Loading...Sermon for the 7th Sunday of Easter
We come today to the 7th Sunday of Easter, the last Sunday of Eastertide. We have celebrated the Resurrection and and the Ascension 40 days after. Now we await the coming of the Spirit on Pentecost, the 50th Day
Pentecost will be augmented by by the visitation of our Bishop and Confirmation for Jim Duke, Reaffirmation of Baptismal Vows for Hayne Darby. The Bishop will, God willing, finish job Tuesday at Camp Quarterman in Colorado for two of our college-age members. Zach Fernandez is to be Confirmed and Natalie Escobedo is to be Received from the Roman Catholic Church.
On this 7th Sunday of Easter we are taken back to Holy Week, to the Garden of Gethsemane as Jesus there prays what has come to be called his High Priestly Prayer. It takes up the whole of John 17, and we hear a portion of it today. I want to consider what we have heard of this prayer, a prayer he offered as the cross loomed over the next sunrise.
Jesus begins by acknowledging that reality. “The hour has come,” acknowledges also its purpose, which is his glorification. Jesus, knowing what is to come the next day, views the cross as the utmost demonstration that “God so loved the world,” Jesus senses that his glorification, his crucifixion, will glorify the Father in testament to “God so loves the world.” That all the world might come under the loving embrace of God is the chief desire of Jesus in his life and in his death.
Jesus makes his appeal to the Father based upon his faithfulness. He has glorified the Father in his life. He has finished the work given him to do. With such faithfulness as a foundation, Jesus prays to return to the glory he knew before his Incarnation. He is not asking for anything new, just to take up again what he laid aside in order to do the work given him to do.
Jesus then turns attention to his disciples, those given him by the Father. They have learned the Father’s word in their close companionship with the Word Incarnate. They know that all the signs Jesus has done come from the Father. They have come to know in truth that Jesus is the one of whom we sing at Christmas, “Of the Father’s love begotten.” They have come to believe that the Father sent Jesus.
Jesus focuses his prayer on the disciples. He states clearly, this prayer is not for the world. In John, the world is the realm of darkness that knows not the light of God. The disciples are the object of this prayer as those who shine the light of Christ, bringing glory to Christ, casting Christ-light into the places of darkness, so that, as the prophet Isaiah foretold, “the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light” (Isaiah 9:2). Jesus prays for the disciples, who will remain in the world. He prays for their protection as they journey in the world. He prays also that they may be one “As we are one,” which speaks of a tremendous intimacy and depth of relationship that the Church will come to call Trinity.
This prayer gives us a view of Jesus as our Savior. His free self-offering, his body broken, his blood poured out is what makes righteousness possible, restoring our relationship to God, our fellowship with one another in the Body of Christ, and our capacity to be at peace with all the world.
This prayer gives us also a view of Jesus as our Example: of Faithfulness, to finish the work God gave him to do; of Purpose, to live a life that brings glory to God; of Fortitude, to trust in God when the time of trial comes.
In his prayer for the disciples we see a way that we are to live as followers of Jesus, as later in this prayer Jesus includes all those who will come to believe through their testimony. We are to live with our hope in Christ alone, in his redeeming work, what the Rite I Eucharistic Prayer says is his “one, full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction” (BCP 334).
To hope in Christ alone, said Charles Simeon, a great English Churchman of the 19th century, is to have a simple reliance upon him, without any mixture of self-dependence” (Horae Homileticae). ‘Tis a gift to be simple,’ says the Shaker Hymn (Hymn 554). A gift indeed, a gift of grace. The Shaker Hymn says also, ‘Tis a gift to be free.’ The grace to rely simply on Christ, minus that mixture of self-dependence, is the path to what the Shaker Hymn calls “the place just right,” which is to “be in the valley of love and delight.” Our goal, our desire, as followers of Jesus, is to realize that valley of love and delight. To find the path means to get ourselves out of the way, and trust our Lord to lead the way.
We see also that we are not autonomous, self-made men and women. We belong to God. “I am asking on behalf of those you gave me because they are yours.” We are not the masters and commanders of our lives. The days we have were given us by God. The breath in our lungs was given us by God. The working of our minds was given us by God. The beating of our hearts was given us by God. The grace of adoption and new life of baptism was given us by God. It really is true, “All things come of thee, O Lord.” Because we belong to God, it is our chief end to glorify God, by living faithfully before God, by loving God completely, by worshiping God with unreserved adoration, by unswerving, joyful obedience.
As we remember today the high priestly prayer of Jesus, we are encouraged to remember that he is our Savior. The Church has a prayer to help in times when we need to remember this. It has been with us since the 6th century, and is known as the “Jesus Prayer.” “Jesus, Savior, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” A simple prayer to remember in times when we need to be assured the he is our Savior.
We are also encouraged by his example, and inspired to follow it by seeking to know God’s will, the work he has given us to do, being faithful in that work; by making the purpose of our lives to be bringing glory to God, rather than to ourselves; by taking his example of courage as the cross awaited in just hours to strengthen us when, not if, we come into the time of trial.
We know the path to the “valley of love and delight” is with hope in Christ alone, knowing that we are God’s property, God’s possession, God’s treasure. We recognize that being one with our Father means being one with each other: One in Hope - Christ alone; One in Purpose - to bring glory to God; One in Mission - shining the light of Christ, sharing in the very life of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Trinity whom we adore.
The Rev. Matthew Rowe
