Sermon for May 24, 2020 - Easter 7 - Year A - The Ven Pat Zifcak
We know how adaptable scripture has been for those who need to interpret it to serve their own purposes. We know the passages that seem to accept slavery, we know the passages that seem to compromise women’s authority, we know the passages that set the Jews against Jesus and his disciples, and we know the argument that the God of the Old Testament is an angry and jealous God.
In the months that we have been quarantined and our lives have been turned upside down and inside out, there are many who are asking, “Where is God?” It is a common assumption that where pain and suffering are present, God is absent. Remember the story of the crippled child whose parents were asked which of them had sinned to cause such an affliction in their child? When all seems right in the world, we don’t question the nearness of God or God’s love for us. In times like these, we are quick to question every possible reason for our suffering. In times like these, I am grateful for each of you and the faith with which you face another day. You help me to remember that my circumstances are not unique and that any hardship shared seems easier to bear. I am grateful for my clergy colleagues and for the creative ways they have imagined community sustained on zoom and Facebook! I am grateful for the small groups that keep us in community and for those who teach and learn. I am grateful for my faith, supported by each of you, that God will not abandon me.
The Letter of Peter to the Christian community marks the end of the Easter season. Christ has ascended. What he came to do has been done. He must trust that his followers, the disciples now the apostles- no longer students but teachers- , will be faithful to his teaching in an unfaithful world. The world has always been a dangerous place for the lost, the lonely, the oppressed, those in prison, the needy, the minority. The early Christians faced a dangerous world and entrusted their lives to the God they came to know in Jesus. Peter reminds them that they are not alone in their suffering and they should not be surprised by the trials they face. After all, the one who called them into community suffered for their sake.
Each of our lessons today refers directly or indirectly to the church. Then and now we are the people God has given to Jesus. We are the ones for whom he prays. The Gospel reading this morning is a prayer offered by Jesus to God on behalf of those whom he gathered. It is the prayer prayed by Jesus before his arrest in the garden and it is repeated here as Jesus returns to God on the promise of the coming of the Holy Spirit. As one commentary suggests, this prayer hangs between heaven and earth, between the historical Jesus and the glorified Christ. I love that we are passive participants in this intimate moment, that we have overheard without being noticed. I love, too, the reminder that for John, Jesus is the Word. Remember that the first chapter of the Gospel of John says : “ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. And the Word became flesh and lived among us.” And Jesus prays, “And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world….”. “Protect them in your name….”
To whom much is given, much is required. We can answer the call placed upon us because the one who calls us gives us all we need to respond. The one who calls us accompanies us, supports us and strengthens our will to respond. Over and over the church asks us to give of our time, talent, and treasure. Sometimes we are asked to answer specific needs; sometimes we give so that the church can respond in a crisis. A church that insulates itself from the needs of the world does not demonstrate the example of community that the early church was called to model. Their very name, their existence was cause enough to bring danger to their door. Yet they lived as they had been taught as examples of obedience and love for the world to see.
We are church. We have been taught what that means by thousands of years of testimony and by our personal, prayerful relationship with Christ. We have been taught by our participation in the rituals and ceremonies of belonging. We have been taught in this pandemic that our church matters more to us than we might have imagined. And we are reminded that in the community that binds us together in love and support for one another there is strength and hope. Strength to respond to one another and to the world with confidence in God’s grace; courage to respond to one another and to the world with hope in God’s mercy.
Jesus prayed, “protect them.” The world is a dangerous place and we must not be naive. We are a force for good and we make a difference in the struggle when we show kindness, serve justice, shine in the darkness, and speak the Word of God.
Christ has not left us orphaned but will send us an advocate, the Holy Spirit, to abide with us, to relieve our anxiety, and to remind us that we are working God’s purpose out as part of the unbroken covenant established by God through Jesus to the Apostles and to us, the people of God, the Church.