Sermon 7 Easter - year A

Here's a sermon I gave in 2011 where I invited people to get to know one another better. It explores what Jesus was asking of us in his prayer on the last night of his life.

7 Easter - Year A

Transcribed from a sermon

Given at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church

June 5, 2011

By Rev. Valerie Hart

I’d like you to imagine that the patriarch of a family is dying. He’s in the hospital and he knows his death is near. So he gathers the whole family together - the sons and daughters, their spouses, and the grandchildren. Once they are all gathered together he looks at them and he says; “I have loved you and cared for you and had concern for you, but I am soon going to be gone and my prayer to God at this moment is that you will stay together as a family; that you will love and support one another.” You can imagine that happening and that is basically what we have here today in the Gospel.

It is the night before Jesus is arrested. He is talking with his disciples. He’s giving them the last of his teachings. He is trying to prepare them for what is ahead, and he prays for them. He prays for all of those who have been given to him. Which means us too. We too are his disciples. We too are those whom God has given to Christ. He prays, and his final prayer, his last request, is that they may be one as you and I are one. Christ’s last passionate prayer is that his people will be together and united in the way that he is united with the Father. That we, as he has given his command earlier, would love one another as he has loved us. That’s his final request. And any of you that know anything about church history know that the Christian church has not been real good at doing that. But that doesn’t mean we don’t keep trying.

Today is the 7^th Sunday of Easter; it used to be called the Sunday after Ascension. On Thursday we celebrated the Ascension, which happens forty days after Easter. Jesus spent 40 days in his resurrected body interacting with the disciples, then he took the disciples up on the hillside and, as he stood there, he said to them, “you will now be my witnesses.” He said that I am leaving but you will be my witnesses. Then a cloud came and he disappeared from sight. Now throughout scripture whenever a cloud appears it represents the presence of God. It was as if a door opened between earth and heaven and Christ walked through it. Then he was gone.

In the reading today from the Book of Acts it describes this. What stood out for me was that once this happens the disciples are all looking at Jesus, where he was, and now he is gone. Then these two men dressed in white, who obviously must be angels, because they are messengers from God, appear and ask why are you looking there, where he left? Why are you staring at empty space? And so they stopped and they looked at each other. The next thing we read is that the community is gathered together in the upper room for prayers, for food, and for sharing. The whole family is there, the disciples, some of the women, including mother Mary, Jesus’ brothers and others. The whole family gathered together. It is the family loving one another.

One of the things that is interesting, if you think about architecture, is that it has a strong affect on what we can do in a church, or in a house. Think about an airplane. Now the goal in an airplane is to get lots of people in there close together and not have them cause too much of a fuss. Right? You don’t want them really interacting with each other, you don’t want them getting up and moving around, so you have all the seats lined up facing forward so the only thing you can see is the back of people’s heads and maybe the person sitting next to you. Bt you don’t look too much at the person sitting next to you because that’s not really socially acceptable. You look straight ahead or at your book. On the other hand, if you have people over for dinner you’re going to sit around a table, or gather around in the living room where you can see one another, and you can talk to one another, and you can interact with one another.

Think about how we set up a church. We have all these pews, and you are all sitting here looking up at the cross. Except for the choir, the choir gets to look at the people. But we have the cross up there, and we are all looking at the cross, and that is a fine thing to do to. But the angels said to the disciples, don’t look at where Jesus was, and they looked at one another. So I would like to invite you to be very counter cultural and turn around and look at one another. Really. If you are sitting up at the front you may have to stand up. Look behind you. Stand up and look behind. Look at these wonderful people. Look at this variety of human beings. Every Sunday I get to look at all you folks and see the smiling faces and the sleepy faces and the young ones and the old ones, the familiar and the unfamiliar as you look around at the people. Maybe there are some people here that you have never seen before. Who are they? I wonder if they are new? Or maybe there is someone you see and you think; “I recognize that face. I wonder how long they’ve been coming to church.”

You might see other people that you know their name because of the nametag they wear, but that is all you know about them. And there may be others here that you really are close to and you have come to really value and share deeply with. This is our family. This is the family that Jesus prayed that we would be one as Jesus and the Father are one. This is it. Now to be one with one another as Jesus and the Father are one with one another, we kind of need to get to know each other. When you love someone you want what is best for them. You do what you can to help them. But how can we help someone if we don’t know what their situation is, if we don’t know who they are. If we love someone we value them for who they are. We listen, we appreciate, we celebrate with them, we grieve with them, support them. In order to do that we have to know one another - a little bit more than just “hello,” a little bit more then shaking hands on Sunday morning.

So I would like to invite you to be brave and to trust the Holy Spirit. You will find on most of the pews a basket that has some little pieces of paper. There should be a writing implement in it. Here’s what I’m going to invite you to do. I will tell you the whole thing so I’m not going to ask you to do anything without knowing everything. What we are going to do is to write your name and a way to contact you on a piece of paper. It might be a phone number, or if you prefer to be contacted by email you can put your email address. Then what we are going to do is to collect all these, mix them all up, and then everyone who has put one in takes one out. And we are going to trust the Holy Spirit. We are going to trust the Holy Spirit that whatever name it is that you pick out is someone you need to get to know. I’m going to put my name in here too.

So what you will do is you will pull out a name and you will contact the person you get and you’ll say let’s get together. Maybe you’ll go get a cup of coffee together. Maybe you’ll take a walk together. If it’s someone who has physical limitations you may need to go to their house. Whatever. You can go to the beach together. Whatever it is, it is a chance to listen and get to know someone at a little bit deeper level.

I trust the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit works very efficiently. Trust that the person’s name you get has something you need. Maybe a story from their life, maybe some encouragement, maybe a new idea. And trust that you have something for that person. Maybe they need a ride, or a listening ear, or a good friend. Who knows what the Holy Spirit will do with it. I had one person at the eight o’clock service who told me; “I got just the person that I know I need to talk to.” I didn’t ask any further questions about why the need to talk. I don’t know, but I’m going to be real curious to find out what happens. I’m going to be real curious to hear from people who want to share their story of who they talked to.

Now there is a small chance, a small probability that you will get yourself. And if you get yourself that means the Holy Spirit is saying you better hang out with yourself a little bit. Take some time. Listen to yourself. Love yourself. Or you may get your spouse. And once again, you better spend some time with your spouse. It might be a message that you need to do that.  You may get someone that you know well. You may get someone you have never met. But it is an opportunity to practice loving one another. And so invite you to put in your little slips.

(Time collecting the slips)

I’ll mix them all together. And we’ll pass them around. Take one and pass it on. Don’t look at who it is before you pick it. Trust the Holy Spirit.

(Time passing out slips)

Jesus said to his disciples before he went up to heaven; “You will be my witnesses, in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, to the ends of the world.” We will be God’s witnesses. What does that look like? We can witness with our voice, we can tell what we know, but it is a much more powerful witness when we witness with how we live our lives. When we witness Christ’s love by loving one another. Most of you may know the old song. “They’ll know we are Christians by our love.” Let us witness Christ in our love for one another.

Amen.