Harmony

John 14:15-17 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate,  to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.


Jesus has a sense of humor. At least he makes me chuckle when I see his hand at work in my life. Some weeks ago I met with the rector to plan for a series of sermons which will start this Sunday. As a result I will be preaching on this very passage on Sunday. We had no way of knowing this duplication was in the future, but I think God was putting the pieces together to have me thinking about this passage in a variety of circumstances. That's what it means to have the advocate on your side. Things seem to work in harmony with one another when we trust in God and abide with him. In all situation, both the pleasant and the unpleasant God brings harmony. I'm defining harmony in this sense as that ability to see circumstances through God's eyes. 


These days it is easiest for me to use the most significant event in my life. Most of you know about my wife Marsha's illness and death, and may have even read some of my blog entries about the months to follow. I would have to say that although I have experienced grieving up close and personal, I also have seen harmony in the midst of it. In Psalm 139 the author ask where he could go to escape God and he knows it is impossible. I ask why would anyone want to go anywhere to escape God. Yes I find God everywhere, and that leads to prayer and praise.