[Propertalk] 7 Easter c - 1

[Robert P Morrison]

Now to proceed at the editor's table. Blessings for your weekend.
Bob

	THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY 7 EASTER c

	ACTS 16:16-34 8th MAY, 2016

	REVELATION 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21 PSALM 97

	JOHN 17:20-26

	 We are One. Oh let us be One, as You, Jesus, are One with Your
Father and ours. Let us be One!

	 A prayer, echoing Jesus’ prayer, a prayer in which Jesus doesn’t
fill his hours with comments about Himself, except to say to God,
“What we have, what we enjoy, what defines life – EVERYone
deserves that. Make sure that all will experience this!”

	 Trying to understand the relationship between the First and Second
Person of the Trinity – between God the Creator and Jesus the Word
– is a never-ending task. For some it is and will always remain a
mystery. I remember a 1960s cartoon quote fixed below a picture of the
laughing Archbishop of Canterbury, Michael Ramsey. The caption read,
“The Holy Trinity? The Trinity is a joyful mystery!” And that
about sums it up. There is so much that we’ll never understand,
about God and about everything else. But if we can approach life in an
attitude of joy, perhaps joyful amazement, then we can begin to find
strength to deal with everything that’s nasty, that’s stupid,
that’s abusive, that’s disastrous in the world.

	 Jesus and His closest friends had just celebrated the ritual meal
which would be His last. They’d talked, they’d shared stories,
they’d eaten and drunk, they’d continued to draw closer to one
another, and they’d sung songs before Jesus went with Peter, James
and John, into that cool, dark garden and Jesus separated Himself off
from His friends so that He could pray. He knew that everything was
closing in on Him. He sensed the powers of darkness would try to shut
Him down, to obliterate everything that He’d tried to accomplish.

	 Jesus, physically all by Himself, spent His last hours emphasising
and reaffirming how He and His Father were One. He drew strength, and
comfort, and hope, no matter what else was going to happen, from the
fact that He and His Father shared something so intense that they were
inseparable. That sharing, the joy of knowing that He would always
have God’s Presence – this was what enabled Jesus to kneel and to
stand firm that night. This is what gave Jesus the joy of knowing that
He would always have God’s Presence – this was what enabled Jesus
to face up all the challenges about to try to bind Him and destroy
Him. And this is why Jesus prayed as He did for Peter, and James, and
John; and for His other disciples; and for us. Jesus was completely
aware that what was about to break loose on Him would break loose on
everyone else. Jesus knew that we, sitting here in 2016, would have to
wrestle with all sorts of unknown difficulties and decision-making,
and He knew that we needed that sense of unity in order to survive and
flourish as God hopes that we will.

	 An article in_ “Psychology Today”_ several years ago reminded us
that “It Takes Courage To Face Down Your Dark Side_. _Your
willingness to wrestle with your demons will set you free._” _1_
_The author quoted playwright August Wilson who invited us to
“Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with
illumination and forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your
demons will cause your angels to sing.”

	 I don’t think Wilson was implying that it’s always easy to find
our inner demons, let alone wrestle with them, but simply being aware
that there is, within us, the possibility of forces trying to divert
our attention from our goals, to distract us from sitting with Jesus,
listening to Him as He prays for us – recognising that so much can
draw us from the love of God; all of this gives us a reminder that we
need to be on our guard, always, especially when we’re confronted
with change, with making decisions that affect others as well as
ourselves.

	 Think again about Jesus. He could have gone in so many directions
than the one that he took, but that would have taken Him from the
One-ness, the Unity which was essential to His life. It was this Unity
which gave Him both the power and the drive to confront the inner
demons which would have seduced Him to save Himself, to refuse the
sacrificial ministry which He knew was His. And it’s this same sense
of Unity with God and with one another that Jesus prays we’ll find.

	 If we forget the inter-relatedness which is part of God’s design
for all of creation, then we lose our way, we become unbalanced in
life. Everywhere we see and hear Jesus interacting with people, we
discover how He always has time for each person as an individual. He
helps them face up to, and name, and then expel whatever inner demon
was destroying her or his life. Jesus had an incredible amount of
compassion for those who were suffering in one way or another. They
had lost that sense of unity which full relationship brings. When He
healed them, however, He always sent them into a community, either the
family or civic gathering from which they’d been set apart, or else
He invited them to join a new community – the community of His
immediate followers. Most times this worked. Frequently, the healed
person and the community were reconciled, they became One again. But
sometimes the community reacted against what Jesus had done. Sometimes
they implied that Jesus wasn’t acting appropriately, therefore
whatever He did was unacceptable. So, unfortunately, some groups
wouldn’t let that person in within the gathering. No matter that
Jesus had called the person, had offered healing and then had directed
them back to their family or group of origin, this didn’t sit well
with some.


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