Believing  is NOT Necessarily Seeing, Caitlin Gilbert, Youth Sunday, Easter 6--Year C--May 13, 2007

In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen

Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, ‘Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us and not the world?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.’
 
Make sure to keep in mind that this Judas is not the one who betrayed Jesus, but his friend Judas, the one who was always there for him.
 
In our day and time, it is hard to imagine giving up everything, your job, family and friends, all for one man, a teacher who you believe with all your heart, but this is exactly what Judas did for Jesus.  Judas and the disciples felt so deeply about what Jesus had to say that they gave up all they had just to travel with him and try and spread the teachings of Jesus to others.  While traveling, the men were able to convey their teachings to those around them and were able to convince those people of how good the word was.  Jesus made Judas and the disciples feel comfortable, like they could accomplish anything with him by their side.   But, one day, this all changed and Jesus told the disciples that he had to leave them to join his Father.  When told this, they were in a state of disbelief because they felt as if they were being abandoned by the man whom they admired, respected, and looked up to, their teacher. These feelings that they were experiencing were to be expected and because Jesus understood these feelings, he was able to comfort Judas and the disciples and told them that even if he was gone, he would still be with them, if only in their heart, showing us the beginning threads of faith. 
 
Now, if you think about it, every one of us has had this type of feeling at some point in their life.  Whether you were the “Judas” in the situation, being left behind and not knowing what to do or how to act, or where you were “Jesus” and were having to leave your student behind with the knowledge that you were still there with them even if it wasn’t in the physical sense.
 
 I know that right now in my life with graduation approaching, I will be facing a similar situation.  I will be leaving my parents and my brother and sister and my church family, all of whom are my role models and are those that I cherish the most. Because I am going away soon, I can somewhat imagine what Judas felt when Jesus told him he was leaving.  But, even though I sometimes feel unsure about going to college, I know if I ever need my family they are always in my heart and just a phone call away.
 
A tool that we each have readily available that helps us believe, are our memories.  For instance, my Grandpa Bill, who was my mom’s father, mentor, and role-model, died when I was six years old, so I didn’t really get a chance to get to know him too well.  However, I have heard countless stories that make him real to me and prove to me that he really did exist.  I remember one story of him wiggling my tooth when it was loose and promising not to pull it, so I of course let him wiggle it.   But, unlike he said, he wiggled it, took his hand out of my mouth, opened his hand and showed me my tooth that he “wasn’t going to pull.”  Though stories such as these may seem trivial to others, they are what keep Grandpa Bill alive in all of us, especially my mom, aunt, Grandma and his grandchildren.  These types of stories within a family are how we keep everyone we love alive. 
 
Other situations also help us with our faith and reinforce the idea of believing even if you can’t see.  A few weeks ago over Spring Break, my grandparents were staying at our house, helping Griffen and me after we had our wisdom teeth out.  I was over at my friend’s house when I got a phone call from my mom telling me that my dad and Grandma had to take Grandpa to the hospital, that they didn’t know what was wrong yet, but that he should be fine.  These types of situations help to get us thinking about not only what this person means to you but what types of memories you have of them that will help keep them alive in you and others, even if they don’t make it.  Fortunately for all of us, Grandpa is well and made it through just fine, but those times that make you say “what if?” to yourself are the times when you will start to think about how you will remember a person and how you will manage to keep them alive.
 
Because Jesus told Judas to always believe in him and hold him in his heart, Jesus was able to leave with complete confidence that Judas would continue to carry the word, even without Jesus physically there to help him, because he knew that Judas held love for him in his heart.  This is sort of like what my parents tell the three of us, that even if they aren’t there, that we need to continue to behave as if they were because we hold them in our hearts and that we represent them as much as Judas had to represent Jesus.
 
From the gospel we also learn that even if we are being left or are leaving, we should not be afraid of the unknown because we have the love and peace of Jesus and those that we are leaving or being left by always with us.  Though I am going away to a new school, where I am once again the little fish in a big pond, I know my family wants me to do well, and they are just a few hours away, which reassures me to no end.
 
 We also know that we have to be brave, Jesus expected it of Judas, and others expect it of us so that we may stay true to what we believe and help convey that belief to others.  By keeping others alive in our hearts, as Judas kept Jesus alive in his, it proved his love for his teacher and the words that he had been told, and now it was his job to make sure that others were able to receive the words even if Jesus wasn’t there in person. 
 
Now, the memories and stories that Judas and the others had of Jesus were how they were able to tell others about Jesus and make him alive in their hearts, and these stories and memories are what allow Jesus to live in all of us in this day and time.  Though it is hard to always keep this information in our minds, it is important that we know you don’t have to necessarily see to believe and that it is up to us to keep those who we are left by in our hearts and alive.  By following the example of Jesus and Judas, we see how faith came about with something as simple as believing. 
 
Amen