CHURCH OF THE ASCENSION AND SAINT AGNES
  • Welcome
    • Newcomers >
      • Letter to Inquirers
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    • How to Find Us
    • Childcare
  • Who We Are
    • Our Beliefs >
      • Statements of Mission, Vision, Beliefs & Value
      • What is an Anglo-Catholic?
      • Apolitical or Supra Political?
    • Our History
    • Our Leadership >
      • Parish Staff
      • Vestry
  • Worship
    • About our Worship >
      • Attending Mass
      • Music
  • Formation
    • About Formation
    • Adult Formation >
      • Adult Theology Upcoming
      • Adult Theology Archive >
        • Knowing Christ
    • Sermons
  • Connect
    • Contact us
    • Rector's Weekly Letter
    • Pastoral Care >
      • Pastoral Offices >
        • Reconciliation (Confession)
      • Prayer Requests
    • Stewardship >
      • Stewardship Letter
      • Givelify Instructions
      • Planned Giving
      • Endowment Fund
  • Calendar
  • Baptism
  • Outreach
  • Feasibility Study

A Sermon for the Sixth Sunday in Easter, Year C

5/5/2013

 
Acts 16:9-15
Revelation 21:10-22:5
John 14:23-29
 
“I am going away, and I am coming to you.”
 
      V.         Alleluia!  Christ is risen.
      R.         The Lord is risen indeed.  Alleluia!
 
      What’s happening in my life shapes significantly shapes the way I understand the Bible.  When I read the gospel passage and start wondering what it means to me, naturally the events of the moment, of the here and now, influence my interpretation.
 
      Now some might say, “The gospel only has one correct, true meaning that never changes.  It only means what Jesus originally intended.”  That’s nuts.  The evangelists themselves didn’t interpret Jesus in that way as we’ll see in today’s gospel.  We take Jesus’ words and stories and find ourselves in them, and we find meaning in them for our day, interpret them for our circumstances.
 
      Last week, we lost a dear man.  For about thirty years, Fr. Owens ministered and worshipped in this parish.  At his funeral yesterday, Fr. Dunnan, the preacher, told us about his heroism in World War II, how he won the Silver Star and the Bronze Star, and about his thirty years as a legendary headmaster of St. James’ School.
 
      Like many of you, I experienced Fr. Owen’s support, kindness, generosity, and care.  He inspired me, a model of grace and graciousness, of steadiness and faithfulness and dignity.  Watching him I learned about friendship and family, how he valued them and worked at developing those relationships.
 
      Most of us have lost someone dear to us.  Part of life and love is the experience of sorrow, grief, emptiness, turmoil.  Those feelings are part of a good life, a full life.  Of course, I believe in a future where we are all together, united in God; a future where there is no mourning or pain, but joy and completion and wholeness.  But separation, loss, hurts – no matter how normal.
 
      John’s gospel was written probably in Ephesus, one of the grand cities of the Greek world, probably in the 80s or 90s, and likely going through several revised editions.  It took final form at least fifty years after Jesus died and roughly ten to fifteen years after the other evangelists.  The authors of the gospels wrote them for specific Christian communities and used them to address opportunities and problems in their communities.
 
      John’s gospel was likely being written about the time Christians were being expelled from the synagogue.  Up to that time, Christians would have been part of the synagogue, associated with the Jewish community.  Some Jews considered John’s group of Christians to be abandoning Judaism and monotheism by making a second God out of Jesus.
 
      As with many break ups, there’s much tension, and a strong hostility develops as they separate into two groups, those in the synagogue and the deviants outside the synagogue.  Unlike the other gospels, John’s gospel repeatedly refers to “the Jews,” the synagogue folks, and has sayings that may make us cringe and cry “anti-Semitism.”
 
      Today’s gospel reading comes from the part of John’s gospel known as the “Farewell Discourse,” four chapters of Jesus speaking to his disciples at the Last Supper.  This was in the early ‘30s, and Jesus was getting ready to go to the cross, to separate from his disciples.  In chapter 14, three disciples – Thomas, Philip, and Judas (not Iscariot – remember there were two Judases) – each ask Jesus a question.  The three questions express the concerns of John’s community separating from the synagogue.
 
      See what’s happening: it’s over fifty years after Jesus, and John’s community is using the stories and sayings of Jesus to understand what’s happening to them in their day.  The Bible is supposed to be a resource for us as well.  We use it to make sense of what’s happening here and now, to make meaning out of our lives.
 
      In the verse before today’s passage, Judas asked Jesus, “Why have you made your identity plain to us but not to the world?”  It’s a very sensible question: “Why do we get it and others don’t?  Why do we see that Jesus is the Messiah and others don’t?”  John’s community wondered, “Why are we getting kicked out of the synagogue?  Why do we get it and others don’t?”
 
      Judas (not Iscariot), at the Last Supper, was confused.  It seemed to him that Jesus had deliberately chosen to hide himself, his true identity as Son of God, from the world.  Why didn’t Jesus, since he’s God, make his identity clear?
 
      Jesus answered, “Those who love me will keep my word.”  We heard his word in last week’s gospel, also at the Last Supper, Jesus’ words just a few moments before today’s, “Love one another the same way I have loved you.”  Jesus had just washed his disciples feet, including Judas Iscariot’s, and was about to give his life for them.  “Love as I love.”
 
      Jesus’ answer to Judas (not Iscariot) was: “Don’t worry about why some believe and some don’t believe.  Rather, stay focused on my command, on my word, on loving one another.  What matters most is not understanding but doing, not knowledge but action.”  The priority is living the gospel.  “If you want people to believe, to get it, love one another.”  That is evidence of God.
 
      So in this farewell scene, the first thing Jesus did was to give his disciples focus, to remind them what matters most, and then he spoke to how they were feeling, their sense of loss.  Judas felt sadness, fear, anxiety.  He was about to lose Jesus’ physical presence; he was about to lose his sense of security; he was about to lose his purpose and meaning in life; he was about to lose his hopes and dreams.[i]  He had to wonder, “What am I going to do now without Jesus?”  It’s frightening and desolating.  It seemed as if his relationship with Jesus was coming to an end.
 
      We experience that routinely in life: a loved one dies, a relationship breaks up, a job calls us to start a new life, to make a new home far away.  Jesus was about to die, to go away.  C.S. Lewis wrote,
We think of [death] as love cut short, like a dance stopped in mid-career or a flower with its head unluckily snapped off…  If, as I can’t help suspecting, the dead also feel the pains of separation…, then for both lovers, and [and for all who love], bereavement is a universal and integral part of our experience of love.…  It is… one of [love’s] phases; not the interruption of the dance, but the next figure.
After separation, the dance continues – no doubt different, and transformed.  Grieving is a process learning how to love in a new way, to figure out the next steps in the dance with the absent person.
 
      That’s what the disciples gradually figured out in the 30s when Jesus died; that’s what John’s community gradually figured out in the 90s when they got kicked out of the synagogue; that’s what we gradually figure out in our day when we experience separation.
 
      Jesus promised Judas that his departure would allow Judas to experience his presence in a new way, that he would have peace, that the Holy Spirit would help keep them close.  Jesus said, “Don’t let your heart be afraid.”  Judas did not yet understand that the disciples were going to have to relearn their relationship with Jesus.  They were going to have new responsibilities, new roles, new ways of experiencing Jesus and representing Jesus.
 
      They were also going to have a new and deeper intimacy with God, to enter the next phase of love: that God was coming to them, to us, and making his home with them, with us.  That’s a big part of why we come to church.  That’s what communion is: to be close to God, close to each other, close to those who are absent.  The Christian journey calls us to re-learn ourselves, who we are, to awaken that we’re not alone, ever.  God has come and makes his home in us, dwells in us, with us, for us.
 
      “I am going away, and I am coming to you.”
 
      V.         Alleluia!  Christ is risen.
      R.         The Lord is risen indeed.  Alleluia!
 
 
Lane Davenport
www.asa-dc.org
(202) 347-8161
 

[i] Thomas Attig, How We Grieve: Relearning the World, OUP (1996), pp. 170-71.  He also provides the quote from C. S. Lewis’ A Grief Observed.

Comments are closed.

    Archives

    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    November 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    September 2014
    August 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    February 2012

    RSS Feed

✜ Contact ✜
Church of the Ascension and Saint Agnes
1215 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Parish Office:
1219 Massachusetts Avenue, NW,
​Washington, DC 20005
(202) 347-8161
Email
​​✜ Social Media ✜
​Facebook
Twitter
YouTube

Newsletter
​

✜ Resources ✜
About Us
Directions
Giving

  • Welcome
    • Newcomers >
      • Letter to Inquirers
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    • How to Find Us
    • Childcare
  • Who We Are
    • Our Beliefs >
      • Statements of Mission, Vision, Beliefs & Value
      • What is an Anglo-Catholic?
      • Apolitical or Supra Political?
    • Our History
    • Our Leadership >
      • Parish Staff
      • Vestry
  • Worship
    • About our Worship >
      • Attending Mass
      • Music
  • Formation
    • About Formation
    • Adult Formation >
      • Adult Theology Upcoming
      • Adult Theology Archive >
        • Knowing Christ
    • Sermons
  • Connect
    • Contact us
    • Rector's Weekly Letter
    • Pastoral Care >
      • Pastoral Offices >
        • Reconciliation (Confession)
      • Prayer Requests
    • Stewardship >
      • Stewardship Letter
      • Givelify Instructions
      • Planned Giving
      • Endowment Fund
  • Calendar
  • Baptism
  • Outreach
  • Feasibility Study