Easter Season - Year B -- 2009
Indexed by Date. Sermons for Easter Year B
Acts 10: 34-43
Psalm 118 (VU Pts 1,2,3)
1 Corinthians 15: 1-11
John 20: 1-18
It has the potential to be a great drama. How about “CSI AD 30!” or “CSI Jerusalem”. It has a nice ring to it. Do you think I could sell it to one of the networks? I remember getting some people in the Rexton Pastoral Charge to do that with me a few years ago, but it wasn’t my idea.
So what we have here is a crucifixion and hasty burial on the first day and on the third day, reports of a missing body and then mysterious sightings of the one who had been pronounced dead. It is all pretty dramatic.
You see, we have heard the story so often, we know how it turns out, but for the first participants it must have been like being in the midst of a nightmare that would not end.
Their beloved teacher is arrested on trumped up charges and before his friends knew what was happening, he was tried, convicted and crucified, LIKE A COMMON CRIMINAL. Then he was hastily buried because Passover was the holiest of days. Finally, when it was appropriate, early on the first day of the week, some friends of his, a group of women, arrived at the empty tomb and found it empty.
What would you do in such a situation? They ran to tell the others. “They” have taken Jesus. We do not know where “they” have taken him. The two disciples go and only after seeing for themselves do they believe that he is gone. The text is somewhat unclear but it seems to me that the word “believed” at this point only refers to the story of the women. They believed he was gone. Then they went home.
Mary is still weeping when she encounters the presence of the risen Christ - who she understandably mistakes as the gardener and the thief - and she accuses him of taking the body of her friend - and it is this presence who meets her in her pain and whose love reaches through her tears and calls he by name, “Mary”.
At the bidding of the Risen One she goes and proclaims the News. This time it is not “He is gone”, but rather, “I have seen the Lord”. The proclamation is not, “He is gone”, but rather, “He is risen”.
The story continues on and in each Gospel we read a different perspective on the experience. Some believe, some do not. Some take more convincing than others.
One thing is of vital importance; for the faith community the empty tomb was not enough to bring about a belief in the resurrection. All that this really proved was that the body was not there! We often forget that the first followers did not know what to expect. We know the story; but they were living it. We know that Jesus will appear soon!
In the gospel story for today the woman at the tomb did not even recognize Jesus when she practically fell over him. It was only after he spoke to her that she saw and believed. I don’t think that we would do any better.
What we must always remember though was that the empty tomb did not sustain the church in its early days of controversy and persecution. The empty tomb proved nothing.
What sustained them in those dark times was the undeniable presence of the risen Christ in their otherwise empty lives.
Easter is not an historical event; like the things we learned about in school - Battle of Hastings -1066; Canada joins PEI - 1873; WW1 1914-1918 and so on and so on Easter is a present event - Easter is a present proclamation. The Good News of Easter is that the power of God in the risen Christ is coming to us in our grief, pain and loneliness and saying our name, saying to us in tender, yet power-filled words, that death and pain and defeat do not have the final word. The message of Easter comes to us in our deepest need and our greatest fear and fills us with life-sustaining and life-changing presence. The message of Easter is that LIFE has the last word. The message of Easter is that LOVE has the last word. The message of Easter is that HOPE has the last word.
The message is as powerful today as it was almost 2000 years ago.
Christ is Risen!
Christ is Risen Indeed.
Hallelujah.
Acts 4: 5-12
Psalm 23
1 John 3: 18-24
John 10: 11-18
A number of years ago, when I was still living in New Brunswick, the Pastoral Care Committee of the local Nursing Home, had a discussion with the administrator about the Home’s “pandemic plan” in the event of a pandemic flu outbreak.
What would we do if there was a flu pandemic? How would life change in the community and in the Home? While people on the street may be largely unaware of these plans, nursing homes, hospitals, funeral directors, and police forces among others, have had a part in formulating the plans, which have been around for a long time. When they kick in fully,day to day life as we know it, will change significantly for the duration of the pandemic. Experts tell us that the likelihood of a pandemic flu is now thought of, not in terms of, “if” but rather, in terms of “when”.
As I speak some people are waking up, feeling lousy and wondering if this is just a cold or the dreaded ‘swine flu’ or the results of too much celebration after the big game, or something else! Perhaps the person in question is someone who planned to be here today. Considering the implications we can all say, “Thank you - for staying home. We will love to see you next week, or when you are feeling better.”
As we speak doctors and health professionals are figuring out how to treat the sick without the sick making others or their caregivers even sicker.
Drs Heather Morrison and Lamont Sweet P.E.I.’s chief and deputy-chief ‘medical officers of health’, are holding almost daily news briefings to make sure the public is aware of what to do and what not to do. It seems to me that one of the most important pieces of advice is: “Don’t Panic”. Of course that is easier said than done.
The other pieces of advice that are also important during the regular cold and flu season also apply:
Wash your hands frequently.
A mask is NOT necessary.
Cough and sneeze into your sleeve. (Remember you touch others with your hands.)
Stay home if you are sick.
Keep your kids home from school if they are sick.
And don’t travel internationally unless it is absolutely necessary.”
In Mexico City last Sunday, church services were cancelled because of a government ban on public gatherings.
By now we have probably all been reminded of the infamous “Spanish Flu”. In the wake of the First World War this pandemic caused more deaths than the war itself and, interestingly, affected healthy adults much more than children and the frail elderly. (They also now know why this was the case.)
But I’ll bet you have never heard of the “Plague of Galen”. It happened between 165 and 180 AD. It was an ancient pandemic, most likely measles, and was thought to have been brought back to the Roman Empire by troops returning from foreign campaigns. The epidemic claimed the lives of two Roman emperors. The disease broke out again nine years later and caused up to 2,000 deaths a day at Rome, about one quarter of those infected. Total deaths have been estimated at five million. This disease killed as much as one-third of the population in some areas, and decimated the Roman army.
What is not widely known about the Plague of Galen is that early Christians proved their spiritual mettle by tending to the sick. Bishop Cyprian of Carthage organized a city-wide relief and nursing program, available to everyone. As church historian Dianne Butler-Bass says, in her book, “A People’s History of Christianity”
"Their acts of mercy extended to all the suffering regardless of class, tribe or religion and created the conditions in which others accepted their faith. "
They did this based on Jesus' Great Commandment to love God and to love neighbour. In other words, Christians did risky and compassionate things that helped people.
But why?
Why would these early Christians deliberately and consciously place themselves at such risk?
At that time no one, not even the medical profession, knew how diseases were really transmitted. They did not know what kinds of contact with sick people were risky, and which were not, so many of the sick were left to fend for themselves. This activity of caring for the sick on the part of ordinary Christians was indeed a courageous and very dangerous act.
It was also an act of faith.
It came from Jesus’ example as they remembered that he healed and taught and welcomed the elderly and young, the sick and the healthy, women and men, outcast and important, sinners and righteous people. It came from their understanding of the scriptures that since God cared for them their response was to care for others.
One of the things that we tend to forget is that Christianity was illegal for the first 400 years of its existence but that did not prevent its spread nor did it prevent its followers from seeking to live out God’s care for them by providing care to those in need.
We think that soup kitchens were invented in the Great Depression; the Christians in Cappadocia had one in the middle of the fourth century.
The first hospitals were built by Christian communities and early on monasteries provided a place of refuge for travellers and for the sick and indigent. They offered food to travellers, usually strangers, and washed their feet, in the tradition of their master and offered lodging.
Indeed, many people found their care in the face of danger and opposition to be so compelling that they converted to the religion that was at the root of this compassion and the movement grew.
In today’s passages we read of the compassionate care of a shepherd God; the care of one who cares deeply for each and every one of those in the flock.
From time to time, I go to see Rae and Ila’s two children in the congregation who are part of a sheep raising farm family sheep and to me they all look pretty much the same. Oh, I can tell the different breeds apart but one Suffolk ewe looks pretty much like any other. Ila and Rae know their names. They know which lambs belong to which ewes. They know their sheep. A beef or dairy farmer can tell which cow is which, and which calf belongs to which cow, even without their ear tags now required by law or without checking their records.
Farmers look after their animals because they are their livelihood, but beyond that, the shepherd psalm speaks of the kind of farmer who cares for the animals because they are part of God’s creation, and worthy of that care and attention. Shepherding is not only what they do; it is who they are.
Similarly, as Christians we are called to worship the God who cares for us in this way buy caring for others, not just as what we do, but as part of who we are.
We are not called to shut ourselves off from the world in order to protect ourselves from harm, whether it be flu season or any other time of the year. We are called to be in the midst of the hurting world, serving those who are in need because that is where Christ was found.
Of course, we have to take the precautions that are necessary. But this is not just about the swine flu, it is about life and all of its ups and downs. It is about those who pick up their hammers and build houses for Habitat for Humanity. It is about those who look at ways to end poverty and who donate to food banks in the meantime. It’s about those who try and tame their butterflies and step into unfamiliar places to be a servant to those whom Jesus loves.
It is about a perspective on life and community that faces outward and not inward. It is about service and not being served.
We are called to foster and to create safe places in which all people can become who they are called and created to be. Let us minister at all times and all places with the heart and hands of Christ our Saviour.
Amen!
NOTE: My thanks to the Rev David Shearman of Owen Sound Ontario for many of the ideas in this sermon.
Acts 8:26-40
Psalm 22
1 John 4: 7-21
John 15: 1-8
About nine years ago a woman called me and told me that they had just moved to Canada and asked, “Can we come to your church?”
Of course I said, “Yes”.
She also wanted to know if we were the kind of church that baptized children and if we worshipped in English. When I answered “yes” to both of those questions she indicated that she and her family were going to be at worship on Sunday. They came and found a church home with us and they remain active and valued members of that congregation.
That church building featured “box” pews and we a number of years ago we decided to carpet the ample floor space of four or five of the box pews so that the young children who would like to play on the floor could. You need to know that this 150 year old building had a stone foundation with wide gaps in it and no basement. The board floor was very cold in winter.
Another church I served has a tent shaped sign which it placed in the parking lot every summer inviting campers to “come as they are” to worship. The message is, “even if you have left your suit at home” come to church. Usually at least one family indicated that this was why they felt comfortable enough to come. I never did succeed in getting the regular church goers to dress more casually though!
Generally speaking we are a lot less worried about what people wear to church than we used to be. We are a lot more comfortable with children who cannot sit still and must wander around the sanctuary during worship. Yet we still must do more than putting “All Welcome’ on a church sign to be a truly welcoming congregation. Today is Christian Family Sunday - the day when we recognize our connections to one another in the community of faith.
Today we celebrate the family that has no human boundaries, no boundaries of age and no generation gap - ora at least that is the family we strive to be.
If we followed the popular calendar, we would also be calling it Mothers’ Day.
There is some debate around the origins of Mothers Day. Actually, the origins come from two separate directions. One stream was started by activist, Julia Ward Howe who wanted to create a day so that women who were mothers could work for peace. She reasoned, I suppose, that the men of her day who were in charge of the political sphere were not doing that great a job, but mothers, in any country, would not send their sons to needless wars, so her Mother’s Day was a day for mothers everywhere to work and advocate for peace.
The second was started by a woman named Anna Jarvis as a day to honour mothers. As we know the second is the one that has survived in the popular culture, with card giving, flower buying, breakfast in bed, and taking mom out to dinner (or bringing in a feed of lobster).
However, let us not forget the work of women to better their churches, countries and communities. In the early 20th century of our own country there was a group of women, the Famous Five, who went all the way to the supreme court, to have women declared as persons. Nellie McClung, also an active member of the United Church, observed that women, through suppers and other fund-raisers could “lift” the mortgages of churches and split and chop the family firewood, but were not considered strong enough to lift motions from the table at a church meeting. Without the Women’s Missionary Society, the Women’s Association and the UCW, where would our churches have been?
The work of women is also important in society at large as most must now work outside the home as well as inside. In several “Latin American” countries the “Mothers of the Disappeared” are those who dare to confront their violent and corrupt governments over the disappearance and almost certain torture and murder of their children. In North America MADD, in seeking to eliminate driving under the influence of alcohol, is a contemporary example of women (and men) who turn the pain of their loss and the losses of other mothers into action for positive change.
Many of you are mothers, and grandmothers and great grandmothers or greater! Some of us are not. Some of us are still able to visit and honour our mothers on this day and some are not. On Wednesday I visited the newest mother in the congregation - (and I welcome Rachel and baby Avery May). Sadly, the last two funerals I conducted were for mothers who were much loved and will be sadly missed by large families extending out many generations.
We know about the rewards and challenges of motherhood; how babies grow too fast but seem to stay FOREVER in the terrible twos and the horrid teens. We know these things and sometimes, perhaps more often than not we forget, and have to have these moments to remind us; and of we can to say “thank you”. Every day should be Mothers’ Day, every day should be Fathers’ Day, every day should be Children’s Day; every day should be a day to be appreciative of the role others play in our lives; every day should be a day to work for the betterment of family and community.
Yet, we must recognize that for many people mother’s day is a horrible day. Maybe the mother in questions feels abandoned by her children; maybe the children were abandoned, abused or neglected by their own mothers. We should never assume it is a happy day for everyone. A friend of mine works in a call centre and she said that she worked on Mother’s Day last year. Many people were out, presumably celebrating the day with their mothers and their children, but a large number of those they found at home were sad and angry. For them, Mother’s Day was not about celebration at all. We must remember these people and their stories as the rest of us celebrate. If there are some here today I say to you, “be gentle with yourselves and do what you need to, to have as good a day as possible.”
As I have already indicated, today has been observed as Christian Family Sunday by mainline churches for a number of years. Today we look at the family of which all Christians are a part, as brothers and sisters in Christ.
Today’s story from the book of Acts is about an Ethiopian eunuch who was encountered on the road from Jerusalem to Gaza. As a result of his biblical interpretation, Philip was asked by this un-named man for baptism, which was granted.
What’s an Ethiopian? Well, someone from the country of Ethiopia. He could have been from anywhere in north Africa and he probably had much darker skin than Jesus and his disciples did. He would have been obviously “different”, which is a good time to remind us all that if Jesus of Nazareth were to walk in the door we would all have to agree that HE was not white either. Makers of stained glass windows and the medieval paintings on which many are based have not helped in this regard.
The child in Sunday school asked, “What’s a eunuch?” It’s one of those questions only a child would ask. I clearly remember the day when I was a junior in Sunday school and one of my female classmates asked the teacher if baptism and circumcision were the same? She said, “Well, no, they aren’t”. She did not elaborate and the girl did not ask. So to answer the eunuch question : “let’s say a male person were a male cat; a eunuch is the human result of “being fixed”.
The trouble was, in some cultures, boys were often mutilated in this way before puberty and the hormonal deficiencies resulted in obvious differences. Some rich mem with many wives needed trusted people to be in charge of their harem so this kind of man was the only one who could be trusted. ( As an aside, I am told that many years later the medieval church prized these adult men who had the voice of a choirboy their entire lives, because the change of voice at puberty never happened. They usually came from very poor families and apparently the practice was common in churches throughout Rome, even though it was officially condemned by the Church.)
Trouble is, men who had been mutilated in this way were often considered second class and in Jewish society were not considered worthy of worshipping in the temple; they were outcastes and no amount of prayer or sacrifices could change that fact. This exclusion also extended to the system of sacrifice itself, We must remember that a steer could not be brought for sacrifice, it had to be a bull calf or a ram if you were bringing a sheep. The animal had to be perfect in every way.
Yet here he was, in the middle of nowhere, presumably bouncing along in a large chariot, reading a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Of course, books, as we know them, had not yet been invented, nor has the printing press, and scrolls had to be hand copied. They were large, heavy and very expensive. Isaiah would be a large one! This man would have to have had great wealth to have his own copy. He was reading a book sacred to a community that would not have accepted him as an equal because of his physical condition. Yet, he was obviously searching for meaning in his life, and guided by the Holy Spirit, this man would still have been an outcast - money cannot ultimately buy acceptance.
Yet when they came to a body of water he asked a simple, yet profound question, “Here is water, what is to prevent me from being baptized?”
On Christian we need to ask ourselves how we can be a welcoming presence to those who come seeking the love of God in Christian community. We have to realize that the barriers and norms of society are not be found in the church. If we believe that we are all here by God’s grace, then how can we be justified in excluding another who seeks to become all that God wishes for them within our community.
Our call then seems to be to proclaim the Gospel in such a way that those who are led to us find a welcoming home, a place to be, a place to grow, a place of healing and a place of love.
Let us seek together to be that kind of community.
Amen!
Acts 10: 44-48
Psalm 98
1 John 5: 1-6
John 15: 9-17
One afternoon when I was still a student minister I was doing my regular hospital visits and I met a young woman from the congregation. She excitedly informed me that she had just had an ultrasound and found out that he unborn baby was fine. She was more than just “relieved”; she was absolutely, completely and totally ecstatic. She practically bounced down the hallway and out the door! Since it was her second child I thought she seemed more overjoyed than I would normally expect but I decided that she was easily excited and didn’t think much more about. I didn’t that is, until I was speaking to one of the other ministers at the church later on that same afternoon and mentioned this. I was told that she had lost a baby the year before and had been completely devastated. She had been quite nervous about another pregnancy. Once I had the “rest of the story” I was able to put her elation into perspective.
The trouble with Sunday morning in churches which follow the “lectionary”, or even any other guide for choosing the scripture readings for that matter, is that wee can’t always read the whole story. Even in those churches which read the entire story of Jesus’ last week on Palm Sunday, we miss something. We miss the underlying assumptions behind the texts. We miss the things the first readers take for granted and don’t need to be told.
This is the kind of situation we run into when we read of the story from Acts when we read more scripture than usual we always miss something. When we read just one or two passages which tell of the growth of the early Christian communities in the biblical story we need to keep the rest of the story in mind.
Again it is a passage about not withholding the waters of baptism from anyone because of cultural reasons. The term “circumcized believers” would simply have meant those who were Jewish first. (An of course it referred only to men.) You see there was a big, big, debate in the early church that went something like this: one group maintained that “Since Jesus is a Messiah for the Jews, a Gentile (man) must become Jewish and be circumcized before he can be baptized and become a part of the Christian community.” The other group, based on what they regarded as personal revelation and insight held that “belief in Jesus of Nazareth” was all that was required in order to be baptized, and as we sometimes say, “join the church’.
Since we are all most likely descended from the Gentile missionary churches of northern Europe, we don’t realize how radical that this all was, at first.
Then again, we have only to delve into our own history in Canada to make the necessary connections. Back when our churches sent missionaries to “save the Indians” we did great damage to them and to their culture by assuming that our “culture” went along with the gospel and one had to be embraces as well as the other. The horrible legacy of residential schools is but one instance of this.
Acting from a position of power, we forced native children into government funded but church run residential schools where some were beaten and sexually abused, but almost all were deprived of their language and their native ways. Our ancestors genuinely though they were doing what was best in removing “the Indian from the child” but what ended up happening was that they “graduated” several generations of children who could not cope in native society and because of Canada’s racism, were not welcome in white society. I know its not quite that simple, but that is the basis of the problem. As a United Church, we have spent the last thirty years trying to live into our apology for confusing gospel and culture, and we have a way to go yet.
Missionaries in “darkest Africa” imposed western ideas of dress and housing as part of their ‘proclaiming the gospel’.Eventually we began to forget that Jesus the carpenter did not live in a house made of wood, did not wear a yellow hard-hat and steel toed work-boots , let alone a suit and tie, and did not speak English.
When we look at growing congregations there are many things that keep others at home, and cause them to feel unwelcome. When I grew up, everyone, even the young boys wore suits to church and the girls and women wore dresses - ALWAYS. I never thought much about it, I just accepted it as what one was supposed to do. But it is gradually changing. In one of my summer congregations the men worked as guides in the salmon fishing business and were away from Sunday to Friday. They all wore their green workclothes to church on Sunday. Clean and sometimes looking like they had been pressed, it was probably the best they had. In another congregation they might have received a few raised eyebrows.
Last week I mentioned the family who moved to Canada and wanted to come to church. They were very accustomed to going to church but English was not their first language. They lived in Germany but drove to Luxembourg to worship in Dutch, their first language. They had several difficulties when they came to worship with us. First, they were used to a nursery where their young family could go during the sermon time. They were now faced with trying to keep their children quiet and listen to a service in a language which required much more effort. Second, if given enough time they could have said the Lord’s Prayer in English and they did understand what it said in English, but the problem was that at the speed which we said it, they could not translate it in their heads and en thsay it out loud before we were a couple of phrases ahead. So to solve the first problem we indicated that we wanted children in church and not down the street in the church hall (we had no basement in that building and no place for a nursery) so we asked a teen in the congregation to sit in the pew with them and amuse their children so that they could focus their attention on the service.
To solve the second concern she asked me to write the Lord’s Prayer down so they read it along with us until it became familiar enough to them. She told me last week that she still keeps that piece of paper in her Bible in case someone else might need it.
A crocheted copy of the Lord’s prayer hangs near the pew in which they usually sit and she occasionally hears her husband lose his place and noticing him trying to catch a glimpse of this hanging.
I have been to their house a number of times and in the same minute have heard them speaking on the phone in German, disciplining their children in Dutch and talking to me in English - all without missing a beat!
Some congregations now print the Lord’s prayer in their bulletins - for the children who can read but have not yet memorized the prayer, and for the people who are checking out the church for the first time in years.
We may think we are welcoming but we could often do a better job of it. We may think “everyone” knows what to do in church but they don’t always, either because their church is very different or they aren’t used to going to church at all.
Last year I went to worship in a congregation I used to go to when I was in university. You would not know it was the same place, except for the architecture. Instead of a formal service with little or no interaction among the worshippers, there was a tremendous sense of community among those who attended and those of us who were guests that day were warmly welcomed, both at the door, and at the passing of the peace which lasted until almost everyone had welcomed almost everyone else. What a joy it was to worship there!
This passage is about recognizing the faith in others, the faith that makes us one, that unites us, in Christ. It is about trying as hard as possible to separate the things that are not as important from this faith and not imposing them on the newcomers or the people who have grown in different directions from ourselves.
This issue became one of letting the Holy Spirit have the last word. If the Spirit has brought someone to faith in the God of Jesus, who are we to turn them away. Our task as individuals and as congregations is to as open as possible so that faith can find a home in which to grow and develop as God intends.
The issue is about getting to know the “stranger” in our midst and finding out “the rest of their story” instead of discounting them for their differences. As friends of Jesus, as his sisters and brothers we are called to love as he loved, to care as he cared and to welcome as he did.
Let all people come unto me.
Amen.
Acts 1: 15-17, 21-26
Psalm 1
1 John 5: 9-13
John 17: 6-19
This life of following Jesus through the church year sure has been a roller coaster ride. It seems that we have barrelled along at breakneck speed from expecting Jesus’ birth in Advent to Christmas to Lent, to Good Friday to Easter to today. For 50 days the risen Christ has been appearing to his followers, but after the Ascension they will no longer have this to hope for; it will be as if he were whisked out of sight. At Pentecost they will receive an unmistakable experience of the Holy Spirit who will sustain the church through many difficulties and who sustains us still.
But now, on this day, we step back to listen to part of a prayer that Jesus offers on behalf of his followers on the night before he is killed. It probably means more now that he had died and we suspect that the power of his resurrection appearances will diminish. We clergy types sometimes refer to this passage as, “Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer”; it can leave us scratching our heads as to its meaning. What IS Jesus getting at here?
This passage comes at the end of a larger section in which Jesus is preparing the disciples for his departure. This chapter is different in that Jesus is praying FOR those followers and, presumably, their successors. We need to remember that these are NOT instructions to the church, but rather a prayer TO God. We are not listening to a task list or even a challenge to mission but we are overhearing a prayer in which Jesus is pouring his heart out to the God with whom he is very close.
There are three basic movements in his prayer. FIRST he prays for the faith community; he speaks to God on their behalf. He ALSO turns the community over to God.
Whenever I have moved I have made long lists of things that need attention, for the session, the secretary or the new minister. A reminder that the new bulletins will come in December; a cheque for a bill that will come the middle of the next month; a note for the new minister about a quirk of the manse (such as don’t use a kettle in a particular outlet in the kitchen while the washing machine is going) or something that does not need much attention until the February winds are howling; where the glass window for the screen door is kept; a list of those who are in nursing homes and those considered ‘shut ins”. I want people to know some of the stuff I keep in my head that they won’t find out until its too late otherwise.
But this prayer is not like that at all. This is not a last minute list of things that need doing and he wants God to know “in case” God has no other way to find out, but rather this prayer entrusts the community to God’s care. This is the community with whom Jesus lived and worked and loved. He could not leave until he is certain that they will be cared for. He pours out his heart.
In this passage Jesus does not offer tips to the community on how to be “the church in unity” or how to “avoid evil” but rather prays from his heart. By their very presence the disciples, and those who follow, are invited to listen in to this heartfelt outpouring.
This brings me to an important point that the church often forgets: THE FUTURE OF THE CHURCH DOES NOT DEPEND UPON US, BUT DEPENDS ULTIMATELY, ON GOD. You might put it this way: Until now the community of faith has been Jesus’ own responsibility; now he turns that over to God.
We may work hard for our church and our community, but when we truly listen to this prayer on our behalf we are brought face to face with God’s grace. As we hear these words we can hear Jesus’ love for the community in every phrase.
Jesus prays for God’s presence in the life and work of the community of faith - and this just isn’t for the church of long ago; it is for us, some 2000 years later.
Jesus is not leaving us alone to fend for ourselves as best we can, but is trusting in God to care for his flock as he did. We too can overhear the same message; that God will be present in our life and work as a faith community. We need to remember that we cannot do anything worthwhile apart from the grace and power of God.
The SECOND thing we hear in this prayer is the closeness between Jesus and God. This is no casual acquaintance. This is no occasional relationship. Jesus knows he will be heard; Jesus knows he is being heard as he is speaking. Throughout the gospels we are told that Jesus goes off by himself to pray; on this day we hear that life of prayer.
Jesus is not like the whining child who says, “but daaaaad, you promised” but rather the child who is able to say, “I am expecting that your promises will come to pass”. Jesus and God want the same thing so there is no need for one to reason or bargain or convince the other; they know what the other wants and needs even before it is expressed.
Yet, Jesus not only trusts the followers to God, but he places his own life and future in God’s hands. It’s VERY, VERY personal. This is not some intellectual thing that Jesus can keep at a distance. Like I said, its not about “lists”. When you get right down to it - it does not really matter that much to me of the new minister blows fuses - after all, I had to find out the hard way that I could not use those two appliances at once) and nothing all that drastic happened. In this passage Jesus himself depends on this care of God for the disciples. It matters to him, very much.
The THIRD thing we hear in this passage, is, in a way, what we don’t hear. It seems clear in this prayer that there are no limits to Jesus’ trust. There are no limits to this relationship. There are no conditions here; (if you clean your room without being asked, or get better marks, I will take you to the mall). There are no limits and no conditions here There are also no time limits - because Jesus is able to place his future in God’s hands, even as he faces death, we too can contemplate the idea of a limitless future with God and we can do so with joy. The News Interpreter’s Bible, Vol 9 (1995), Abingdon Press, has been the basis of my sermon this week.
So as the community faces the prospect of a life without the physical presence of Jesus their teacher and guide, they are assured that God’s care and grace will see them through.
Well, that was 2000 years ago, more or less. We never knew the living, breathing human known as Jesus of Nazareth, in the first place; what relevance does overhearing this prayer have for us?
I think that all I need to mention is one word: CHANGE. Change, we are in a time of great change. The former moderator, the Very Rev Peter Short was speaking at Berwick Camp last summer and he told us that people, generally speaking wanted change, what they were actually afraid of when they resisted change was LOSS.
The disciples were facing loss of an unprecedented magnitude. They had come to depend on Jesus so much for he had shown them the heart of God in a way they had found so amazing and so compelling, that they could not imagine anything else than listening to Jesus forever. But here he is, telling them that he is going to be leaving, SOON, but then praying for them.
We are facing an uncertain future as a Pastoral Charge. Across all of the mainline churches, attendance and participation is declining. Things aren’t like they used to be. The church just isn’t as important as it used to be. Even those who want to, cannot peel and cook a zillion bushels of potatoes, onions, and the dozens of eggs needed for the potato salad for the church supper. Everything we do seems harder and harder.
For generations, we in the church had been accustomed to church being part of the social fabric. Everyone went to church. When the church spoke, decision makers listened. In terms of commerce nothing much conflicted with Sunday morning worship. This is no longer the case. We are now a minority in society and even in our own quiet, rural communities.
This is probably closer to the situation faced by the early church that we have been in generations. It seems that we need to get used to it, but perhaps it will be better in the end. The situation frees us to be prophetic and speak truth to power when we need to.
The prayer Jesus pours out before God in these verses is as much for us as it was for the disciples who were sitting by listening with disbelief in their hearts and tears in their eyes.
God cares for us as Jesus cared for those who were his closest friends. God’s care and power makes our lives of faithfulness possible. We can go into an uncertain future knowing that we do not walk alone for past, present and future are all in God’s hands.
Amen and Thanks be to God.