Sunday 10th May – Everybody neeeds somebody – Pastor Adrian Kitson

Everybody needs somebody.

I remember that song by that old ‘Crooner’ of the 1960’s, Dean Martin, wafting through the loungeroom when I was a kid.

“Everybody loves somebody sometime’

Hopefully we all love someone sometimes! But even more true: Everybody does need someone sometime. As the saying goes. ‘No man (or woman) is an island’, or at least can’t be for very long.

I think old Deano was talking about romantic love. I am thinking of a different love – the kind of love that we need sometimes – the need for someone to stick up for us, defend us protect us, guide us, teach us, lead us – like a Mum’s love.

Jesus speaks very pointedly about his imminent departure from these very gloomy close friends. Like a loved one with some incurable illness speaking from the hospital bed about death that will soon descend upon the family gathered there, Jesus speaks about his death. They don’t like that or want that. Who does?

Like any of us who have had this kind of moment or even had this kind of thought and kept it to ourselves, they wonder what on earth they are going to do when he is gone. Like us, when Dad goes or Mum goes or a great mentor goes, we wonder if we could ever live up their pattern, their example, their shaping of our work, our family, our life. Things will never be the same, we think.

I remember when my Dad died back in 2016. I instantly felt the weight of now being the oldest adult male in our family. Not that my two sisters and Mum could not look after themselves very well, and have, or that Leanne and the kids were doing fine. But there was that feeling that things were somehow very different. I had a new responsibility in my own family I never had before; to be the oldest bloke that carried the story and needed to keep on looking after the whole family.

I can’t imagine, after all they had experienced with this mentor and friend, Jesus, how dark talk of his departure must have been.

But Jesus says that they have no need to be so gloomy, unsure, unsettled and worried about him, his death or their life after that because they will soon have an ‘Advocate’ or what he uniquely calls, a ‘Paraclete’.

A ‘paracletos’ is an aid, an assistant; someone you call over to be by your side as you face a challenge or a trial or a job.

I note that Jesus says the Father will send these close friends ‘another’ paraclete; ‘another assistant. Just like Jesus has been their support and teacher and defender, so this paraclete will be that for them when Jesus is gone.

So, like a child left an orphan who is then taken into a loving family home to go on growing, this will be how it is for Jesus’ people once everything has been accomplished for them on that cross and out of that tomb he has mentioned.

Surely these followers struggled to believe all this. Loss of a loved person is all consuming for us. Loss of anything precious to us is all consuming. It is hard to hear the words of anyone very much when grief is flooding our heart.

Is that why Jesus also gives these worried workers some simple direction too. Yes, he gives them the promise of a life with Help and power and truth and love in this Paraclete, but he also adds in this simple direction to keep on loving as they have been loved.

Sounds like this is hard. “If you love me, only then will I help, comfort, defend you. But what if I don’t love or can’t love enough? Does that mean I will be an orphan to the Father?

No. Replace the ‘If’ with As’. That is a legitimate thing to do in Greek.

As you love me, you can keep my commandments’. Why? Because you love me and know I love you.

Like a son or daughter gladly and willingly caring for Mum today because she is mum, and the love is deep. That is how Jesus means these words.

And it is a two for one deal. You don’t just get Jesus’ love, but the Father’s also.

There is no doubt Jesus sees that things would never be perfect or easy for these friends of his, even after all that he knows will soon happen and the very good things that will happen after that.

So here, he assures them they will not be like parentless kids running around in fear trying to make sense of it all, but safe, protected, loved kids binding together in him in the face of it all.

And then he gives them clear, simple direction to live that life, to be that community; to bear that witness to his love, and the grace of the Father.

That is what a good coach of a high profile team in a slump does. He gives them one simple clear direction – just do the basics, trust the game plan, trust me, and do the little things and we will get through.

Luther puts it this way.

Do you live like an orphan? It is easy to do. Self-preservation, self-congratulation; self- determination runs deep in our blood even with the blood of Jesus in our veins too.

Do you feel like an orphan at times? As if there is no helper, no assistant, no power, no truth to guide; as if you have to figure all this out lest you get it wrong, fail and fall over…?

It is very easy to live like we really have to find the truth alone, keep all those moral expectations, find the will-power to see things through in order to get Jesus’ help (if we even ask for it). Because then we have earned it and the ego is happy and the world congratulates us.

It is very easy to quite the Body too; go it alone and try and find others to go with you. Because ‘everybody needs somebody sometime’. It is hard to maintain the rage all by yourself. It is hard to be alone all the time.

What will it be today – orphan or connected growing child? Lone hand or Body part in a purposeful life? Humble receiver or high achiever? Perfect performer or healed sinner?

I remember sitting in a non-descript waiting area at the local magistrate’s court with a staff person in our organisation.

Peter had messed up big time. At a staff party he had been a bit too much the life of the party and deeply upset and offended another staff person and friends. The issue had gone legal and here we were.

Peter was devastated. He felt ashamed and so stupid for his behaviour and the damage it had caused his own family and other staff members and the organisation. He was deeply remorseful. He felt alone. I bet you he felt like an orphan this day.

It seemed the right thing to do as his pastor to sit with him that day awaiting his moment in court. He knew that bad behaviour has consequences and that whatever sentence was handed down he would rightly cop. Upon my arrival after that initial “get away from me for I am an unclean man’ reaction that Peter the Apostle said to Jesus on the shoreline that first day, this Peter allowed me to sit with him.

We waited….. the courtroom staff person came out. Peter went in by himself (I was not allowed to enter the courtroom). It was over in a few minutes. He was found guilty. He was only given a fine. He was so relieved.

I was led to be an advocate for Peter that day – just with him – just to be close to him so he was not alone, so that he knew he had at least someone to trust and rely on and help him get through whatever was coming.

That is Jesus for you today, friend. In all the places and behaviour in which you feel like an orphan; that you are all alone, that is where the Spirit helps; where the Spirit of Jesus risen assists, sits with you, gives you new power, simple guidance, clear direction for you when you are in the dock with someone or over something.

When he meets you in the dock and minsters his Word to you through The Word itself or his Word through an advocate friend, trust him and then go ahead and just keep practicing love

That is always the direction – doing self-giving love of another, in simple word and deed; just keep keeping those commandments of Jesus.

And for love, not for gain or winning and congratulations, but for love for him and love for the people he loves; for your colleagues your family, your friends your enemies.

Everybody needs somebody, and everyone here has that Somebody – The Paraclete, Holy Spirit of Christ.

Then go ahead and be somebody for somebody.

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