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

Jesus said, “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.”

A blessed Mother’s Day to you.  I pray that this day will bring you joy as you recall the joy that mothers, grandmothers, and mother images bring or have brought into your life.  

Some of my earliest memories are of sitting in mother’s lap as she rocked me in her favorite rocking chair that now sits in my own bedroom.  For me, Mother’s Day is an humbling day as I receive kind words and expressions of love from our daughters and my step-children.  How kind they are to remember the good mothering rather than my poor mothering; these expressions of love are a most welcomed unexpected joy.

Our lessons for today speak of unexpected joy.  When we are open to the workings of the Holy Spirit, we are often surprised by joy; when we take time to notice, we become aware of the joy that surrounds us on every side in God’s creation.    

The disciples responding to Jesus’ words in our Gospel lesson must have been perplexed by these unexpected words of joy coming from Jesus.  “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.”

Our lesson from the Gospel of John is a continuation of the lengthy discourse around the table following that last meal for Jesus and his disciples on that last evening together.  Judas has gone out into the night after a testy exchange in which Jesus has indicated his knowledge of Judas’ intended evil deed.  We’ve all experienced situations where someone in a group meeting storms out, leaving the group tense and uncertain as to how to proceed.  Joy is not the emotion that we would expect.  Yet, Jesus speaks of his joy being implanted in the disciples that their joy may be complete.  The evil deeds that we know were to come on that fateful evening would be manifested by God to be the source of our greatest joy. 

This joy would be made complete in these disciples, now apostles, as we read of their actions.  In the months following Jesus’ ascension, which we will celebrate this Thursday – forty days after the Resurrection, and Pentecost, ten days later, the day on which the Holy Spirit descended upon these followers, they accept the call into their mission as apostles of the Good News.  This unexpected joy of Jesus Christ is made complete in these apostles as they experience the work of the Holy Spirit falling upon even the Gentiles – the uncircumcised, the previous non-believers, those outside the norms of God’s “chosen people.”  We are told that they were astounded at such powerful work as that of the Holy Spirit upon the Gentiles who, by virtue of their belief in Jesus Christ as their Lord, were now “speaking in tongues and extolling God.”

This same unexpected joy is ours when we are open to the power of the Holy Spirit to convert the most seemingly ordinary slice of life into overwhelming spiritual joy.  This same unexpected joy is ours when we, as apostles of the good news, are vehicles for bringing others, especially those that we consider to be outside our comfort zone, into the love of Jesus Christ – that complete joy.

Facing his physical earthly torture and death, Jesus’ focus was joy.  That joy is Jesus’ desire for each of us.  By the power of the Holy Spirit, that joy is complete in each of us.  As we continue to send up our Alleluias in this Easter season of joy, let that joy be complete in you as you bring others into that joy.