Easter 6A - 2026
Sermon for the Sixth Sunday of Easter, Year A
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
The Rev. Andrew McLarty
Today we celebrate the young people of the church, especially our graduating seniors. Some are preparing to leave home for the first time. Some are stepping into new responsibilities, new freedoms, and new uncertainties. Beneath all the excitement is often the same question the disciples carried:
“What happens when I have to stand on my own?”
Parents feel it too. There comes a moment when you realize your role is changing. You cannot solve every problem anymore. You cannot walk every hallway for them or protect them from every mistake. At some point, you have to trust that what has been planted in them will grow.
And in today’s Gospel, Jesus is trusting the disciples. He prepares them to live faithfully in a world where they must make their own choices, discern truth, act, heal, and teach in their own, and carry the Gospel themselves.
That is what love does. Real love forms people not for dependence, but for maturity.
But Jesus does not leave them alone.
“I will ask the Father,” he says, “and he will give you another Advocate.”
The word is Paraclete — comforter, counselor, helper, one who comes alongside.
In other words, Jesus is saying:
“You are going to walk forward on your own two feet, but you will not walk alone.”
That is a message for our graduates to hold close, but it is also imperative for all of us. Because most of us wish faith came with certainty. We want a map. We want guarantees that every choice will work out and every road will be safe.
But Christian maturity is not learning how to control the future.
It is learning how to trust the presence of God within it.
To our youth, large and small: there will be moments ahead when you feel confident and moments when you feel completely lost. You will make wise decisions and poor ones. You will discover strengths you did not know you had. You will fail at things that once seemed easy.
That is not failure. That is becoming.
And through it all, the promise of Christ remains: the Advocate will be with you.
The Spirit reminds you who you are when the world tries to tell you otherwise. The Spirit calls you back when you drift and comforts you when life becomes heavy.
As much as I may want it to be, the Christian life is not about becoming completely self-sufficient. The Gospel never glorifies isolation. Instead, we are taught again and again how to stand responsibly while remaining deeply connected to God and connected to one another.
Stand on your own feet.
Be who God created you to be.
But remember:
you do not walk blindly,
and you never walk alone.
The Spirit abides with you.
Amen.
