RonBlog

Sunday 5th June, 2011 Seventh Sunday of Easter

Sentence
This is eternal life, that we may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom You have sent.
John 17:3
Collect
O God the King of Glory, You have exalted Your only Son, Jesus Christ with great triumph to Your kingdom in heaven; we pray You leave us not comfortless, but send Your Holy Spirit to strengthen us and exalt usto the same place where our Saviour Christ has gone before; Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen

First Lesson Acts 1: 6 – 14

When they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?" He replied, "It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven." Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away.
When they had entered the city, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying, Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers.

Psalm 68: 1 – 10 & 32-35

God shall arise and His enemies shall be scattered: those that hate Him shall flee before His face.
As smoke is dispersed, so shall they be dispersed: as wax melts before a fire, so shall the wicked perish at the presence of God
But the righteous shall be glad and exult before God: they shall rejoice with gladness.
O sing to God, sing praises to His name: glorify Him that rode through the deserts, Him Whose Name is the Lord, and exult before Him.
He is the father of the fatherless, He upholds the cause of the widow: God in His holy dwelling place.
He gives the desolate a home to dwell in, and brings the prisoners out into prosperity: but rebels must dwell in a barren land.
O God, when You went out before Your people: when You marched through the wilderness,
The earth shook, the heavens poured down water: before the God of Sinai, before God the God of Israel.
You showered down a generous rain O God: You prepared the land of Your possession when it was weary.
And there Your people settled: in the place that You goodness, O God, had made ready for the poor.

Sing to God, you kingdoms of the earth: O sing praises to the Lord,
To Him that rides upon the highest heaven, that were from the beginning: Who utters His voice, which is a mighty voice.
Ascribe power to God, Whose majesty is over Israel: and His might is in the clouds
Terrible is God Who comes from His holy place: the God of Israel Who gives power and strength to His people. Blessed be God.

Epistle 1 Peter 5

As an elder myself and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as one who shares in the glory to be revealed, I exhort the elders among you to tend the flock of God that is in your charge, exercising the oversight, not under compulsion but willingly, as God would have you do it --not for sordid gain but eagerly. Do not lord it over those in your charge, but be examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will win the crown of glory that never fades away.
In the same way, you who are younger must accept the authority of the elders. And all of you must clothe yourselves with humility in your dealings with one another, for "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you. Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour. Resist him, steadfast in your faith, for you know that your brothers and sisters in all the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering. And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the power forever and ever. Amen.
Through Silvanus, whom I consider a faithful brother, I have written this short letter to encourage you and to testify that this is the true grace of God. Stand fast in it. Your sister church in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you greetings; and so does my son Mark. Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace to all of you who are in Christ.

GOSPEL John 17: 1 – 11

After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.
I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are Yours, and Yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. 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.

© New Revised Standard Version of the Bible Copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the
Churches of Christ in the USA, and used by permission. All rights reserved

NOTES ON THE READINGS First Lesson
There is something delightfully human and ineffective about the Eleven at this time just before Jesus’ Ascension. They were little better afterwards, but I guess it is easy to be wise after the event. One has 20/20 vision then, do we not?
All this is something of an illustration of how hard it is to shift people from their populist view of the Faith. How deeply ingrained in them was this business that the Messiah should sort everyone out, whiz bang, alakazam- style? Even after three years of solid teaching, after the Cross, they were still looking for someone messianic in the early Old Testament style. Do not be surprised that they did not take on board such passages as we have recently, with those marvellous Servant Songs of Isaiah. One of my Jewish mates could not understand my perception of Isaiah 53 or the Servant Songs. I still don’t see what they perceive!
Like even modern people, those Eleven looked for apocalyptic issues – end of the world stuff, or at least sorting out the Romans. It is a strange malady, and it still ails people. The turn of the millennium brought out all manner of cranks, but there was no eruption then - nor was there ever likely to be. And that surprisingly naive ‘pastor’ in the States recently fell into the same trap. Even Scripture forbids guesses. Small wonder that Jesus, once again, attempted to turn their attention on to other more immediate issues.

Psalm
Perhaps here was a source of the expectation of the Eleven; it all sounds quite dramatic does it not? So how would you respond to such strong words in this day and age? One wonders when ‘rain’ and ‘Sinai’ are mentioned in the same breath. That would have been as likely as seeing a verdant Birdsville Track! However it certainly tizzies up the picture of Moses’ time, which does not compute all that well with the pressures indicated in the Exodus account.

Epistle
There is a small window into the world of the early Church in the tail end of this passage. What was it really like to live in the middle or later of the first century, and what was it like to be a Christian then?
Peter’s admonition to the ‘shepherds of the flock’ are very similar to the charges of Ezekiel many centuries before. It is an admonition that bears repetition in every generation, for it is rather too easy to move from shepherd to manager, controller, boss. And that leads to the denial of the very Gospel we profess!

There is also that interesting insight into the pressures of maintaining the faith in a world designed to emphasise – for those in any position to – for wealth, power and intrigue. Can you imagine the difficulties associated with resisting those pressures, especially in a period when the lions were very likely to be very real and very savage. And Christians were rather much the flavour of the month.
Some little glimpse is offered of life within the Church then, when –as other epistles indicate – there were traitors from within as well. And we think we have difficulties in life! Oh! Yeah?

GOSPEL
This High Priestly Prayer, as it is often called, is a moving expression of Jesus’ self-awareness, as well as the role or task that has been His. If you are a little bemused by the constant use of the ‘glorify’ it may be of some help to unpack it somewhat. Whatever does it really mean?
God is not glorified by lots of hymns or songs or even prayers. God is glorified when He is made known, His character and goals are clear. Jesus glorifies the Father when He made and makes Him clear, visible, tangible if you dare. You glorify God when who you are, what you do and how you react makes the Father clear and understandable to people around you. In a way you ‘reincarnate’ God. For like it or not, the way the Father operates, as in Jesus so in you, is to find someone to incarnate His nature – as far as you are capable. And it will surprise you what glimpses even the poorest witness can offer.

Making the Father known is the role of the Church and its people. Surprisingly, even those outside the Faith – I have found – may sometimes do the same, even if they are unaware of it.

NOTES FOR A SERMON

It was a lot of years ago, and one of the first times that my parents were at the Church where I was preaching – it must have been close to 55 years ago. I was not trying to impress anyone, but rather to help folk get past some ancient and holy words to realize what they were really talking about.
Matthew 5 has the Sermon on the Mount, and the first few verses being with the same word. ‘Blessed ….’ In Greek, makaraios. Just a year or two before that, all the news was about Cyprus and the struggle between Greek and Turk on that island, and the enormous loss of life in that struggle. As we pondered that word and that news, something of the irony of that word, blessed, (makarios) began to gel. Marakrios means ‘blessed’ and it was also the name of the Greek Orthodox Archbishop who was political leader of that stricken island. Blessed the Archbishop certainly was not.

Blessed. Happy. Content. Doing what was required of a person. Fulfilling the purpose. All sorts of things that are very rare events in our own day and age. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.
It was only a short time ago (June, 2010) that I read a comment from Bob Hawke when he was Prime Minister. ‘It is not the meek that people need; they need to strong to look after the weak.’ I suspect Bob’s old Dad would have turned in his grave if he – Church minister – heard his son come out with that!

So let’s try another word often used in Church, and rather rarely understood. Try ‘glorify.’ Now how does anyone do that for anyone? How do you glorify God? How did Jesus glorify God? What in the name of fortune does the word really mean? May I take the strain away from you, and fill in the meaning?
When Jesus glorified God, it means simply that He made the Father known, almost visible, almost tangible. Not what the Father looks like, but what His nature is like. In what Jesus said, in what Jesus did, He illustrated and incarnated something of the nature of God. In other words, when people saw Jesus, they caught some sight of Who God is.

Does that make sense to you? At the risk of giving the poor man conniptions, we have long said to people that one of our great mates has done similar things. ‘If you want to get a bit of a picture of Jesus, then go and talk to Bishop Bruce Rosier.’ And I could tell you a lot of stories to illustrate that.

Jesus made God rather more tangible, reachable, understandable by what He did and said. Most of all it showed up at the Cross, much of it by what Jesus did not do. Yell and scream and demand revenge. And in what He did – giving Himself totally to others.

And that is the challenge for those called to priesthood. To reflect the characteristics of the Father. To incarnate the Faith, making it tangible, visible, understandable. As Peter wrote in his epistle, tend the flock of God, - not for sordid gain but eagerly. Do not lord it over your charge but be examples to the flock. I must be old-fashioned or something but it is rather too rare these days to find this attitude amongst clergy.

And just in case you think this has nothing to do with you, because priest you are not, --- you are in the same boat. Yours is also the role to glorify God, to incarnate the characteristics of the Father. To make Jesus known, visible, tangible and understandable.

You will notice that in this day and age, that may not be the most popular programme, as Bob Hawke’s words would indicate. But it is the most necessary, for as our culture gradually claws itself to pieces, it is going to need people of sterner stuff, with a much clearer vision of what life could be like, to glue it all together again. It is a high calling, and will become an increasingly urgent one.