Desires of the Heart
Easter 6C
John 14:23-29
5/9/10
Lorraine Ljunggren

While I was growing up and on into my early adulthood, I remember my mom saying to me, “My prayer for you is that God give you your heart's desires.” Now as a child I probably thought that meant getting what I wanted for Christmas or my birthday, or that I wouldn't have any trouble at all getting good grades, or that the other kids I liked at school would include me in their circle of friends. As I grew up I began to wonder if 'God giving me the desires of my heart' meant that I would be successful in whatever I decided to do, or if it meant that God was in the granting-of-wishes-business.

Over the years it certainly seemed as though my mother's prayer for me often went unanswered. I didn't get my way all the time by any stretch of the imagination. Our family certainly endured some awful years. And I found that I actually needed to work for the “successes” I enjoyed. So, I decided some-where-along-the-line that mom's prayer was nice and was an expression of her love, but that God doesn't grant wishes like a fairy-godmother and we don't always receive the desires of our hearts.

Today I look back on her prayer and see that I didn't understand. Mom's prayer was actually a short version of our collect for today which prays, “O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire, through Jesus Christ our Lord….” (BCP 225) This collect – this prayer points to the hope that we will discover that loving God is the truest – or should we say best desire of the human heart. And that when we come to love God in all things and above all things, God's promises will exceed all that we can desire in earthly terms.

In today's reading from John's Gospel we learn that through Jesus God is preparing the disciples for good things – things which, on this night of foot washing and table fellowship do surpass the disciples' understanding. Perhaps they can finally begin to realize the depth of Jesus' commandment to love one another as he loves them. Being faithful Jews, they can believe in the promise that keeping Torah -- keeping God's word will mean a lasting and loving relationship with God. But at this point in the Gospel narrative, the desire of the disciples' hearts is for Jesus to remain with them in earthly, concrete, face-to-face terms.

Jesus tells them gently and with compassion that when he is gone from them, God will send the Advocate, the Holy Spirit to teach the disciples everything and to remind them of all that Jesus has said to them. It's very likely that this promise surpasses the disciples' understanding – it's a promise they will begin to more fully comprehend on the day we call the Feast of Pentecost.

This Spirit, this Advocate is the parakletos, the Paraclete, which is the Greek word for “one called alongside to help.” There is no real translation of the word. “We can neither imagine nor experience the totality of what [Emmanuel,] God with us can mean. But here it means the presence of Christ continuing with [the disciples and with us] after [Jesus' departure], fulfilling…the work begun during Jesus' earthly ministry. This ongoing presence will be sent to the disciples in Jesus' name by [God].” (Synthesis, 95)

This is the same ongoing presence of Christ sent to us – especially noted in our Baptism. When the waters of Baptism are poured over us in the midst of the community of God's people, the Spirit of the living Christ pours into our hearts a love of God which, when nurtured through worship and study, through prayer and service, comes to exceed all we can desire – especially all that we desire in what I am calling today 'earthly terms.' For earthly things all eventually pass away.

And because earthly things do pass away, we human beings often spend much of our lives anxious and fearful – as the disciples were the night the Roman's arrested Jesus. And because Jesus knows his followers well and surely understands how we human beings respond to sudden stresses and strains, Jesus gives them yet another promise. It is the promise of God's peace. But, it is not peace as the world understands or offers it. It is something more.

The Hebrew word is shalom. “It means, simply put, 'to be whole, complete.' Complete health….Complete justice. Complete faithfulness in one's relationship to God and to the people God [gives us] to love. Complete well-being in all dimensions of life and living. Shalom … is not cast in the negative – such as the absence of strife, or [the absence] of difficulty – but it is cast as everything that makes for the highest good.” (ibid.)

The peace of God which Jesus offers “is not the peace of escape, or of escapism. It is not religion as a pacifier, religion as a safe harbor from the storms of existence. It is not about making peace at all costs – a false peace assumed to make life comfortable and riskless. It is not about quietism or conformity either. To the contrary, the peace of Jesus is the power of the Holy conferred upon the believer to be and do what God wants done in the world. The 'peace that passes all understanding' is Jesus [Christ] present in the believer as Holy Spirit, emboldening Gospel bearers [like us] to act in the face of simple fear or of numbing hardship in order to do the work of God. Unlike the peace of the world – which is mostly predicated on power or circumstances working out favorably on one's own behalf – the peace which Jesus gives is independent of outward circumstances. It is beyond human control. It is a gift. A paradoxical gift which [consoles] and [which] stirs up … It begins as an inward reality, and ends in a worldly commitment. It gentles [our] spirit and agitates it as well. William Alexander Percy's hymn [may] say it best: 'The peace of God it is no peace, but strife clothed in the sod. Yet let us pray for but one thing – the marvelous peace of God.'” (ibid.)

Jesus offers us what the world cannot give. A relationship with a God who will love us each and every day. A baptism with God's Holy Spirit to strengthen and to sustain, to nourish and teach us. And a peace that does go beyond our human understanding – but a peace that is an enduring gift in the midst of our sometimes chaotic lives. These are the desires for which our hearts are made. And, so my prayer for you is that God give you the desires of your hearts as well as the courage and will to do the work God needs us to do in the world around us.

“O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desires; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” (BCP 225)


©2010 Lorraine Ljunggren