May 25, 2025 – Sixth Sunday of Easter: Fr. John Edmunds, ST (@12:02 in the video)

SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER – C
Acts 15:1-2,22-29
Revelation 21:10-14,22-23
John 14:23-29

Church people are accustomed to obeying the Ten Commandments given to Moses: “thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal” and all the rest. Keeping the Ten Commandments is a good goal to have. What about the Jesus commandments? Unfortunately, they are not all neatly lined up on two stone tablets but the Jesus commandments are in front of us if we look for them. For example, we hear in the Sermon on the Mount in St. Matthew’s gospel: “stop worrying, your heavenly Father knows what you need” or to put it in commandment form: “thou shalt not worry.” Later on the sermon says, “Stop judging lest you be judged” which would read as a commandment: “thou shalt not judge.” The Jesus commandments are harder to obey than the traditional Ten Commandments, don’t you think? We have another Jesus commandment in the gospel of John for today, “Thou shalt not let your hearts be troubled.” I am sure that you don’t want to be a commandment breaker any more than I but that is one hard commandment to keep. How can my heart not be troubled when I hear about the wars and violence around the world? When our country seems to be pulling in opposite directions? When our city does not seem to be able to keep its citizens safe? When the doctor warns me about my health? When the family puts the dys- into function? When the bills keep getting bigger and the income smaller? If you’re not troubled by all that you are either hopelessly naïve or in denial.

Jesus says that the way to avoid a troubled heart is to rest in God’s own peace. “My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you.” What does the peace of Jesus look like? We ordinarily think of being at peace, which Jesus calls the peace of the world, as when everything is going well. The family is happy, the bills are paid, the weather is warm, I had a good meal. Peace. The example of Jesus demonstrates that his peace is other than that. In fact, Jesus lived as a man of peace even in the midst of turmoil. Opposition from the religious authorities, threats from the Roman occupiers, the cluelessness of his followers – none of that destroyed his peace. Jesus gave this promise of peace in St. John’s Gospel at the Last Supper, while he was facing his imminent arrest and execution. Nothing out there could take away his peace. The world gives peace by having external things go well. Jesus gives peace internally, by having our hearts be well.

So what gets us there? How do we move from troubled hearts to peaceful hearts? How do we face the troubles of this world but not be troubled by them? Jesus tells us that we have can have peace because God loves us and dwells with us. “The Father and I will come to them and make our dwelling with them.” Because God dwells with us we’ve got the ace up our sleeve, the tiger in the tank, the key to the city, the army at our back, fiber-optic wi-fi and new and improved cereal with the extra vitamins and minerals. Because God dwells with us we are given the blessed assurance that there isn’t anything that we can’t handle. So often we are full of fear because of things that are out there. But God dwells with us so no matter what, we can go to our peaceful place knowing that all will be well, all manner of things will be well. As the vision in our second reading from the Book of Revelation describes it, God is at work doing something new, a new heavens and a new earth. We place our trust that the plan of God for this world is unfolding as it should. All we need to do is hold out until our change comes.

However, that is easier said than done. While we have faith in God’s promised victory we have to live in the meantime and our hearts are troubled by today’s woes, despite the blessed assurance of the future. We need a roadmap to obtain an untroubled heart. One such map might be the first reading assigned for today from the Acts of the Apostles. In the story, the early church had hearts that were troubled, whose peace of mind was disturbed. We can look to the experience of the early Church for a lesson in arriving at a peaceful heart. The background: that first generation of Christians had to decide what God expected of them. Which of the Jewish commandments applied to their lives as followers of Jesus? The answer was not obvious and it troubled them. They moved from troubled to peaceful by what we call communal discernment, seeking the will of God together. They assembled the Church, they had conversations, they looked at the Bible, they prayed as a community, they trusted that those who disagreed with them were good people seeking the same things they were. The willingness to be in dialogue, to trust that the Holy Spirit was empowering them, enabled the Church to come to a decision, a decision which they felt was of the Holy Spirit. Because the decision arose from the community together even those who were of different opinions could have a heart full of peace. When we think of all that troubles our hearts today would that model work for us? Can we as a community get together and pray and learn and discern where to find God in the midst of the things which trouble us? The Holy Spirit is as much with us as the Spirit was with the first Christians. As individuals our hearts are troubled. As a community sharing life as the people of God, we can move beyond troubled hearts to find the peace of Jesus which this world cannot give.