If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. (John 14:15-21)

Our first item of business this morning will be to wash our mouths of the Law. We need a good Gospel rinse to freshen our breath, brighten our smile, and improve our vocabulary and understanding of this morning’s Gospel text. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Now for a gargle, rinse, and spit, if you please. If you love me, you will treasure, cling to, hold fast to, keep close to you, my commandments, my mandates, the things I have entrusted to you, my words. “If you love me you will cling to my mandates.” “Whoever has my mandates and clings to them, he it is who loves me.”

Who are you? There’s a deep question to get things rolling. Who are you? In the martial arts they teach you to know your center of gravity. If you know your center of gravity, you aren’t easily knocked over, no matter how hard you are hit. It allows you to stand firm in the midst of battle without being locked in place. You can move and act with confidence, because you know where your center of gravity is. If you don’t know who you are, you have no personal center of gravity. You’re easily knocked off balance by the slightest thing. You let other people define who you are, lay expectations on you, try to bend and mold you to their idea of who you are.

Jesus the Good Shepherd. Jesus the door for the sheep. The images are comforting and “pastoral” in the literal sense of that word. The word “pastor” is Latin for shepherd. In the Scriptures, “shepherd” and “bishop” (or as we have it “overseer”) run together too, which is why you see bishops in the church carrying shepherd’s staffs. A bishop is a shepherd of souls under the Good Shepherd who is Jesus. Jesus the good Pastor.

It was a long, slow seven miles from Jerusalem to Emmaus for two disciples on that first day of the resurrection. Cleopas, whom some believe to be the brother of Joseph, Jesus’ uncle so to speak, and another disciple are walking back to their homes. As they walked, they talked about all that had happened the past week. The arrest, the trial, the crucifixion, the burial, the odd news from the women of the open, empty tomb, angels (were there one or two?), the report of Peter and John. But no sight of Jesus.