if it is close to what you understand some Holy Spirit has taught, is teaching, and will teach you.

- - - - - - -

GARDEN WALK J. Manning

There is peace in every garden
There’s a universe in every flower
There is holiness in every footstep
Every moment, every hour


Oh, let us walk the dappled pathways
And elect one single bloom
Then bring your face so close
That you can smell its sweet perfume

Then look -- oh, really look inside
And you will understand
Just how infinity can fit
Within your hand, within your hand
CHORUS

Oh, see the waterleaf, the meadowsweet
Bloodroot and spiderwort
Trilliums, delphiniums
Joe Pye and hellebore

And that blue guy -- I don’t know its name
But I don’t really care
It doesn’t matter what it’s called
But that it’s there, it’s there, it’s there!
CHORUS


Oh, let us walk ---------
No need for talk -------
Breathe in ---------------
And breathe out again


Call it the work of Mother Nature
Adaptation over time
Or an act of God -- my god!
It’s all a miracle sublime

And though we can’t know how it got there
I think we can agree
It’s not important that you know
But that you see, you see, you see ...
CHORUS -- tag


Oh, let us walk ----------