Shred-it

July 17, 2016 (full size gallery)

On July 13, 2016, we invited a group from the Village Harvest food distribution to meet with parishioners for overall fellowship as well as to see their needs in relationship to the existing Village Harvest program which has been ongoing since Nov. 2014. How well is it going ? Any changes ? We had 11 from the food distribution and 9 from St. Peter’s to sample Catherine’s glazed chicken. Cherry said she was surprised how many people were on assistance.

This week major work was done on the altapiece with the gilding of the framework. Check out the picture in the slideshow.

Sunday, July 17 featured full sunshine, not too warm, with the crepes myrtle in full bloom. Wild animals came forth from the osprey on our front sycamore to a bee enjoying the phlox. The back sycamore was lush with green leaves. Cookie had Johnny pick sunflowers from the field around Camden which adorned our altar and windows.  It was a large service -we had 59 with all the children and several back from vacation. 

This Sunday was Pentecost 9 but also Callie Towler’s last Sunday as Godly Play teacher. Becky Fisher will be taking over in the Fall but this Sunday was the last session in this program year 2015-2016.  

Callie parents were on hand and She was the preacher today. The children were up front supporting here. She brought up the children to sing a Godly Play song at the end of her sermon. Catherine arranged the music in Levas with shorter hymns and at least one known by the children.

Callie plans to go to seminary in the future. During the announcements, Catherine presented her two gifts from the congregation – an annotated Bible and Strong’s Concordance. Catherine said she still uses the latter in her regular sermon preparation . We also signed a card for her.

Marilyn provided the communion music on her new harp. It was a plain song that could have been heard at St. Peter’s at the time the altarpiece was created (1853). The sound was lilting, pensive and folkish. 

A reception was held after church on the lawn and provided by Cookie and Catherine and featured light refreshments – oatmeal bars, brownies, popcorn, pretzels and several drinks. People enjoyed bringing out the food from the back on the church and catching up. The babies in the congregation were the hit. Karen also helped put it all together. 

Today’s readings remind us of the surprises related to hospitality and the hidden presence of God. In Genesis , Abraham receives three heavenly visitors who speak of the imminent birth of Sarah’s son. Paul describes the mystery of reconciliation with God and its implications for the Church. Jesus visits the home of Mary and Martha and reminds us of the importance of paying attention to God’s presence and words.

An extraordinary message runs through today’s scriptures. The theme is best expressed in the question put to Abraham: “Is anything too wonderful for the lord?”

Callie’s sermon concentrated on the Gospel. She sympathized with Martha – in her life dealing with people at school who weren’s pulling their weight. Martha had all the work to do to prepare a meal for Jesus and many disciples. You can imagine her frustration as Mary dominated Jesus attention by sitting at his feet and Martha dealing with getting the wine jugs in and other preparations. However, maybe the distractions get in her way of understanding and of achieving something more valuable, particularly sitting at the feet of the Lord.  Callie remembered when she graduated absorbed at getting resumes out and nearly missing the opportunity to go to Shred-It in 2014 at St. Peter’s and hearing we needed a Godly Play teacher. She is glad she did as it  became her opportunity for 2 years to sit at "feet of the Lord."

May 8, 2016 (full size gallery)

A triple pack Sunday – Easter 7, Ascension and Mother’s Day. The lectionary was Easter 7 with the Ascension mentioned in the Sermon. A special Mother’s Day prayer was heard after the Prayers of the People

After a week of mostly rain, the sun, often a hazy sunlight was appreciated. The iris are spectacular this year with blue and red the front and blue and yellow in the back. Once again, Cookie had arranged Iris in the church windows.

Godly Play had 5 children and "Weaving God’s Promises" had 7 children and adults, the latter featuring the Acts reading this morning – Acts 16:16-34 where a Roman jailer and his family are unexpectedly baptized. Catherine asked us to pick all of the instances of the Holy Spirit work and then how the Holy Spirit has entered our lives. All of this went better with some banana muffins which she brought.

The theme of the lectionary readings this week could be "forging the glorious unity of God’s people. Today’s readings give us a sense of comfort – we catch a glimpse of the glorious unity of God’s people. Paul and Silas show their concern even for their Gentile jailer, who becomes a believer through their example. John, in his Revelation, describes the believers’ urgent longing for final union with Jesus. In the gospel, Jesus prays for us, who have come to faith and unity in him through the testimony of the disciples .

Cookie brought a number of pictures from the 150th anniversary of the church in 1986. These are Linda Upshaw’s pictures and both had labelled the backs of the pictures. Additional help was provided by Nancy Long today.  Next week we will celebrate the 180th anniversary of St. Peter’s.

We had  43 in the service. The sermon was an exploration of the ‘Lion King" in relationship to Easter 7 and Ascension. Catherine’s daughter took her to the show in Richmond on Friday.

We celebrated the wedding anniversary of Nancy and Alex Long. They had two of their children and all grandchildren present today. An amazing site! 

Catherine announced we made $980 at the Community Give to benefit the Village Harvest food distribution.

She alluded to the Parish retreat last weekend. Although rainy, the Fishers made it to the top of North Mountain, including Zeke at age 7!

Catherine recognized Charles McGuire as the newest member of the church. His transfer from Christ Church Dover came in this week.

Upcoming events this week include Shredit on Thursday May 12 at 4pm and Susan Tilt’s "Day of art" on Saturday.

For the 5th year in a row, we held Shred-it a way to safely dispose of any king of paper product, especially valuables. After paying the company, we made $50 for Outreach ministries. Thanks for Andrea Pogue for conceiving of this project and heading up for 5 years. She also actively promoted it to Port Royal businesses and organizations.  

We served 86 people on Sept 16, 2015, the second largest number we have had since November, 2014 when the Village Harvest began. 500 pounds of fresh produce was purchased.

We distributed the following:

• Paper towels, toilet paper, and Kleenex
• Tomatoes
• Shredded carrots
• Peppers
• Zucchini
• Fresh Pineapple
• Leeks
• Pears

  Easter 5, May 3, 2015  (full size gallery)

We had a split congregation today with our rector and 9 other parishioners with Christ Church Spotsylvania at Shrine Mont. Catherine was responsible for the program ("Stations of Resurrection") and Christ Church would be providing the sermon and service on Sunday. 

We had 21 in attendance this morning on one of the most beautiful mornings of the year – temperatures in the 70’s under clear skies. The Iris were beginning to bloom. There was new growth to trees along the river. Blue wild flowers provided a  lengthy tableau along Route 17.

We had Morning Prayer with preacher John Sellers and officiant Elizabeth Heimbach. John spent 3 years in seminary, was ordained into the Baptist church and served as an assistant minister in Colorado. He later went back for a doctorate which was a doctorate in American History rather than theology. He told me that the job situation was much better in history than theology. While in graduate school he also directed music in a church in New Orleans. His musical talent is in music. John is clearly an intellectual and mult-talented man. His charming wife Sylvia came too.

John’s sermon was on Chapter one of Mark. This is when John the Baptist prepares the way for Christ but John focused on the Holy Spirit. "I baptize you with[e] water, but he will baptize you with[f] the Holy Spirit.” John professed that the concept of the holy spirit has been difficult for both theologians and philosophers to get an understanding.

The holy spirit may be best understood through examples. The holy spirit was clearly at work with the early disciples. Andrew and Peter, James and John did not not hesitate but left their callings, their professions and immediately joined Jesus. There was no other reason for their action.

John delved into his own family – his mother very religious brought up in the Episcopal church. He gets his Baptist faith from his father. His mother had several siblings but they ignored religion and the church. John’s parents have benefited from their religious life.

John expressed sadness at own time with people caught up in their own pursuits and did not have a spiritual life. The word "I" is used more than any other in conversation. By contrast, this pronoun did not occur in a great work that John cited, The Gettysburg address.

He felt the best moments for understanding the holy spirit came through prayers. John admitted he did not have a specific method or time of day for prayer and that his prayers were more of an extended conversation with the circumstances. He felt close to the holy spirit with his horses.

This is a giving week coming up at St. Peter’s

1. Community Give. The Community Give is a day of supporting non-profits in the Fredericksburg, Stafford, Spotsylvania, Stafford, Caroline and King George counties. Help support the Village Dinner with a $10 or more donation on Tuesday May 5 which will provide 10 pounds of fresh produce for 20 people. We are now feeding as many people as in our congregation. Also support other non-profits – many do unique work. The link to the Website is https://www.thecommunitygive.org/. Then search for “Harvest”.

For the May Village Harvest on May 17, we need considerably more donations. We are trying to collect especially tuna fish and macaroni but any canned goods will do.

2. Shred It is Friday. $5 a bag – bring all of your paper particularly those items with sensitive private information. Last year we collected $385 and made $175 for Outreach. Thanks to Andrea Pogue for conceiving it and leading it.

3. Support Nepal relief. As of Sunday there have been over 7,000 casualties after the recent 7.8 scale earthquake.  Concern now is the condition of the airport.  Episcopal Relief and Development has been there since the event. There is an urgent need for food, water and shelter. Donate here for the Nepal Disaster relief fund

Nancy did a wonderful vocal arrangement at the offertory on "Come Thou Fount". Nancy and Alex are celebrating a wedding anniversary on May 7

Coffee hour was presented by Helmut and Susana and Elizabeth. It featured Helmut’s lentil soup (Susan’s receipe), a wonderful casserole (page 43 of the cookbook), fruit, sandwiches, raw vegetables. Dessert included oatmeal cookies, brownies and Trifle. Cookie provided the punch.  

Ken Pogue has produced some postcards of the church and environment. They are $1 each (extended size). We sold $30 today – available in church and Parish House. A church fund raiser. 

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Commentary by Canon Lance Ousley, Diocese of Olympia

Stewards of God’s love bear the life-giving Fruit of the Vine in Jesus Christ.

In the 1st Century water was often in short supply and fresh potable water was even more scarce. So wine was needed to survive. The reality is that wine was a matter of life or death for Jesus and his contemporaries. The image of the vine for Jesus’ 1st Century hearers was poignant because they understood viticulture and its intensive care.

The good vine steward spends much time attending his vines and knows that only with proper care the branches of the vine will produce good fruit. This is year-round work nurturing the vine in each season to produce the abundant harvest that the vine was meant to produce through its branches. The vine is pruned in early spring of the branches that will not produce fruit. In the summer the amount of leaves on the branches are regulated. Too many leaves can rob the fruit of nutrients needed to produce the best fruit and an abundant harvest. The fall brings the harvest of the well-attended fruit. And the winter is a time of mulching and protecting the vine from the elements for the next growing season. All of this care for the vines meant life for the community in the 1st Century. With an abundant harvest the whole community could and would thrive.

Jesus tells his disciples and us that he is the Vine and that we are the branches, and he reminds us that only the branches that are connected to the Vine can produce fruit. God is the Master Vine Steward, who has planted Jesus the Vine in the world so that the world can have life through the Vine and the fruit that it produces. All of God’s tending the Vine and branches is an act of love to give the fruit of abundant life to the world.

John teaches us in his 1st letter to the Church what this fruit is to look like in the world. The fruit of Love that is produced through abiding in Love is shown through our loving one another. And it is in the midst of our loving one another the way God the Vine Steward and Jesus the Vine have loved us that this fruit of abundant life is produced. So we are to be stewards of the same type of loving care the Vine Steward gives the Vine and the Vine gives to the branches sharing this fruit with the world around us. In this stewardship of the fruit of Love, we are branches of the Vine producing fruit through him that gives life not only to the world, but also to us. We truly cannot thrive without producing the fruit God intends for us, and this takes attentive year-round attention like a good vine steward.

So how are you living as a Steward of the fruit of Love, both as an individual and as a community

  Shred-It, May 8, 2015  (full size gallery)

This was the 4th year of bringing our paper clutter to St. Peter’s to be professionally shred. It allows people to dispose of private, confidential documents securely  There were stories of people bringing tax records, estate records, bills etc. to be shred that went back decades. We encouraged a donation of $5 a bag all to go to St. Peter’s outreach ministries.

It was a beautiful spring afternoon in Port Royal in the high 70’s under full sunshine. The iris were mostly in full bloom – all colors – yellow, purple, shades of red. It was not only Shred-It but the 70th anniversary of VE (Victory in Europe) day. A salute goes out to those who fought and worked for that effort.

This year we collected $328 at Shred-It. After paying the Shred-it truck $225 we came out with a profit of $103 for St. Peter’s Outreach ministries. This wasn’t as good as last year but a wonderful contribution to help us give back to others,

Thank you Andrea Pogue for your leadership over these 4 years. Andrea not only negotiates for the truck but also promotes the project to friends, businesses, St. Peter’s and other churches. She distributes fliers and engages others in conversation and serves food for the event. A wonderful spring afternoon to help the environment and a good time for fellowship.

  Easter 6, Rogation Sunday, May 10, 2015  (full size gallery)

A wonderful week of giving both monetary with the Village Harvest ($1,255) and in terms of paper with Shred-it! ($103). Thanks to all who participated.  

This Sunday was Rogation Sunday and Easter 6. This year alternate readings for the former were done (BCP Pg. 930).  We are in the "Named Sundays" which come at this time of year – commemorating agriculture, the Ascension, Pentecost and Trinity Sunday. They are four feasts of great importance in the life of the Church.  

Rogation is an old celebration. While it goes back to Rome, the Christian festival is based on decided events – calamities when events overtake the main means of production – agriculture. In 470 that  was in Vienne, France after a series of disasters had caused much suffering among the people. The Goths invaded Gaul. There was an enormous amount of disease; there were fires; there were earthquakes; there were attacks of wild animals. 

Today it is time set aside to appreciate and recognize our dependence upon the land for our food and most importantly upon our dependence of God for the miracles of sprouting seeds, growing plants, and maturing harvest.  It takes on an environmental focus which affects all of us. We praise God for what God has provided but also ask for forgiveness for our mishandling the environment.

The sermon enlarged the concept of rogation beyond our parish, our community to consider the larger picture. "So this Rogation Sunday is a good day to ask for the forgiveness of our transgressions as the early Christians did–especially our transgressions against creation itself.".."The psalmist reminds us that “the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof” and today’s reading from Deuteronomy reminds us that “the eyes of the Lord your God are always on the land, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.”".. God gives us the invaluable sacred gift of the earth. The earth, with its gravitational pull, is the foundation beneath our feet. The earth feeds us and clothes us. The beauty of the earth is a constant source of amazement and wonder.

The concern back in 470 was making the harvest which determined whether we would have sufficient crops to live. Now the harvest is different. "Now let’s talk about what it means in this day and age to pray for a good and bountiful harvest. And so on this Sunday, we pray specifically for good and bountiful outcomes for our work."

There is a fallacy that our harvests are only dependent on our own efforts.  "We’ve fallen into the trap of believing that our worth is based on what we produce, and that we can completely control the outcome of any work that we are doing." "Our job is to sow our seeds on the ground. And then, here’s the hard part—to wait." In this process is the need to reclaim the Sabbath as a day of rest. 

Rogation  was celebrated with two gifts of flowers. Cookie produced bouquet of clover for all of the windows. They had flowers of red. The Altar flowers added some Iris. The Iris were again in full bloom today  around the church – purplse, reddish, yellow.  Catherine provided portulaca plants for all the congregation in honor of both Rogation and Mother’s Day. 

The weather was mostly cloudly with periods of sun. Blue wild flowers lined Route17. Also there were several fields of yellow, particuarly striking against the darker clouds.

We had a congregation of 38. BJ and Jim Anderson were back from Texas, BJ bringing her bread making ability. Jim had a heart issue over the winter so it was glad to see him back. Barbara Wisdom is now off a walker and just has a cane.  Justin and Karen Long were back for a visit with her mother. 

The hymns were of note this week for Rogation. The opening hymn was "Not here for high and holy things" is a wonderful hymn back to the 18th century of the environment and stewardship in general

"Not here for high and holy things
we render thanks to thee,
but for the common things of earth,
the purple pageantry
of dawning and of dying days,
the splendor of the sea,"

The last hymn was "All creatures of our God and King". St. Francis wrote this in 1225 shortly before his death and has 7 verses.

"All creatures of our God and King
Lift up your voice and with us sing,
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Thou burning sun with golden beam,
 Thou silver moon with softer gleam!"

The bulletin announcements included one for Susan and Tommy Tilt’s 50th anniversary celebrated next Sat at their home in Colonial Beach  Sat. May 16- email susantilt@mac.com. There were also a list of thank you’s from the Rappahannock Valley Garden Club, Hunters for the Hungry and Pope and Lockleir families. 

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Commentary on Easter 6 by Canon Lance Ousley, Diocese of Olympia, Washington

The readings for Easter 6 Sunday Year B include Acts 10:44-48; Psalm 98 1 John 5:1-6; and John 15:9-17

Stewardship involves a series of choices everyday. We all have people and things that have been entrusted to our care. How we choose to care for theses people and things is how we practice good stewardship or poor stewardship. But these are not the only things that pose choices before us in our world today challenging our hearts to be stewards of the love of Christ that has been entrusted to us.

In the BCP lectionary the Acts reading for Easter 6B is the story of Paul addressing the Areopagus in Athens about their monuments to their many gods and the one true God, the Creator of everything that is, seen and unseen. These other gods were pretty clear in the pagan culture of Athens, demanding their appeasement offerings. But the Acts reading in the RCL lectionary for Easter 6B shows other things that demand our attention that are not so clear. In Acts 10:44-48, we hear that there were cultural barriers to extending open hospitality to some being baptized into the family of Faith because they were believed to be outside the grace of God. Fortunately, Peter made the choice to follow the lead of the Holy Spirit who had chosen to include all people in the family of God, instead of following the tradition of his cultural exclusivity. In this act of acceptance Peter was a good steward of the unconditional love Jesus had entrusted to him.

As we read in our 1 John lesson, we hear John make the case that one of the ways our love is shown to a parent is through our loving their children. As people who believe in the Creator of all that is seen and unseen we understand that God is the Parent of all of humanity. Jesus shows us what it ultimately looks like to love the children of the Parent of all, by choosing over to love them over all other things by laying down his life for them. Jesus stewards all of God’s children entrusted to his care by choosing to love them over the choices that the culture poses the world.

And Jesus has chosen us to be stewards of his love so that others may know the unconditional love of God. He has told us that we show our love of God by loving the way he loves, forsaking the choices that the culture of our world poses us. Jesus has chosen us to reveal God’s unconditional love to, and chosen us to be midwives delivering his love to the world. But we have to choose to steward Jesus’ love to all God’s children over the choices our culture poses to through its many gods that merely want us to appease their (and our) selfish desires. Just as Jesus lays down his life for us, he chooses us to lay down our worldly lives for all God’s children. And so we have been chosen, not to reveal our own salvation but for the revelation of the salvation of the whole world as children of God.

How will we obey Jesus’ commandments, choosing to be good stewards of God’s children laying down our lives to show them the love of the one true God, Creator and Parent of all that is, seen and unseen?

  Sunday, May 25, 2014, Easter 6  (full size gallery)

Today is a double header – Rogation Sunday and Memorial weekend. The next 4 Sundays are formally named – Rogation, Ascension, Pentecost and Trinity.  It was the most perfect day with the weather – abundant sunshine and pleasant temperatures for the end of May.  A relaxing time on a long weekend.  Most noticeable the fields had corn about knee high looked good considering the excess rain we had a few weeks ago.

We had 8 at 9am and 33 at 11am with two families at least on vacation. We celebrated Jackie’s impending graduation as well as Andrea’s Shred-It which raised $175 on Friday evening.  The osprey are back with a nest at the base of King Street opposite the river. Very majestic!

Memorial Day was formerly known as Decoration Day and originated after the Civil War to commemorate the Union and Confederate soldiers who died in the Civil War. By the 20th century, Memorial Day had been extended to honor all Americans who have died while in the military service. It has been extended further to veterans who have given their time and put their lives on the line while serving for our country. 

There are pictures here from Fredericksburg’s National Cemetery. The luminaria which has been going for 20 years is the famous event on Saturday night of Memorial Day weekend. However, the morning sunrise and afterwards with all the flags on 15,000 graves is a most awe inspiring time.

St. Peter’s has its own flags on its veterans in the grave yard – Civil War (Rev. Friend a chaplain, D. B. Powers one brother of a large family that survived), Austin Hoyt (WW. II) and others.   

Today we had current veterans representing the Army, Navy  and Air Force recognized for their service from World War II to Vietnam. Woody Everett, an Air Force colonial, wore his uniform which fit almost perfectly considering it had not been worn in 31 years!  

The other celebration is Rogation Sunday. Rogation" means "asking". In the agrarian culture of yesterday, it was common for the church to gather on the Rogation Days to ask God to bless the crops being sown. We would have asked Him to send rain and to bless us with a good harvest later in the year. A common feature of Rogation days in former times was the ceremony of beating the bounds, in which a procession of parishioners, led by the minister, churchwarden, and choirboys, would proceed around the boundary of their parish and pray for its protection in the forthcoming year.

We call this Sunday "Rogation Sunday" because the 3 days which follow it are ancient Rogation Days, these being the 3 days leading up to the great Feast of the Ascension of our Lord, this year on May 29. Rogations Days have been a part of the Christian year from early days. There used to be both a Major Rogation (April 25) and 3 Minor Rogation Days (the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday proceeding Ascension Day). Thus originally, this Sunday was not a Rogation Day – the change being made in 1662, after the Major Rogation had dropped away. Rogation days are days of prayerful supplication before God. Today Rogation can be made into a study of the environment and how we can improve it. The readings are here

The sermon provided a metaphor for understanding today keeping the rogation theme – "Imagine a huge radiating golden circle, a circle great enough to hold all of God’s creation, including this earth, with its amazing diversity of life, and all people. Let’s call this huge golden circle The Body of God, based on one of the metaphors that theologian Sally McFague uses to describe God in her book, Models of God. We know that we are made in the image of God, and Jesus came to dwell among us, to pitch his tent among us, in a human body, the body of God. And Jesus also described himself with images from God’s creation. Jesus is bread made from grains of wheat ground and baked into a loaf, and Jesus is wine, made from the crushing of grapes.The Holy Spirit appears as a bird, as wind, as flame, as the breath of life itself. Water flows through our scripture and liturgies, gushing up to eternal life, as Jesus puts it."

"And Jesus describes this great golden circle, The Body of God, to his disciples in the comforting and strengthening talk that he shares with them before being lifted up on the cross. They have already known what it is like to be surrounded by and to live in The Body of God—and Jesus reminds them of this fact when he says to them, “You know him (the Spirit of Truth—Jesus, that is), because he abides with you, and he will be in you.And the disciples will live even more completely in The Body of God when Jesus departs and sends the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, to abide with them… "At the beginning of today’s gospel, Jesus said to the disciples, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” "And the two great commandments are to love God with all our hearts and minds and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. And our neighbor includes the natural world around us."

"Today is our day to love Jesus, and to keep his commandments.

"Today is our day to let ourselves be drawn into that great radiating golden circle that is the Body of God, to find God present in those around us and in all of creation,

"Today is our day to live and love in Jesus, to care for one another and for all of God’s magnificent creation,

"And today is our day to be enfolded and embraced and healed and strengthened and empowered within the Body of God."

Easter 6 , May 5, 2013  (full size gallery)

First Sunday in May, Easter 6, felt like the first Sunday in April – cool and overcast. Small congregation of 38 for the first Sunday. We did have a few guests – Eleonore, Alan and Wendy and a newcomer Tony.

The Iris in the front were completely out in the front and the yellow iris near the Parish House are beginning.

This was a busy week with the Vestry retreat on Tuesday, Village Dinner on Wed, and jail ministry on Thursday. The retreat was written up here and the May newsletter. It also figured prominently in the sermon today.  The readings are here.

We celebrated Alex and Nancy’s 30th wedding anniversary. Nancy also contributed an arrangement of fresh flowers for the altar.

It was Rogation Sunday. In honor of this event we used Eucharistic Prayer 2 from Enriching our Worship and a selection from David Adam for the Prayers of the People. There was an emphasis on God and creation, wise use of the resources and praises for those who till the land. 

A great coffee hour compliments of the Carpenters and the Fishers – Tuna and Barbecue sandwiches, cheese, salad and Trifle and cookies for desert. Very filling!

The Ascension is this Thursday. Catherine was planning a service but her mother has an operating this week in NC. Friday is the shredding event at 4pm. Next week is an all-in-one service – Ascension, Easter 7, Mother’s Day and Founders’ Day.

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Jesus continues to prepare his followers for his departure. The Gospel passage is both to instruct and provide promise for the disciples. The readings are here

Judas, son of James (one of the twelve in Luke’s list of disciples) has asked him: “‘how is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?’” (v. 22). What the disciples are likely to fear most: isolation from their teacher and friend. All that they have done has been about being part of Jesus’ life and journey. But Jesus’ promises mean that they will not be alone.

From this question, it sounds as if Judas is expecting Jesus to reveal secrets, to give his followers knowledge hidden from the world at large Jesus answers, but not directly. In the era to come, when the Father and Son come, separation between God and those who love him will no longer exist (v. 23).

The word used is “abide”, used over 40 times in John’s Gosepl .How do we prepare for Jesus to abide with or in us? Abide signifies to stay, to remain, to dwell, to lodge, to last, to persist, and/or to continue. We are to make time and space now to welcome Jesus in his relationship to the Father and the Spirit into our lives

By keeping Jesus’ commandments (14:15) and by loving Jesus, which inevitably and inextricably means keeping his word. Loving Jesus implies obeying him. This is not a totalitarian obedience but a freely voluntary participation is essential to John’s vision. It is closer to holding, paying attention to and protecting Jesus word

The results of loving Jesus and keeping his word in v. 23 are: The Father will love that one . The Father and Son will come to that one. The Father and Son will make a dwelling with that one

We prepare for Jesus to abide in us by welcoming his gift of peace (14:27) and responding to his presence with faith in the absence of sight (14:18).

Jesus commands that we serve one another – just as Jesus washed his disciples feet, so he expects us to serve each other (13:14-15). Jesus commands that we love another, even that we love another as Jesus loved us! (13:34). And Jesus commands that we love one another even to the point of giving our life for one another (15:12-13).

John’s language can seem polarizing. This aspect of John’s vision is partly result of his circumstances in which his community was under attack and persecution; you either were a fully devoted, loyal participant of John’s community or you were a danger to the community. This historical context does not need to be repeated, and does not have any theological significance for understanding John. The key is see John’s passage as organic. Everything comes as a complete package and so our experience of any part will only be as rich as our experience of the part we least participate in.

The message Jesus brings is “from the Father” (v. 24); Jesus is his agent. Jesus’ words will be complemented by the actions of the “Holy Spirit” (v. 26), who will be “Advocate”, i.e. helper and counsellor to believers. He will cause the disciples to remember (“remind”) what Jesus has said, and help them to understand the true significance of Jesus’ words and deeds (“everything”).

Jesus gives to his followers “peace”, (v. 27, shalom) – a very different gift from worldly gifts. ). He does not describe the peace he offers, though from his words in John 14:27, we may conclude that his peace offers the disciples both comfort for troubled hearts and courage in the midst of fear. It is not the same as absence of war but an internal feature of wholeness, completeness. It envisions the full prosperity of a people of God living under the covenant of God’s demanding care and compassion are rule

The command to love the promise of peace are all bundled up. And like love, peace is a mark of true discipleship that is required of the disciples — then and now.

This is not a passive peace. It is an active working toward peace in multiple situations. This Spirit and peace will propel the disciples and later the church into active discipleship and mission

In loving God, we come to know him. If they really knew Jesus, they would rejoice at his coming departure (v. 28). The Father has sent him into the world to do his will, so in that sense “the Father is greater than I”. Jesus has told them this so that when they see his manner of leaving (“it”, v. 29), they “may believe”.

Recall Judas’ question "How is it that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?" (John 14:23). These are the ways those who love Jesus will continue to see and know him after he goes away: in the home that the Father and the Son make with them, in the work of the Spirit to call to mind everything that Jesus taught, and in their ongoing experience of peace that comes from him and not from the world.

By telling us what is going to occur in advance, we may be confident that the ruler of this world actually has no power over Jesus; what is about to happen is because Jesus is keeping his Father’s commandment (and thereby showing his love).