Friends, today with the feast of Pentecost, we officially end the Easter Season.  Now, even though that is true, I hesitate to use the word “end” because I don’t want us to get the notion that we can now coast.  What Pentecost really signals is a beginning.

   Just as in our Mass each week—we purposely don’t say, “The Mass is ended, go in peace” as in previous times, as that signals, we are done for this week! No, we say, the Mass is ended, or this part is over—“Let our service either begin or continue!”

Jesus’ sending of the Spirit was always meant to give us strength for the service that continues; the Mass is for “revving” us up!  Pentecost signals the end of the “strength-building” (for now), 50 days (the Greek meaning of Pentecost)—to the time of going out, sharing so completely what we have been so graciously given.

This past week, the Winona Interfaith Council, of which I am a member, worked and put out a letter that shows our commitment as a group of religious people from all different faith backgrounds to stand in solidarity with our Muslim sisters and brothers in the most recent attack on them in Portland, Oregon.

Our faith in Jesus of Nazareth, or Buddha, or the Great Spirit, or in the tenets of the Ba’hai faith, whatever it might be, calls us to be about action and in each manifestation of belief; we are showing a different aspect of the face of God! We cannot say we believe and not act!  I see this action in present day as the same as what happened on that first Pentecost recorded in Acts—people from all places heard what those first followers of Jesus had to say, “in their own tongue.”  This happened because the message was big enough, inclusive enough, for all of them, in the Spirit.

Friends, this is what we as Pentecostal people have to realize too—Jesus, the Christ includes us all as we spoke of last Sunday.  Part of our letter of solidarity includes the teachings of our prophets which clearly show how we are more alike than we are different.  Any church rhetoric that states that in order to be saved, one has to believe “all the tenets of our faith” are clearly not being led by the Spirit of that first Pentecost!  We look to Jesus’ own prayer the night before he died, “That all may be one” for evidence of this.

Some 9+ years ago on Pentecost Sunday, we at All Are One were celebrating the first Mass after my ordination—it was May 11, 2008 that year, a bit earlier than today. We could truly say that was a “Pentecostal moment”—just as Jesus’ young band were being “birthed” into the world of Palestine, All Are One was being “birthed” too into our community of Winona, MN.   Coincidence?  I don’t think so! The Spirit can do in us what we cannot do alone!

Pentecost is one of the real times of celebration that the Church gives us—Joan Chittister calls these “firework moments.”  They are times that call us to go deeper, such as Christmas and Easter and recall what these holy times in our faith really mean—times when our God moved in mighty ways among us in the person of Jesus and his Spirit. Pentecost, Joan goes on to say, “Is a time of holy hilarity when the Church points again and again to the empty tomb.”

Let’s reflect on “holy hilarity” for a bit.  Jesus, in his earthly life was always doing something in his earthly life that hadn’t been done before.  He shows us truly how we are to live.  Our world often gives us the message—stick to home, don’t get involved—it’s easier that way—we are the best—let’s be great again, us over everyone else.  The trouble with this kind of thinking is that it is contrary to everything that Jesus ever taught!  I think “holy hilarity” is a good way to think about what the Spirit does in our world, calling us to new beginnings.  The Church (hierarchy) says “no” to women priests–RCWP (Roman Catholic Women Priest)s and other groups say “yes,” in the Spirit and move forward in that same Spirit.

The new beginning that Jesus’ Spirit calls forth from each of us is about living passionately.  It has been said, “Passion is the heartbeat of life.”  In this we get the sense that living passionately is about living fully—we can’t let ourselves become stagnant—Pentecost calls us a be ALIVE, not just breathing!   A passionate person is not lukewarm.  As followers of Jesus, lukewarm is the last thing we want to be—the book of Revelation tells us that the lukewarm, neither hot nor cold that is, are fit for nothing but to be spit out of the mouth of God (Rev. 3: 15-16)!

A story I’ve shared with you before from Joan Chittister that bears repeating is of a seeker who went to the monastery to gain enlightenment.  After much prayer, nothing seemed to happen.  Preparing to leave, the disappointed seeker asked the master,  “Why has my stay yielded no fruit?”  “Could it be because you lacked the courage to shake the tree,” asked the master kindly?

On this feast of Pentecost, it is good for us to spend some moments trying to get our heads and hearts around what happened to these first followers of Jesus—the manifestation of the resurrection, however that was experienced, followed by the coming of the Spirit, the very Breath of God upon them!

Scripture scholar, Diane Bergant tells us that what these first followers experienced was a theophany or an “experience of God.”  These phenomena— the tongues of fire, the violent wind blowing, the speaking in and understanding of foreign tongues were all manifestations that accompanied such a heavenly vision, as Scripture tells us.  These phenomena can be likened to God speaking to Moses through a burning bush or to Job through a whirlwind. Something marvelous had indeed happened!

So what did all of this signal for them?  For us, also baptized and confirmed in the Spirit as followers of Jesus, the Christ?  For them, it called for courage to go out and boldly proclaim the message of love, unity and care that Jesus proclaimed so boldly concerning his Abba God.  I believe it calls each of us to a passionate walk with our brother Jesus—it calls us to get angry when we see people in positions of power, whether in Church or State, abusing that power for their own advancement when it was actually given for others, to make our world better.  It calls us to look lovingly on our beautiful earth and to do all we can to protect it for the use and enjoyment of generations to come.  It calls us to slow down, now, to see the beauty that the month of June gives us in the explosion of growth and color all around.   Joan Chittister speaks well of the beauty all around us and suggests that “flowers confront us with our responsibility for beauty.”  Do we bring beauty into our world through our actions, our speech, our very thoughts?

Pentecost is about being touched with the very Spirit of God to be our absolute best selves, always striving to show forth the divine that lives within each of us. Being our best selves, striving for that, means that we must, absolutely must, be accepting of all that come to our table and here I mean not only our table at All Are One, but the universal table of the Church. We must invite everyone to be part of this universal community and not wait until they believe as we do, but in the diversity that Paul speaks of to the Corinthians today—we will look with honor and privilege upon the gifts of all to show us the greater, grander face of God.  That is why I am a part of the Winona Interfaith Coalition because their vision is all about how much we share and how little divides us.

One of the aspects of Pentecost that we are all called to in this celebration is to remember that the gifts each of us is given are not ultimately for us, but for the building up of the kin-dom of our brother Jesus. Pentecost calls us to shake things up a bit—to be people of passion, fully alive and fully about love.  Pentecost calls us my friends to be prophets—to see visions and to dream dreams (Acts 2:17).  May God bless us all as we truly contemplate the Spirit’s indwelling within us and begin to join more fully in her work of renewing the face of the earth!  Amen? Amen!

Friends, the feast of the Ascension reminds us that we live in an in-between time.  We already know that Jesus has lived and loved and given his life so we would know how to live and t0 love, and in all that, he has saved us from our finite conditions and raised us up with him to one day live eternally in the full presence of God.  We don’t know entirely what that means, only that it is so!  So today and throughout our lives, we say, “I know, but not completely.”  We know something wonderful happened to Jesus that his apostles, close friends and family witnessed when he physically left this earth, and that they must have been so enthralled by that happening, whatever it was, that from that day forward, they had no doubt that he was God.

We see this simply in the way Luke chose to write about Jesus’ physical leaving in  Acts 1—[he] “was lifted up in a cloud”—the cloud has been a traditional symbol for the presence of God—we remember the Transfiguration and the mention of a cloud from which God spoke that indeed Jesus was the Chosen One.

From that day forward, these first followers not only believed completely that Jesus was God, but they were willing then, empowered by Jesus’ Spirit to spend their lives, no matter what befell them, sharing his story, giving hope and striving to make all people one as Jesus prays in his priestly prayer from John 17, which served as our gospel today from the 7^th Sunday of Easter.

As in the past, I decided to blend the readings from Ascension Thursday, the first reading and the 7^th Sunday of Easter, the second reading and the gospel to make the point that the Ascension is just the beginning of new life for Jesus—when he resumes his rightful and equal place with Abba God and the Spirit.  But for us, it is that in-between time.  We know, but we don’t fully know the glory that is to come with complete union with God. For now we live with the tension—living what we already know, but haven’t yet come to see fully.  We live uncompleted—for God, the union is complete with regard to us—Abba God is completely united and living in us by way of the Spirit—Jesus’ ultimate gift to us before physically leaving the earth—we remember his promise—“I will not leave you…I will be with you all days…!”

So, how do we live now, in this in-between time?  The first reading from Acts 1 makes it clear that we need to know the story of Jesus , why he came, that in fact he is the fulfillment of the earlier covenants made between God and the Israelites.  Luke, the author of Acts, attempts to tie the First and Second, Old and New  Testaments by using 40 days to talk about the time Jesus was with the apostles after his resurrection—this is a clear connection to the 40 days Moses spent being instructed by God before he began his mission to lead the people out of Egypt.  The apostles clearly needed additional instruction and strength before Jesus could physically leave them.  Luke in Acts, makes this clear by recording that the apostles haven’t yet, “got it!”  Jesus tells them—get your focus off the idea that I have come to save one nation—this is so much bigger—this is for everyone!  Recall Pastor Dick’s words to us last week about Jesus, the Christ—God in all of creation!

Until the apostles and close followers of Jesus receive the Spirit, they won’t have the strength needed to go out and truly live in the in-between times awaiting the full glory of complete union with God one day.  Next Sunday, we will remember and celebrate this fiery coming of the Spirit into their lives and ultimately, into our own, on Pentecost.  So, today, we might ask, “What if we truly believed all that God, in Jesus has done for us?—coming to share our life, living, loving, showing us the way—dying and rising as we will one day.  Would we live differently?

It is important for us to remember that what happened between Jesus and the apostles and his close friends and family was mystery—whether there was an ascension per se or not isn’t the question that should concern us, but the fact that Jesus, the Christ now has a new body, a new form that one day we will have.  I give some doubt to an actual ascension as do those more learned than me, because if we say “yes” to an “ascending” action, we have to then say, “ascended” to where?

This text was written in a time when people considered the universe to be arranged in three tiers; heaven—earth—hell, which we have talked about here before.  But in present day, our perception of the universe is different. Certainly, we can see aspects of heaven in the vastness of the universe, but it is not a “place” per se.  For these reasons, it makes more sense to say that Jesus passed into a new existence—we think of—the cloud of God where we would no longer see his physical presence, except through the eyes of faith as we recognize him in each other—again, recall how, as Dick Dahl shared with us last week, Jesus the man has become, Jesus, the Christ, who can now be seen in all of creation through our eyes of faith.

We see from the readings today and others after Jesus’ resurrection,  his great tenderness in preparing his band so well for all that would happen to them going forward. He knew there would be grand, glorious times of traveling, sharing his words, converting, bringing new life, casting out the demons of hatred and anger, and miracles of healing.  But there would also be suffering in sharing his message that demanded justice and mercy for all.  The powers-that-be would not appreciate their control being taken away.

In order to strengthen their faith in his bodily resurrection and ultimately in their own and ours one day, Jesus continued to show himself for a time, in his bodily form—to let them know he was the same person who walked with them, who lived with them; because we know from earlier readings, he didn’t appear the same in his resurrection, For this reason, he invited Thomas to inspect his hands, his side—the wounds of crucifixion—he ate with the apostles—all to say; I did die, but I rose too! You must believe that!

Only believing this wonderful fact, because you can’t hope to convince others of what you, yourself don’t believe!—would they have the strength, with the Spirit’s help to convince others.  And by doing all this, they would continue to bring life to their world by sharing Jesus’ message of love and peace for all.  The resurrection and Jesus’ ultimate departure in physical form, however that happened, caused those first believers to be overwhelmed by the divine that they saw in the humanity of the one they knew so intimately while he was with them.

My friends, we are called to that same realization, that same belief—Jesus was fully human, but he was fully divine.  You, me, we all, come from that same divine “stuff” and we are here having a human experience.  Our task in this life is to eventually grow into our full divine stature—we are called to do that through our human existence.   These in-between times in which we live are incomplete, and will be until we all accomplish the work of re-creation as it were.

We might think about this word a bit, “re-creation.” Putting the emphasis in a different place, “rec-reation,” we realize the word for relaxation and play, as it were.  Joan Chittister, in her monthly reflection, The Monastic Way for the month of May, has used the entire month to teach us about the importance of play in this regard.

Play rejuvenates us—“re-creates” us—pulls us from the bland, the ordinary—helps us to see with bigger eyes, larger hearts, all of creation, through the eyes of Jesus, the Christ, who came to us as a brother in Jesus, but left us physically in time to become a much larger entity—Jesus, the Christ.  Others who have wrote about this, such Franciscan, Ilia Delio have spoken of the Cosmic Christ—huge, vast, beyond our imaginations—that is why we can say in truth, everyone needs to come to God through Christ!

Peter’s message today talks about us already being a “new body”–one that will suffer he says not for doing evil, but for doing good—the world, in other words, will not always understand, accept, nor appreciate our actions; and we will need to listen to our hearts and act anyway—as we all journey with the Cosmic Christ to God.

Jesus’ work of healing, comforting, forgiving and including will happen now in our world through us or it won’t happen at all!  Often, people will lament about bad things happening in our world looking toward God and asking—“How could you do this?” Perhaps we need to look at ourselves and ask what we didn’t do to make things better.  I don’t think God interferes in our world, but simply calls us to be more like Jesus who came to show us the way—the way that brings life.

The reading from Acts today tells us that the disciples kept “looking up to heaven;” we as his followers today sometimes keep looking to God to do what our baptisms call us and strengthen us to do!

These in-between times should give us great hope because the readings today tell us that we will not be left—that our loving, Abba God will always be standing alongside us assisting us in all the ways we choose to bless, to sanctify this world and its people through our lives of love and service.  Jesus simply asks in his priestly prayer that we would believe and act out the message that we are all, truly one, as the name and practice of our community attests and we will only be one by “walking the talk.”  May we each be blessed as we live in these in-between times, as we support each other in prayer and service.  Amen?—Amen!

Dear Friends,  

I already sent this homily out, but was able to get a better layout of it, so if you haven’t already read it, this one is a little easier on the eyes. 

Pastor Dick Dahl covered Mass this weekend for me and has given us a superb homily! You will recall that last Sunday we had a discussion about Jesus’ words, (John 14: 6) that no one can go to God but through him. At face value, most of us would say, “That can’t be right,” but what Jesus is saying is a bigger reality–he is speaking about coming to God through Christ, not Jesus the man, but Jesus, the Christ! Read Dick’s homily to have a much clearer sense of this! Thank you Dick! 

 

Today’s Gospel speaks Jesus’ final words before leaving the upper room and being taken prisoner at Gethsemane: “I shall ask the Father and he will give you the Spirit of truth whom you know for he is with you, he is in you. In a short time the world will no longer see me, but you will see that I live and you also will live.  On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me and I in you.

Through Jesus the great divide between ourselves and God is dissolved.  This is the message, the good news, that in today’s first reading the apostle Philip is described as sharing with the Samaritans. They are described as unanimously welcoming his message. However, the message was not welcomed everywhere.

In today’s second reading Peter is giving encouragement to Christians in Asia Minor, the region around present-day Turkey, in a time of trial and persecution. The message is the Christ mystery. Peter and Philip had known Jesus in person, but they often didn’t get or understand what he was trying to tell them. Now, however,  the Spirit had opened their hearts to appreciate the astonishing and inclusive Christ mystery.

This homily is an attempt to expand our awareness of the universal Christ mystery. I’ve taken insights from and quoted many sources and do not claim any of these thoughts and words as my own.

First, to understand Jesus in a whole new way, you must know that Christ is not his last name, but his eternal identity both before and after the Resurrection. In the opening prayer today we referred to Jesus, the Christ, born of a woman, but without beginning.”

Through Christian Tradition (which of course includes the Sacred Scriptures) and the gift of Faith, Jesus is the one with whom many of us have overcame the split between ourselves and the divine. Jesus is the human being we have come to know as our friend, to love as our brother. But now through the Easter mystery of his death and resurrection, the Holy Spirit gradually helps us begin to grasp and experience the universal Christ mystery.

The Spirit poured out, as it were, at Pentecost on diverse people from many parts of the known world, continues to act today through diverse people in our world. I think those who work in modern science are, perhaps unknowingly, helping us to better grasp the universality of the Christ Mystery. Their perspective is often more expansive than our own thinking.

I recently read a book entitled, Awe-Filled Wonder: the Interface of Science and Spirituality, by Barbara Fiand, a Sister of Notre Dane de Namur. I read it in conjunction with The Divine Matrix by Gregg Braden and Seven Brief Lessons in Physics by Carlo Rovelli.

Carlo Rovelli writes, “Physics opens windows through which what we see does not cease to astonish us. We realize we are full of prejudices and that our intuitive image of the world is partial, parochial, inadequate.” He went on that scientific thought is fed by the capacity “to see things differently than they have previously been seen. Science is primarily about visions.”

I see in these words a humility and an openness that is sadly often lacking in religious believers, especially when we think we know it all and have all the answers. We become blind through complacency to the wonder of the Mystery in which we exist and that pervades all of creation. Awe is a more fitting attitude.

In her book, Awe-filled Wonder, Barbara Fiand reminds us, “Everything that can be spoken about God is metaphor. Symbolic expression is the primary articulation of religious experience. The metaphors are selected according to the culture and context in which we live.” Fiand points out that we often said we were made in God’s image, but, in fact, we repeatedly pictured God in our image. So we’ve gone from projecting God as a Patriarchal figure of tribal nomads, to a Monarchical figure ruling over nations.

Now we no longer need these primitive or medieval metaphors. Pope Francis has said, “True faith requires first crucifying our narrow notions of a God who reflects only our understanding….” He added, “It is better not to believe than to be a false believer.” The 13^thcentury mystic, Meister Eckart is said to have prayed God to rid him of God–meaning to free him of the images that he saw as ultimately pointing him away from the Mystery.

St. Paul seems to have grasped this more than others. Paul never doubted the enormously life-changing revelation he had had on the road to Damascus. The Christ he met was not Jesus in the flesh. It was the Risen Christ who is available to us now as Spirit, as an “energy field” that we eventually called the Mystical Body of Christ, the Cosmic or Universal Christ.

In his writings Paul spent much of his life drawing out the immense consequences of this vision. Consequently, very early on Christianity began to see itself as a universal rather than a tribal or regional religion.

With this as our perspective, we begin to recognize that the first incarnation of the Christ Mystery started according to modern science about 13.8 billion years ago at what is called “The Big Bang.”  Or as John wrote in the first words of his Gospel, “In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Creation itself is the first incarnation of Christ. The Holy Spirit is helping us do what Pope Francis called us to do during his recent visit to Fatima—namely to tear down walls. This includes the walls in our minds and understanding that limit the Christ Mystery to the Church community, to the limits of our planet earth, or even the six to seven billion people of the human community.

An authentic God experience overcomes the false split between ourself and the rest of creation including all of time. The Christ Mystery takes us beyond a mere individual and private experience of God.

Most people in past centuries and even now in countries around the world, experience union with the divine, not through Jesus the man whom they may never have heard of, but through the universal Christ, that is, in nature, in moments of pure love, in silence, in music, with animals, in awe before beauty. God uses and honors all starting points!

Pre-Jewish and pre-Christian people already had access to God. This is the church that existed since the first humans. From the first righteous victim symbolized by Abel until now, all suffering cries out to God and elicits divine compassion and community.

Many non-Christians have started with loving the Universal Christ by another name. I can personally affirm that I have met Hindus, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists and even self-identified atheists who live in this hidden Mystery of oneness. Barbara Fiand writes, “The god rejected by atheists was most often the literalized ‘image’ of God held up as absolute…devoid of the awe-filled Mystery that whispers to us of the truly Holy.”

Through the discovery of the quantum physics of atomic and subatomic reality, scientists are viewing the universe as a single unified system of nature, connected in ways that are not always obvious. There is a field of energy that connects all of creation.

Full salvation is similarly universal belonging and universal connecting. The quantum perspective of modern science tells us today that separation is an illusion. The Holy Spirit tells us today that we belong to each other. Communion is our essence.

Father Richard Rohr writes, “After conversion, you don’t look out at reality; you look outfrom reality. In other words, God is not “out there,” you are in God and God is in you–as Jesus tells us in today’s Reading. You are in the middle of Reality! You’re a part of it. It’s a mystery of participation.”

Rohr goes on to say that after Paul’s conversion experience, Paul was obsessed with the idea ‘I’m participating in something that’s bigger than me.’ In fact, he uses the phrase ‘in Christ’ 164 times to describe this organic unity and participation in Christ. ‘I live no longer, not I; but Christ lives in me’ (Galatians 2:20). ‘In Christ’ is his code phrase for this new participatory life.”

Through both spirituality and modern science we see therefore that reality is more than appearances at first suggest.

By the illuminating love of the Holy Spirit each of us can realize, “I am God’s dwelling-place.” The Christ is now, here, everywhere, and always. I am also in communion with every part of space and time. This includes all the past, present and future.

Prayer is silent wonder in this Presence, in this Mystery.

The view of the early Christian community gives us a reality check this week. Up until this point in the Easter cycle, we have seen a group of people apparently always getting along, sharing everything, with no complaint; but today’s reading from Acts lets us know that there were some divisive things that arose in their community as it grew, much like in most communities.  This is not to say that there wasn’t much good will, love, caring and sharing that went on, but the human condition is such that in any group of people, challenges arise in attempting to be a community.  Today, in Acts, we see there is an issue of justice that brings division—apparently the Hebrew widows are receiving more than the Greek widows of the daily food allotment.

But more important than the fact that there is upset or division is the fact of what is done about it!  The apostles are wise in putting the issue to the community–the problem arose within the community; thus they should be part of the solution—would that it were that way within all church communities!

Two issues are raised by the example of the apostles saying, “It is not right for us to neglect the Word of God in order to wait on tables.”  First, and this is the lesser and more practical issue—the apostles do need assistance in ministering to this growing community and therefore it was right for them to ask the community for assistance, but not, in my mind, as they say, because “it is not right to neglect the Word of God,” in order to wait on tables, as if this is beneath them.  Apparently they missed what Jesus did for them at the Last Supper!  Scripture doesn’t say, but hopefully someone set them straight.  “Preaching the Word” is always about service first—if they couldn’t see, that, waiting on tables,  was in fact, “preaching the word,” then hopefully, at some point, someone did indeed set them straight!  But because they couldn’t do it all, again it was right to ask for help.

The readings today are so much about the fine nuances that we are called to as Jesus’ followers, the practicality of everyday living. As we discussed last week, it is here that the true test comes, not what we say we believe, but what we in fact DO!

We see this in 1^st Peter’s account today which serves as our second reading.  Jesus is called the “corner stone” of the building, even though in his life and death he was rejected by some—basically those in power.  1^st Peter goes on to talk about Jesus as the “living stone” and all of us who follow his way, as living stones, together building a spiritual house.  We see that Jesus is the “living stone” not because of what he does primarily, but because of who he is.  Now that having been said, we know that what he does is influenced by who he is.  So again, there is that fine nuancing, trying to make clear what it is that we as Jesus’ followers are to be about.  We, as Jesus, are first and foremost God’s beloved, and because of that, we are called likewise, to give back.

We truly are shown that status in this community of living stones, following the Living Stone, Jesus, is not to be lifted up, but because we know who we are and to whom we belong, the work of lovingkindness, righteousness and justice is to be lifted up as we prayed about in our psalm response today, “the Creator loves justice and right, and fills the earth with love.”  And again, we think back to the issue raised in Acts about what following Jesus is really all about—not status, but service.

A recent example comes to mind in this regard: This past week we learned that the bishop of the Minnesota diocese of Crookston held, “serving the Church” —which, in his mind meant protecting the institution, above giving compassionate care to one of his flock. He apparently resorted to blackmail and coercion to accomplish this.

In this, we see that the message of Jesus, giving in service, out of love, is not different from the messages of the prophets of old—in Jesus, we see that the original message of covenant love given by the Creator is made complete in him because of his willingness to give all of himself, out of love for them/for us—something we would hope to see in our present day “servants.”

Again using the terminology of the “living stone” from 1^st Peter where all who follow Jesus are then too, living stones, we see that together they/we make up not only a “spiritual house,” but truly become the “People of God” in the original covenant made between God and the Israelites.  1^st Peter does a fine job here of uniting the Israelite tradition to the Christian experience.

In the gospel selection today from John we are given a very comforting message—“do not let your hearts be troubled…in God’s house there are many dwelling places…I am indeed going to prepare a place for you…that where I am, you also may be.”  We see Jesus’ gentle care for his apostles as he tries to prepare them for his coming ordeal. He doesn’t focus though on the end of his life, but only on the joyful events that will follow it.  We should notice what Jesus is perhaps trying to tell us—the sadness, the hard times when we may be rejected or called to suffer will pass, but the joy will continue for all eternity.

It gives me a great deal of hope to think about Jesus being with me each and every day, which is one of the meanings of his words, “I will come again, along with his coming at the end of time.

The early Christians, those who were attracted to follow this new religious group, first known as followers of The Way, joined them, we are told, because of what they saw them doing, how they were attempting to live. That is what will cause others to follow us friends; if they see something good in our actions.

Our focus must always be bigger than our own lives, our own agendas—the good of the entire “spiritual house” must be our focus as it was for Jesus. The question must be:  What actions will truly bring about the good of the whole?   Many of us find ourselves frustrated these days by the lack of this concept coming from leadership in Washington.

Each of us is called as a Christian to follow Jesus’ way—not a physical path as Thomas presumed, but a way of life, based on truth that gives us life. Jesus assures us that if we follow this way of goodness, justice, lovingkindness and mercy—then we have seen God and will one day see God in all the glory that God is.

In the gospel today, Jesus is quoted as saying, “No one comes to God except through me.”  What are we to make of that?  What about those who live well, but are Jews, Buddhists, practice Islam? Jesus’ way is lived well by many in this world who don’t live as his followers per se.   One example: A student asked his Buddhist master—“What is the deepest meaning of Buddhism? The master turned to the student, bowed and gave the words of a wise person, “Beware of the religion that turns you against one another—it’s unlikely that its religion at all.”

Our history has given us many examples of this: Manifest Destiny, the institution of slavery, born out of racism, an evil that seems to have been raising its ugly head again in our present day through violence and discrimination against those with dark skin, the sexual trafficking of our youth—our future, another off-shoot of not seeing all as the Beloved of God.

As a Cojourner with the Rochester Franciscans, I am part of a Water Group that looks at ways that we can protect our wonderful gift of water for all of God’s people.  I know that many of you are involved with groups that work toward the good of all the people of God. We must all be part of such activities that uplift rather than bring down.  When we are aware of injustice, we must speak up, even if we have to do it alone.  As we said last week, sometimes our voice is what is needed, to get things rolling!

We must remember Jesus’ words to us, “You will do greater things than I” as we attempt to follow in his footsteps. The challenge is before us friends to make a difference—to be people of peace, not war; to value people more than possessions, titles or institutions; to realize anew that we need God and we need each other and must work in this world to bring a good life for all.  The gospel message is here before us—the question is; will we be living stones in the spiritual house or not?

It would seem that we should attempt as often as possible to connect the happenings of our week with the Scriptures offered to us on Sunday and throughout the week. In that vein, here goes:

1) As you all know, I have been struggling to get my body back into balance.  The most interesting and probably remarkable thing about this sojourn with pain has been coming to terms with what chronic pain is and even more so, on a positive note, how well my body has dealt with the scoliosis that I apparently have had since I was 12.

2) I have of late been reading some autobiographical material by Maya Angelou. She writes well—in a very engaging way. I find myself understanding so much more clearly through her words, what it is like to be judged negatively for something one can’t do anything about, the color of your skin, or that you are a woman, or that you are old, or because of whom you love.

3) A friend sent this story: A person stopped for the yellow light, the person who was tailgating furiously honked because they missed their chance to get through the intersection.  Still in mid-rant, the person heard a tap on the window. The officer ordered the person to exit the car with hands up, was ultimately taken to the station, searched, finger-printed, photographed and placed in a holding cell.  After a couple of hours, a police officer escorted the would-be criminal back to the booking desk and the arresting officer who said, “I am very sorry for the mistake, but I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, and giving the person in front of you the finger. I noticed the “What Would Jesus Do?” bumper sticker, the “Choose Life” license plate holder, “Follow Me To Sunday School” bumper sticker and the chrome-plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk, so naturally I assumed you had stolen the car.

People are watching!

4) I have been troubled as I have considered those who have died by lethal injection in Arkansas during the month of April. I think we were all upset by the rush to accomplish these deaths “before the drugs to ‘do the deed’ ran out!”

5)  A final story comes from Jimmy Kimmel, a comedian on late night TV.  He and his wife recently had a son. As the baby was being checked over after birth, it was discovered that he had a rare defect with a heart valve that required emergency surgery if he was to live. Kimmel spoke with great emotion as he shared the fear and anxiety that he and his wife went through in their son’s early moments of life—it is a concern that all of us can understand.  After letting his audience know that their son was all right now, he shifted gears, putting out an impassioned and emotional plea to the legislators in Washington debating over the Affordable Care Act telling them that no parent should have to decide if they can afford to save their child—we all understand that regardless of political affiliation!

So, how do all of these seemingly different examples bring clarity to today’s Scriptures?  Looking in just a cursory way over today’s readings; we are aware that Peter and the others continue to passionately tell the story of Jesus, who he was, what he did and because of the Spirit working through them, more are added to their number every day.  Peter makes it clear in the 2^nd reading that to be baptized in Jesus, the Christ means that we must follow in his footsteps no matter the cost.   Our hope is renewed in John’s Gospel where we hear Jesus’ words, “I came that you might have life and have it to the full.” It would seem that doing the right thing is what brings fullness.

Friends, I believe that in each example I cited: from my personal struggles with pain  to Maya Angelou’s experiences of racism, to the struggle in this country to work toward rehabilitating rather than exacting punishment for crime, to sharing the goods of this land of the people, by the people, and for the people, all of it fits because Jesus through his life asked us to be our best—to walk into life with eyes wide open, hearts big and generous, understanding and merciful!

This weekend we celebrate Good Shepherd Sunday.  Two of our readings, plus our music speak of this pastoral image that calls to mind a peaceful country scene of sheep being watched over and protected by a loyal herdsperson—a shepherd.

The 23^rd psalm has been a beloved piece of scripture over the years—many people know it by heart for having prayed it so many times.  One aspect of this beloved psalm that is generally picked up on by most people who love it is the individual care given to each sheep and by transference, to each of us as the beloved of our God.  We sang of this individualized care and concern in the psalm response:  “Shepherd me, O God.”

And beyond this individualized care; we must hear in this psalm that the Good Shepherd doesn’t act so out of simply, passing, emotional sentiment, but because it is the right thing to do.  All the cited examples speak to this issue, from personal health to public health, to treating all people, as the beloved of God.

Continuing the theme and idea of the shepherd watching over the flock, it is important for us 21^st Century hearers to understand how the 1^st Century hearers of Jesus’ words would have taken them.  Large sheepfolds were generally constructed outside of town and several flocks would be kept in one sheepfold.  Someone would be hired to look after the sheep.  There was one gate to enter the enclosure. Those who would be about the good—the welfare of the flock, entered through the gate. Anyone else, a thief, would sneak in another way.  When the owner of a particular flock came to retrieve their sheep, the owner would call their sheep in a distinctive way that only they would recognize, and come. Many shepherds knew their sheep as individuals and called them by name.  It is this same kind of care and attention that each of us is promised by our God and that Jesus had in mind when he said, “I came that you might have life and have it to the full.”

There is great comfort in knowing that we are loved and cared for by such a God—such a love gives us the courage— the strength then, to go out and love generously in return—to give back in righteousness what we have so generously been given.  Part of this giving back is in striving to be our best selves.  This is what Peter is about in the 1^st reading from Acts.  He is calling for a change of heart from his people even though he knows what the demands on them will be in becoming their best selves:  They will be misunderstood at times, there will be insults, but there will be the peace that comes, deep within, from knowing they have spoken the truth, stood alongside the misused and abused, even if they are in the minority.

Jesus continually spoke up for the misused, abused, and persecuted ones in his midst—he had to suffer as a result of his boldness, his truth-telling and we can expect no less.  Suffering will be a part of our lives as Christians if we are walking in Jesus’ footsteps and of all the ways we can suffer in this life, it is hardest when we are called to suffer for having done nothing wrong—as was the case with Jesus, but for  having done the right thing.  But we must always remember and never forget that Jesus has shown us the way,

It is Jesus’ spirit that rings through the examples in my life this week—you can add your own.  Jesus will draw us close and call us to be more through all that comes into our existence. We can either live out the Scriptures, following in Jesus’ footsteps or we can let the selfishness of healthcare for some, but not for all continue.  We can continue to take the easy answer of executing people rather than doing the hard work of rehabilitating them.  We can proclaim our Christianity with bumper stickers, or with deeds—the choice is ours.

Each of us friends is called to do our part—to live a life of service—a life that speaks truth no matter what—a life that will not allow one more person to be abused, put down, thought less of.  We need to let love rule the day—not power, not anger, nor hatred.  Let love be our guide.  Jesus showed us this and what better way to praise and honor him, in this Easter Season then to live likewise. Let us begin to see each other as God sees us and loves us.