RonBlog

Sunday 20th May, 2012 Seventh Sunday of Easter Sentence Jesus prayed, ‘Holy Father, protect them in Your name that You have given Me, so that they may be one as we are one.’ John 17: 11 Collect Almighty God, Your blessed Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ, ascended far above all heavens that He might fill all things; mercifully give us faith to trust that, as He promised, He abides with us on earth until the end of time, through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God now and for ever. Amen First Lesson Acts 1: 15 – 17 & 21 – 26 In those days Peter stood up among the believers (together the crowd numbered about one hundred twenty persons) and said, "Friends, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit through David foretold concerning Judas, who became a guide for those who arrested Jesus-- for he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry." So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us--one of these must become a witness with us to his resurrection." So they proposed two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus, and Matthias. Then they prayed and said, "Lord, you know everyone's heart. Show us which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place." And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias; and he was added to the eleven apostles. Psalm 1 Blessed are they who have not walked in the counsel of the ungodly: nor followed the way of sinners, nor taken their seat among the scornful But their delight is in the law of the Lord: and on that law they will ponder day and night They are like trees planted beside streams of water: that yield their fruit in due season Their leaves also shall not wither: and look, whatever they do, it shall prosper As for the ungodly, it is not so with them: they are like the chaff which the wind scatters Therefore the ungodly shall not stand up at the judgement: nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous For the Lord cares for the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish Epistle 1 John 5: 9 – 13 If we receive human testimony, the testimony of God is greater; for this is the testimony of God that he has testified to his Son. Those who believe in the Son of God have the testimony in their hearts. Those who do not believe in God have made him a liar by not believing in the testimony that God has given concerning his Son. And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. GOSPEL John 17: 6 – 19 Jesus said "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. While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth. © 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 You are quite welcome to dispute what follows, but I came to this conclusion very many years ago. In your experience, what do you find that people (especially leaders) do when they are not at all sure what to do? Answer? They call a meeting and have a vote. The holier ones will find some Biblical precedent and act upon it. And here you have it. The Eleven were bewildered in more than one way, and stumbled around trying to find out what to do. Instead of waiting, as Jesus indicated clearly enough, they had to find something, anything to fill in the hiatus. If you still think that I am naughty, then when or where do you hear of Matthias after this event? Now all I suggest is that it may well have been better to have done nothing that to attempt to fill a void ....... Psalm Psalms like this tend to have propagated the idea for us that to be Christian calls for us all to be squeaky clean and to focus on being righteous. (Well, my childhood and youth was filled with injunctions to be like that. I wonder if yours was similar.) May I take a word from the Gospel, truth, and ask you to see that what the psalmist is calling for, in himself and others, is to exercise the capacity to be honest, open and to act with integrity – for that is the only way that relationships at any level can work to the mutual benefit of all. As I have mentioned often enough – righteousness = justice. A little bit of that goes a very long way does it not? Epistle Dear old John must have been a most wonderful mentor and senior statesman for the Church of his day. So much of what he wrote is expressed so simply and yet so profoundly. And if you read between the lines, truth is what he underlines, points to, and looks for in his contemporaries. Our world is moving away from truth so rapidly it takes your breath away. My counsel is to stay close to truth, and refuse to wander. GOSPEL This is part of Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer as He moved towards the Cross and later the Ascension. It is a passionate and powerful prayer for those He was about to leave behind, because that was such an enormous risk for the Gospel. We humans are not all that crash-hot at catching sight of, understanding, and then remaining true to the Faith. History of the past two millennia prove that to be so; and Israel before that was rather less able to follow the path. His prayer for our protection remains enormously important, but do not let –the word glorify lead you up any garden paths. You glorify God when you manage to reflect His characteristics. And with all due respects, that does not tend to be all that often does it! (Statement, not question!) NOTES FOR A SERMON It is so far back in my history that the person of whom I write is no longer with us. He was jolly good stuff, however, when he was. Early 70s, and a group of young people and an adult or two were on a camp prior to their Confirmation, and it was a Sunday morning. After breakfast, I did to them something not dissimilar to that which Jesus did at the Last Supper. We had a Communion, with biscuits and orange juice, after which I left the group to get on with what they understood to be their calling as Christians. This event took place at the end of quite some months of other preparation. I moved out of the dining room of that campsite, and wandered out of earshot, for I fully expected what followed to happen. After some time of obviously confused discussion and debate in that room, dear old Derek emerged with a most worried frown on his face. ‘Ron,’ he apologised, ‘I do not have the foggiest idea of where we are supposed to go from here!’ Does that sound like the Eleven in that First Lesson today? After three years with Jesus (not quite some months as with that Confirmation Class,) that body of men had not the foggiest of where to head or what to do even at that point in the story. That attempt at democracy was rather more likely an attempt to spread the responsibility for the almost complete lack of readiness. Oddly enough, although the event referred to above, was very close to 50 years ago, for I felt exactly the same after my Ordination as Deacon. Assuming some sort of dropping down of all I needed from heaven, nothing came. It was life itself, and response to life and to people, the real world that would point the way and determine the response that was needed. Removal from the protection of family at home, and being dropped in the deep end of a parish soon indicated what was called for, and the response needed. One could hide from that, but only a coward would head that way. A couple of items: never be surprised if you are not very sure which direction to take. On the basis of previous experience, try and work out the wisest path to travel, but being very open to what happens as a result of that choice, being prepared to stick with it, or move in the direction your intuition seems to be taking you.