05/11/2026
May 3, 2026—Easter 5
Sunday Promise
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you.
Let us pray. O God, from whom all good things come: Lead us by the inspiration of your Spirit to think those things which are merciful and forgiving, and by your goodness help us to do them; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
A READING from John 14:15-21
15"If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.17This 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. 18"I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. 19In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. 20On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21They 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."
Sisters and brothers in Christ,
Mom! Mom!
That could be a teenager trying to find where Mom is.
Mom, where are you?
It could be the child ready to complain about her brother or sister. Mom, tell Robert to stop bothering me!
Or it could be the teenager wanting to know if supper is ready. “Mom, I'm hungry! When's supper?”
Maybe what the teenager needs to do is hire an advocate, a person to go find the mother and speak to her on the teenager's behalf. “Excuse me, ma'am, but your daughter Mary is feeling famished and would like to inquire at what time the evening dinner will be served.” The mother would answer, "Dinner will be at six o'clock, just like it is every night. You may tell Mary that if she wants to help cook supper, she is free to join me." Mary would probably say, "No, that’s okay. I'll wait."
The cry could come again. “Mom! Mom! My phone's not working. It won't connect to the wi-fi!”
And Mom says, "You know the rules. No internet after eight o'clock." The typical reply to that is, "But Mom, that's not fair. All my friends get to use their phone as late as they want." Mom replies, "Well, invite your friends over and none of you would need the internet. You could just talk to each other." Mary would say, "Mo-om!"
Kids complain about the rules. They want to do what they feel is important, even if it means losing sleep or not eating or not doing homework or not talking to friends. Kids are still learning how to take care of themselves, so they need rules. Oddly, however, even adults need rules. We all need rules because we want to do whatever we feel like. If we unwrap a piece of candy while outside, oh, the wrapping is a nuisance, and we throw it on the ground even though we know the rule is No Littering. We read in the paper that if there is trash all over the front lawn of some house, no one can come and clean up that trash and haul it away because that trash is someone's private property and it can't be stolen from them without the proper legal process. You know the rules.
Jesus also talks about rules, saying that if we love him, we will keep his commandments.
What are Jesus’ commandments? We may remember a few of The Ten Commandments given to Moses, “Thou shalt not steal.” “Thou shalt not bear false witness.” And, “Thou shalt not forget to bring the ketchup on family picnics.” That’s the Eleventh Commandment, and there are a lot of those.
Then there is the commandment for Mother’s Day, “Honor your father and mother.” It’s not often remembered, not even on Mother’s Day.
Those commandments demand we don’t do certain things. Those commandments threaten us, and they always accuse us.
Mothers have lots of rules for how to live in her house. “Don’t hit your sister.” “Be nice.” “Take turns.” “Do your homework.” “You can’t go outside until you do your chores.”
Jesus gives commands, yes, but his don’t work the same way. His commandments do not threaten. His commandments do not accuse us. His commandments take the form of offering a thirsty person a glass of water and saying, “Here, have a drink.” In that way, Jesus says, “Here, have my forgiveness. Here, have my resurrection. Here, have my love.” Then, as we have what Jesus offers us, we then share his gifts with others. Love gets us to do them. We don’t have to be told to them. Love sees what is needed and offers the gift.
The connection between loving Mom and doing what Mom says is a hard connection to learn. Kids are told to do something but they groan, they complain they don’t want to, or they say, “In a minute, Mom!” And they mean a very, very long minute. To love someone, like your mom, is to do what Mom tells you to do. What moms will tell us is that they get so frustrated with their kids, “They never do what I tell them to do. I have to tell them over and over to do one simple thing. I just get so mad sometimes.”
We can see how we do not always do what we are told. We can see how we don’t always do what our mothers tell us to do. What we don’t see is how much it hurts our mothers when we do not do what they tell us to do.
We do not see how much it hurts God when we do not do what God tells us to do. It is to reject God. It is to take God down from being God and putting ourselves in his place. Who needs God? Who wants God telling us what we can and cannot do? We want to do that on our own.
Then Mom says, “Okay, kids, it’s Sunday morning. Let’s go to church.” The kids say, and the older they get the more they say it, “Aw, Mom! I don’t want to go to church.” Which is really no different than the person who is thirsty saying, “I don’t want a drink of water.”
What do you do when a thirsty person refuses the water you offer them?
Jesus dies on a cross for them. There is more going on in our lives than just not wanting a drink of water or not wanting to listen to Mom. There is hurt, and anger, and love for others being replaced with love for what we want. Jesus’ death shows us the final result of not loving others. But then he rises from the dead! He suffered death’s judgment, he suffered death’s command, and then he quietly rises up right through death! Now death must listen to Jesus, and death must let us go. Death must listen to Jesus’ commandment. Jesus’ commandment to us is, “I offer you life.”
His commandment to us is, “I offer you my forgiveness, and you may offer it to everyone.” His commandment is, “I offer you my love, and you may give my love to anyone.”
And in a world that just enjoys telling us what we have to do, and tells us what we have to do to win or what we have to do to be liked or that we have to have fun all the time or we’re missing out on the most important thing in life, it is mom who offers to her child a gift of love, a gift of comfort, and a gift of assurance. Mom sees how the world forces her child to earn and that the child has to deserve a reward and that a child gets evaluated all the time and it can be such an overwhelming struggle. The child calls out, “Mom! Mom!” And Mom says, “I’m right here.” The child says, and who else can the child turn to? The child says, “Mom, it has been a hard day.” Mom says, “I know, I know. Come here.” And she offers her child a hug, which the world never offers. And Mom says, “My child, you are good. Jesus says so. And so do I.”
That is Jesus’ command to all of us. And we are thirsty for it.
Christ is risen! Christ is risen for all!
Be present, merciful God, and protect us through the hours of this day, so that we who are wearied and worried by the changes and chances of life, may find our peace in you. Amen.
Be at peace. Serve the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
