May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: PENTECOST
PROPER: C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: May 31, 1998
TEXT: John 20:19-23 - Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. . . ."
See also Acts 2:1-11 - in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power.
ISSUE: The readings present us two experiences of the Holy Spirit coming upon the disciples. One from Acts tells of their ability to proclaim the Good News in all languages for all people. The other experience is when Jesus breathes on the disciples in the locked room, and sends them forth. In both instances that is an active commissioning of the disciples with an authority given. In the baptismal experience of each of us we are commissioned to proclaim the faith of Christ crucified and to share with him in his eternal priesthood. We becomes shepherds with Christ.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Today we are celebrating one of the major feast days of the church right along with Christmas and Easter. It is the Feast of the Pentecost. We heard read one account of the Pentecostal experience from the Book of Acts, which took place on the Jewish Feast of Pentecost, and the other account which took place on Easter when Jesus encounters his disciples in the locked room on Easter evening. In each case it should be noted that something unique happens to the disciples. There is the bestowing of God's Spirit upon them for the purpose of their empowerment.
The coming of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples in Acts comes on the Jewish Feast of the Pentecost. It was a celebration which occurred fifty days after the Jewish Passover. It celebrated the first harvest. the first fruits of the wheat harvest were presented and celebrated. There was a great gathering of the faithful in Jerusalem at the Temple. Later, after the Temple in Jerusalem had been destroyed, the emphasis of the feast changed to a celebration of Moses' going up on Mt. Sinai, the fiery mountain, to receive the Ten Commandments. Thus, Luke indicates that Jesus' band of Jewish disciples are gathered at Jerusalem to celebrate the Jewish feast of Pentecost. While they are there the house in which they are gathered, a mighty rushing wind and tongues of fire rest upon them. They becomed filled with an empowering Spirit which empowers them to go out of the room and begin proclaiming the might Acts of God so that all can understand. It is Lukes powerful and wonderful way of saying that the disciples were energized to carry on the work of God in Christ Jesus.
Notice also that the event is the reversal of the story of Babel from the Old Testament book of Genesis (11:1-9). In that story people's languages were all mixed up, and they could no longer build that great temples and shrines to storm heaven and become like God. In the Pentecostal event of the disciples, God's Spirit comes down upon them in order to infiltrate, permeate, and storm the creation with love, forgiveness, and reconciliation. It's a great shift in thinking. We don't have to storm heaven, heaven in Jesus Christ by the Spirit and power of God has come to us. A whole new shift and reversal! God comes for all nations and all people. There's a renewed unity of brotherhood and sisterhood.
Luke saw in the renewed energy of the disciples a fulfillment of Joel's prophecy (2:28-32), that God would "pour his spirit on everyone; your sons and daughters will proclaim my message; your old men will have dreams, and your young mem will see visions. At that time I will pour out my spirit on even on servants, both men and women." In fact, men and women and servants did receive Jesus and become captured by his spirit.
In the Lukan pentecostal experience you have the disciples empowered by the wind and fire of God, just as Moses and the ancient prophets had been. They were commissioned as a gathered community to instill the wonders of God's love for the world. Luke is conveying in a dramatic story the vitality and energy of the early church to proclaim the Gospel of love and hope.
In John's account of the coming of the Holy Spirit, written later than Luke, the pentecost event for John is more immediate, at Easter. The disciples are gathered in a room, a lock room, in fear. The betrayers and the scattered sheep-disciples are gathered, locked in and fearful. It is as if they themselves are entombed. But the empowering Spirit of Jesus Christ comes to them, is breathed into and upon them. They are commissioned and energized to be the sons and daughters of God. Just as Jesus was honored and commissioned, as Son of God, the disciples (now apostles, i.e. the sent ones) are to be the sons and daughters of God in the world. They are commissioned, - ordained, if you will - to forgive sins. And for John, sin is not believing in Christ. Non-believers, unfaithful, are sinners. They work of the apostles is to make believers, believers in God's redeeming love, believers in the compassion and mercy of God. believers in the wonders of God. It is as if the disciples are born again, transformed, from the scattered sheep of the crucifixion into the community of united shepherds with Christ. They are to bring new members into the community, that they may be a new born living force of God in the world. They are called upon to be shepherds and display a positive and informed leadership in the presentation of the God's incarnation into the world.
The pentecostal experience was carried on by the church in the sacrament of Holy Baptism. Just as Jesus was baptized and the heavens opened and the Spirit like a dove descended upon him, he was declared to be Son of God, with whom God was pleased. People who received Christ as Lord, and became converted to Christ were educated in the ministry of Christ and were all baptized with water, immersed, and entered into the community of believers. (Thus according to John, they were no longer sinners, or non-believers.) The Spirit of God was upon them and they too were empowered to be the Sons (and Daughters of God), with whom God is well pleased. They were ordained into the ministry of unity with Christ by virtue of their baptism. They were a part of the Community of God. They confessed the faith of Christ crucified, They proclaimed his resurrection. They shared in his eternal priesthood. They became partners in and with The Good Shepherd. They trust that God's realm would be the salvation and hope for the world. They invited people, the lost, the last, the lonely, the least, the broken and hurting into that kingdom, that realm, that peace.
Today we are baptizing two children in this parish. I wonder if we really appreciate what this means. Are they two infants participating in empty ritual whose meaning and vitality is lost? Are they two children who will see the people around them in love with God? Will they see by word and example the Goodnews in Christ proclaimed by the fathers, their mothers, their sponsors, by they people who worship with them in church? Will they participate in a community of enthusiastic believers that will be acitve and vital in their training as people who know what real sacrificial love is? Will they be immersed in a community of people whose faith and trust in God is so real that they see and appreciate a sense of reaching out to other people with genuine sincerety? Will they be a part of a community church where people really know one another and share with one another? Will they be surrounded by people who know the faith as contained in the Scripture? Will they come to never remember a time when they didn't feel welcomed and enriched by being around an altar of God with people who radiate a spirituality rich in love? In our differences and in our variety of talents we have so much to offer one another, and so much to offer in the proclamation of the Gospel.
In so many of our churches today, as a result of the old Christendom model, many people see themselves as church volunteers whose great mission is to cut grass, pull weeds, and pull off an occasion strawberry festival and fund raiser so that a museum like church can be kept the way it is. The minister is seen as the shepherd and the congregation as a flock of dumb sheep. Many churches have lost their sense of all being called to be shepherds of people knowledge of the faith and truly faithful, of having a sense of servanthood and genuine concern for one another and the real needs of the world. A genuine recognition that we are all the shepherding people of God, and our children are to be raised in that kind of community so that they can become shepherds too is for some religious communities a whole new concept.
The early church had a sense of the Spirit of God acting in their lives and in their communities. They themselves felt alive and lifted up and called into service, into a living knowledge and love of the Lord. It was devotional and committed. They saw themselves as called forth, hardly static and not bound to the past. God was alive in Christ active in their history. There was a belief in all kinds of spirits in Jesus time, good and evil. But their real ultimate belief was in The Holy Spirit of God that would lift them and raise them. I pray to God that we can be renewed and reclaimed by God's Holy Spirit that we may be enlivened and equipped for ministries that are important and valuable and essential in our world today.
Sunday, May 31, 1998
Sunday, May 24, 1998
Easter 7
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Easter 7
PROPER: C - Sunday after Ascension Day
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: May 24, 1998
TEXT: John 17:20-26 - I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. 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.
ISSUE: "You've all got to be One" seems to be John's repetitive theme song. The passage is Jesus' prayer as conceived by John which calls for a unity of the Children of God. The passage reveals a somewhat desperate early church which is, in fact, very exclusive. John has his hatred of the non-believing Jews, and demands a strong unity among his followers. Today we would be cautious of some of the cultic overtones of the John's community, but still be a community of faith with openness and profound witness to the brokeness of the world. To be united at One with God today in a healthy way is our on going challenge.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Today's reading from John's gospel is a continuation of Jesus last few moments with his disciples at the Last Supper before this departure. Remember that they synoptics (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) emphasize the distribution of the bread and wine, that moment of sharing. John's Gospel written later than these accounts tells about the foot washing as the significant action of the Last Supper, and John provides what is called the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus. It is his prayer of greater offering and concern for the unity of his disciples.
Keep in mind that his passage is not the actual words of Jesus. It is more likely what John thought Jesus would have said in that last time together. John is at the same time expressing what was needed to be heard by the community of believers in this time, some 60 or more years after the earthly ministry of Jesus. The eye witnesses of Jesus ministry are dying off, if not gone by this time. Their future as believers in Jesus as Lord, as their messianic hope, is disconcerting and anxiety producing. John's response to this anxiety is to call for a high priestly prayer attributed to Jesus for a very strict unity. So John is saying that as surely as Jesus was united with God the Father, the believers must themselves be united in Jesus. They must all be one with one another, and love one another. It is like gangs today. They have a profound allegiance to the unity of the group or gang. And in language that somewhat tedious to us, John repetitively call them to being at one with one another, as the Son is at one with the Father, may they be at one.
Some side comments are important to a deepening understanding of the passage. To love something or a group in Jesus time, the 1st century, was not the kind of emotional love we think of today, being all fuzzy and cozy and affectionate. Love of this time was attachment to a family, kin, a group for the purpose of existence. Thus, John talks about loving one another, the community group, we now call the Christian group, and hating the world. The world in John's Gospel was not the understanding of world that we have today, it was more limited to the Judeans, the non-believers. Thus, the followers of Jesus in the Johnanine community were called to be a very close knit group, deeply attached to one another and their common belife in Jesus as Son of the Father. They hated the world, or were called upon to completely detach themselves from the non-believers.
The early church community was not the lovey-dovey all encompassing group of people who just reached out to everybody. They were likely to have been quite exclusive to people who were different from themselves. But for the sake of their fledgling beginnings and sake of unity and survival, they were became somewhat encrusted in the demand for strict unity. It was hoped and thought that this devotion and expression of unity would be a witness to the "outsiders", non-believers.
This extreme devotion of the early church can have its dangers, and we have to be careful when we say that John's community of early Christian believers is an appropriate model for the church of today. Some of the religious and racial prejudices of today can be traced to people who embraced to literally that Jews (the non-blievers) were Christ-killers and therefore were to be persecuted and shunned. Hitler made a big deal out of this kind of concept, as did some of my own relatives, and perhaps some of yours. In our need to be acceptable to the Lord, (if not to perpetuate some of our prejudices at the same time) we may be too quick to bond ourselves in the notions of what is right and unifying to the exclusion of good sense and greater continuing enlightment from God's Holy Spirit. Church communities can be too exclusive. They can be stifling and suffocating in their rigidity and become more like draining and destructive cults than providing openess and creative life giving development. They can be viewed by our world as opposed to everything and quite narrow. Then the light of Christ becomes hidden under the bushel basket.
There is still another side to the equation. And this side of the equation is due in part to Christendom. The church today struggles with the issue of membership and unity in the church as the result of no definition at all. Membership and unity today is often based on the ritual of baptism, and/or an occasional dabbling in church worship or activity. Membership is defined by some in terms of having been an acolyte when they were a boy. Or membership in the life of the church is determined by a grandparent who was once active. Membership or relationship is sometimes considered to be merely a matter of doing good things, or keeping the so called Golden Rule. (Do to others - usually meaning be polite or nice - as you would have them do - or be nice - to you.) Membership comes as a result of getting our individual spiritual needs met as if the church were somekind of spiritual supermarket with convenient electric doors for coming and going. Membership in the church community has tended to provide people with a kind of personal socially acceptable respectability. Unity of the church today which has so much diversity and rank individualism seems flimsy at best.
We live in our own age of great anxiety often expressed by the question: What is the world coming too?" We are faced with a great crisis in family life. Physical and sexual abuse is a significant problem. Divorce has become epidemic. People struggle with their sexual identities. There are serious health problems still to be addressed. We are faced with terrible problems of violence. Children murder one another at school. Baseball becomes 'basebrawl.' Nations fight over and carry on and on violence and hostilities over the centuries rooted in the prejudices of their ancestors. There is a significant amont of pain and suffering in the world. Obviously our world is in need of a healing and enlightening presence of God.
An exclusive club-like church isolated from the world is hardly a response to human need and suffering. Being holier-than-thou, judgemental and moralistic is not a healing approach either. A flimsy church so diverse, individualistic, and scattered cannot bear much witness either.
What seems clear in John's appreciation of Jesus at the Last Supper, those last moments, was that Jesus valued his relationship with God, and he valued his community of followers. He honored God with his obedience and his witness to servanthood, by taking the humble role of a slave and washing his disciples feet. He valued their relationship together. He prayed that they would also be the Children of God, and have a unique relationship with God. They would continue to be a strong and faithful community of support to one another and would continue to be the living body of Christ in the world. Of course, inspite of themselves, there was still betrayal, denial, and abandonment. The early church tended to be too exclusive, and the later church too flimsy. The issue for us is wheether or not we can respond and reclaim our calling and allow the Spirit of God working in us and through us to reshape our community into Christ's image, hope, and prayer.
The church today needs to be a worshipping community and a community knowledgeable of the faith in scripture. We need to know the unraveling story of God revelation of his love and mercy for the world. It gives hope and an understanding of the constant revelation of God to his people century after century. We come to know God through Scripture and prayerfulness, and experience the intimacy of God in our unity with Jesus Christ.
The very ministry of Jesus Christ was founded on and in a community of people who trusted him. We need one another as much as we need what Christ offered. We need sensitivity to pain and hurt, and the ability to be open to being healers as opposed to being moralistic judges. There is no one among us who is perfect, or who has not known pain and vulnerability. We need one another. What is so valuable about support groups, like A.A. for instance, is that there are people who can resonate and offer hope to one another.
What lies at the heart of the larger Gospel of Christ is the concept that inspite of ourselves - all the self-righteousness, sinfulness, betrayal, denial, and human stupidity - God in Christ Jesus loved us and desired to attach himself to us. We are shown a way of undeserved love and acceptance. To accept that grace, to love God, to reach out to one another is our unique and higher calling. Surely we still need the high priestly prayer of Christ.
SEASON: Easter 7
PROPER: C - Sunday after Ascension Day
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: May 24, 1998
TEXT: John 17:20-26 - I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. 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.
ISSUE: "You've all got to be One" seems to be John's repetitive theme song. The passage is Jesus' prayer as conceived by John which calls for a unity of the Children of God. The passage reveals a somewhat desperate early church which is, in fact, very exclusive. John has his hatred of the non-believing Jews, and demands a strong unity among his followers. Today we would be cautious of some of the cultic overtones of the John's community, but still be a community of faith with openness and profound witness to the brokeness of the world. To be united at One with God today in a healthy way is our on going challenge.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Today's reading from John's gospel is a continuation of Jesus last few moments with his disciples at the Last Supper before this departure. Remember that they synoptics (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) emphasize the distribution of the bread and wine, that moment of sharing. John's Gospel written later than these accounts tells about the foot washing as the significant action of the Last Supper, and John provides what is called the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus. It is his prayer of greater offering and concern for the unity of his disciples.
Keep in mind that his passage is not the actual words of Jesus. It is more likely what John thought Jesus would have said in that last time together. John is at the same time expressing what was needed to be heard by the community of believers in this time, some 60 or more years after the earthly ministry of Jesus. The eye witnesses of Jesus ministry are dying off, if not gone by this time. Their future as believers in Jesus as Lord, as their messianic hope, is disconcerting and anxiety producing. John's response to this anxiety is to call for a high priestly prayer attributed to Jesus for a very strict unity. So John is saying that as surely as Jesus was united with God the Father, the believers must themselves be united in Jesus. They must all be one with one another, and love one another. It is like gangs today. They have a profound allegiance to the unity of the group or gang. And in language that somewhat tedious to us, John repetitively call them to being at one with one another, as the Son is at one with the Father, may they be at one.
Some side comments are important to a deepening understanding of the passage. To love something or a group in Jesus time, the 1st century, was not the kind of emotional love we think of today, being all fuzzy and cozy and affectionate. Love of this time was attachment to a family, kin, a group for the purpose of existence. Thus, John talks about loving one another, the community group, we now call the Christian group, and hating the world. The world in John's Gospel was not the understanding of world that we have today, it was more limited to the Judeans, the non-believers. Thus, the followers of Jesus in the Johnanine community were called to be a very close knit group, deeply attached to one another and their common belife in Jesus as Son of the Father. They hated the world, or were called upon to completely detach themselves from the non-believers.
The early church community was not the lovey-dovey all encompassing group of people who just reached out to everybody. They were likely to have been quite exclusive to people who were different from themselves. But for the sake of their fledgling beginnings and sake of unity and survival, they were became somewhat encrusted in the demand for strict unity. It was hoped and thought that this devotion and expression of unity would be a witness to the "outsiders", non-believers.
This extreme devotion of the early church can have its dangers, and we have to be careful when we say that John's community of early Christian believers is an appropriate model for the church of today. Some of the religious and racial prejudices of today can be traced to people who embraced to literally that Jews (the non-blievers) were Christ-killers and therefore were to be persecuted and shunned. Hitler made a big deal out of this kind of concept, as did some of my own relatives, and perhaps some of yours. In our need to be acceptable to the Lord, (if not to perpetuate some of our prejudices at the same time) we may be too quick to bond ourselves in the notions of what is right and unifying to the exclusion of good sense and greater continuing enlightment from God's Holy Spirit. Church communities can be too exclusive. They can be stifling and suffocating in their rigidity and become more like draining and destructive cults than providing openess and creative life giving development. They can be viewed by our world as opposed to everything and quite narrow. Then the light of Christ becomes hidden under the bushel basket.
There is still another side to the equation. And this side of the equation is due in part to Christendom. The church today struggles with the issue of membership and unity in the church as the result of no definition at all. Membership and unity today is often based on the ritual of baptism, and/or an occasional dabbling in church worship or activity. Membership is defined by some in terms of having been an acolyte when they were a boy. Or membership in the life of the church is determined by a grandparent who was once active. Membership or relationship is sometimes considered to be merely a matter of doing good things, or keeping the so called Golden Rule. (Do to others - usually meaning be polite or nice - as you would have them do - or be nice - to you.) Membership comes as a result of getting our individual spiritual needs met as if the church were somekind of spiritual supermarket with convenient electric doors for coming and going. Membership in the church community has tended to provide people with a kind of personal socially acceptable respectability. Unity of the church today which has so much diversity and rank individualism seems flimsy at best.
We live in our own age of great anxiety often expressed by the question: What is the world coming too?" We are faced with a great crisis in family life. Physical and sexual abuse is a significant problem. Divorce has become epidemic. People struggle with their sexual identities. There are serious health problems still to be addressed. We are faced with terrible problems of violence. Children murder one another at school. Baseball becomes 'basebrawl.' Nations fight over and carry on and on violence and hostilities over the centuries rooted in the prejudices of their ancestors. There is a significant amont of pain and suffering in the world. Obviously our world is in need of a healing and enlightening presence of God.
An exclusive club-like church isolated from the world is hardly a response to human need and suffering. Being holier-than-thou, judgemental and moralistic is not a healing approach either. A flimsy church so diverse, individualistic, and scattered cannot bear much witness either.
What seems clear in John's appreciation of Jesus at the Last Supper, those last moments, was that Jesus valued his relationship with God, and he valued his community of followers. He honored God with his obedience and his witness to servanthood, by taking the humble role of a slave and washing his disciples feet. He valued their relationship together. He prayed that they would also be the Children of God, and have a unique relationship with God. They would continue to be a strong and faithful community of support to one another and would continue to be the living body of Christ in the world. Of course, inspite of themselves, there was still betrayal, denial, and abandonment. The early church tended to be too exclusive, and the later church too flimsy. The issue for us is wheether or not we can respond and reclaim our calling and allow the Spirit of God working in us and through us to reshape our community into Christ's image, hope, and prayer.
The church today needs to be a worshipping community and a community knowledgeable of the faith in scripture. We need to know the unraveling story of God revelation of his love and mercy for the world. It gives hope and an understanding of the constant revelation of God to his people century after century. We come to know God through Scripture and prayerfulness, and experience the intimacy of God in our unity with Jesus Christ.
The very ministry of Jesus Christ was founded on and in a community of people who trusted him. We need one another as much as we need what Christ offered. We need sensitivity to pain and hurt, and the ability to be open to being healers as opposed to being moralistic judges. There is no one among us who is perfect, or who has not known pain and vulnerability. We need one another. What is so valuable about support groups, like A.A. for instance, is that there are people who can resonate and offer hope to one another.
What lies at the heart of the larger Gospel of Christ is the concept that inspite of ourselves - all the self-righteousness, sinfulness, betrayal, denial, and human stupidity - God in Christ Jesus loved us and desired to attach himself to us. We are shown a way of undeserved love and acceptance. To accept that grace, to love God, to reach out to one another is our unique and higher calling. Surely we still need the high priestly prayer of Christ.
Sunday, May 17, 1998
Easter 6
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Easter 6
PROPER: C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: May 17, 1998
TEXT: John 14:23-29 - But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. . . . . . Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, 'I am going away, and I am coming to you.'
ISSUE: The passage reflects the time when many of the earlier Christians were afraid for the future of the early church and for their future as well. Many of the eye-witnesses, the original disciples and apostles were dying off. John's Gospel assures them of God's Spirit, the Advocate will prevail and "call out " (i.e. Advocate) God's purposes from his people. The very Spirit of God will indwell, strenghten, and support them.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
I want to keep my remarks brief, as we are celebrating Rogationtide, by going outside today for prayer, and planting, as we rejoice in the wonderful world that God has given to us. (At 8 a.m. we are practicing a few songs to get ready for Pentecost.) But let's take a look at the Gospel reading from John today, because it is an important reading leading up to the Pentecost experience we'll celebrate at the end of the month.
Last week I had mentioned that John is writing at a very difficult time in the life of the very early church. There was a dissention within the ranks in terms of what Jewish practices were to be retained. The Romans had completely destroyed the center of worship at Jerusalem in 70 A.D. What's more, the early disciples and apostles of Jesus by the time that John is writing, 90 A.D., were dying off. There was a belief that Jesus Christ would come again, but that had not happened even with the destruction of the Temple. So here are these Jews with leanings to the teachings of Jesus in small diverse groups with a hostile secular world bearing down on them.
John's message for these people is that God simply will not abandon his people. Jesus proclaims in the passage that the Spirit of God will come upon them, The Spirit will move into the neighborhood. So cling to, and embrace the ways and teachings of Jesus as Lord, and the Spirit, the Advocate will prevail and be with them. The word "Advocate" means in a legal sense "one who will stand with you, at the side of a defendant." "Advocate" means also to call forth. Thus, the Spirit of God calls forth God's puposes from within us.
In John's very difficult world comes this message to embrace the faith, to accept Jesus as Lord and to be open to the Spirit of God's love endwelling, standing by, and living through his people. "Do not be afraid, and don't let your hearts be troubled," were comforting and strengthening words to the troubled world.
We know there are miracles in the Bible that we love and cherish: Feeding of the 5,000, Wedding Feast at Cana of Galilee, Healing the Blindman. There is still another profound hope and miracle that we often fail to appreciate. Inspite of people and all their shortcomings, the Church of God by virtues of God endwelling presence has brought the church down through the ages for 2,000 years. God's presence is still with us and valued.
Out time is not terribly unlike John's early church. There are still dissentions within. The church today is still persecuted, and with the collapse of Christendom we struggle in the midst of great secular and seemingly overwhelming powers. Yet, the message continues: God in Christ is with us in the Word and Scripture. God is with us in the Sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist. The prevailing Holy Spirit continues to work through people who believe and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
As we approach the great Feast of Pentecost, celebrating the coming of God's Spirit upon and among his people, may we all continue to be open to trusting the power of the Spirit to touch, embrace, standby us, and live-in, and be the outward expression of our lives.
SEASON: Easter 6
PROPER: C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: May 17, 1998
TEXT: John 14:23-29 - But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. . . . . . Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, 'I am going away, and I am coming to you.'
ISSUE: The passage reflects the time when many of the earlier Christians were afraid for the future of the early church and for their future as well. Many of the eye-witnesses, the original disciples and apostles were dying off. John's Gospel assures them of God's Spirit, the Advocate will prevail and "call out " (i.e. Advocate) God's purposes from his people. The very Spirit of God will indwell, strenghten, and support them.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
I want to keep my remarks brief, as we are celebrating Rogationtide, by going outside today for prayer, and planting, as we rejoice in the wonderful world that God has given to us. (At 8 a.m. we are practicing a few songs to get ready for Pentecost.) But let's take a look at the Gospel reading from John today, because it is an important reading leading up to the Pentecost experience we'll celebrate at the end of the month.
Last week I had mentioned that John is writing at a very difficult time in the life of the very early church. There was a dissention within the ranks in terms of what Jewish practices were to be retained. The Romans had completely destroyed the center of worship at Jerusalem in 70 A.D. What's more, the early disciples and apostles of Jesus by the time that John is writing, 90 A.D., were dying off. There was a belief that Jesus Christ would come again, but that had not happened even with the destruction of the Temple. So here are these Jews with leanings to the teachings of Jesus in small diverse groups with a hostile secular world bearing down on them.
John's message for these people is that God simply will not abandon his people. Jesus proclaims in the passage that the Spirit of God will come upon them, The Spirit will move into the neighborhood. So cling to, and embrace the ways and teachings of Jesus as Lord, and the Spirit, the Advocate will prevail and be with them. The word "Advocate" means in a legal sense "one who will stand with you, at the side of a defendant." "Advocate" means also to call forth. Thus, the Spirit of God calls forth God's puposes from within us.
In John's very difficult world comes this message to embrace the faith, to accept Jesus as Lord and to be open to the Spirit of God's love endwelling, standing by, and living through his people. "Do not be afraid, and don't let your hearts be troubled," were comforting and strengthening words to the troubled world.
We know there are miracles in the Bible that we love and cherish: Feeding of the 5,000, Wedding Feast at Cana of Galilee, Healing the Blindman. There is still another profound hope and miracle that we often fail to appreciate. Inspite of people and all their shortcomings, the Church of God by virtues of God endwelling presence has brought the church down through the ages for 2,000 years. God's presence is still with us and valued.
Out time is not terribly unlike John's early church. There are still dissentions within. The church today is still persecuted, and with the collapse of Christendom we struggle in the midst of great secular and seemingly overwhelming powers. Yet, the message continues: God in Christ is with us in the Word and Scripture. God is with us in the Sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist. The prevailing Holy Spirit continues to work through people who believe and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
As we approach the great Feast of Pentecost, celebrating the coming of God's Spirit upon and among his people, may we all continue to be open to trusting the power of the Spirit to touch, embrace, standby us, and live-in, and be the outward expression of our lives.
Sunday, May 10, 1998
Easter 5
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Easter 5
PROPER:
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: May 10,1998
TEXT: John 13:31-35 - "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
ISSUE: This passage is part of John's account of the Last Supper, in which Jesus participates in a very intimate scene washing his disciples feet. It is a sign of their purity as well as their calling to be servants in the the likeness of Christ Jesus. In a last will and testament scene, Jesus gives them their inheritance, a new commandment. They are to love one another just as he has loved them. The newness is in the love bestowed upon them without being deserved. As a community of love, then and now, the church is to be a witnesses of God to the world.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
On this 5th Sunday after Easter we are gathered here as a fellowship or group of Christians that have gathered for the reading of the Will, the Last Will and Testament of Jesus for his disciples and friends. The setting that we have just heard from the Gospel of John comes at the conclusion of John's account of the Last Supper. While in the synoptics, the concern of the Last Supper is with the breaking of the bread and the distribution of the wine, as the body and blood of Christ, John's Gospel emphasizes the washing of his disciples feet. After the supper is over, Jesus calls Peter and begins to wash his feet. You will recall that at first Peter resists, but succumbs to Jesus' demand. The footwashing stresses two points. The first point of the footwashing is that the disciples find their cleanliness, their being made clean not in obedience to the law and rituals, but by being bathed by and in Jesus Christ. To be immersed in the way and love of Jesus Christ, to accept him as Lord is to be purified and made clean. The second point of the footwashing experience is that it symbolizes what the disciples are to do for one another. As Christ has taken upon himself the role of the servant, then his disciples are to serve one another. It is all a very intimate and profoundly significant scene as it reveals the closeness of Christ Jesus with his disciples. John is attempting to reveal what it means to be the church of Christ. It is that wonderfully shared intimacy with Christ. There is a significant family of God closeness that is revealed as unique for the world.
Judas, the betrayer slips out to do what he has to do. The time of Jesus death and crucifixion has come. Jesus will be glorified and God will be glorifed. That is to say that God will be honored by the obedience of Jesus to accept the cross. Jesus is the obedient son, and in this culture a father is honored by his son's unwaivering and uncomplaining obedience. At the same time Jesus, the Son, will be honored or glorified by the God the Father raising up the Son from death. It is important to be honorable in this society, to give glory to one another.
At the same time Jesus will be leaving his fellowship, his disciples and friends, behind, and he leaves them his with a new commandment, "that they love one another." Just as he has loved them, they are to love one another that everyone will know that they are his disciples." This commandment is the way they shall honor him.
I believe there are two important things to understand when Jesus commands them to love one another. This is a very initmate scene. He has washed their feet. He is a dying man who is giving them his last words and instructions. This is initmate stuff. This command is not about loving everybody that comes down the road. Granted, that in the Story of the Good Samaritan, (Luke 10:25f) you get the impression that we are supposed to love others, but in this instance, it is about the disciples have a close knit love for one another as Jesus himself had loved them. In this society a group of disciples were expected to have allegiance for teacher or leader, but were not particularly bound to one another. In this case, however, Jesus is calling upon his disciples to be unique, so that everyone will know that they are his own unique followers. They are to remain and be a community of men and women that remain united in the devotion and affection for one another.
Still another issue of the passage which is important to remember is that this commandment that Jesus gives to his disciple is seen as new. What's new about it? The command to love one another is as old and older than the Hebrew text in Leviticus 19:17, "Love your neighbor as you love yourself." This command was an ancient command that called for kinsman to love and support one another." What's new for Jesus, for John, and the early church was that this love was to be central to their inimate relationship with one another. They were to love one another just as Jesus loved them. Jesus' love for them was in that unique servanthood of getting down on the floor and washing their feet. It was a love that called them as poor unworthy and undeserving fishermen, women, and tax collectors. It was the love that allowed him to die for them on the cross. People, as well as disciples and us Christians too, often base our love on who is deserving of it according to our standards. What is both unique and new about the love of Jesus Christ is that his love was given freely regardless of who deserved it. Simply by being a creature of God, one was made worthy of His undeserved love.
Today we are also celebrating Mother's Day, and we give special attention and honor them. What is, of course, at the heart of the celebration is not only that we honor them, but that we give thanks to them for all they put up from us. Mothers honor us. At least ideally, the mother loves her children in an undeserving way. Mothers, however, who are also human can at times be a bit maniuplative by reserving or holding back love in some instances until their children deserve it. But generally, a mother's love is freedly given and bestowed. They put up with a lot. The love of Christ was to freely accept his disciples. It is in that same spirit that he calls upon them to love and accept one another.
Keep in mind what the church faced in the time that John wrote his account of the Gospel of Christ. There were factions and infighting within the various communities. There was conflict between Jewish factions and relationships with Gentiles. Families were sometimes torn apart by family members accepting Jesus as Lord. There were persecutions from the Romans. The one thing if not the only thing that could hold the church together to be the body of Christ was love, a stong bonding faithful attachment to one another, and it had to be the basic premise of the church. It had to be Christ's love. Though they may not be worthy or deserving, they were still to serve one another and bear witness to God's undeserving and intimate serving love. It would mark them as uniquely as the people of God in the world, and as a sign to the world.
In our world today, there is not an appreciation of being honorable as there was in the time of Jesus. Politicians can be corrupt and elected. Athletes can break the rules and still get into the Hall of Fame. Service men in the armed forces can be less than honorable and be restored to high positions with the help of attorneys. Even religious leaders can be charlatans and be restored to their ministries. The sense of being honorable, honoring God and what is right, just, true, good, beautiful, and holy is not always a top priority of the world we live in. the world seems to be willing to accept a lot less than honorableness.
Love in our world is often seen as little more than a sentimental romanticism. It can be trite. We can be inclined to love only that which is deserving and what meets our own needs. It is fairly easy to love that which is loveable and acceptable to us. Most anybody can do that and do do that much. What does not meet our own needs is tossed away and expendable and unimportant.
If the church in the world today is to have anything to say it will not be based on how big we are, how old and traditional we are, how grand are our edifices are. It will not depend on how much endowment we have. We do certainly have problems within in terms of what we believe to be right and wrong, especially in terms of what is appropriate for human sexuality. We struggle with various interpretations of Scripture. We struggle with what seem to be appropriate forms of liturgy and worship. We face as many problems and conflicts as did the very early church in the time of St. John the Evangelist. Yet, the issue for the church in the world today is how much we honor what is of God and how we love one another in terms of our servanthood, our respect for one another. We still need to be connected and see ourselves as the chosen, and continue to trust one another. Our impact upon the world is in how we allow Christ Jesus to transform us and raise us up as his living body in the world, inspite of our differences and eccentricities. He honors us with his love which is undeserved and unwarranted, and we in turn honor him by loving one another as a servant community. We become the on going living sign of the presence of Christ in the world today.
In our church we do some things that are extraordinarily profound. I don't know whether you are aware of it or not. But, we do. So do a number of other congregations both far and near. One of the extraordinary things that we do that is something of a shock to people in our world is that we all gather around a cup of wine, which recollects the Last Supper of Jesus and drink from that one cup. It is an incredible sign of our oneness and unity in Christ Jesus. (At one time the church got away from this practice, but in the Reformation there were those like Archbishop Cramner who gave their lives that this symbol of unity might be restored.) Many of us gather on Maundy Thursday evening each year and wash one another's feet. Again another profound sign of our affection, our love and call to servanthood for one another. But they glorify God; they honor Christ.
These signs we do need also to more than just signs but our way of life that expresses a genuine participation in what God has called us to be and to do, and live out our affection for one another supporting one another in community so we can reach out to others in strength and with purpose united in Christ and an expression of his body in the world. It is our way of honoring God and allowing him to honor us. Living faithfully into the full serving love of God, we fulfill accept our inheritance, and are raised up with Christ.
SEASON: Easter 5
PROPER:
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: May 10,1998
TEXT: John 13:31-35 - "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
ISSUE: This passage is part of John's account of the Last Supper, in which Jesus participates in a very intimate scene washing his disciples feet. It is a sign of their purity as well as their calling to be servants in the the likeness of Christ Jesus. In a last will and testament scene, Jesus gives them their inheritance, a new commandment. They are to love one another just as he has loved them. The newness is in the love bestowed upon them without being deserved. As a community of love, then and now, the church is to be a witnesses of God to the world.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
On this 5th Sunday after Easter we are gathered here as a fellowship or group of Christians that have gathered for the reading of the Will, the Last Will and Testament of Jesus for his disciples and friends. The setting that we have just heard from the Gospel of John comes at the conclusion of John's account of the Last Supper. While in the synoptics, the concern of the Last Supper is with the breaking of the bread and the distribution of the wine, as the body and blood of Christ, John's Gospel emphasizes the washing of his disciples feet. After the supper is over, Jesus calls Peter and begins to wash his feet. You will recall that at first Peter resists, but succumbs to Jesus' demand. The footwashing stresses two points. The first point of the footwashing is that the disciples find their cleanliness, their being made clean not in obedience to the law and rituals, but by being bathed by and in Jesus Christ. To be immersed in the way and love of Jesus Christ, to accept him as Lord is to be purified and made clean. The second point of the footwashing experience is that it symbolizes what the disciples are to do for one another. As Christ has taken upon himself the role of the servant, then his disciples are to serve one another. It is all a very intimate and profoundly significant scene as it reveals the closeness of Christ Jesus with his disciples. John is attempting to reveal what it means to be the church of Christ. It is that wonderfully shared intimacy with Christ. There is a significant family of God closeness that is revealed as unique for the world.
Judas, the betrayer slips out to do what he has to do. The time of Jesus death and crucifixion has come. Jesus will be glorified and God will be glorifed. That is to say that God will be honored by the obedience of Jesus to accept the cross. Jesus is the obedient son, and in this culture a father is honored by his son's unwaivering and uncomplaining obedience. At the same time Jesus, the Son, will be honored or glorified by the God the Father raising up the Son from death. It is important to be honorable in this society, to give glory to one another.
At the same time Jesus will be leaving his fellowship, his disciples and friends, behind, and he leaves them his with a new commandment, "that they love one another." Just as he has loved them, they are to love one another that everyone will know that they are his disciples." This commandment is the way they shall honor him.
I believe there are two important things to understand when Jesus commands them to love one another. This is a very initmate scene. He has washed their feet. He is a dying man who is giving them his last words and instructions. This is initmate stuff. This command is not about loving everybody that comes down the road. Granted, that in the Story of the Good Samaritan, (Luke 10:25f) you get the impression that we are supposed to love others, but in this instance, it is about the disciples have a close knit love for one another as Jesus himself had loved them. In this society a group of disciples were expected to have allegiance for teacher or leader, but were not particularly bound to one another. In this case, however, Jesus is calling upon his disciples to be unique, so that everyone will know that they are his own unique followers. They are to remain and be a community of men and women that remain united in the devotion and affection for one another.
Still another issue of the passage which is important to remember is that this commandment that Jesus gives to his disciple is seen as new. What's new about it? The command to love one another is as old and older than the Hebrew text in Leviticus 19:17, "Love your neighbor as you love yourself." This command was an ancient command that called for kinsman to love and support one another." What's new for Jesus, for John, and the early church was that this love was to be central to their inimate relationship with one another. They were to love one another just as Jesus loved them. Jesus' love for them was in that unique servanthood of getting down on the floor and washing their feet. It was a love that called them as poor unworthy and undeserving fishermen, women, and tax collectors. It was the love that allowed him to die for them on the cross. People, as well as disciples and us Christians too, often base our love on who is deserving of it according to our standards. What is both unique and new about the love of Jesus Christ is that his love was given freely regardless of who deserved it. Simply by being a creature of God, one was made worthy of His undeserved love.
Today we are also celebrating Mother's Day, and we give special attention and honor them. What is, of course, at the heart of the celebration is not only that we honor them, but that we give thanks to them for all they put up from us. Mothers honor us. At least ideally, the mother loves her children in an undeserving way. Mothers, however, who are also human can at times be a bit maniuplative by reserving or holding back love in some instances until their children deserve it. But generally, a mother's love is freedly given and bestowed. They put up with a lot. The love of Christ was to freely accept his disciples. It is in that same spirit that he calls upon them to love and accept one another.
Keep in mind what the church faced in the time that John wrote his account of the Gospel of Christ. There were factions and infighting within the various communities. There was conflict between Jewish factions and relationships with Gentiles. Families were sometimes torn apart by family members accepting Jesus as Lord. There were persecutions from the Romans. The one thing if not the only thing that could hold the church together to be the body of Christ was love, a stong bonding faithful attachment to one another, and it had to be the basic premise of the church. It had to be Christ's love. Though they may not be worthy or deserving, they were still to serve one another and bear witness to God's undeserving and intimate serving love. It would mark them as uniquely as the people of God in the world, and as a sign to the world.
In our world today, there is not an appreciation of being honorable as there was in the time of Jesus. Politicians can be corrupt and elected. Athletes can break the rules and still get into the Hall of Fame. Service men in the armed forces can be less than honorable and be restored to high positions with the help of attorneys. Even religious leaders can be charlatans and be restored to their ministries. The sense of being honorable, honoring God and what is right, just, true, good, beautiful, and holy is not always a top priority of the world we live in. the world seems to be willing to accept a lot less than honorableness.
Love in our world is often seen as little more than a sentimental romanticism. It can be trite. We can be inclined to love only that which is deserving and what meets our own needs. It is fairly easy to love that which is loveable and acceptable to us. Most anybody can do that and do do that much. What does not meet our own needs is tossed away and expendable and unimportant.
If the church in the world today is to have anything to say it will not be based on how big we are, how old and traditional we are, how grand are our edifices are. It will not depend on how much endowment we have. We do certainly have problems within in terms of what we believe to be right and wrong, especially in terms of what is appropriate for human sexuality. We struggle with various interpretations of Scripture. We struggle with what seem to be appropriate forms of liturgy and worship. We face as many problems and conflicts as did the very early church in the time of St. John the Evangelist. Yet, the issue for the church in the world today is how much we honor what is of God and how we love one another in terms of our servanthood, our respect for one another. We still need to be connected and see ourselves as the chosen, and continue to trust one another. Our impact upon the world is in how we allow Christ Jesus to transform us and raise us up as his living body in the world, inspite of our differences and eccentricities. He honors us with his love which is undeserved and unwarranted, and we in turn honor him by loving one another as a servant community. We become the on going living sign of the presence of Christ in the world today.
In our church we do some things that are extraordinarily profound. I don't know whether you are aware of it or not. But, we do. So do a number of other congregations both far and near. One of the extraordinary things that we do that is something of a shock to people in our world is that we all gather around a cup of wine, which recollects the Last Supper of Jesus and drink from that one cup. It is an incredible sign of our oneness and unity in Christ Jesus. (At one time the church got away from this practice, but in the Reformation there were those like Archbishop Cramner who gave their lives that this symbol of unity might be restored.) Many of us gather on Maundy Thursday evening each year and wash one another's feet. Again another profound sign of our affection, our love and call to servanthood for one another. But they glorify God; they honor Christ.
These signs we do need also to more than just signs but our way of life that expresses a genuine participation in what God has called us to be and to do, and live out our affection for one another supporting one another in community so we can reach out to others in strength and with purpose united in Christ and an expression of his body in the world. It is our way of honoring God and allowing him to honor us. Living faithfully into the full serving love of God, we fulfill accept our inheritance, and are raised up with Christ.
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