7 Easter, Year C
Sunday, May 12, 2013
St. Mark’s, Bay City
Acts 16:16-34
Psalm 97
Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21
John 17:20-26
Our reading from Revelation seems
particularly appropriate this morning, having had two funerals this week for
Janie McCormack and Jean Wales, one funeral two weeks before for Becky Hill, as
well as many family members of St. Markans who have died in the last several
weeks. The end of our Easter season has
been a season in which we have been surrounded by death.
Then, this morning, we hear from
Revelation, “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ And let everyone who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life
as a gift.” (Revelation 22:16-17) Thank
God for these words. Thank God for the
stories of faith, the stories about Jesus which have been passed on to us for
generations. Thank God for Jesus’ prayer
for his disciples, “I ask not only on
behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through
their word, that they may all be one.” (John 17:20) Thank God that we have hope amidst despair,
belief in life lived in unity with God, even after death. Thank God that we have Jesus to be the Way,
the Truth, and the Life for us. Thank
God that we have Jesus to grant us peace, and hope, and union with God. Thank God that we have heard Jesus’
invitation to life with him.
Life is really about union with God
and God’s kingdom here and now as well as after this life. The importance of God’s kingdom among us here
and now really began to crystallize for me when I read Dallas Willard’s book, The Divine Conspiracy. In it, he wrote:
Recently a pilot was
practicing high--speed maneuvers in a jet fighter. She turned the controls for
what she thought was a steep ascent--and flew straight into the ground. She was unaware that she had been flying upside down.
This is a parable of human
existence in our times--not exactly that everyone is crashing, though there is
enough of that--but most of us as individuals, and world society as a whole,
live at high-speed, and often with no clue to whether we are flying upside down
or right-side up. Indeed, we are haunted by a strong suspicion that there may
be no difference--or at least that it is unknown or irrelevant.
Mr. Willard asks questions like, is Jesus even relevant for
this life, or does he only allow me to ‘make the cut’ for heaven? We latch on to cute phrases or sayings and
hold them up as wisdom, but when real wisdom strikes us, like the words of
Jesus, we brush them aside as not relevant for this life. Symbols and slogans surround us. “Practice random kindness and senseless acts
of beauty.” As he points out, that
phrase is flying upside down. You can’t
practice it if it is random, and what in the world is senseless about
beauty. Rather, he would say, “practice
routinely purposeful kindness and intelligent acts of beauty.”
He points out a caricature of God as being an elderly man
inhabiting a tiny bit of space in a universe that is otherwise devoid of his
presence. One day after we die, we get
to go be with this tiny God. Many people
view God this way. Many people are
flying upside down, but they don’t have to be.
God is everywhere, and God has invited us to enter the eternal life now.
I found out yesterday that Dallas Willard passed away this
week. I’ve never met him, and yet I am
saddened by his death and feel some loss as of a mentor…Yet I hold to
Revelation. “The Spirit and the
bride say, ‘Come.’ And let everyone who
hears say, ‘Come.’ And let everyone who
is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes
take the water of life as a gift.” (Revelation 22:16-17)
Jesus gave us that invitation, to
take the water of life as a gift and to enter the eternal life now, and Jesus
told us to extend that invitation to others.
We’ve got a hopeful and beautiful faith to share with people, just as
Jesus prayed we would.
We may not ask someone we’ve just
met if they know Jesus to be the way and the truth and the life. I think I’d call that sharing our faith
upside down. We used to say politics and
religion are not to be discussed with people.
While I don’t entirely agree, I understand why we would say that.
There was a man in seminary who I came
to know and like a lot. About seven or
eight months down the line, we were having a discussion about some hot button
issue of the time, and we came to realize we could hardly have been more
diametrically opposed in our beliefs on this subject.
So we might not talk about religion
and politics with total strangers. We
don’t tell strangers, “well, you’re flying upside down!” Wait to hear the differences you have until you love each other. We could do with even more love in the church
and invitation of others to believe or to join through that love. In our relationship, with people we know, we
have been told by Jesus to invite people into the with-God life.
Jesus was praying for them too, for
those who would come to believe through our words. So they too can receive tragedy and death
with hope and faith. So they can believe
the words of Revelation as we do. When
we think of those whom we love but see no longer, we can fly right side up.: “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ And let everyone who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life
as a gift.” (Revelation 22:16-17) Amen.
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