A sermon preached by the Reverend Canon Dr. David Anderson, at St. Jude’s Church, Oakville, on May 25, 2025, the Sixth Sunday of Easter. Title: Abiding Love and Remembering in the Spirit: Forming a People for God’s Mission. Text: John 14:23-29.
I speak to you in the + name of our risen Lord. Amen.
The week before last I had the opportunity to be on a spiritual retreat. Once a year I try to visit my friends at St. Gregory’s Abbey in Three Rivers, Michigan for a personal retreat. I find that the Benedictine rhythms of prayer, work, and rest in the beautiful rural setting of the Abbey and its grounds are good for my soul. I’ve been telling people that on about the third day of my retreat this year a strange feeling that I could not readily identify came over me. Only after a while did I remember that that feeling was … I was well-rested.
I find that this time after Easter has always been a fruitful time for me to take such a retreat. The busyness of the Easter season is over, and the temptation is that the Easter joy might begin to fade as the last rush of the ministry year takes over in the day’s that lead to the beginning of summer’s change of pace.
This week I’ve been thinking that today’s Gospel Reading is the perfect text for us to reflect upon in this season after Easter, when the glow and the excitement of the Easter season has perhaps started to wane. And perhaps this is a good time to ask again, how are we to live as Easter people long after the Easter event?
Today’s reading transports us to Jesus’ final night with his disciples—a moment filled with both sorrow and hope. Jesus prepares his followers for his departure, yet paradoxically, promises his abiding presence. Jesus promises continuing presence through love and the Holy Spirit.
The matter of Jesus’ continuing presence, of course, became a pressing issue for the disciples as he informed them of his departure, but it is a vital issue for us today as well. How do we live in the ongoing presence of our risen Lord? How does Jesus’ Holy Spirit enable us to faithfully share in Jesus’ mission? How are we to get on living the life we are called to if Jesus is, as he says, ‘going away’?
Jesus tells his disciples, “I am going away”—a difficult truth to accept. We have likely all had the experience of having a person we have loved ‘go away.’ We experience grief at the death of a loved one. We experience the pain of separation when friends or family, or we ourselves, move to someplace at a distance from those we love. Perhaps you have had the experience of visiting family or friends abroad—or of having them visit you—and the parting is difficult, often bringing us to tears.
But Jesus assures his followers, “I will not leave you orphaned; I will come to you” (v. 18). But his disciples question how Jesus will come to them, especially when the world is so unaware of Jesus. Judas (who John helpfully identifies as ‘not Iscariot’)—and whom we know as Jude, our parish’s patron—asks, “Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?” (v. 22). Jesus, if you go away, how will you be present to us, and how will you be revealed to the world?’
Jesus’ response is simple but very profound. Love is how Jesus reveals himself. Love isn’t merely feelings; it’s action—shaping relationships and behaviours. The love Jesus offers is how the divine presence continues to be manifested among his followers, and that life of love embodied by the Christian community is how Jesus will be revealed to the world.
Our calling as followers of Christ is to live out love in our daily lives—through acts of service, generosity, obedience, and mutual authentic relationship. When the church embodies love, it becomes a visible sign of Christ’s presence in the world.
In answer to Jude’s question, Jesus said, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them” (v. 23, emphasis added). What a beautiful phrase! Jesus speaks of he and the Father making their home with us. Remember, this is the same language from the beginning of John’s Gospel, where John describes what we call the Incarnation. “And the Word became flesh and lived among us” (1:14a). This has been God’s promise for the redemption of the world way back into the Old Testament (e.g., Leviticus 26:11-12). It is the vision of the future that John speaks of in the last book of the Bible (Revelation 21:3). This is what Jesus speaks about describing the relationship between himself and his people in terms of vines and branches (15:4). Jesus ‘abides’ with us, and we in him. He lives with us and in us.
Jude’s question—the question on the hearts of all the disciples who hear that Jesus is ‘going away,’ and wonder at his promise of continuing presence is answered: Jesus himself stays with them, through his Spirit of love that draws together a community.
Jesus goes on to say somethings about this Holy Spirit (v. 26 ff.). Jesus promises that after he leaves, the Spirit—the Advocate—will come. The old word from the Greek for this Holy Spirit is the word “Paraclete.” It conveys many meanings: advocate, helper, comforter, and counsellor. The first part of that word, ‘para,’ refers to one who comes ‘along-side,” as in para-medic, para-legal, and even the words ‘participate’ and ‘parish.’ The Holy Spirit is God making God’s home among us, moving into our neighbourhood, living with us and in us. Specifically, Jesus promises that this Advocate will defend and support us, encourage and exhort us, and most importantly remind us of Jesus’ words and deeds.
It is this Holy Spirit, this neighbouring God, who transforms us into a community of love, empowers us to love and serve others, and prompts us to seek justice, reconciliation, and compassion. It is this Holy Spirit that enlivens us to participate in God’s life of mission in the world. The Spirit leads us to embody Christ’s love vividly and courageously.
A vital role of the Spirit is to help us remember—faithfully—what Jesus has done and teaches. The Spirit helps us connect the dots, applying reason to understand scripture, tradition, and our experience, to grasp God’s ongoing redemptive work in us and in the world. The Spirit helps us to recognize God at work and empowers us to join in.
It is this faithful remembering that shapes our life in God’s mission. We remember that God is faithful. We remember the life and teachings of Jesus. We remember our identity, loved and claimed by God as God’ children. We gather to worship to re-member—restore—our life in the body of Christ through liturgy, sacraments, prayer, and proclamation.
The ‘new commandment’ that Jesus gave us is clear: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (13:34). This love isn’t inward-focused; it’s outward—bearing witness to the world that Jesus is alive through tangible acts of service, compassion, and justice. This abiding love is the basis for our witness and evangelism. It is through our authentic love for one another and for our neighbours that the world will see that Jesus is alive.
This love compels us to act: caring for neighbours, advocating for the oppressed, inviting people to become disciples of Jesus. It forms an open, welcoming church that embodies Christ’s love to all our neighbours, especially those most vulnerable. It motivates our outreach, justice ministries, and our efforts to share the gospel.
Jesus’ farewell words were not just about saying goodbye—they are about calling us into a new way of living. Because we abide in Jesus’ love, because God make’s God’s home with us, because the Spirit neighbours, and teaches, and causes us to remember, we are called to a way of life: God’s life of mission—not just as individuals, but as the community we call the church—living out love actively in our world.
Our mission, then, is rooted in this ongoing relationship—remaining in Christ’s love and allowing that love to shape everything we do. We are called to live incarnationally, embodying Christ’s love in concrete actions—feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, seeking justice, and making disciples.
Because Jesus lives in us through the Spirit, we are empowered to be a church that cares deeply, acts boldly, and welcomes all. Our mission is not just to gather in worship but to scatter into our communities as agents of love, hope, reconciliation, and justice.
In the Eucharist we are about to share, the Holy Spirit is at work to help us remember. Jesus is made present to us in bread and wine as we remember him. We also are re-membered, receiving Jesus’ presence—Christ who lives in us—and renewed in our identity as God’s people.
Let us renew our openness to abiding in Christ’s love, guided by the Spirit, and living out the mission entrusted to us: to love one another and to love our neighbours. As we do so, we participate in nothing less than God’s ongoing work of redemption and renewal in the world. +
