Seventh Sunday of Easter
June 2, 2019
Homily preached at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church
New Harmony, Indiana
Acts 16:16-34
Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21
John 17:20-26
So I have these two adorable grandsons
My big problem is that
One is in Denver CO
And the other in Sarasota FL
And I am here in Southern Indiana (well most of the time)
One of the joys of grandparenthood
Is reading stories to your grandchildren
At 2 Theo and Sam are just getting beyond
those chunky beginner cardboard books
They are starting to follow a simple unfolding narrative
…just barely
So my idea to lessen the distance
Was to make a video of me reading them a book
I grabbed one that was short and simple and familiar
It’s called
The Important Book
It catalogs the characteristics of A spoon, grass, snow, and apple
Each concluding with the line
“But the IMPORTANT thing about a spoon is that…you eat with it
The important thing about Grass…
The important thing about Wind…and so on
Given today’s colorful
And dense
And weighty readings
I think this might be a good homiletic strategy
In our reading from Acts
It is a tense scene
Philippi is a Roman Colony…the text is clear to say
It is as Roman as you can get without being in Rome
Not a friendly place for diversity of religious belief!
We have a slave girl…doubly enslaved
Being property of her owners
And then, possessed by a “spirit of divination”
(the word implies a negative possession)
she is used as a money-making machine
Paul and Silas, after showing their power to heal
like Jesus in the Gospels,
Face the powers-that-be on a trumped-up charges
that play on the easily aroused fears of the crowd
…again, like Jesus
Paul and Silas are tortured and imprisoned
I love that detail “in the innermost cell---and chained by their feet”
In other words, with no possible means of escape.
Then an earthquake
And then all the doors and the cuffs are opened
But The Important Thing about this Story is that
Scapegoating violence against the apostles is returned with grace and forgiveness
Unlike what would happen in an episode of Game of Thrones
Paul and Silas want to SAVE the jailer…literally
Like Jesus’ prayer of forgiveness from the cross
The important thing
is that the cycle of evil for evil is broken
and a family is saved
John the Divine
Is the name given to the author of the Book of Revelation
The whole book is a vision…full of symbols upon symbols
Our text today is part of the dramatic conclusion
This is apocalyptic literature
The intent is to offer hope to the persecuted
When the time seems unredeemable,
filled with pain, sickness, grief
Can there really be any good news?
St. John the Divine answers as he proclaims a cosmic vision
I am the Alpha and the Omega
The first and the last
The beginning and the end
This God of ours spans all time
Embraces all time
And at the same time steps into time
Into human history
Not as a swashbuckler
(the swashbuckler symbol would have been a ferocious Lion…not an easily slaughtered lamb)
God chooses differently
The important thing
About John’s Cosmic vision
Is that God chooses differently
God will not add to human violence
by coming with a divine version of the same thing
No
God chooses differently
Choosing to suffer alongside those who suffer…
Promising that simply being with them
Spending time with them
Praying with them
Is a foretaste
A foretaste of a time when there will be no more suffering
and no more pain
When all is God and all is love
And our Gospel
We are back at Maundy Thursday
Jesus has gathered the lot of them for a final meal
He washes their feet
They share bread and wine
He tells them to love one another
No more time for Q & A
No more teaching
He must prepare them for his departure
What does he do?
He prays.
First Jesus prays for himself
Then the prayer focuses on the disciples
(who are there…next to him…within earshot)
And today we hear the last part of that prayer
And the IMPORTANT thing
About today’s conclusion of
What is known as Jesus’
High Priestly Prayer
The important thing…
Is that we are hearing Jesus pray for us!
We are the ones who believe because of
the Proclamation of the Good News of Jesus Christ
that has made its way
through countless generations…starting with those very disciples
all the way…To US!
And at the heart of that prayer is ONENESS
One of the most revelatory encounters I had as a hospital chaplain
happened when I visited a gentleman who was suffering from so many
co-morbidities…that is the clinical way of saying
that he had a multitude of things going on that could kill him
After a wonderful visit
He asked me to pray for him.
And I could tell he meant…now.
We joined hands and prayed.
And then
Just as I was getting ready to leave
he asked if he could pray for me!
he asked if he could pray for me!
I don’t know if I had a particularly wearying day?
If somehow my face indicated that I needed this?
For whatever reason he was prompted to pray for me
…not vaguely during his quiet alone prayer time
But here, now, and out loud.
Somehow he spoke to every need I had at that moment in my life
He nailed it!
Or more truthfully, he allowed the Holy Spirit
To nail it through him.
The important thing about that encounter
Was the grace---the gift---of being reminded that
Prayer is not a monologue
It is a conversation…with many partners
And that being specifically prayed for
Out loud, eye to eye, present one to the other
Is pure witness!
Last time I was with you it was Mother’s Day
I don’t remember who I was talking to
But we decided that on Morning Prayer Sunday’s
we missed the ‘sign of peace’
we missed the ‘sign of peace’
…that messy, meandering, co-motion that is pure St Stephens
And so I have been thinking about that
The liturgical purpose of the sign of peace
Is to offer that last chance to put aside any blocks to unity
To physically
Embrace the other
Is like saying
“we’re good”
It is unthinkable to gather around the table for Eucharist
If “we aren’t all ‘good’”
So---even though it is a Morning Prayer Sunday
and we aren’t getting ready to approach the table
I wonder if we could share a sign of peace
And as we do let’s make it an obvious prayer for the ‘other’
When I say “Peace be with you”
That is my prayer that anything that is grasping for your attention
Anything that will lead away from oneness
---or away from peacefulness
---or away from healing---
the prayer is “Be Gone! Peace---Be with you”
The important thing about John’s final prayer for our oneness
Is that it was made eye to eye with his gathered friends…
And through them
Eye to eye with each of us
And so
Even though it isn’t a Eucharistic Sunday
let us offer one another
A prayer for peace and oneness
in us
and through us
to the whole world
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