At All Times

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

May 10, 2020

5 Easter A

          When I was a child in elementary school, Physical Education class had to be my least favorite part of the week.  The teacher had a passion for team sports.  She would choose two captains, one for each team, and the captains would take turns choosing kids for their team.  Obviously the athletically gifted kids were chosen first.  My best friend Laurie and I were chosen last Every Single Time.  We were both somewhat klutzy and not athletic in the least.  Finally, the teacher decided to try something different. She would choose the team captains who would then chose the kids for the other captain’s team.  So now, Laurie and I were chosen first.  We might have been klutzes but we were not stupid.  First or last, no one wanted us on their team.  There were insiders and outsiders, and we were definitely the latter.  I understand from my sports consultants, Will and Ben Bixby, that counting off by twos is more generally the way teams are chosen these days, which, while random, certainly seems more inclusive.

          This morning, Jesus appears to be the captain of the team and choses the members.  Jesus says “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”  Does this mean that our family and friends who follow other faiths or no faith wind up in hell?  Then Jesus goes on to say “If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.”  How on earth do we understand that claim when the world is being ravaged by Covid-19 in spite of our prayers?  If our prayers do not seem to be answered, does that mean Jesus has not chosen us?  This passage raises a lot of questions about who is in and who is out.

As with most passages of Scripture, knowing the context of the passage is helpful.  In the passage just before our gospel reading, Jesus has washed the disciples’ feet, and told the disciples that they should do likewise for each other, serving each other as Jesus has served them.  Having one’s feet washed is a humbling experience in which one person becomes vulnerable to another.  Jesus is describing how the disciples are to be in community with each other.  Then, Jesus tells the disciples that one of them will betray him.  Next, Jesus tells the disciples that he is with them only a little longer, and where he is going, the disciples cannot come.  Then Jesus tells Peter that before daybreak, he will have denied Jesus three times.

So, this morning, the scene with the disciples and Jesus is understandably quite somber.  The disciples were likely sad, confused, and feeling rather hopeless.  Jesus is encouraging the remaining 11 disciples when he says “Do not let your hearts be troubled.”  Jesus promises his followers that he is going to prepare a place for them and will come back to get them.  Jesus is not abandoning them.  In fact, Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life so that they know the path to the Father.

          Taken out of context, this passage makes it sound like only those who follow Jesus have access to God.  However, a few chapters earlier in John’s gospel, Jesus said “I am the good shepherd.  I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father.  And I lay down my life for the sheep.  I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold.  I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.  So there will be one flock, one shepherd.”  Jesus will bring his other sheep into the fold.  Meanwhile, Jesus’ disciples are called to witness to the world through their love for each other, so there is a healthy, loving fold waiting for the other sheep.  What this passage, and much of John’s gospel insists, is that Jesus’ followers love each other with the same love Jesus has for them.  That love will spill out into love for others so that the world experiences God’s love.

At the end of the passage, Jesus tells the disciples that they will do even greater works than he has, and that if they ask for anything in his name, he will do it.  This is after Jesus has changed water into wine, fed thousands of people with a bit of bread and fish, raised Lazarus from the dead, walked on water, and healed many people of their infirmities.  Really?  Jesus thinks we can do that?

          If we read further, Jesus will tell the disciples that he will not leave them orphaned.  He will send the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, to be with them forever.  While having the Holy Spirit available to do whatever we like would be lovely some days, Jesus is not promising us that.  This is not God as Santa Claus.  But Jesus is promising us that the Holy Spirit will give us what we need so that we are able to show God’s love to the world at all times and in all circumstances.  Jesus is giving his sad, confused, discouraged disciples their mission.  Those disciples include us as we are called to show God’s love in the midst of a pandemic when the burden of that pandemic falls unequally across the country and around the world, in a country that proclaims liberty and justice for all but where young black men like Ahmaud Arbery cannot go out for a run without fearing for their lives, in a place where the wounds of a university mass shooting are still deeply felt fifty years later.   Jesus promises the disciples and us, that with the Holy Spirit, we will have the ability to carry on his work in the world, demonstrating the power of God’s love at all times and in all places to even more people than Jesus did.

          At the end of the day, the question this gospel reading answers is not who is in and who is out, nor is the question about how we, too, can raise the dead to life.  The reading from 1 Peter says “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”   Jesus is telling us how we are to be that chosen race and royal priesthood and proclaim God’s mighty acts.  We are to proclaim the mighty acts of God by word and example, demonstrating the love of God at all times and in all places, like Jesus did.  We are to follow Jesus by making ourselves present to the Holy Spirit so we can make God’s love known in whatever situation we find ourselves.   Following Jesus is not about figuring out who is on the team and who is not.  Following Jesus is about humility, servant hood, and reflecting God’s love.  In other words, following Jesus is about following Jesus.

                                                                   Amen.