May 10, 2026 - John 14:15-21 - 6th Sunday of Easter

As a student of history, I can say that, amid the many atrocities and bloody conflicts of WWII, there was one bright point. It was very easy to tell who the good guys were and who the bad guys were. It’s the same reason so many people like stories such as Star Wars or the Lord of the Rings. There are few who are completely neutral in the conflict. That means you always know when to cheer and when to boo.

The church benefits from this sort of thing too. When evil looms large on the horizon and the dark clouds gather all around, it can be a scary and uncertain time, but the evil is also very obvious. The church can point to it and there doesn’t have to be any debate or discussion about where the evil is.

Since then it seems like things have gotten somewhat fuzzier. Whether you were for or against the wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, now Iran, at the very least you can say that things are quite as unified. A couple of weeks ago, Pope Leo publically criticized President Trump’s actions in Iran, arguing that no conflict can ever be justified. Trump argued that he’s keeping people safe, which, according to him, is what he was elected to do. Again, maybe one of these arguments sways you and maybe they don’t. But, these aren’t opinions offered by the average man on the street, who probably has a limited understanding of what’s going on anyway. These are two global leaders. Each in their own way is responsible for the wellbeing of hundreds of millions of people.

In the Catholic Church, even if the Pope is not speaking infallibly, the bishops and theologians of the church are still obligated to assume he is correct and should only be critical of him when they have ample evidence. Thankfully, we Lutherans have no problem criticizing the Pope and have a long history of doing exactly that. Americans are also not obligated to like whatever the current president says, at least when it doesn’t undermine his authority.

That still leaves us in an odd position. What is the church to say and do about all of this chaos? Who is right? Who is wrong? What does it even mean to be the church today?

God’s people have always been called to be different. The first thing the Israelites do after getting out of Egypt is head to Mt. Sinai. Naturally it wasn’t the people who were calling the shots here. They weren’t punching Mt. Sinai into their GPS and heading off on an adventure. God was leading them there. They wouldn’t end up staying there all that long, but it would be a critical stop for them on the way to the Promised Land. Before they God to the Promised Land and really settled in there, they would need to know some things first.

The whole point of Mt. Sinai is to give the Israelites the Law. Everything that came with the Law was intended as a teaching tool. God had many things to teach the people and they were supposed to learn those lessons and share them with the world. For now, though, they were just now getting the Law. The Law would teach them about how God worked and how creation was intended to work. It would teach them about sin. It would teach them how they were different than all of the other nations of the world.

A big part of that outward distinction would be these laws. The Israelites wouldn’t be offering sacrifices to curry favor with their god or to appease divine wrath. Their sacrifices would be different. They would help the Israelites to understand the nature of sin. The Israelites would learn that sin is only ever paid for in blood, in death. Nothing else will pay that debt. The Israelites would have festivals and holy days that were special to them. They would be constant reminders of what God had done for them, how he had saved them from terrors they couldn’t fight, how he had provided for them in a land that wouldn’t sustain, how he had given life in a land that intended their death.

These laws and all of the rest would show the world that being God’s people meant being different. Far from being onerous, continuing to live as God’s people would mean numerous blessings, earthly blessings God explicitly lists out: safety, prosperity, long life, and more. They didn’t even have to do anything to earn their status as God’s people. That was already done for them. Now it was just a matter of continuing in what they had already received.

The Laws were never really about the laws themselves, but about the lessons they contained. Being one of God’s people should change your life. Who you are now, after God saved you, should look very different from who you were. It means also understanding what God means by worshipping him alone, not misusing his name, remembering the Sabbath, honoring your father and mother, and all of the rest. The Israelites at least had a somewhat easier time knowing what to do. Even if you didn’t quite grasp the lesson yet, keeping doing what the law requires and hopefully you’ll figure it out eventually.

Isn’t so straightforward for us though. We don’t have a long list of laws, rules, and ordinances to follow. Jesus sums up the commandments with, “Love the Lord your God, and love your neighbor as yourself.” In our Gospel today, Jesus tells his disciples, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

That sounds pretty vague. It’s almost as if the Israelites were given training wheels and learned how to ride with them. Now God has taken the training wheels off. But, with this new-found freedom, we don’t really know where to go.

Much of the discussion in the church as it connects to the world around us revolves around caring for our neighbors. What does that look like? How do we keep God’s commandments out in the world? Immigration is certainly one area where there is much debate as to what it means to properly keep God’s commandments. Abortion and euthanasia continue pop up as issues as well. How do we best love our neighbor and so keep God’s commandments? How do we live in the world as God’s people today?

In all of this discussion, one important detail gets overlooked. We look at what Jesus says here and get busy with doing all of the things God commands. That’s not all bad, since God does command good things. But, the words Jesus uses can be understood in two different ways. “Keep my commandments, by going out and doing what they require,” or “Keep my commandments by guarding them for they are precious.”

As Jesus talks to his disciples here, the discussion continues, “Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” 23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.”

I have given you my words, and they are not only my words, but the Father’s words. Keep them safe. Living as God’s people means first holding on to his words and commandments, keeping them safe, treating them as the precious gifts they are. The writer of Psalm 119 expounds on the many virtues of God’s law, but at the very beginning he starts it all off by saying, “Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart...” God’s commandments, his testimonies, his blessings, his promises, these are what define us. They are what mark us as who we are. We are people who have received God’s mercy and we know this because he tells us so. We are people who have eternal life and we know this because of his promise through the Spirit and through baptism. We are the people who have been claimed by him and we know again because his baptismal promise and by his presence in the Lord’s Supper. He is with us and so we are his people.

Before we can be worried about carrying out his commandments in the world, we must first concern ourselves with keeping them safe in our hearts and minds, that we are guarding them and treating them as the precious gifts they are. We’d rather be doing things. We want to do tangible things with tangible results. We’d rather have some kind of concrete action to point to that we can hold up to prove we’ve done the things necessary to be God’s people.

That makes the deciding factor all about us. Given that we aren’t always, or ever, very good about carrying out his commandments, thanks be to God that it isn’t about us. God claimed us without any contribution on our part. He cleansed us and made us holy without us having to do anything. We are not made God’s people because we keep his commandments. We are made God’s people because he keeps us. The writer of Psalm 121 says, “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.”

It is God who keeps you, who guards you, who sees you as precious, his treasured possession. He has claimed you, redeemed you, and made you his own. This declaration of his grace and love is the greatest gift you have. Jesus speaks to his disciples here on the eve of his death on the cross. “Father, forgive them...” “It is finished.” “Peace be with you.” “I will be with you always, to the end of the age.”

Keep God’s words, his commandments, his promises, and guard them closely. Hold them as precious and sacred, as treasured possessions. Carry them with you wherever you go and the rest will begin falling into place naturally. Stand firm in your calling as one of his people, one of his beloved children. The God who commanded his priests to announce to his people, “The Lord bless you and keep you,” will surely do just that.