A Gospel Difference

Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Church Episcopal
May 29, 2022

7 Easter C 

          Six years and some weeks ago, I stepped into this pulpit for the very first time and preached on the exact same readings that we heard this morning.  When I realized a couple of weeks ago that I would get to preach on these readings this Sunday, I began to think about the past 6 years we have shared together and what I might say.  How have we lived into Jesus’ prayer for his disciples that they may all be one?  How have we lived into the gracious invitation in the reading from Revelation that ends the entire body of Scripture?  How have we prayed and sung hymns to God in the dark times, like Paul and Silas?

          And while reflecting on the past 6 years might have made for a pretty good sermon, today I find myself wondering what demand these readings place on our lives in the aftermath of the mass shootings in Buffalo, New York; Laguna Woods, California; and Uvalde, Texas over just the past 2 plus weeks.  What do these readings say to us in our heartbreak over the senseless loss of life that includes 19 elementary school children?  What do these readings say to us in the midst of the questions that just keep coming and seem to have no clear answers?

          Today we stand between the feast of the Ascension, which was Thursday and marks Jesus’ ascension into heaven after the resurrection, and the day of Pentecost which is next Sunday and marks the day the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples giving them the gifts, courage, and strength they needed to be the Church.  In between those two events, I imagine the disciples wondered if Jesus had abandoned them.  I wonder if they felt somewhat at a loss for what to do and who they were.  Today’s scripture readings speak into that time of uncertainty and confusion, an uncertainty and confusion we may be feeling as we grapple with the hate and violence of the past few weeks.

          When we meet up with Paul and Silas this morning, they have healed a young girl with a spirit of divination, costing her owners a lot of money.  Paul and Silas are unjustly accused of disturbing the city, then stripped, beaten, and thrown into the innermost jail cell where there was almost certainly no light.  And what did Paul and Silas do in the darkness of that  jail cell? They prayed and sang hymns to God. They sang and prayed in the midst of the darkness because that is what people of hope do.  That hope was not just wishful thinking that they would be set free.  That hope was the conviction that God would act and that their lives and their witness would bear fruit even if the current circumstances would seem to indicate otherwise.  An earthquake releases the two men from their shackles, and long story short, their jailer sees their faith and he and his family are baptized.  We can sing and pray today even in the midst of the darkness, not as wishful thinking that things will somehow get better, but because of our conviction that God will act through us and our lives and our witness to God’s love will bear the much-needed fruit, even and especially in the darkness.

          In the gospel, we hear Jesus pray for his disciples, and by extension, his prayer for us.  His prayer is that his disciples will be one as Jesus and the Father are one.  Jesus prays that the disciples may be bound together with the same love that binds Jesus and the Father together.  Jesus does not pray that the disciples will always be right or even that they will always agree.  Jesus prays that they are one.  Living as one is easy when we are raising money to buy Chromebooks for refugees settling in Summit County or celebrating Jubilee or singing glorious hymns.  But Jesus also calls us to be one and to love each other when those commands are hard-when we are dealing with issues of racial injustice, or when we agree that gun violence has to stop but disagree profoundly about how that should happen.  Jesus never told his disciples that being one would be easy.  Jesus told them and Jesus tells us that those who follow him are one, just as he and the Father are one, and he expects our lives to bear witness to that truth.  Only together can we do the difficult work Jesus calls us to do.

          Lastly, all of scripture ends with the magnificent words we hear in the reading from Revelation.  Times were dark for the people to whom Revelation was likely written.  They were being persecuted for their faith and were no doubt experiencing confusion, fear, and even despair.  Jesus never said following him would be easy.  To those who are broken, to those who are grieving, to those who are confused, frustrated, or angry, Jesus says “Come.”  All of scripture ends with the invitation to come.  As the body of Christ, Jesus calls us to summon up the hope that is within us, to live as one body, and offer the gift of the water of life to all who thirst for a better world, a world which more closely resembles the world God created us to be.  Even the words to “America the Beautiful” which we will sing in a few minutes to honor those who gave their lives to defend our freedom call us to be better than we are and asks God to mend us.  In the second verse, we will sing “America, America, God mend thine every flaw.  Confirm thy soul in self control, thy liberty in law.”  In the midst of whatever darkness we might find ourselves, and in the darkness of the current time, Jesus not only calls us, but expects us as his followers, to sing and pray as one, offering the water of life to the world, in the conviction that God will use us to be a light in the darkness and to make a gospel difference in this broken world. 

                                                                                      Amen.