Finding Tomorrow Today

In tomorrow's Gospel reading, Jesus says,

the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, `I am going away, and I am coming to you.' If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe.

The Rev. Dr. B. Wiley Stephens, senior minister of Dunwoody (GA) United Methodist Church wrote the following for Day 1 on this passage:

On this second Sunday of May it is our custom to honor our mothers. For those still blessed with their mother, we treasure the lessons we have learned or are learning in her love for us. For us who no longer have our mother, we treasure the memories that become more precious with each day.

For the disciples it was the same with Jesus. They would be pulled in many directions, but they would hold fast to what God had given through Jesus. To love him was to stay true to his word.

There is a contemporary hymn written in the l980s by Natalie Sleeth as she worked through her grief dealing with her own mother's death. The words speak of both the potential that is love and the truth that holds the future as well as our ability to trust beyond our understanding. It is called the Hymn of Promise. The words say this:

In a bulb there is a flower, in the seed an apple tree
In cocoons a hidden promise, butterflies will soon be free!
In the cold and snow of winter there's a spring that waits to be,
Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.

There's a song in every silence, seeking word and melody;
There's a dawn in every darkness, bringing hope to you and me.
From the past will come the future, what it holds a mystery,
Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.

In our end is our beginning, in our time, infinity
In our doubt there is believing; in our life, eternity
In our death, a resurrection; and at last, a victory,
Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.

We can live with this mystery of what the future holds because we trust the one who holds the future. We are finding tomorrow today as we find the one who will go with us into all our tomorrows. For Jesus then gives the key to this hope when he calls for us to be open to even greater things to come. "I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you."

Mark Twain is quoted as having said, "Faith is believing what you know ain't so." We are not limited to the world we know but can with open hearts and minds seek a world that still will be revealed to us. The disciples had some great challenges ahead of them, and the gift they were being given was one that would go with them and lead them in ways they could not fully understand. They knew they were not ready. Perhaps this is one of the reasons they prayed and worshiped together for 40 days before Pentecost. Perhaps this is one of the reasons the church would struggle so as it reached out to the Gentiles. They had to believe in a world that was still coming.

But we don't start over every day. The future brings the joy of new experiences with God, but they are based on what Jesus has shown in his teachings, in his life, and in the days following our lesson in his death and resurrection. One of the great works of the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, is to reinforce what Jesus did and is doing.

For in the face of uncertainty and change, Jesus gives us the gift of peace. "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give as the world gives." It may seem a strange gift to speak of in the middle of this talk of leaving, of death, and of persecution. But there it is. And it's far more than what we mean by peace being the absence of conflict, more than mere calmness or tranquility but rather the wholeness that is captured by the word Shalom. Unlike the world that would give a peace that is only a pause in the conflict. The gift that Jesus would give would keep on giving in the hard days ahead.

And with that promise of peace that would hold came the words of assurance that have spoken to countless souls through the ages, "Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid." Like the kiss of a mother on a child's hurt, it may not solve all the problems, but it brings an assurance that all will be better.

Jesus was telling them of the future. Sure he would be taken, but he was coming to be with them. He wanted them to be assured of his presence, his peace, and his power before their world was torn apart. There was a center that would hold if they would believe.

The full text of his reflection is online here: Finding Tomorrow Today.