SERMON
at
Christ Church, Watertown, Connecticut
Easter VII
May 16, 2010
by
The Rev. Stanley C. Kemmerer, AHC

Two of this morning’s readings are set in the context of “last things.”

The Second Lesson is a portion of the Epilogue of the Revelation to John, a highly symbolic tract, written for its times, to increase the hope and determination of the Early Church during a period of disturbance and bitter persecution, in some respects not unlike the scary times in which we live.

It was not written by the author of this morning’s Gospel lesson. We’re not certain exactly who the author was. Most think it was written around 95 B.C.E., about sixty years after the Crucifixion, by someone inside the Gospel writer’s circle. It prophesies the certain downfall and destruction of Roman imperial power using symbolism as a code language so it can provide hope to the faithful without attracting the notice of the persecutors.

Just before the appointed passage we find the words of the author I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. When I had heard and seen them all, I knelt at the feet of the angel (messenger) who had shown them to me, to worship him; but he said, “Don’t do that: I am a servant just like you and like your brothers the prophets and like those who treasure what you have written in this book. It is God that you must worship.”

This, too, he said to me, “Do not keep the prophecies in this book a secret, because the Time is close….Happy are those who will have washed their robes clean (the baptized), so that they will have the right to feed on the tree of life and come through the gates into the city.

In verse 16, at the beginning of the Epilogue section of the reading, the speaker changes from the author to Jesus: I, Jesus, have sent my angel to make these revelations to you for the sake of the churches….The one who guarantees these revelations repeats his promise: I shall indeed be with you soon.

Similarly, this morning’s Gospel reading is the final portion of Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer, placed in John’s Gospel just before its account of Jesus’ arrest. That prayer serves as his valedictory address to the disciples.


“Last things” tend to be important things. Therapists will tell you that, often, the “business” of a therapy session takes place in the last minutes of the time. Great emphasis is place, both in the Bible and in life, on the “last words” of a dying person. So we can assume that what Jesus says in his High Priestly Prayer reflects what he regards as most important. What is that?

May they all be one.
Father, may they be one in us,

How?

as you are in me and I am in you

Any special reason why we should be one in that manner? Absolutely!

so that the world may believe it was you who sent me.

The credibility of Jesus’ role as Messiah and the evangelistic ability of his followers depend on it!

If the unity represented by being one with one another as God is in Jesus and Jesus is in God is so important to achieve, we need to understand it better. A word that may help is the word “desire,” as in romantic love. Akin to it is the word “yearning,” with the “drawing toward one” it implies. The bond among Christians is expected to approach that kind of strength.

The strength of the bond between separated lovers. The strength that characterizes the bond between a parent and a child. The strength that characterizes the bond between military personnel in a combat unit, whose lives depend on one another, who give up their lives for one another.

Such bonds are forged through shared experiences, often not altogether pleasant shared experiences. We celebrated Mother’s Day last week. In a month we’ll celebrate Father’s Day. Not many parents I know, no matter have grateful they are for their children, would say the experience of parenting is without its surprises and its challenges. And many are the (often quite hilarious, told in the present) stories children will tell about the challenges they offered their parents in their younger years. I remember commenting to my stepson on some stories of that nature I’d heard from his Mom. As usual, Jeff, who has quite a sense of humor, quipped, “Yeah, Stan, and those are the ones they (his parents) knew about!”

This morning’s lesson from the Acts of the Apostles gives us its own “bonding” story: During Paul and Silas’ imprisonment there is an earthquake that shook the prison to its foundations. All the doors flew open and the chains fell from all the prisoners. When the jailer woke and saw the doors wide open he drew his sword and was about to commit suicide, presuming the prisoners had escaped.

But Paul shouted at the top of his voice, “Don’t do yourself any harm; we are all here.”

The jailer called for lights, then rushed in, threw himself trembling at the feet of Paul and Silas, and escorted them out, saying, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They told him to become a believer and he and his household as well would be saved. They preach to him and his family. Even though it was late, the jailer took them to wash their wounds. Then and there he and his family were baptized. Then he took them home, fed them and they celebrated their conversion.

The same as happened with Lydia in last week’s lesson from the Acts: Conversion, baptism, hospitality, evangelism. Hospitality, then evangelism. Experience a powerful event. A bond is created. The person tells their circle. The Faith grows. Which leads to which? Eucharist to Agape, the fellowship meal. Or the fellowship meal to Eucharist? For a congregation, the lunch we shared the Sunday after Easter could be to its life as imporant as, or more important than the Sacrament that preceded. Similarly, those who share in the tutoring effort, or the Jesse Tree. Both are needed: worship times and fellowship/shared task times.

These stories demonstrate how just one stirred believer can influence the faith of a household, a neighborhood, even a region. I think they also illustrate how the very reversals of our existence can contain in them the opportunities to bond. Far more comes from overcoming a tragedy, a rock in the road, than the usual same old/same old, uneventful, no drama experiences of our lives.

We need to pay attention to that, look for the opportunities in them, be open to God coming to us and enabling us to come to others through them. That, as we become one with one another, we become one with Jesus and the God who sent him for us, thereby experiencing the love, here and now, that is the Kingdom.