The 7th Sunday of Easter-Sunday after Ascension Day Year B

The 7th Sunday of Easter Year B May 13, 2018 We find ourselves in a strange, in between time, liturgically today. Today is the 7th Sunday after Easter-The Sunday after the Ascension where we find ourselves dwelling in a liturgical “already-not yet.” Jesus has already ascended to be with God, and the gift of the Holy Spirit has not yet been given to his disciples. Our gospel for today is a portion of Jesus’s prayer for his disciples when they are gathered for the last supper together in the upper room, and the Acts reading shows us a glimpse of the disciples, immediately after Jesus’ ascension, where they are working to “keep calm and carry on” in finding a replacement for Judas. But today, on this in between sort of liturgical day which also intersects with the secular holiday of Mother’s Day, I find myself drawn to an image in today’s collect when we demand of God: “Do not leave us comfortless, but send us your Holy Spirit to strengthen us, and exalt us to that place where our Savior Christ has gone before…” When I first read that collect, I heard echoes of something else, but I couldn’t remember exactly what. So I did what any sound preacher would do; I googled it. And when I googled “do not leave us comfortless,” John 14: 18 popped up, when Jesus prepares his disciples for his leaving and says to them, “I will not leave you comfortless.” Except the Greek word that is translated as “comfortless” is actually orphanus. Orphans. I will not leave you as orphans. So, our prayer to God, on this weird, in between Sunday which also happens to be Mother’s Day is “Do not leave us as orphans…” Off and on over the last year or so, I’ve been haunted by Gillian Welch’s song Orphan Girl. Do y’all know this song? I am an orphan on God's highway But I'll share my troubles if you go my way I have no mother, no father No sister, no brother I am an orphan girl I have had friendships pure and golden The ties of kinship have not known them I know no mother, no father No sister, no brother I am an orphan girl But when He calls me I will be able To meet my family at God's table I'll meet my mother, my father My sister, my brother No more an orphan girl This past week, we celebrated one of my favorite saints on our church calendar: Dame Julian of Norwich. On that day, I was reading through some of Julian’s more well-known sayings, and I found this one: “Our Savior is our true mother in whom we are endlessly born and out of whom we shall never come.” If that is true, then where does this feeling, this fear of being orphaned, of being left comfortless come from? There are so many ways that our own actions or even the actions of others can make us think or believe or act like we are estranged from God, that we are orphans, left comfortless to the fates and furies of a cold, heartless world. And then we live into this reality. We act like we are orphaned, like we have been left comfortless, and our actions estrange us from others and further isolate us from God’s love. Our invitation today is to remember Julian’s words and to seek to always dwell in the truth of them: “Our Savior is our true mother in whom we are endlessly born and out of whom we shall never come.” To not act out of our feelings of abandonment, of being orphaned, of being comfortless because they are not of God. They are created by our own sin, by our estrangement from God and each other, from our tendency to seek our own way above all others. And when we act out of our orphaned feelings, we continue the cycle by creating estrangement with others. Our prayer this week to Jesus our mother is “do not leave us comfortless.” I invite you to spend some time this week, tenderly examining your life, looking to see if there is some place in your life, in your heart or soul where you feel orphaned by God or others, where you feel estranged, comfortless? Tenderly examine your actions and ask yourself, “In this instance, am I acting out of a feeling of being orphaned, or am I acting out of a place of belonging? Then offer it to the loving gaze of Jesus and pray: do not leave me comfortless. And rest in the heart of God where you will always created to dwell. But when He calls me I will be able To meet my family at God's table I'll meet my mother, my father My sister, my brother No more an orphan girl