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Eve of Saint Mark
The Fifth Sunday Of Easter
O Almighty God, whom truly to know is everlasting life: Grant us so perfectly to know thy Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life, that we may steadfastly follow his steps in the way that leadeth to eternal life; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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The Fifth Sunday Of Easter
Eve of Saint Mark
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Scripture citation(s): Revelation 21:1-6; John 13:31-35
A Sermon by
The Rev. Canon Carl Turner
on
Revelation 21:1-6; John 13:31-35
✛
Behold, I make all things new.
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From the place where we are right
Flowers will never grow
In the spring.
– Words of the late internationally renowned Israeli Poet, Yehuda Amichai
Why do the Pharisees and the Lawyers seem to get such a rough ride with Jesus? Perhaps because they have something in common with Jesus; they want people to know about being made in God’s image and living in Community. It is, after all, what is at the heart of the Torah. Jesus spends quite some time with Pharisees and lawyers – sometimes debating with them, sometimes dining with them – but Jesus also was exasperated with them and once lost his temper with them calling them a brood of vipers. Why did Jesus become so hostile to them? I think because they had forgotten that the Torah was about liberation; its origins in the Exodus from slavery to freedom, and that the covenant relationship between God and his Chosen People was one based on mutual love and affection; “Out of Egypt have I called my son”. (Hosea 11:1) The Pharisees with their oral code, the ‘tradition of the elders’ (Matthew 15:1) and the lawyers with their strict interpretation failed to recognize that the Law was there to be a way of life not a yard-stick to measure failure or put people down because they did things differently.
From the place where we are right
Flowers will never grow
In the spring.
Sometimes the Church, as organized religion can fall into this same trap. Look at our reading from Acts today: So soon after the Resurrection of the Lord, the infant Church was already struggling and arguing. Peter was criticized, “Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?” But Peter had been on more than just a physical journey, he had also been on a journey of faith; God had nurtured him and had challenged him. His encounter with Cornelius and his Gentile household changed the infant church forever and if you read the story in Chapters 10 and 11 of the Book of Acts you will see how Peter’s struggle to come to terms with change was rooted in prayer and vision. After sharing the Good news to Cornelius and his household the Holy Spirit descended on them just as the Holy Spirit had descended on the disciples in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. What was Peter’s response? ‘“Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?’ So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.” (Acts 10:47,48b)
Peter had to justify his actions to the disciples in Jerusalem and he did so confidently and ‘step by step.’ The response of those who criticized him was to be silent. By reflecting and praying, they were challenged themselves and their silence turned into joy!
My friends, this has been true of the Church over two thousand years. As we engage with other people and other cultures and different understanding and new medical and scientific discoveries we can find it hard. It is easier, sometimes, to criticize than to be silent and reflect. But Jesus told us that the way to perfection will be hard, not easy, and in today’s Gospel reading we hear, what I think, is one of the hardest sayings of Jesus: “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”(John 13:34-35)
Sadly, the Church often does not show the world love; sometimes, members of churches do not even respect one another. I remember a prayer that a colleague once used at Exeter Cathedral, written by the Dean of St Albans, which begins, “Lord, do something about your Church. It is so awful, it is hard not to feel ashamed of belonging to it.” It was not the sort of prayer we were used to hearing but it created a silence in which many reflected, and it did lead to joy. The Christian journey is hard and challenging – Jesus gave us a commandment to love one another. Loving also means forgiving, but even this we can find so difficult. As CS Lewis once said “Everyone thinks forgiveness is a lovely idea until he has something to forgive.”(Mere Christianity)
From the place where we are right
Flowers will never grow
In the spring.
The reading from the Book of Revelation gives us a vision of how things will be in the future. How God will make all things new, and that we will dwell with God and see him face to face. In that vision of the New Jerusalem there is the most beautiful of ministries; it is the wiping away of tears. Who will do this? God himself. God will wipe away all tears and that, for me, means that he will wipe away the tears caused by sickness, disease,hunger, poverty, prejudice, anger, grief, resentment, mistrust or lack of charity or forgiveness. He will wipe away so many things that mar the lives of human beings and cause them to cry. There will be no need of a priest or a bishop to do this for God himself will gently wipe away all those tears. My friends, what a vision of hope – that God will make all things new. This is, I believe, why Jesus left his friends – left us – this new commandment of love and how hard it is to put it into practice but how dangerous it is if we do not try:
From the place where we are right
Flowers will never grow
In the spring.
The place where we are right
Is hard and trampled
Like a yard.
But doubts and loves
Dig up the world
Like a mole, a plow.
And a whisper will be heard in the place
Where the ruined
House once stood.
On Thursday we had a parish dinner. It was a lovely evening and, at the end, we looked at a slideshow of events that had happened around the world over the years during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. So much change; so much to celebrate; but, equally, so many painful and bitter memories of war and violence and division. Tomorrow is the 100th anniversary of the consecration of this Church – an anniversary that we almost forgot – a Church which has stood through all those times and all those memories. I commit myself afresh, as your parish priest, to do better in following the commandment of Jesus – to love one another as he loves me and he loves you. Will you make that same commitment tomorrow also in your prayers and in your lives?
__________
The Prayer written by Dean Jeffrey John:
Lord, do something about your Church.
It is so awful, it is hard not to feel ashamed of belonging to it.
Most of the time it seems to be all the things you condemned:
hierarchical, conventional, judgmental, hypocritical,
respectable, comfortable, moralising, compromising,
clinging to its privileges and worldly securities,
and when not positively objectionable, merely absurd.
Lord, we need your whip of cords.
Judge us and cleanse us,
challenge and change us,
break and remake us.
Help us to be what you called us to be.
Help us to embody you on earth.
Help us to make you real down here,
and to feed your people bread instead of stones.
And start with me.
