7 EASTER, YEAR B
SERMON PREACHED AT CHRIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, NORWAY, MAINE
THE REV. ANNE G. STANLEY
24 MAY 2009
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Acts 1:15-17; psalm 1; 1 John 5:9-13; john 17:6-19
We’re now nearing the end of Easter. That extended period of Fifty Days after Jesus’ resurrection. The season when the disciples shared their Easter joy and compared notes with each other about the various ways Jesus kept appearing to some of them. Jesus had gone….but yet not quite.
Then came the day when Jesus appeared for the last time, and disappeared for the last time; and the disciples watched as he ascended and vanished from their sight. That’s the day the Church calls the Feast of the Ascension, which was last Thursday, always a Thursday. Nowadays most of the Church goes about its business as usual on Ascension Thursday, so the celebration comes and goes unnoticed.
But four days later, on the 7th Sunday of Easter, today, we do notice.
So imagine the disciples now, Jesus having gone away for good. Imagine their fear. What will they do without him now, how will they manage? The religious authorities are onto them, they are outcasts, they are afraid for their very lives.
And as they huddle together, maybe we can see one of them suddenly recalling Jesus’ words, spoken to them just before he died. The words today’s gospel writer has preserved for us. Jesus’ long prayer to God, the High Priestly Prayer, which he had prayed out loud, hoping the disciples would hear. And they did hear. And now in their current uncertainty and sadness, they remember his prayer. “Hey, remember this?” pipes up one of the disciples. She recites it to them. And they remember.
We remember Jesus’ prayer, too. Jesus’ words which instruct as they comfort, teach as they make us strong.
Jesus prays, and the disciples hear him. “Holy God, I am coming to you, so protect these your people. I have guarded them. Now you make sure they are protected.”
Words of comfort, words to strengthen us. Straight from Jesus himself.
And then come Jesus’ words of instruction. The rest of Jesus’ message. The marching orders for his disciples and for us who, he said, are still in this world.
And yet, we are also NOT of this world. Jesus said that, too. Wait a minute. Which is it? What’s Jesus getting at here.? “They do not belong to this world….But, God, don’t take them out of this world.” Which is it?
Basically, and this is a theology lesson from Jesus, basically Jesus is calling us to understand what the incarnation really means: that just as God fill us and makes us holy, so also we must be active in the physical world because God has chosen to dwell in our physical bodies.
God came to dwell in human flesh. Jesus was filled with God from his birth. That made him “otherworldly.” But because he was human at the same time, Jesus was very much OF the world, too. God cared so much for the physical world he had made that God sent his only son…..to live as we do, to die as we do….That’s the paradox of the incarnation. You CAN have it both ways! Jesus was human and divine all at once.
And so are we! Jesus is telling us that we, too, because we trust in Jesus, we, too are filled with Jesus, incarnate and because of that we are otherworldly, not of this world. too.
But because Jesus lives in our bodies, our flesh, just as God lived in Jesus’ body, we, like Jesus, are also of this world. Which means that we must take faithful care not to turn our back on the affairs of the world. That we are called to mess with the struggles and the joys of the present world just as Jesus was plugged into the flesh and blood world into which he was born. Jesus is wanting us to know that the incarnation has not ended with his death, resurrection and ascension. Jesus dwells in us still, incarnate in us, making us holy and otherworldly.
And we belong to the world. Thus our great responsibility to the world we live in and the people we live with.
In a sense today, Jesus is preparing his disciples for Pentecost, a week hence, when his Spirit will descend like flames of fire and a great wind, releasing them from their prison of fear and caution into the activity of faithful discipleship. In a sense today, Jesus is laying the groundwork for us, too, for a reinvigorated love affair between us and the world we live in, so we, too, can find our voices and rediscover our gifts and serve the world in Jesus’ name. In a real sense Jesus is telling us not to stay hidden and neutral and indifferent to our surroundings. Because he didn’t stay hidden and neutral and indifferent to his surroundings. The physical world was crucial to his ministry. Jesus is urging us, like the disciples, to latch hold of the struggles of the world. That even though that’s hard and a nuisance sometimes, and there is a cost to discipleship, so there is also a cost of “un-discipleship.” Look what happened to Judas, after all.
Even staying neutral and quiet has its cost. Archbishop Desmond Tutu talked about the sleepy neutrality of many when it came to apartheid. “When an elephant steps on the tail of a mouse and you say, ‘I don’t intend to take sides in this situation,’ you’ve already taken sides with the elephant.”
We have our marching orders. Jesus has sent us into the world. “As you have sent me, so I have sent them…” But we also have the guarantee of God’s constant protection as we go. As we function as Jesus’ own body and blood, with Jesus incarnate in us, so we can also know the joy of being linked forever in solidarity and security within the embrace of the resurrected, ascended and ever-present-within-us Jesus.