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6 Easter A—May 25, 2014
Acts 17:22-31
Psalm 66:7-18
1 Peter 3:13-22
John 14:15-21
The Very Rev. David R. Wilt
Thursday May 29th is Ascension Day, the day when we
recognize the end of Jesus’ post Easter embodied presence on the
earth, and his ascension into heaven. Ascension Day is one of the
seven Principle Feasts Days of the Church year along with Easter,
Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, All Saints Day, Christmas, and
Epiphany. So, we will celebrate Ascension Day at our 10 am
service on Thursday May 29th and I invite your attendance at that
service.
But, we are not quite there yet, although in our Gospel
passage today we encounter a reflective, almost, we might even
say contemplative Jesus, who knows that in a short period of time
we are going to have to adjust to a different presence of the
Christ.
I suspect that everybody here today has at some point in
their lives had to face a separation from someone we love very
much. And, as much as we may want our parting words to be
plainly understood as, “until we meet again,” no matter how we
phrase them it sounds like “Goodbye”. In those partings we hope
to reinforce those things that hopefully we have shared with one
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another while at the same time fully understanding that if the
lessons we taught are to be remembered, we will need to be
remembered also.
And so, Jesus addresses those he loves, anticipating not his
ascension but his crucifixion and reminds them that things are
about to change but, for his presence to remain they will have to
believe and participate. Those who remain behind must indeed
believe in the perseverance of the spirit or departures become
permanent voids.
Fortunately for us, Jesus goes one step further. He says, “I
will ask the father and he will give you another Advocate, to be
with you forever…and you will know him because he abides with
you, and will be in you.” Then he adds the most haunting words
of all especially to children, and remember Christ tells us to be
childlike in our faith. He adds, “I will not leave you orphaned”
So even before Jesus physically departs he sets the stage for
his continued presence in our lives and promises that the most
horrid situation that can befall a child, losing one’s parents to
death or abandonment, in effect losing all hope, will not be our
fate.
Jesus will say again in chapter 16 of John, “It is to your
advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate
will not come to you.”
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So long as Jesus was present on the earth it was our human
nature to let him do the heavy lifting. It is our human nature, as
it was the disciples, to defer important decisions on how others
were to be included or embraced to Jesus.
How many disciples do you think had the nerve to sit down
with a multitude of people who were looked upon by the religious
community of the day as outcasts until they saw Jesus do it? And,
as long as he was physically present they were quite content to
follow along behind his robes until the point where he was taken
away to be killed, and then they all scattered.
But now, Jesus is telling them that in a little while they will
no longer have the luxury of hiding behind his robes. They will no
longer have the luxury of standing by mute when they witness
injustice, or prejudice, or inequality. He is also telling them,
however, that he is leaving within their souls the strength and
power to confront evil and injustice just as he did.
This weekend we celebrate Memorial Day, and we remember
with gratitude those who were willing to serve this country we
call home to the point of death. We remember those to whom we
might have said, “until we meet again,” only to have it turn into,
“Goodbye.”
It is important, if their memories are to have substance, to
remember what it is they were willing to die for.
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Any one of them might have said they served because they
were called upon to do so but if this is indeed a nation under God
it needs to be much more than that. For, if they died only because
they were called to serve then they have died in vain.
If, however, they died to stop the slaughter of other innocent
people, if however they died in defense of the poor, who have no
voice; or the oppressed; or those who found themselves in prisons
simply because of their ideologies or beliefs, then, they have
sacrificed themselves for others in the same manner in which
Jesus went to the cross. The advocate which Jesus instilled in
them gave them the courage to stand up in the face of rulers and
tyrants and “say treating human beings this way is wrong,” then
there is no way any of them have died in vain.
As citizens of this same country, however, that has been
willing to sacrifice so many of its young men and women, it’s
children, in the name of freedom and justice, we must be willing
to have the courage to stand up, with the same courage we have
asked them to exhibit on foreign soil, and demand that, if we are
a nation under God, then there is no tolerance for racism, shere is
no tolerance for sexist, there is no tolerance for prejudice and
bigotry, there is no tolerance for unequal protection and
opportunity under the laws.
If we are grateful for those who have given their lives on
foreign soil for others then we have the right to demand the
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same equality and opportunity that we demand of others. We
cannot condone within our own borders inequalities we would
condemn in others.
We do not have Jesus’ robes to hide behind but we do have
the courage within us to demand that if we desire to be a nation
under God that all of God’s creation needs to be loved as Christ
loved us.
It is only the argument of tyrants that necessity is the reason
to infringe human freedom.
If we are a nation under God then we must see not only see
might, but the gentle face of Christ who gave the most
marginalized human being on the face of the earth, over and over
again eeason to hope and reason to live
If we are a nation under God then we must understand that
what Jesus came to accomplish has been left largely in our hands.
But we are not alone or orphaned in our cause or the advocate
sustains us without pause.