Homily for Sunday, May 28, 2017 Good Shepherd and Graves
Chapel
The Seventh Sunday of
Easter
Lessons:
Acts
1:6-14
1
Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11
John
17:1-11
Psalm
68:1-10, 33-36
Collect:
O God, the King
of glory, you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph to
your kingdom in heaven: Do not leave us comfortless, but send us your Holy
Spirit to strengthen us, and exalt us to that place where our Savior Christ has
gone before; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in
glory everlasting. Amen.
While the apostles stand with their faces turned
toward heaven, gaping as the feet of Jesus disappear into the clouds above
them, two men dressed in white [no doubt angels] appear and say to them, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand
looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into
heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” Put
yourselves in the shoes of the apostles. Witnessing the Ascension (and then having a
couple of angels appear) would likely startle any of us and leave us awestruck.
Sometimes it seems as if we Christians remain stuck, staring at heaven and
believing Jesus can only be found there.
We have forgotten the intervention of the angels and the important
message they delivered to the stupefied disciples: Yes, the resurrected Jesus has
ascended to heaven, but he never intended to abandon his followers. The
Ascension distinguishes a separate space for what we understand as
Christ’s kingdom, but it is a spiritual space. The dimension of the
Divine may be different from ours, but it is not distant.
The
story of the Ascension comes to us from the Book of Acts, but today’s gospel
lesson from John 17 recounts a prayer conversation Jesus has with God shortly
before he is arrested and crucified. On behalf of his disciples and in their
presence, Jesus prays to the Father, “All mine are yours, and yours are mine;
and I have been glorified in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but
they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in
your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.” To
emphasize what he says to the disciples concerning his perpetual presence within
them, a few verses later Jesus adds these words: “As you Father, are in me, and
I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you
have sent me. The glory that you have given me, I have given them.”
When
Jesus ascended into heaven, the disciples seemingly could have stood there
forever, but the angels intervened and insisted that the Lord would return, as
He had promised them. Like the
disciples, we may not fully comprehend the manner of His return—as the
Advocate or Holy Spirit residing with us and within us. Since Jesus knew how
very human (and rather dense) the disciples could be, he asked them (and us) to
commemorate his presence by the regular observance of the Holy Communion. Can
you imagine a more vivid reminder that Jesus is within us? We eat the bread that is the body of Christ
and drink the wine that is his blood in the Eucharist, and the priest says
these words: “The gifts of God for the people of God. Take them in remembrance
that Christ died for you, and feed on him in your hearts, by faith, with
thanksgiving.”
If
we carry within us the very essence of the Lord, how do we show His face to the
world? Isn’t that THE fundamental question of our faith? I believe we have to begin
with the intention of making ourselves fully present to the God who is
already present with us. We “tune in,” to use an old expression. We pray
and we meditate as often as we can. There is a prayer for this season of Easter
that asks God to “Increase in our hearts and minds the risen life we share
with Christ.” Aware that we are inhabited by God, attentive to God’s guidance
for us, knowing that we represent Jesus to the people around us, we try to behave
as Christ himself would behave—with love and kindness, mercy and generosity,
with both courage and humility. Jesus prayed for the apostles, saying, “The
Glory you have given me, I have given them.” Being the living expression of the
Glory of Christ carries with it a blessing and a challenge for his disciples
then and now.
Keeping
ourselves fully present as God’s face to the world is most truly a challenge,
however, when we encounter difficulties. In such times, we can find ourselves
seeking distractions to keep our minds off a world that may seem to be falling
apart. Abusing drugs and alcohol, gambling, interfacing with our many
electronic devices, even reading our horoscopes to find signs of a better time
coming—none of these diversions offers a permanent solution to our fears. In
his masterful series of poems called The
Four Quartets, T.S. Eliot suggests that instead of seeking useless
distractions, we should try “the occupation for the saint”—being fully
present with God through the discipline of prayer as we worship alone or with
others. John Booty, scholar and one-time professor at Virginia Theological
Seminary, has written a book about Eliot and the Quartets. Booty explains what Eliot means by “the occupation for
the saint” in this way: “The spectacular divine drama comes to us in our
observance as prayerful and thus humble, yearning worshippers.
Discipline, focusing on the sacrament of reconciliation, follows, for it is
necessary as we seek to respond to the gift of divine love…This discipline
involves repentance, turning from self to Other and thus entering into the saving
relationship.”
Along
with repentance, a “sacrament of reconciliation” is holy communion,
becoming one with Christ and our neighbor. The “saving relationship” then is
our intimate relationship with the God we seek to serve in others. We build
that relationship through the discipline of prayer and worship in supportive
community with other seekers. Understanding that God promises to be within us
helps us to serve God in those around us as we “turn from self to Other.” What
Peter’s letter tells us is that, by God’s grace, it is humility and
self-discipline in the times when we are tested that will keep us steadfast in
the faith and restore us to right relationship with God.
In
my last sermon here, I reminded all of us (myself included) that the Lord we
worship is symbolized by the cross and is a Lord who endured and understands
suffering. As we are the Lord’s representatives in the world, and as we are
also human beings, we have and will suffer from time to time. Unlike the Coptic
Christians of Egypt, we American Christians will most likely not be called to
martyrdom, but we do have our own crosses to bear. In today’s epistle, St.
Peter writes, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking
place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.
But rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ's sufferings, so that you may
also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed.” I do not want to
suggest (and I don’t think this was Peter’s intention, either) that suffering
is inflicted upon us as something we deserve. Christ certainly did not deserve
the crucifixion. Rather, I want to reemphasize that suffering is unavoidable as
part of the fabric of life. We may
imagine our suffering is intended to test us in some way, to determine our
worth. Rather, I believe the testing we undergo in our suffering is
comparable to the testing of metal in the art of metallurgy. When Peter speaks
of a “fiery ordeal taking place among you to test you,” let us remember that
such a test of metal makes the metal stronger and helps the metallurgist
determine the composition of the metal.
This
kind of test is not one that can be either passed or failed. It is rather a
test from which an individual learns his or her own strengths (or weaknesses)
and can then determine how to make better use of those strengths. We make such
discoveries about ourselves as we endure the difficulties life throws at us.
The testing we undergo is a way of strengthening us, just as the testing of
metal makes it stronger. As part of a community of worshipers, we learn to be
more compassionate with our fellow sufferers. In this way, our resolve to
reflect Christ’s glory can be strengthened and His “glory is revealed.”
We
all share a “risen life with Christ” in a spiritual kingdom, and our access to
that kingdom is within reach of our hearts and prayers. As today’s collect
suggests, it is the indwelling Holy Spirit whose glory we reveal by our love
and compassion. If we make ourselves fully present, our eternally present Lord
brings us comfort and guidance. When we suffer, we comprehend the testing of
the one whose risen life we share. In worship, in “the occupation for the
saint,” we gather strength in community to face our troubles. We believe Our
Lord is as close to us as our very heart. With such a divine partner, we have
no reason to lose hope. AMEN.
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