May 10, 2026
The Sixth Sunday of Easter
The Rev. Dr. Elaine Ellis Thomas
St. John’s Episcopal Church, Essex, CT
Acts 17:22-31 ~ Psalm 67:7-18 ~ 1 Peter 3:13-22 ~ John 14:15-21
The letter of First Peter includes the instruction, “Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you” (3:15), and as I read that this week, the conflict in Iran continued to be a confused mess, Israel accelerated its incursion into Lebanon, it cost me an extra fifteen bucks more than last month to fill up my car, thousands of people were laid off when an airline suddenly shut down and I want to say to Peter, “what is this hope of which you speak?”
There are some weeks when it is more challenging to wrestle some words of encouragement out of our texts when the world around us – and even, for some of us, right here in our own lives – verges on disaster. Sorrow and illness and death and economic distress abound. And as I read and studied Paul’s speech in Athens and Peter’s 1st Letter and even Jesus’ farewell address to the disciples, I just couldn’t seem to bring it all together to align Good News with what we see when we look around us.
But then, the Spirit showed up. Now, I know we aren’t to Pentecost just yet, but right here in John 14, Jesus promised that when he goes away, he’ll send another Advocate to be with us forever. The word “advocate” is actually a pretty good translation if you hold it as a reference to an attorney, an advocate who shows up in our defense, to encourage and support us. I suppose this is how the old translators came up with “Comforter” to describe this presence, but we aren’t, I think, meant to take it as someone who hides or shelters us. It’s a presence with us, standing up for us. Even St. Jerome could not come up with a decent translation of the Greek back in the 5th century, so he just used that word in his Latin Vulgate, παράκλητος, Paraclete.
About the time Peter is said to have been writing his letters, the Emperor Nero was on a murderous rampage, one that included Peter’s head-down crucifixion. He, of all people, needed that encouragement, that advocate by his side, so when he encourages us to always be prepared to make our defense for the hope we bear, he isn’t just philosophizing or drawing up images out of the air. No, he is living it.
Fr. Nael Rahmoun is the Palestinian Christian Vicar of Nazareth, serving Christ Anglican Church in the Diocese of Jerusalem. He is, quite literally, serving where the Christian story begins. His family has been Christian for as long as there has been such a thing as Christianity. As a Palestinian, he is part of an ethnicity that is under threat from Israel as well as Christian Zionists who are hoping to spark the end times in our time. Life became infinitely more difficult for all Palestinians, not just those in Gaza, following the massacre of Jews by Hamas on October 7, 2023. And then the invasion of Iran, conducted hand in hand by the United States and Israel, meant that the threat of bombs and violence became ever-present for Fr. Nael and his community. In a recent interview, he was asked how he and other Christian Palestinians keep going. How do you maintain hope amidst the bombs and being treated as if you don’t belong in the land your family has lived in for more than two millennia?
This Vicar of Nazareth responded, “We don’t wait for hope; we do hope.”[1]
“We don’t wait for hope; we do hope.”
Nael says that they find ways to create hope by taking care of each other, by praying for those around them, by supporting those in need of care. In short, they are living the way their faith tells them to live, in love and charity with their neighbors.
This week on May 8, the Church commemorated the 14th century English mystic, Julian of Norwich, who is probably best known for her quote that “all shall be well and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well,” and we’ve somehow taken that to mean that it’s all going to be fine, just hang on, and everything will work out okay for us. But this is a woman who lived during the plague that wiped out 40-50% of the population of England. To suggest that she thought that it was going to be “okay” is to diminish the power of what she really said.
Julian’s “showings” or “visions” of Divine Love were given to her when delirious from what was thought to be the Black Death, although she did recover. These visions were written down into one of the most influential volumes ever composed by a woman, and it is in these “Revelations of Divine Love” that the “all shall be well” quote appears. But if you read more deeply into this work, you will also find that Julian wrote
This word: You shall not be overcome, was said with complete clarity and strength, to give us reassurance and courage in all tribulations that may come. God did not say, ‘You shall not be tormented, you shall not be troubled, you shall not be grieved’, but God said, ‘You shall not be overcome.’” (Showings, Chapter 68)
Yes, things may go from bad to worse, but we will not be overcome, because God will not abandon us. Jesus promised an Advocate to be with us.
Jesus said these words to his disciples in the Upper Room, the floor still wet from the water with which he had washed their feet, knowing full well that by morning, he would be in the hands of the authorities.[2] But he is promising them that, while he may not physically be with them, he is still present with them no matter what lay ahead.
For Peter, that was crucifixion in Rome.
For Paul (though not one of the original Twelve) speaking so confidently in the Areopagus of Athens in Acts, it was death by the sword in Rome.
They were not naive. None of them were. Maybe the original followers of Jesus didn’t know just how bad it might get for them, but life was bad enough under Roman occupation. And still they gathered in their communities and broke bread and shared what they had with their neighbors. They did not wait for hope. They did hope.
So why should we not have hope? Why should any of us not have hope when we have the presence of God with us at all times and in all places, in the best of times and in the worst of times?
Yes, the Spirit showed up this week, as always, with more Good News than I could ask or imagine. We can make a defense for the hope that is in us because we have lived it. We have seen it. We know that Christ was crucified, died, and risen, that he will soon ascend into glory yet does not leave us to do life on our own. We will not be overcome. We know that all manner of thing shall be well because we hold onto that promise, we hold onto that hope. We do not wait for hope; we do hope, because we have an Advocate who stands with us, just like Jesus promised those followers of his in that Upper Room.
“I will not leave you orphaned”, Jesus said. “I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live” (John 14:15-16). That’s hope we can hold onto.
[1] “For the Rest of Us” podcast with The Rev. Canon Megan Castellan, May 7, 2026, Dispatch from the Holy Land with Fr. Nael Rahmoun.
[2] With thanks to Dean Andrew McGowan for that imagery.