Since Easter we have
been in a long period of farewell with Jesus. We have been wearing the white of
the Easter season to mark the time. Then, this past Thursday, Jesus led his
disciples “as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While
he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven.” It
was the day of the Ascension of our Lord.
We recall our collective
sigh of relief on April 20 when Jesus rose from his grave. Since then we have lived
with him through the scriptures as he has been meeting with his disciples,
having long walks with them, staying in their homes, sharing meals with them, hearing
of their hopes and dreams, and teaching them.
By now we should finally
understand God loves us. Jesus is our Messiah, he is our Christ. He was not kidding when he told us about
himself from the beginning. He has come to save the world and to save each of
us.
Central to these
stories in John, when compared to Matthew, Mark and Luke, is the unique and
unprecedented access we have through Jesus to God. Jesus, we have learned, shares in God’s
character and identity.
“In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1) and it
is as the Word made flesh that Jesus brings God fully to the world. “And the
Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as
of a fathers’ only son, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)
Following his time on
earth, and during these post-resurrection days we have been taught to remember
that Jesus has prepared a place for us to be eternally with him. We know firmly
the way to that place is through Jesus. That way is not known from a book, or a
place, or what anyone says they believe to be the truth about who Jesus is,
even who God is. No. Jesus Christ, himself, He is the only way.
Knowing this, our
desire is to be with him always, to hear his voice again, and to never let him
go. Our desire is the desire of disciples past. It is to really feel, and know,
and be present, today, this very moment, and the next, with Jesus.
Yet, in the midst of our
chaotic lives we hardly feel Jesus’ presence.
Where is he when we pray we need all the Godly help we can
get? Where is he when we pray he show us how to live a faith filled life so we
can be sure about his promises?
We just wish Jesus
would show up for us. We wish we could hear his voice speaking clearly to our
heart and soul. So many times we ask, where could he possibly be? John’s reading this morning tells us.
“And now I am no
longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy
Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be
one, as we are one.”
Jesus’ last words to
his disciples are this prayer. We learn from it he prays the way we pray. Holy
Father, protect them. Holy Father, guard them. Holy Father, keep them. They are
still in the world.
Then he prays for us in
a way only Jesus could pray. It follows today’s scripture. “I have given them
your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the
world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them
out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not
belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.”
What a strange thing
to say. How can we be in the world, but not of it? Perhaps Jesus’ point is as his
disciples, as folk who believe in him, trust in him, wish we could live in
obedience and love him, we do not belong to this world. We belong instead to
Jesus’ world.
Perhaps our life long
quest is to finally discover that world.
I have read of a
family that has given up television. They want to remind themselves and their
children: this box does not own us!
I have heard it said
there are people who designate one day a week as their “car-less” day. They
won’t drive, or accept a ride in anyone else’s car. If they need to go some
where, they walk or ride their bike. They want to remind themselves: this
gasoline does not own me!
A colleague knows a
family that keeps a supply of homemade paper sack lunches in the trunk of the
car. The children wrap up peanut butter sandwiches, and then pack them with
pieces of fruit, granola bars, cookies, and such. If they see a person asking
for assistance on the way to school, they stop the car. The children offer a
paper sack lunch and a smile. They want to remind us: this myth of scarcity
does not own us! This love less world does not own us!
There is a pastor who
takes himself on an ‘artists date’ once a week. He sets aside two hours to do
something completely different, like walking around an art gallery, or going to
see a foreign film, or sitting at the bus station and just watching the people
who get off, to see life in different ways. The practice feeds his soul, and
rejuvenates his spirit. It gives him energy to manage his overloaded calendar.
He wants to remind himself: time or the lack of it, does not own me!
We see these responses
to life all around us. Folk volunteer at the hospital or at hospice. Folk help
out in the schools or at the library. Folk volunteer at church to help keep the
community going, to help bring fellowship to a gathering of the faithful, to
visit with a sick friend, an aging parent, to help a stranger, a foreigner, a
widow, a child. Living and speaking the voice of love. We want to remind
ourselves: this world does not own us!
But, God’s world, and
God’s love does!
We have experienced this truth in this church.
We have heard this voice from God in the form of the love that is here. At the pulpit, as some of you read our
blessed texts, we have heard the voice of love. From this choir loft; in these
pews, at fellowship, when we sing with our hearts unfettered, or gather for Bible
study, or at session meetings, or congregational dinners, or impromptu
gatherings around town, we have heard the voice of God’s love.
This real life person,
Jesus Christ has brought us this voice of love. A voice teaching us who we are,
a voice teaching us to which world we belong.
Jesus spent this
Easter season to teach us his life on earth was not a thirty three year once in
a life time incursion. The truth of the gospel is God is still present, as
physical and real today as God was in the historical time. The body of Christ
is still with us today.
Dearest ones, in many
ways we are the believers the apostle Paul speaks of in 1 Corinthians when he
affirms, “We are Christ’s body.” Literally, the body of believers, like the
Communion Eucharist we take this morning, is the Body of Christ in an organic
way. We believers are not a mystical reality, not something that represents
Christ, we are something that is Christ. We have within our mind, and heart,
and soul the spark of divinity.
Ronald Rolheiser, in
his book “The Holy Longing”, says “if it is true that we are the Body of
Christ, and it is, then God’s presence in the world today depends very much
upon us. We have to keep God present in the world in the same was as Jesus did.
We have to become, as Teresa of Avila so simply put it, God’s physical hands,
feet, mouthpiece, and heart in this world.”
Dear ones, Christ Jesus is the spark in our
souls. We are where he has gone. We are his hands, his feet, his mind, his
heart. We live so that he may live. He has ascended into heaven, but we are
here to carry on his work. We are here to glorify him and bring his hope, and
his strength, and his love to this hurting world.
We do not belong to
this world. This world does not own us. We are one with God and God alone. So we can live in this world as God’s protected,
and we can show God to the world letting our spark bring eternal light, lasting
hope, and eternal love.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen 060114.gcp
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