St Mary's

Today sermon from Samuel

10th May 2026

“May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you O Lord my refuge and my redeemer amen”. 

Today is the sixth Sunday of this year’s Eastertide, and we are rapidly approaching to those day when we will celebrate the feasts of the Ascension and after that we as a church will celebrate the feast of the Pentecost, yet another very special day, in which God fulfilled one of his promises, yet again, as just like he has kept his other promises. 

On this day, the sixth Sunday of Easter, we heard two readings, a reading from the Gospel according to John and a reading from the book of Acts. The Gospel according to John was written down by John the apostle, somewhere between 80 to 95 AD, although some biblical scholars argue that this Gospel was penned down in the 50 but no later than 70 AD. According to NIV Quest Study Bible, John wrote this Gospel account for non-Jewish believers, and particularly to those struggling with the predominant Greek philosophers of that time. Those Greek philosophers were teaching the people that, salvation comes through special knowledge and that Jesus was divine but not truly human, and John wrote this Gospel account we explain and teach people that Jeus is the Messiah, the Son of God and that by believing him we may have eternal life in his name. 

So, if we look at immediate context of today’s Gospel passage, we could come to know that, the verses we just heard was taken from the discourse which Jesus hadwith his disciples when he was on his way to Jerusalem after raising Lazarus, and we know very well that Jerusalem is the city where Jesus was sentenced to death and was crucified. That is, when he was on his way to his death, Jesus is teaching to the things which serves as a beacon of light not only for his disciples but also for us, in the light of which we can live our lives. 

If we ponder on our personal, family, church and social lives, we remember that moments when we feel that we are alone or there are moments in our lives when we feel that God is not with us, rather he is watching us, or may be smiling us, while we facing hardships, from a distance. Let’s be honest that there are moments in our lives when, no matter how wholeheartedly we are praying for anything, our prayers seem to go nowhere, and our lives carry on as if we are in whirlpool and leftalone figuring things out on our own. If I am not wrong, many of us have either gone through these situations, or may still be going through them. In the light of the, the reading we just heard from the Gospel according to Johnyou might be thinking what this passages we just heard is talking or preaching to us. 

If we recall today’s Gospel reading in our minds, we could see that although Jesus is his on way to the cross, he promised two things in today’s Gospel reading very clearly. He is speaking of sending the Holy Spirit, and in John 14:18 he says that, 

“I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you”. 

If we look at this promise, there is something strange about it. Jesus is the Son of God, and as Son he is saying that I will not leave you orphaned. Humanly speaking, how can a son say something like this to his siblings? We all know that the meaning of orphan is ‘someone whose parents have died’. So being a Son, how can Jesus say as a Son something like this that, ‘I will not leave you orphaned’. 

So, what Jesus is doing here, he is directly one more time, as he proclaimed many times in Bible directly and indirectly that, he is God, and he has the control of our lives. Because if we go through the Bible, we could come to know that in Bible so many times Jesus told us that, it will not be easy to be a Christian, and that is what Jesus is doing here, he is speaking directly into the fear of his disciples and to us as well, and by saying this that he will not abandon us, he is giving a deeper meaning to his promise. 

What he is saying here is that an orphan is the one who has no one to return, no one to call out to in hardships and uncertainties. No one goes to in a time of need and no one will take care of them. But by saying them that I will not abandon you, Jesus is clarifying that he is not distant from us. The relationship he is having with us is not a not distant relationship, where Jesus is looking at us from distance, rather what he is saying that the relationship he is having with us is a close, personal, intimate and alive association. What he promises is that he is with us in all circumstances. He is saying that he is not just with us, rather he is also going through with us in all our hardships, uncertainties, problems, joys, sorrows, and in every step of our lives. 

We just need to have faith in him that just as he has fulfilled all his other promises, he is sticking to this one as well. I was reading it somewhere that, Jesus’ presencein our hardships and difficulties does not depend on how we feel in the moment. It rests on who he is and what he has already promised. 

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus makes it verytransparent that this is not our story, this is not about us, this is not about you and me, it is about him. It is about him even when we cannot see him, he is present, not outside our lives, not watching us from distance, but with us, and within us, as he said. ‘You are in me and I in you’. 

I read in my morning devotion that, in our lives whenever we feel alone or abandoned, it does not mean we are alone. It simply means we cannot see the full picture yet.We just need to have faith in God and in Jesus and we need to pray to God so he may help us hold on Jesus’ promise that we are not alone, so we can manifest it in our lives, and with it we can glorify his name. 

May God bless you all. 

Amen.