Sermon for May 5, 2024 - The Sixth Sunday of Easter
Do you get the feeling that Jesus is about to say goodbye? If we chart our course over the course of Easter we have heard stories of Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances; the gardener and angelic beings by the empty tomb, Thomas’ doubts, eating with the disciples. Each of these stories help to convey something so profound and unique in the resurrection of Jesus. And then, we took a hard-right turn into the realm of metaphor, parable, and deeper thinking, deeper knowing about God. Over these past few Sundays, we shifted from historical accounts to delving deeper into the very nature of Jesus and of God. Jesus and God are like the good shepherd who know us, protect us, lead us, sustain us. Then we heard Jesus and God are the vine to which, we the branches, are connected. These stories are meant to be reminders, so that when our hearts are shrouded in darkness and we feel distant from the love of God, we can remember. These stories are wells that allow us to tap back into the source of our life; the source of our joy. Our gospel today continues this theme as Jesus once again prepares the disciples for his eventual departure.
As we hear Jesus speak to us today, we hear wonderful themes of love, joy, and abiding in him. When I read John’s gospel, I cannot help but feel comforted by his description of Jesus as the way, the truth, the life. His portrayal of Jesus is one that that is radically different than the other gospels because John’s Jesus is so relational. Jesus spends a lot of time describing his relationship to his Father, and how we too are connected to God through Jesus. What is so radical is that Jesus has a personal relationship with God, which is something that we do not see in other scriptures and certainly not in other world religions like we have it here. I cannot help but feel that I too can have a personal relationship with my creator through Jesus and that fills me joy and hope. Our joy is meant to be complete because in and through a life of following Jesus we have the very joy of God in our hearts. Jesus himself tells us that the life, love and joy he has with the Father is so abundant, so overflowing, that it surrounds us and binds us all together.
The life journey that has led to me standing here today has been filled with moments of great happiness and moments of profound sorrow. Through it all the Church, my different faith communities, my different church families have abided with me; they have all supported and accompanied me as true community should. As I reflect on my spiritual journey, my joy has been made complete not just once, but over and over again; as often as I wanted to be open to it and if I was willing to seeing it. When I earned and was awarded my Eagle Scout honour my church family was there. When I started as an acolyte, when I became a diocesan youth leader, when I got into college, when I graduated high school my church family was there. When I was married to Lauren and when I was ordained as a deacon and a priest, my church family was by my side. It was the culmination of years of prayer and work and the beginning of a new chapter in my life. It was an experience unlike any other. When I close my eyes, I can still smell the incense as it hung in the air. I can still remember my heart pounding because of the excitement. I can still remember all of the people who were there to share in my joy.
While it was joyful, my ordination to the priesthood was not all that I had wanted deep in my heart. There was a time when I thought I could have been happier if my father were there for these events. It was hard to not be able to share these moments with him especially because of all that he did to help me; teaching me about selfless service, honour, and integrity. I wanted to be ordained to the priesthood by my bishop; the mentor who saw something in me that at times I could not or refused to see. I wanted to go back to a diocese that had formed me and given so much to help me follow God’s call. These were all things that I wanted; things that I thought would have made my experience complete. None of these things happened. God took me in a very different direction than where my heart wanted to go. Both my father and my bishop died before they could share in these experiences with me. I will never forget when Bishop Tom called me to tell me he was too sick to travel to preside at our wedding. I could hear the disappointment in his voice; the sadness of not being able to be present. Despite the longings of his heart, Bishop Tom was still delighted for me, for both of us, that in each other we found a mutual reflection of God’s love for each other. He was filled with joy that this was the direction my life was taking after the crooked path we had walked together thus far. That’s the funny thing about happiness…happiness is when we get what we want. However, joy…joy is when we receive what God wants to give us. And what God has given me is more that I could have asked for, even though it was not necessarily what I wanted. The contours and completeness of my joy in these experiences was shaped by both those who within my church family were present and by the painful absences.
Together we have all experienced the ups and downs of being a small Christian community in an increasingly secular world. It is at the heart of what we do here each week. We gather together to remember God’s redeeming work in human history because of God’s love for us. We come here to be changed by the word of God proclaimed and the sacraments of the church celebrated. We come here to be reminded that the world is not just filled with natural disasters, senseless violence and despair that can so easily abide and fester within us. We come so that we may go out into the world reflecting the joy and love that we experience by being in community with one another. I know that in the nearly two years since coming to All Saints I have been changed because of this sacred place, because of you all. We are those who abide together and together we abide with others, who, whatever our sadness and incompleteness, can possess the completing joy of Christ.
There were many times on my journey when I could have collapsed in a heap of my own inadequacy and incompleteness and settled for something else or quit all together. But it was the grace and love of God, his and your abiding presence that kept and keeps me going. We have been chosen and we have been challenged to follow Jesus. Each of us…chosen. His way is not easy but by following him we will be forever changed, and our joy will be made complete. Amen.
