Saturday, April 23, 2016
V Easter, April 24, 2016
Sermon for the Fifth Sunday of Easter
Year C ~ April 24, 2016
Holy Trinity & St. Anskar
I am the
Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.
+In
the Name of God, the Holy and Undivided Trinity
The Messiah is not Whom we expect. That was the theme last
week and I find it today, too. The New Jerusalem descends from Heaven. It is
not something we imagine and then set about to build; it comes from God and it
is not what we expect. The whole thrust of the Acts of the Apostles is newness and expansion of our former expectations.
Notice that the Spirit seems to
operate beyond the confines of the
Apostles' limited consciousness, beyond their expectations. They have to be
converted continually. Peter has his dream in Joppa and then goes to visit a household
of gentiles, where he witnesses the Baptism of the Spirit. He doesn’t bring the Baptism, but he witnesses it. Then he has to conclude
that he had no business in withholding water baptism from anyone, uncircumcised
or not.
This is a very big deal. Because it
enshrines in Holy Writ the necessity of openness to change in religious matters
– even the most sacred of our traditions. What could be more basic than Holy
Scripture, and there it is, right in the Acts:
be ready for the Spirit to shake things up. As our Lord said to Nicodemus, The Spirit/Wind blows wherever She
will. So we had better expect the unexpected. For that is Who the Messiah is:
the One we weren’t expecting.
At the same time, we also want to
guard against being blown about by every wind of vain teaching. Every
innovation is not necessarily the work of the Holy Spirit. We have to figure
out how to discern the difference. Still, the underlying principle of Apostolic
Christianity is that the Spirit Whom Jesus promised to send is not the possession of the Church. Rather, the Church’s
vocation is to seek out and follow the Spirit already at work in the world. We do
not bring salvation to the world. God has already done that and continues to do
it. Our job is to recognize and name that work and to help other people to do
the same.
That is evangelism, because it is very good
news. People don’t have to join up, although some will. Maybe that’s why
the multitude of fish in the apostolic net in Galilee neither breaks nor are
the fish hauled into the boat. Instead, the story goes on to our Lord’s command
to feed the sheep. The mission of the Church is not survival and expansion as an
institution, but finding, witnessing, and naming the work of the Spirit – not so
much catching the fish as feeding the sheep – so that their joy may be full.
The Good News is that the One Who
sits on the throne, Who says “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” is making all things
new. This stupendous Novum is a surprise
for us as much as anyone else. Like Peter, we are amazed. Like Peter we are led
whither we never dreamed. Like Peter, we are asked to feed the sheep, not to lead
them. Like Peter, we are called to follow
the Spirit Jesus sends, as the Collect says, to follow His steps in the way that leads to eternal life.
Those steps lead us here, to the
Divine Liturgy of the Holy Eucharist. This
Mystery may be compared to a Black Hole – a singularity where there is no time –
past present and the Age to Come collapse
into one eternal moment. The creation in the beginning of all that is, our
lives in human history, and the Last Judgment, which is the New Creation of the
cosmos in perfect righteousness, all converge here.
For here is the New Jerusalem, descending from the Throne arrayed as a Bride for the Bridegroom, here we and all creation drink freely of the Spring of the water of life, here all time and space enfold into the Life of the One Who says, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.
For here is the New Jerusalem, descending from the Throne arrayed as a Bride for the Bridegroom, here we and all creation drink freely of the Spring of the water of life, here all time and space enfold into the Life of the One Who says, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.
Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honor
and power and might
and power and might
be to our God forever and ever! Amen!
ALLELUIA!
