I will not leave you as orphans

Sixth Sunday of Easter              May 10, 2026

The text for this sermon is John 14:15-21

I learned too young that the world is not a safe place. And I had the misfortune, while young, of watching a television program that depicted four different families who awaited the return of a loved one. In each instance, the loved one was later than expected.

The story scrolled through each family’s situation and only gradually revealed the joyous arrival of the missing person. With one exception. The home of two middle-school children, a brother and sister, who opened their door to police informing them their parents had died in an auto accident.

How it was I was watching this show, I do not know, but it sent me over the edge and threw me into a panic that I would be orphaned. Orphaned in an untrust-worthy, unsafe world. It took some time for me to grow out of that outsized fear. So when I read this promise Jesus makes, it strikes a deep chord in me.

I will not leave you orphaned.

It doesn’t take a great leap of imagination to consider what it means to be orphaned: left without the love and protection of the parent; to be unmoored from the constancy of the parent.

And I think that is what the disciples were beginning to comprehend as they listened to Jesus tell them his hour had come, and that he would be leaving them. LEAVING them! He had drawn them into a completely new life, a life of confusion yes, but one of wonder and anticipation—of unimagined hope. And now they were going to be left on their own? To what end? What would happen to them? What were they to do without him? Can you imagine the anxiety building as he talks to them?

He’s told them that he’s going to see that they have another Advocate. Another advocate? Why can’t they keep the one they have? Who is this Advocate? Why a new Advocate? What does Jesus mean when he says this new Advocate will be with us forever? Or that we already Know this Advocate. We don’t know this Advocate.

It’s here that Jesus assures them that he will not leave them orphaned. I am coming to you, he says. Oh, okay so he’s not leaving us. But then Jesus continues with In a little while the world will no longer see me. But you will.  It is here that Jesus explains how it is they will “see” him even though he is ‘gone’.

Even though they can’t “see” him, there is still the promise of Life. They can look forward to comprehending that because Jesus is in the Father: The Father dwelling in Jesus; so Jesus will dwell in them and they in him. In my father’s house . . . remember from last week?

They have only to stay in keeping with the word, the commandments, he has given them: to enter into the love of the Father, to give and receive the love of the Father and the revelation of the Son. But how is this to be so?  How are they going to be able to be faithful to this? The answer resides in the gift of the Other Advocate. Jesus has been their advocate and will continue to be so, but they will be gifted with Another Advocate. 

The word here is Paraclete and Paraclete in Greek has many meanings or nuances and those first disciples would have comprehended all of them within that single word Paraclete—translated Advocate. The Paraclete is one who

exhorts (teaches)
comforts
helps,
advocates on behalf of 

In your English Bible, when you see the word counselor or comforter or advocate, you need to read it as Paraclete: one who encompasses all of these qualities.

And who in our context mirrors these qualities? Parents. Well, good parents, we know there are bad parents; but there can be grandparents, or extended family members, sometimes a teacher. Jesus assures his disciples – and us as well – that though he is no longer visible in body, he continues, in partnership with the Holy Spirit (the Other Advocate) to teach/ comfort/ help/ advocate for us. We are not left alone to fend for ourselves. And this Other Advocate, the Holy Spirit, will continue the work of Jesus—through Jesus’ disciples.

What are the disciples to do? They are to love Jesus, the evidence of that love is that they keep or embody Jesus’ work – his word and deeds. That’s what Jesus meant when he told them they were to keep His commandments. This keeping, this embodying springs from a deep well of love for Jesus: who Jesus is, what Jesus does. This love may have emotional content to it, but it is really love in action; it is not passive.

This enacted love is fed by the Father’s love and the Son’s love and it opens the way for the Son, through the Other Advocate to continue to reveal himself—his words, his will, his way of being to them and they to the world.

It is so important to note that there is a shift in the pronouns in this passage. In verses 15-20 Jesus uses the pronoun ‘you’. In vs 21, he uses the plural pronoun ‘they’. Who are the they? The “they” is the community. This knowing and keeping; this loving and indwelling; this revealing is a dynamic of the ‘gathered’; faithful folks gathered in a faith community.

Fleming Rutledge says this 

The Christian community is indispensable. When we can’t pray, the community prays for us. When we have no hope, the community holds the hope for us. When our suffering seems more than we can bear, the community comes alongside us in mute witness (Means of Grace, A Year of Weekly Devotions, p. 137).
We are not to live, we are not to love privately or individualistically. We are to embody this as a community, together. It is this communal embodiment of the word and work of Jesus, fueled by a communal love for Jesus—the incarnated revelation of God the Father, that will reveal to the World, the word and works of Jesus the Christ. The intent of God the Father.

I heard a song this week: Solo el Amor

Only love lights what lasts
Only love turns mud into miracle
You must love the times of trying
You must love the time when nothing shines 
Only love engenders wonder
Only love can ignite what is dead.

We can love in this way that Jesus speaks of. We can express love in rubber-hits-the-road ways, with balm and comfort, relief and redress, the stuff of the Way the Truth the Life. Because we have not been left on our own; Our Father God and our Brother the Son parent us still through the teaching, protecting, helping, advocating Spirit of God. We have nothing to fear.  Thanks be to God, our Father-Mother in heaven.

Linda Quanstrom, Pastor

Cornelius UMC

Cornelius OR