Views from the Valley

Sunday, May 10, 2026 — MOTHER’S DAY

John 14:15-21

        “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him because he abides with you, and he will be in you.

        “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me, and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”

The Sermon

        In God’s world, abandonment is not an option.

       Yet unbeknownst to his disciples, Jesus will soon be leaving. He has spent the last many months, of his life, living and walking, talking, eating, drinking, traveling, ministering, caring, comforting, counseling, healing, teaching, and helping this crew of men and women who have followed him with such earnestness and care.

       But he knows that he will not be with them much longer. And so he prepares them for what is to come.

       So much of what Jesus says about his life with his disciples and his life on this earth is like words spoken about relationships, especially family. We know these days that such relationships can be defined in myriad ways, what with families comprised of single parents, parents of the same gender, grandparents serving in a parental role for their grandchildren, children serving as parents to their own parents. We know there are children and adults who are uncertain even about the gender they’ve been referred to from birth, and have serious questions about that. What does this all mean in the great scheme of life and family these days?

       And we know, too, that today is Mother’s Day. In my own lifetime, I’ve seen the evolving role of the mother in our world, and that evolution hasn’t stopped. There is far more to the role of being a mother than just giving birth to a child in respect to genetics. Some people can be more mother-like to a child than the child’s own mother. Some mothers may seek to relinquish control over their children out of their desire to be a good mother. We still tend to respect, and rightly should, the role of the mother in our world, whether she give birth to children, or whether that person lives and operates in such a role of nurture, of grace, of comfort, and of care. Being a mother means a lot of things, and in our day and age, it benefits us to open our hearts and minds and release our judgments about what it really means to be a good mother. The same is true for fathers, children, any kind of relative, any kind of relationship. When we release expectations, we find grace and mercy.

       And most of all, we find that thing Jesus speaks about five times in our gospel lesson for today: love. Love, in relationship to him. Love, in relationship to his disciples. Love, in relationship to God, whom Jesus calls his “Father.” Love in relationship to others. Love, which, when lived and expressed from the depths of respect, wisdom, and understanding, leads to obedience to commandments. Jesus speaks of his commandments. They are not given willy-nilly for the sake of control a la “Do what I tell you, or else.” Jesus, in other parts of the gospel, speaks of loving God and loving others as oneself as the fulfillment of the law. The law is about love, comes from love, and ends in love. The commandments are obeyed because of love, because in so doing, it is the most loving thing a person can do.

       Admittedly, this isn’t always easy.

       But as Jesus anticipates his absence from the world, he also anticipates a way in which he still remains present with all those he loves.

       He is like a loving mother who makes plans for when she is away, providing someone to care for her children, trusting that care will be as loving as her very own care. He does not leave his disciples orphaned, and because of it, he is now with us. That’s why we, too, are his disciples.

       How does he do this? The disciples don’t yet understand, but they soon will. He promises to send the divine paraclete – the Advocate, also translated as the Counselor, the Helper, the Comforter. The Holy Spirit is the name we call the Divine paraclete. We don’t talk about the Spirit often, but we will today, and we will again. We might go so far as to say, if we use our imaginations, that the Holy Spirit can be seen as the “Mother” aspect of our Triune God, if we are going to see “the Father” of whom Jesus spoke so often as the masculine aspect. Why not expand one’s view of the magnificent, all-encompassing nature of our Creator, who made all of us, women and men and beings alike, in God’s image? I see no reason not to.

       And like many of our best mothers and mother-like figures in our lives (which can and do include men), the nature of the Spirit is one of counselor, offering advice, wisdom, and a listening ear. The Spirit also acts as advocate. One of my commentary writers offers Michael Connelly’s Lincoln Lawyer Mickey Haller as an example of an advocate: one who works on behalf of someone else who has been accused of wrongdoing. Moms can make the best advocates when we need them, and sometimes they can even do it when we’re guilty – not by helping us to get off scot-free, but by loving us through the turmoil and consequences of our mistakes. The Spirit is our helper. Thinking back on the idea of adherence to commandments, we certainly can use some help, for there are times when the very last thing on earth we want to do is “love our neighbor.” We covet, wanting more than we really need, at someone else’s expense. We wish ill upon people we don’t like. You know what that’s like, and so do I. We need a helper to inspire us to act out of justice and love. And we need a comforter, not only as children but as grown adults with problems in life, with things to rage and cry and moan about. Moms can be good at this. The Holy Spirit – the paraclete is also known as the comforter.

       How we need this.

       And how family-like this is! We don’t have to have a typical family in the classical sense, to reach toward God, outward, upward, AND inward into our hearts, to find the Divine family of love: Father, Child, Mother; Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer. Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

       This was Jesus’ promise. Jesus was not on his own as he worked, lived, and traveled on this earth. He did the things his Father told him to do. As we learned last Sunday, if we want to know what God is doing; what God is like, look no further than at Jesus. He’s right before our very eyes, and words about his life were written so that we would know him. There’s a lot to be known – even beyond the gospels we read so frequently.

       But there’s something more. Jesus knew that he would be leaving, and yet he promised to always be present. And thus, as he said, he would send another “advocate” to be with them forever. Jesus would be gone, but the Holy Spirit, the paraclete, the Advocate, the Comforter, the Counselor, the Helper, would come to be with us. And that is precisely what happened. It is through the Holy Spirit that we know and understand this story about Jesus. Where is this Spirit? In us.

       Last week in Small Talk I mentioned how to know God is to look at and see and understand Jesus. One parishioner suggested I remind the children that Jesus is in our hearts. Yes, indeed: Jesus is in our hearts. Jesus sent the Advocate to be the presence of God, the presence of the Father, the Presence of Jesus, in our hearts. We invite Jesus to make himself known to us in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. We can see the Holy Spirit as a loving Father, as our savior Jesus who gave his life for us, and as a loving Mother/counselor/comforter, who will never, ever abandon us. Remember, in God, abandonment is not an option. Ever. “What’s abandonment?” God says. No such thing.

       The Spirit of Christ, of God, of Jesus, in our hearts. Moving in us like the very best mothers and fathers and teachers, court advocates for our defense, therapists, advisors, shepherds, idea-givers, creativity-inspirers, tear-dryers. Shopping assistants. Tutors. Cooks, bakers, candlestick makers. Carpenters, electricians. Math whizzes and calculators. You name it, God, in the Holy Spirit, is IN US, helps us to understand, to live, and to fulfill the law because of LOVE.

       It all starts and it all ends with love.

       We Presbyterians don’t talk a lot about the Holy Spirit, the paraclete, the Advocate. The Spirit is rather implied. For when we know one: God, Jesus, the Spirit, we know all. But could it be possible that we might not know a thing about Jesus and his life, death and resurrection, were it not for the Holy Spirit? The promise that Jesus would send us the Helper? We might wonder. It takes a lot for a story about a man living in the middle east who died on a cross and had a small band of followers to expand, explode, and become one of the world’s major figures of faith! To this we credit the Holy Spirit who did just as was promised: filled the disciples and Christians from that day and beyond with an understanding and power that went beyond the repeated telling of a story. This Holy Spirit gave Jesus the power to do what he did on earth. To love people, heal them, teach them, and feed them. To teach about justice and love of one’s neighbor. To bind up the brokenhearted. To include the outcast and break boundaries. To bring light into lives that were very dark indeed.

       So it should be no surprise to us that we know this story. We actually take this for granted, don’t we? But then, let’s think for a moment about our prayers and our worship – our singing, our fellowship, our laughter, our coffee, our service, our camaraderie, our generosity, our concern and love for our community. This all happens because God dwells in us. Our ability to fulfill our mission, God’s calling among us, is because the Holy Spirit is in us. Whatever God does, whatever Jesus does, is what the Holy Spirit does. You, my friends, are currently empowered by the Holy Spirit, and don’t you forget it! Imagine it! Live in it. Dwell in it. Remember it. Allow that power, that wisdom, that counsel, that comfort, that help, that advocacy, to guide you every day, just as you have been up to this point.

       On this Mother’s Day, thank God for God’s mothering, loving, strong, unwilling-to-ever-abandon-you Holy Spirit. Let the Spirit’s power fall upon us and fill us once again, and in a very new and powerful way, today. May God remind us of all that we are capable of doing by that power that is in each one of us and in one another, and in the power of that unity, may we change the world! Amen.