Readings: Luke 24: 44-53 John 17: 6-19
Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations
of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God, our joy and our purpose. Amen.
Last Sunday I was asked where
I was going to go with a sermon after the focus on ‘climate change’. For it has filled my head the past couple of
weeks and there has been such of the response to this issue and much to delight
in, much to ponder, much to challenge.
Yet in this Sunday, Ascension
Sunday – the day we explore the next step of the disciples being sent into the
world to be the presence of Christ in the power of the Spirit – has much to
delight in, ponder and be challenged by as well.
Jesus is preparing to leave
them again – this time not by being ripped out from their arms onto the cross
but a rather more considered farewell with encouraging words, the promise of
companionship to come and a blessing for the journey.
This hiatus of time, waiting
for Pentecost, is, unlike the black gloom of Easter Saturday, filled with
anticipation and hope – Luke says that they returned to Jerusalem with great
joy and were continually in the temple blessing God. Their delight was in the risen Christ who,
though he was leaving them again, had shown the power that love has over death
and gave them real hope that they too could be the people to carry that love to
the world.
I wonder if, in that delight,
they took time to remember the prayer that Jesus prayed for them to his Father
in the garden before his arrest (our Easter 7 Reading for today): the prayer
that asked for them to be guided and cared for just as the Father has done for
him. The prayer where Jesus declaration
of love for his people is fulsome and his trust in their ability to continue in
the way leaves us breathless. A prayer
of eternal love and hope filled mission, of overwhelming confidence and
trust!
There is a different feel to
the prayer today from hearing it as part of the narrative before Jesus was
crucified – then I suspect it would have been more of a consolation, scant
comfort really – now at Ascension it held enormous possibilities, a new reality
to which they could commit with hope and trust.
Jesus had proven his power over death – the prayer took on new meaning
in the light of the risen Christ.
Before Easter, it was
swallowed in the chaos of pain and hopelessness – with no time to absorb. Now it feels ok to simply sit in the space of
this prayer for a while – to absorb the sense of being loved and belonging that
surrounds us as the people of God.
Nothing is asked of us, nothing needs to be done, we are simply held in
the prayer of Jesus for us. The peace of
Christ indeed.
And then, when we are ready, we emerge from the prayer and turn to face
the world. Prepared and yet
apprehensive, exhilarated yet maybe a little cautious, eager to live out the
prayer yet aware of our propensity to falter.
In the light of the resurrection we can pick up the prayer, put it in
our pack for the road and take it with us – refer to it often, rest in it
regularly and be reminded of Jesus love for us and his trust in us to do what
he asks of us.
So what does this prayer for
us say to us today?
We are reminded that Jesus
came to make known the gifts of God, the very face of God to us the people of
God. That in his death and resurrection those gifts are to be passed on to us
to guide and strengthen us as we go about God’s purpose in the world.
The gifts of God are now ours
and they are no light or easy gifts, for they demand that we live a life that
is different, radically different, to that which we might choose left to
ourselves.
These gifts determine our
relationship with God and each other as we seek to be a loving community of
care.
There is the gift of revelation – we believe that Jesus was
especially connected to God, a sharing in the divine, and as such that his words and deeds reveal
God to us in an authoritative and meaningful way. In his death and resurrection, he gifts us
with a new and deep relationship with God the Father, as he himself had known.
There is the gift of care –
that God’s guidance and protection and guarding might be for us as it was for
Jesus. Jesus knows just how tough it is
out there – not just the disappointments and sadness but also the intentional
animosity and persecution because much of what we believe is in direct
contradiction to the ways of the world.
God’s care for us has the same intensity and focus and love that was
given Jesus, his beloved son.
And then there is the gift of
sanctification – the understanding that through our baptism we are set apart to
fulfill the purpose of God – it distinguishes who we are, how we act, what we
say, how we respond and why we choose the path we walk.
We helps us to stay on the way
of Christ as we engage with all the joys and horrors and subtle temptations of
the world; the deeply trusting heart stuff that tell us in those moments of
despair, God is; the teachings that tell us something is just plain wrong and
we need to speak out and stand up – because people are being hurt and excluded
and trampled on; the choices we need to
make around mercy and grace and forgiveness, not because it’s the law but
because it is who we are in Christ.
We are called to bring the
Good News of Jesus Christ to the world in word and deed – that is our purpose,
that is what we are set aside for, that is the care, the mantle that is passed
on to us by Jesus in this prayer of transition.
We are evangelists – yes we do get to use that word (and we need to
reclaim it)– for it means sharing the good news of the Gospel with the world in
word, deed and love.
Through this prayer, Jesus is
showing us that yes the pressures of the world will lean heavily on us – but
the answer is not to abandon the world but to live in it with the grace and
love of God within us – that we may have the joy of Jesus made complete in
ourselves. In the care of God, we can
live fully amongst the knotted complexities of this world and make a
difference. The Church is not to be shut
off from but rather to be sent into the world, not to be exhausted by the world
but to live vitally and faithfully into it, not to be owned by the world but to
be fully engaged with its needs and wounds, energized by a God with us, a God
over us, a God truly in and of this world.
As the day of Pentecost comes near, we remember and rest again in the
strength and joy and promise of the prayer Jesus said for us. For we are beloved of God through Jesus
Christ – and the people said: Amen
Margaret Garland
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