Sermon 6th Sunday of Easter, The Rev. Daniel Vélez Rivera

Acts 10:44-48, Psalm 98, 1 John 5:1-6, John 15:9-17

Happy Mother’s Day to all of the mothers present: to mother’s who

have brought children into this world, to women who have raised the

children of other women, and to the mothers in our memories and hearts

who have passed.

On this sixth Sunday of Easter the Word of God described how the

love of God fills believers with joy – a spiritual joy that fills us regardless

of anything else we might have or lack in our lives. Each of today’s

readings calls us to respond to God’s invitation by using our life to make a

difference in the life of someone else, These readings are perfect for

Mother’s Day because many mothers can testify with conviction what the

mystery and miracle of child bearing or child rearing means to them and

that regardless of the pain there is joy, given that their child will always be

the manifestation of God through them.

I also want to take a moment to acknowledge that for some people,

perhaps for someone sitting in our pews, the relationship with one’s mother

may not have been a good one. Notwithstanding, God in God’s grace and

love has taken care of you too, God always gives us someone. If your

experience as a child was not the best with your biological mother, I invite

you to reflect on the person who took on the role of your mother. We have

faith and we have love because the Lord has acted through someone who

claimed you as their beloved, just as God claims us as His own forever!

In today’s Gospel, Jesus reminded his disciples that their discipleship

was not something that they could have planned or executed on their own

volition, but that he had chosen them and charged them to carry out his

mission; Jesus appointed/ordained/commissioned/put the disciples forward

to bear fruit, fruit that will last (v. 16). In this week’s lessons, particularly

the Gospel and the letter from John, teach that the disciples (and we) are

first chosen by God, then commanded to love. In that love we find joy and

grace, despite the tribulations that life may present, the spiritual joy that

God provides those who follow Christ’s commandments outweigh our life

tribulations because the love relationship between Creator and created

conquers all.

I would like to tell a mothers story, a disciple’s story, a true story

that reveals the infinity of God’s grace and love. The scene took place

during the apartheid in South Africa. This was shared in a sermon by Sister

Miriam Brasher of the Episcopal order of the Sisters of Charity. “The

scene is a courtroom trial in South Africa. A frail black woman, over 70

years old, gets slowly to her feet. Facing her are several white security

police officers. One of them, a Mr. van der Broek, has just been tried and

found guilty in the murders of the woman’s son and husband. He had come

to the woman’s home, taken her son, shot him at point-blank range, and

burned his body while he and his officers partied nearby.

Several years later, van der Broek and his cohorts returned for her

husband as well. For months she heard nothing of his whereabouts. Then,

almost two years after her husband’s disappearance, van der Broek came

back to fetch her.

How vividly she remembered that night. They took her to a riverbank

where she saw her husband, bound and beaten, but still strong in spirit,

lying on a pile of wood. The last words she heard from his lips as van der

Broek and his fellow officers poured gasoline over his body and set him on

fire were, “Father, forgive them … ” When the woman stood in the

courtroom and listened to the confessions of van der Broek, a member of

South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission turned to her and

said, “So what do you want? How should justice be done to this man who

has so brutally destroyed your family?”

“I want three things,” said the old woman calmly and confidently. “I

want first to be taken to the place where my husband’s body was burned to

gather up the dust and give his remains a decent burial.” She paused, and

then continued, “My husband and son were my only family. So I want Mr.

van der Broek to become my son. I want him to come twice a month to my

house and spend the day with me so I can pour out on him whatever love I

have remaining in me.”

“Finally,” she said, “I would like Mr. van der Broek to know that I

offer him my forgiveness because Jesus Christ died to forgive. This was

also the wish of my husband. So, I would kindly ask someone to come to

my side and lead me across the courtroom so that I can take Mr. van der

Broek in my arms, embrace him and let him know that he is truly

forgiven.”

As the court assistants came to lead the woman across the room, van

der Broek fainted, overwhelmed by what he had heard. As he struggled for

consciousness, those in the courtroom— family, friends, neighbors, and all

the victims of decades of oppression and injustice— began to sing softly

and assuredly, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch

like me.”

So you see, in God’s grace there is love. In God’s love there is a

spiritual joy. In God’s compassion there is a mother watching over her

children, willing to forgive, offering hope, and bearing love. The woman

in the story could not have planned her life the way it turned out, I wonder

if she walked into that court room thinking beforehand that she would be

asked what she wanted for the murderer of her husband and son. God chose

her to be an example to Mr. van der Broek, to you and to me, of God’s

infinite love. She was appointed by God I do dare say; to be the mother of

the despised, as the Virgin Mary before her had been chosen to be the

mother of Jesus.

As I reflect on this story I can’t help but make the connection to

today’s first reading from the book of Acts where the Holy Spirit was

outpoured on the Gentiles. I cannot help but think how the despised in the

Acts story and Mr. van der Broek in Sister Miriam’s story, were “baptized”

by the Holy Spirit. This chosen woman had been all but annihilated by Mr.

van der Broek, but he didn’t brake her soul, on the contrary she broke into

his, giving him new life, new joy, new hope, new freedom, and a new

mother through the Holy Spirit.

I invite everyone – women, men, children, and adolescents – to

ponder on this story of God’s grace, love and joy. I invite you to reflect

how God is using you as a mother in this broken world, regardless of

gender or age, to bring unconditional love to the circumstances, events, and

people around you. I invite you to go into the world in peace to love and

serve the Lord, to do the unconventional and the incomprehensible, in the

name of God! The spirit of the Lord will hold you, always has, always

will. Amen

Pg. PAGE 2