May 8, 2005; The Seventh Sunday of Easter, Year A
The Rev. Harold "Skip" Comer, Rector
May and June are full of special events. Today we celebrate Mother’s Day, a day set aside to honor our mothers for the love and caring they have given to us, especially as we were growing up. In just over a month we will be celebrating Father’s Day, a day set aside to honor our fathers for the love and caring they also have given to us. May and June are also the months in which graduations occur. Hundreds of thousands of high school and college students who have completed their schooling will be attending graduation ceremonies in the coming weeks. I find it is interesting that the graduation ceremony is called commencement. Most of these young people see graduation as the completion or finishing of their schooling, yet in using the word commencement, there is a focus on beginning, not finishing.
Over the next several weeks many will wonder what the potential of this generation of graduates is and will be. Are they satisfied with where they are in life, or will they seek to continue to improve themselves, their communities, the nation, and the world? Time will tell whether this generation of graduates will have a positive influence on the world in which we live or whether they will expect the world to cater to them. Will they dive into the challenges presented to them or cower back in fear of having to make it on their own?
May also has another graduation ceremony. Next week we will celebrate Pentecost, the giving or descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples to empower them to continue the mission and ministry of Jesus Christ. And like any graduation ceremony, there is a graduation or commencement address. For four chapters in the Gospel of John, Jesus addresses his disciples and God about the mission and ministry the disciples are about to undertake. Jesus prays that his death, resurrection, and ascension will not be understood as the end, but as a beginning. Jesus expresses concern about whether or not the disciples will live up to their potential. I sense a fear that the disciples might quit when Jesus leaves. Will they throw up their hands in a helpless gesture and go back to the way their lives used to be before they met Jesus? Will they cower at the responsibility that is being placed upon them? And what about those who oppose the Jesus movement, will they be able to squash the disciples and their message?
In the prayer that we have just heard from the Gospel of John this morning Jesus addresses two topics. First is Jesus’ glorification which is to be accomplished through his death, resurrection, and ascension. In a sense this is Jesus’ graduation from his earthly ministry to return to his heavenly ministry at the right hand of God. Notice that I said return. His words and our belief – that Jesus existed before he was born, and continues to exist after his death and resurrection. Having accomplished his mission on earth – the mission of revealing God’s love for us – he is ready to return to the Kingdom, that which we call heaven.
The second part of the prayer is for the disciples. Jesus has drawn them into a relationship with himself, and through him into a relationship with God. He has taught them the ways of God. He knows that their mission will not be easy and that is why he prays for them. He prays for many things, but most importantly he prays, “that they may be one, as we are one.” Jesus believed that what he taught and did was what God would have taught and done. In other words, Jesus mirrored the thoughts and actions of God. When Jesus acted, it was God acting through him.
Jesus’ prayer was that the disciples would become images of the invisible God, made known to the world through Jesus Christ. When they acted, people would see God acting through them. When they taught, they would hear the words of Jesus, the Logos or Word of God.
A disciple is known by the relationship that he or she has with their teacher or leader. Jesus’ disciples would only be effective and authentic if they continued in the ways and teachings of Jesus. We as Jesus’ modern day disciples through baptism and confirmation can only be effective and authentic if we continue in the ways and teachings of Jesus.
The prayer of Jesus for his disciples is also a prayer for us. All who follow Jesus are included in this prayer. Just as for the disciples, there comes a point in time when we graduate from being a student of Christianity and commence to be an apostle, one who is sent into the world to represent Jesus to others.
As the time grew close for my graduation from seminary, the anxiety of having to go back into the world increased in me. While in seminary the pressure was on learning. As graduation day approached I realized that I was now going to leave the safety of the seminary community and go into the world. Would I be able to teach what I had learned? Would people listen to me? What if I failed at being a priest? My burden was not a great as those first disciples. Everything depended on them – the success or failure of the Jesus movement was in their hands.
Our burden does not seem as great today. There are thousands, maybe even a million priest and ministers of Christian Churches. If I fail, there will be others to pick up the responsibility of spreading the Good News of God in Jesus Christ. If we fail as Christians – well there are millions of others who will pick up the responsibility of carrying the message and ministry of Jesus to the world.
Is that what we have been called to? A life – a ministry – in which failure is an option? God did not send Jesus to fail. By some standards he did fail by not converting the whole world. Yet Jesus succeeded in sharing the love and knowledge of God to those who wanted to receive it. Jesus did not call the disciples to fail. Even though he lost Judas, the rest carried the Good News to the people.
God does not call us in order that we will fail. We each have a responsibility to mirror Jesus Christ, not only in church but in the world. From the time of our baptism and/or confirmation we have been commissioned or ordained to be Christ bearers.
Holy Father, we pray that just as you glorified your Son and he glorified you, so may we, in all that we do glorify you, that you may glorify us. Amen.