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Sunday 18 May 2025 Fifth Sunday of Easter
Cultivating hope
Revelation 21:1-6; John 13:31-35
Context: online service for Christians from different traditions
Aim: recognising HOPE in the love that surrounds us
LONGING FOR NEWNESS
How I long to see a ‘new heaven and a new earth’! Our media sources are full of stories of doom and destruction, and it seems to me that it is far easier to focus on all that is wrong and destructive in the world than to acknowledge and celebrate what is truth, beauty and goodness. In the Ignatian tradition we are reminded to ‘focus on the consolation’, to recognise the presence and action of God by the fruits of God’s Spirit present and active in the world. I don’t think that means avoiding looking at the suffering of our world, but rather it provides an invitation to look deeply, to look with realism, and to actively seek the consolation that is always present.
HARDWIRED FOR LOVE
In his book, Ladder To The Light, Steven Charleston invites the reader to ‘try this simple test: Stand still in any crowded place and watch the people around you. Within a very short time, you will begin to see love, and you will see it over and over and over.’ Charleston highlights the signs of love that are hardwired into us - the care for a child, the concern we might show for an elder, the planting of a tree… Since first reading this I have repeated the exercise many times, and it never fails to alert me to the Love which dwells among us. We are soaked in love, surrounded by its signs, and hardwired for love.
The passage from Revelation reminds us that God has made God’s dwelling amongst us, and that it is the presence of God, this presence of love, that is constantly creating a new heaven and a new earth. ‘It is done,’ God says (Rev 21:6).
AN ONGOING PROMISE
So what of the reality of our
world, with its inequality,
suffering and ecological crisis? How can we stay true to what we see around us without losing hope? The passage from Revelation speaks of an ongoing promise: God is dwelling with us, God is wiping away the tears from every cheek, God will give water to the thirsty. God’s presence is an ongoing action, which is visible to us wherever we see love at work.
Then in the Gospel passage from John we hear Jesus’ word of newness: ‘a new commandment’, the command to risk Love. Jesus commands us. This isn’t an
optional extra. We are commanded to love in the same way that Jesus himself has loved us. What an impossibility! Impossible to love with that sort of generous, non-judgemental, free and unconditional love, unless of course God is truly present in
all things, truly a part of all creation, truly active within us
and within our loving.
A NEW COMMANDMENT
It seems to me that it is in hearing this commandment again and again as something NEW, something challenging and daring, that we rediscover HOPE. This word of Jesus is not only spoken to us 2000 years ago, but today. It is a new commandment, it is a commandment to get up today and to look around and see where we are called to share the radical love that is hardwired into us and to enable and celebrate that same Love which is present in every aspect of creation, in every new leaf growing, in every act of kindness, in the tears of compassion and empathy that we shed in the face of suffering and in every determined action of justice for a world oppressed.
When we stand still, and look around us we see love, we see hope, we see God.
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