We Are Not Alone - thanks be to God.

Scripture: Acts 17:22-31  • Psalm 66:8-20  • 1 Peter 3:13-22  • John 14:15-21

This week Jesus tells his disciples, and us, two weeks before the Pentecost (birthday of the church) that we are not alone. He said he will ask the Father, and He will send another Advocate, the παράκλητος (paraclete), a helper, counselor, who provides guidance, consolation, strength, and support to us.

The Rev. Jason Cox, in "Paul: Appealing or Appalling" (I would have called it "Taking it to the Greeks," gives us insight into what God, and this Advocate, is like, as Paul appeals to the Greeks in Athens,  the birthplace of western philosophy, at the Areopagus (Mars Hill) in the shadow of idols of Greek gods and goddesses.  The Greeks, like us, were searchers, as is evidenced by their monument to the "unknown God." What did they, and do we search for? What idols stand in our way of seeing God, and receiving God's help. In what ways is God, and his Advocate present today?

In "Orphaned? Reflections on John 14:15-21," The Rev. Dr. Anna Hosemann-Butler, poignantly tells and shows us that we are not alone.

In this Sunday's Scripture, Jesus gives us a new commandment, Love one another. As I have loved you, love one another."  And then he tells us how to love pone another, as he loves us. By keeping his commandments.  In "Love and Obedience," Debie Thomas says, "Everything else we say and do as believers in Christ comes down to this.  Prayer, evangelism, repentance, generosity, asking, seeking, alms-giving, truth-telling, honoring, serving, feeding, sharing… all of it, in the end, comes down to love.  The essential question, the searing question, is this: Do we love one another as Jesus has loved us?  Or do we not?  He says, 'Love one another as I have loved you.'  As in,  for real.  As in, the whole bona fide package.  Authentic feeling, honest engagement, generous action." Not just acting in rote obedience. But as she, and our other autors say, We don't have to do what seems impossible ourselves. We are not alone. As we say, and believe, when we reaffirm our baptismal covenant, "We will, with God's help." Thanks be to God.