Memorial Church of the Good Shepherd Acts 1:15-17, 21- 26
12 May 2024 Psalm 1
7 Easter 1 John 5: 9-13
10:30am John 17: 6-19
….The heart and soul of the Bible is its story…Story
Is also the word that best describes our own lives.
While we may or may not follow the right rules, investigate
certain facts, and attempt to live wisely, none of these
activities provides the central way we make sense of
our lives. Stories give context and provide meaning.
Eugene Peterson, The Message, p. 1593
Christianity defined: Christians are those who believe
that in this Jew from Nazareth—his words, including the
most outrageous and confusing of them, and his deeds,
including the most offensive and incomprehensible of
them—we have seen the fulness of God.
Will Willimon, “Jesus as God,” p. 312
Reclaiming our history of noble struggle reworks the
polarizing language that has done us such disservice,
while it undermines the ideology of authoritarianism.
Heather Cox Richardson, Democracy Awakening:
Notes on the State of America, quoted in CC, p.91
To be a good citizen, it is necessary to be warmhearted,
but it is also necessary to master the disciplines, methods
and techniques required to live well together: how to listen
well, how to ask for and offer forgiveness, how not to
misunderstand one another, how to converse in a way that
reduces inequalities of respect. In a society with so much
loneliness and distrust, we are failing at these social and
moral disciplines.
David Brooks, Healing the American Soul, NYT,
Friday, May 10, 2024, p. A22
I.Everyone has a story, as do all different kinds of groups. For example, consider institutions, communities, clubs, cities, towns, villages, countries, nations, religions…the list is endless as are all the stories connected with all the groups. And surely, the apostles had individual and collective stories as they gathered with the 125 believers to hear Peter explain the need to elect a new apostle to replace Judas. Today’s first reading from Acts tells the story of the election of Matthias as the new twelfth apostle and Luke adds a good bit of background information so that the believers and others who were interested in learning about the new church being formed could know more and ask questions. We might think of this lesson from Acts as an information session which most likely would result in many more stories.
II. In many respects, these days after the Ascension are filled with important stories we need to hear again. For instance, the first eleven verses of Luke’s first chapter of Acts are both a retelling of the Ascension itself and review of what is in store for the apostles—still only eleven--especially their baptism with the Holy Spirit. These eleven verses are Luke’s way of identifying the Holy Spirit as perhaps the most element in the formation of the early Church.
III. An important thread running through the three years of Jesus’s public life, is the mostly quiet presence of the Holy Spirit. And the story of Easter is not only the Resurrection but also the Ascension, and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit as tongues of fire, on Pentecost. The signs of the Holy Spirit were not always apparent, and this is why the other two readings for today, 1 John 5: 9-13 and John 17: 6-19, are so important as they offer us a chance to ask ourselves what we really believe. The crucial question is whether we believe Jesus is God. Whoever believes in the Son of God inwardly confirms God’s testimony. Whoever refuses to believe in effect calls God a liar, refusing to believe God’s own testimony regarding his Son. This is the testimony in essence: God gave us eternal life; the life is in his Son. So, whoever has the Son, has life; whoever rejects the son, rejects life.
(Eugene Peterson, The Message, p.1566)
IV. This is a very difficult—and quite awkward—issue. The author of John’s letter gives testimony that Jesus is the embodiment of God and that the testimony we receive from him is divine testimony. And this makes great sense, as long as we believe it. But what if we don’t believe this? Are we saying God is a liar? The logic here seems straight forward but is really very challenging. The author of John’s letter keeps it “simple.” We are to believe that Jesus is the Son of God because Jesus says he is the Son of God. So, the author of John’s letter says that Jesus is the Son of God and Jesus himself says the same thing. This “logic” should be all the proof we need, right? But what if we don’t believe or are not sure we believe? What do we do? Where do we go?
V. As the Christians we say we are, we acknowledge that we believe as much with our hearts as with our minds. And in certain beliefs, it is the heart that leads. Such is the case here: that Jesus is the Son of God, and as God’s son, he is God. The great Anselm of Canterbury, Abbot, Theologian and Archbishop of Canterbury, is one of the Holy Persons celebrated and remembered in the Episcopal Lectionary (c.1033-1109) and he can be of help to us here. This is a passage from the Lectionary:
Undergirding Anselm’s theology is a profound piety. His spirituality is best summarized in the phrase, faith seeking understanding. He writes,” I do not seek to understand that I may believe, but I believe in order that I may understand. For this too, I believe, that unless I first believe, I shall not understand.”
(from Lesser Feasts and Fasts: 2022, p. 201 (April 21)
VI. Perhaps a new story is unfolding for us here, a story we would not have anticipated, especially now in the last days of Easter and one week away from Pentecost. I would remind us that Easter is NOT a day but a remarkable coming out celebration of faith and understanding, of love and devotion, of preparation and affirmation, and a revelation of the Spirit in a very palpable way. If we think about it, this is quite a story, a story that is meant to inform and shape our lives and our souls.
VII. In these last few Sundays, I have brought the real story of our country
to the surface and I’ve begun to talk about what is happening “out there.”
In doing so, I have argued that we really know what is going on but may be uncertain what—if anything—we can do about it. Most of all, I have tried to bring us closer to our Christianity and to the WORD. So, in these last moments of our time together in conversation, I want to bring a conclusion to our story, a conclusion that has two parts. The first part is a recent commentary on the conditions “out there.”
VIII. From “Healing the American Soul” by David Brooks. The New York Times, Friday, May 10, 2024, p. A-22
To be a good citizen, it is necessary to be warmhearted, but it is also necessary to master the disciplines, methods and techniques required to live well together: how to listen well, how to ask for and offer forgiveness,
how not to misunderstand one another, how to converse in a way that reduces inequalities of respect. In a society with so much loneliness and distrust, we are failing at these social and moral disciplines.
This is a quiet but hard and pointed assessment of what things are like “out there.”
IX. We are fortunate today because the last lesson is from the 17th Chapter John’s Gospel and is meant to be a version in poetry. Chapter 17 is Jesus’s “Final Discourse,” given to his disciples at the last supper the evening before his passion and death. It can serve as a powerful counterpoint to what is happening “out there.” Here is part of the prayer portion of that “Final Discourse,” in poetic form:
Holy Father, guard them as they pursue this life
That you conferred as a gift through me,
So they can be one heart and mind
As we are one heart and mind.
As long as I was with them, I guarded them
In the pursuit of the life you gave through me…
I gave them your word;
The godless world hated them because of it,
Because they didn’t join the world’s ways,
Just as I didn’t join the world’s ways.
I am not asking that you take them out of the world
But that you guard them from the Evil one.
They are no more defined by the world
Than I am defined by the world.
Make them holy--consecrated--with the truth;
Your word is consecrating truth.
In the same way that you gave me a mission in the world,
I give them a mission in the world.
I’m consecrating myself for their sakes
So they’ll be truth-consecrated in their mission…
From the Eugene Peterson translation in The Message,pp.1381-1382
X. Suddenly, we have a conclusion to our story of Easter and there is still more to come this week as we prepare for Pentecost. As Merton might say to us now, to “pray” is to BE in the Light of Jesus’s prayer from the “Final Discourse,” and to realize that perhaps we believe more than we understand, and that we are willing and able to examine more critically the mess “out there.” And that’s a good thing.
Amen