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Sermon 6 Easter a 5 17 20

Acts 17: 22-31; Psalm 66:7-18; 1 Peter 3:13-22; John 14: 15-21

 

Last week in our reading from the Acts of the Apostles Saul was authorizing the stoning of Stephen, the first martyr of the Christian faith. This week he is in Athens speaking as a Christian believer at the Aeropagus. A lot has transpired in between the events described last week and those of this week. How long is not as important as appreciating that the changes that this man experienced involved more than the change of his name from Saul to Paul.

 

Yes, he went from being known as Saul to being known as Paul. Yes we had a glimpse of his authorization of Stephen's murder and we noted the possibility that his conscience was pricked by Stephen's grace, his equanimity despite his unjust stoning. We even entertained the notion that perhaps at that time Saul's belief system had a seed of Christian faith planted within it.

 

But the event known as the Conversion of Paul, so beautifully depicted in the stained glass window above the choir loft in church, took place in between these readings. So did a number of other significant moments in Paul's ministry. But here we are in Athens, at the Aeropagus.

 

The Aeropagus literally means hillside of Athens. It was the gathering place of the City Council and the equivalent of council chambers of the day. It is where the famous (and not so famous) Greek orators would debate important issues. And while Paul was waiting for his group to be ready to continue their Mediterranean voyages to communities of believers throughout the region, he stopped by to explain a few things about Christianity to the Athenians.

 

He picks a brilliant beginning point. He had seen a sign that said, "To an unknown God." This would be a perfect jumping off topic for someone speaking at the Aeropagus and Paul took full advantage of it. Because what he wanted them to know, and what he wants us to know, is that we do not have an unknown God. Maybe those Athenians he was speaking to did, but we don't.

 

Specifically Paul was saying to the leaders of Athens that the sign he saw, which was on an altar, suggested their God was elsewhere. Paul said not so with the Christian God. God is here. God is among us. God actually walked among us in the person of Jesus Christ.

 

We hear and consider these words, these ideas, and we can say, "OK, but that was then, essentially a short time after Jesus literally did walk among them, the Son of God. We're here two thousand years later." But Paul erases those doubts reminding us that we are God's offspring, so we are children of God.

 

Those are his words: "For we too are his offspring." This mention of common parentage startles people who are engaged in and accustomed to separating themselves from others. This idea of common parentage-family-- has special traction in these days of pandemic and isolation.

 

The idea that we cannot exclude or abuse those we consider "other" is an old idea with new significance discovered as we realized this year-this past two months, really-that the essential people in our society are the ones society work when others cannot work or don't have to. The essential workers are not hedge fund managers or rocket scientists.

 

We are gaining a new understanding of the human family, our family, your family and my family, globally and right here at home. We are brothers and sisters, nothing more, nothing less.

 

How could we not know, how could we not acknowledge, our common Father? Paul goes on to declare to the Athenians that physical images of God should not be made because God is not a physical entity, "...formed by the art and imagination of mortals."

 

In the verses after today's text it is reported that many scoffed, but so did many become believers before Paul left Athens and traveled to Corinth.

 

In our Gospel Jesus goes even further in detailing the relationship we have with God. He starts with our relationship with himself, though, stating "those who love me will keep my commandments." The clear impression we get here is that the following of the commandments is the determinant of how much we love Jesus. If we claim to love Jesus and do things contrary to the commandments, well, we're hypocrites.

 

Then Jesus says he will ask God to send us the Holy Spirit, which we know comes every year on Pentecost, two weeks from today. He calls it the Advocate, Paraclete, "to be with you forever."

 

Jesus described the Holy Spirit further: "This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you."

 

This foretelling of the Pentecost experience and the assurance that the Holy Spirit abides in us is one of the key animating assurances of the Christian faith. That is because we experience the Holy Spirit at times in our lives when we expect it, of course, like at church or in prayer. And like when we are among friends and when we are doing God's work with others. But we also get glimpses of the Holy Spirit when the appropriate accomplices are missing. Sometimes we find ourselves moved to acts of goodness that surprise us. Sometimes we want to to help people we do not like very much. Sometimes we just outperform our own best expectations for ourselves. Sometimes we are awed by the generosity of strangers toward us and toward others. The Holy Spirit guides us at times when we loosen our own control, sometimes even when we are trying hardest to maintain control.

 

The conclusion of Jesus' monologue is a poetic promise of a life in faith. He says, "I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live."

 

This is a promise of a life in the spirit, where we live into spiritual wholeness, carrying out Jesus' plea that we love God and love our neighbor.

 

The knowledge that we are actually in that life comes when we can hear and believe Jesus when he says, "I am in the Father, and you in me, and I in you." This is of course the realization we ordinarily celebrate on Sundays in the Holy Eucharist. It fulfills what Jesus promised in the conclusion of today's Gospel: "(T)hose who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them."

 

Jesus is revealed to us not only in the breaking of bread, as the travelers discovered in Emmaus. Jesus is revealed to us as we discover and encounter Christian behavior in ourselves and in others. It is in the sacramental life. That is no surprise. But it is also in all life. We see it all about us, in the first responders and health care workers, in their support staff and the essential workers. We see it in our neighbors, whether they are isolating at home or wearing masks in public, and we see it in our own choices to show concern for ourselves and our neighbors by wearing masks and keeping social distancing. For the time being.

 

There are signs aplenty that Jesus' message and Paul's from the Aeropagus two thousand years ago apply just as much now as they did two millennia ago. We need to keep watch for those moments and remember them, share them with others and share our faith and not lose hope. Together we have found and can finds ways to live through this pandemic as an act of faith, living fully into our Christian understanding after the pandemic with our entire family in mind.

 

Thanks be to God.                  Amen

 

A sermon preached in a Zoom gathering of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Poughkeepsie NY

on the Sixth Sunday of Easter, May 17, 2020 by The Rev. Tyler Jones, Rector

PARISH  NEWS

 

A NOTE FROM THE TREASURY TEAM

 

Total deposit for the past week - $1415 ($1010 from the food pantry).  Many thanks to all who are remembering their pledge and to those both within and outside of the church who are generously supporting the Food Pantry.  We pray you are all well and look forward to "seeing" you at Zoom Church.

 

If you're tired of cooking, we still have Super Chili that we're happy to sell for $10 per quart. You can pick up your order on Mondays from 10-12pm.

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The First Lesson A Reading from the Acts of the Apostles 1:6-14

Psalm 68:1-10, 33-36

A reading from the First letter of Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11

The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John 17:1-11

The Gospel of the Lord