May 17, 2020 - Sixth Sunday After Easter - Hope is Here and Mutual Abiding

Towards the end of the Gospel text for last Sunday is John 14:20: On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.

In this image to the right is a candle in a house. Here is a thought experiment. Thinking about this image of a candle "abiding in the house". Do you identify the house as God or you? Is the candle Christ within you or  is it you within the body of Christ? Can it be both at once?

In this week's book study we read Isaiah 40:28:  Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.

Once again we can feel the truth of the words Jesus is using, we recognize his voice but leads to something we cannot experience through our senses.

Negative capability was a phrase first used by Romantic poet John Keats in 1817 to characterize
 the capacity of the greatest writers (particularly Shakespeare) to pursue a vision of artistic beauty even when it leads them into intellectual confusion and uncertainty, as opposed to a preference for philosophical certainty over artistic beauty. The term has been used by poets and philosophers to describe the ability of the individual to perceive, think, and operate beyond any presupposition of a predetermined capacity of the human being.

I believe the Gospel here is offering some kind of negative capability. Pastor Janell preached about how the disciples in a time of unknowing could not hear the full impact of what Jesus was saying. She felt that we could read the Gospel with the understanding that our love for Jesus invokes the Holy Spirit or advocate. Again it felt like a truth being touched on. I am not sure if we are any closer, or further away, from understanding this differently from the disciples.

Pastor Janell sang a song during her sermon that a workshop group wrote collectively led by Cary Newcomer an American singer, songwriter and author. The song was called Hope Is Here. As she sang I thought about hope in relationship to the abiding Jesus talked about and was inspired at that moment. God, through Jesus is our hope just as we, as individuals, are God's hope alive in the world.