Sixth Sunday of Easter – May 5, 2024

John 15:9-17

In our Gospel for today Jesus is saying this long goodbye to his friends before his death.

He is about to go through hell…and he chooses to remind his friends of his commandment to love one another so that (now listen) so that his:

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

It seems to me that the culture around us tries to convince us that joy is only possible in the absence of suffering.

Which makes what Jesus is saying here hard to hear.
I mean…if joy was so important to Jesus…why would he not have avoided a painful…humiliating death?

Now…I do not want to pawn this off as some fake notion about “redemptive suffering” since I do not find that at all helpful here.

But here’s the thing…as I have grown older…I have begun to think that the depth of our joy is oddly related to the depth of our pain.
That is…suffering excavates…digs up…something out from inside of us that in turn allows joy to fill more deeply.
I mean…if the noisy and disorderly laughter at AA meetings…that I have attended…is any indication…I think I may be on to something.

What I mean is this: Since we have gone through something devastating that we are beginning to finally emerge from.

And here I am thinking a lot about what those days after Jesus’ resurrection were like for his friends.
After the initial shock of it wore off…
I just know there must have been so much feasting and so much laughter and so much joy.
I do not think they argued much.
That whole “who will be greatest” thing had to have faded into the background.
And no one looked at their cell phones all day.
There must have been joy.
And that joy must have been at least as deep as the pain of the previous days had been.
The pain had dug something out so deeply in them and joy filled it.

Joy…especially joy that is shared…is not avoiding all the things that are so very horrendously awful.

Joy is resistance to the forces that seek to dehumanize our less than perfect selves.

Joy is the effervescence…the sparkle of the Holy Spirit bubbling up out of the caverns of suffering…
Saying to the forces that try and keep us in the tomb that:
“No – love is stronger.”

I have had delicious times with friends and family when…holy cats…I joyfully laughed so hard.

Years ago…we had fallen on some particularly difficult and hard times that literally scraped out our insides.
But afterwards…on the other side…on the other side of our shattered experience…
Our joy and laughter were so much deeper than before.
The kind of laughter and joy that comes from having just gone through Hell.

My friend Jodi Pritchard says it like this.

Jodi is a flight nurse and a major in the United States Airforce.
She writes: We must treat patients while also dealing with the stresses of flying.
Like the g-forces which can be a detriment to a patient’s IV bag.

On one of my flights someone screams…he wants to get off the litter…but he can’t because he’s missing a leg.

I check on another soldier who is missing half of his face.
He looks at me and says:
Ma’am…I need to know when this plan is going to land.
I need to know when I can get back to Iraq.
You’ve been shot, honey. Why don’t we give you some time, Okay?
You’ve been through a lot.
No, I want to go back.
I want you to go back but first we’ve got to get you to Ramstein so doctors can take care of you.
He’s not the only soldier who says this to me during that flight.
All the guys on board want to go back…every single one of them.

I don’t want to talk about all of this with anyone.

I remember what I have seen overseas.

Just as Jesus had done with his disciples on the lakeshore.

Preparing breakfast for his friends.
And then eating all together.
Filled with joy.
It makes me realize how much I want to trust joy.
And not just look over my shoulder for when the next wave of awful is going to hit me.

How nutty is it that after all Jesus went through.

If this is what it looks like…I am ready for more resurrection.