“Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence.” (1 Peter 3:15-16)
As we start another day, another week, there is a lot going on that will bring us face-to-face with the choice between hope and despair. Despair by far is the easiest choice. This world is seems to be coming apart – the headlines say it all: the attacks in Brussels, Orlando, Nice, France and Berlin; the ongoing crises in Syria, Sudan, and Ukraine, to name a few; and groups like ISIS, Al-Shabab, Boko Haram and al-Qaeda. That’s abroad; there is a whole litany of problems at home. Turn on any talk radio or 24-hour news station and you easily can be bombarded and overwhelmed by negativity and despair. And now there is the very real threat of global cyber-attacks that can make us ransom our very digital lives. Continue reading
I will not leave you…I will come to you. The second promise of continuing presence is Jesus’ promise of his own return (vv. 18-20). “Orphan” (orphanos) was a common metaphor to describe disciples left without their master but the use of the metaphor here has a special poignancy in the light of the familial and domestic imagery that runs throughout Jesus’ words to his own (e.g., 13:33; 14:2-3, 10-14; 15:9-11; 16:21-24, 27). Jesus’ promise that he will not leave the disciples orphaned recalls his use of the address “little children” in 13:33 and is an assurance that the intimacy of that familial relationship is not undercut by Jesus’ departure. His promise to return (v. 18b) thus immediately counters any possible perception of Jesus’ death as his abandonment of his own. 
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, 17 the Spirit of truth, which the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows it. But you know it, because it remains with you, and will be in you. 
You know how it is. Someone begins a conversation with you by saying, “Now…. I don’t want you to worry.” I’m sorry, but they are only half way through the sentence and I am already worrying. They haven’t even gotten to the content, the topic, or any information and I am already asking “why, what, when, how, who.” I know they don’t want me to worry, but, sorry, that train has already left the station.
Traditionally Mother’s Day is the time when children want to give something thoughtful to their mothers for all that moms do for us. If you enter the search “thoughtful Mother’s Day gifts,” apparently, there are almost 1.4 million ideas out there, according to a Google search. Who knew? Most are Web sites that are essentially brokers for products that you can purchase online. One Web site was promoting that their list was superior because they had surveyed men. Hmmmm? Of course, the first line of the Web page was announcing the date of Mother’s Day this year. After all, the date varies from year to year, right? True, but I wonder if they knew it is always the second Sunday in May. The second line was a “panic button” for a “specially selected gift for the man who needs overnight delivery.” Hmmmm? 
7 If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” 8 Philip said to him, “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else, believe because of the works themselves. 12 Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father. 
friarmusings 