Revealing the Holy

“I have made your name known to those you have given me….” 

In our first reading this morning from Acts, the authors of Luke provide an account of a post-resurrection Jesus departing the world. He engages a brief question and answer session with his disciples and then simply lifts off the planet’s surface like a rocket, disappearing into a cloud. His disciples remain in place, their gaze fixed on the heavens into which Jesus has vanished, praying he’ll come back and make the world right. But suddenly two angelic figures appear and essentially say to them, 

“So what are you all still doing here? Jesus has departed. Now, get on with your mission.”

Luke is a particularly good storyteller. And his words have much to offer us so long as we remember we are dealing with mythic imagery here, not literal fact. Joseph Campbell, the Jungian scholar who became famous for his public television series “Hero With a Thousand Faces” often said that if we took this account literally it would require us to recognize that at the rate that Jesus had lifted off, he’d still be within our galaxy. 

But what Luke offers us here is much deeper than that and much more important. The Crucifixion was not the end of the Jesus story. Jesus is resurrected after three days and appears to his grieving disciples to ensure they understand both the wisdom he brought them as well as their own obligation to offer it, in turn, to the world. So Luke is providing Jesus with the means to finally exit the stage, to return to the G_d from which he came. But before he goes, he must offer his Farewell Address. And that is what we encounter in today’s Gospel lesson from John.

Jesus, the Revealer of G-d

There are two main points from that Farewell Address that I think merit our consideration. First, Jesus is finally explaining who he really is and why he came. About midway though this explanation, Jesus says, “I have made your name known to those whom you gave me.” Alison’s sermon last week referred to Jesus as “the revealer of G_d.” As Jesuit theologian Jon Sobrino explains it, Jesus became so open to the will of G-d that the Holy – the Holy that is in all of us – shone through him. Jesus became transparent and in him we saw G-d.

So who is this G-d that Jesus reveals? Many of us have come to value the thinking of Franciscan friar Richard Rohr. Fr. Rohr teaches that if you want to know how Jesus understood G-d, look at the Hebrew scripture that the Gospel writers show Jesus citing. Perhaps more importantly, look at the scripture Jesus does not cite. 

Rohr notes that Jesus completely ignores 19 of the books in the Hebrew Scripture while focusing on a handful. He is very selective in the scripture he quotes as well as those passages which he ignores, dismisses and those with which he totally disagrees. He consistently rejected exclusionary, punitive, and triumphalistic texts in the Hebrew Scriptures in favor of texts that emphasized inclusion, mercy, and justice for the oppressed. Jesus recognized which passages laid the foundation for G-d’s Kingdom and which passages were merely cultural, self-serving, and legalistic additions. 

When we Christians assert that every line in the Bible is of equal importance and inspiration, we are being very unlike Jesus.   

So if we take Jesus seriously, we will take seriously the G-d he reveals. This is the G-d who makes the rain fall on the just and the unjust alike. The G-d who is seen in a Good Samaritan who defies cultural prejudices to show compassion to a fellow human being. This is the G-d who created humanity for relationship, a bond that remains intact  even when human beings ignore or reject it. We Christians often obsess over our sins which we believe separate us from G_d only to discover the Father of the Prodigal Son who has always been there, holding his arms - and his end of the relationship – wide open, celebrating our return and disinterested in hearing our self-deprecation. This is the G-d whom Jesus said created every human being to be the light of the world and the salt of the Earth and taught us to value ourselves and each other as such.

 

Father, Protect Them….

And that is where the second point Jesus makes must be taken seriously. “Now I am no longer in the world but they are….Holy Father, protect them….” The writer of John knew only too well that the same forces which rejected and ultimately killed Jesus were no more interested in hearing his Good News from his disciples than they were from Jesus. His disciples may know the Truth, but the world around them is no less determined not to hear it.

The writer of the First Letter of Peter puts that in graphic terms: “Like a roaring lion your adversary the Devil prowls around looking for someone to devour.” Pretty scary stuff that reflects an early church faced by adversaries within their own Judaic tradition as well as a Roman Empire which early on is determined to nip this Jesus movement in the bud before it spreads.

Perhaps we can relate to that concern. The Gospels portray a Jesus who emphasized inclusion, mercy, and justice for the oppressed even as his Good News challenged exclusionary, punitive, and triumphalistic thinking. Little wonder that the bearers of power, privilege and status in his era responded to that challenge “like a roaring lion.” And I would observe that is no less true today than it was in the first century.

 

The siren song of our modern world is an atomistic individualism that plays out in zero sum competition, a shallow consumerism, and a criminality that inevitably results when people are viewed as mere means to other ends. The goal of this vision is domination. 

And it begins with the profoundly misguided premise of separation – separation from our own inner depths wherein lies Spirit, separation from other living beings, separation from the good Creation we too often see only in terms of resources to meet our insatiable demands or a place to dump our refuse and ultimately separation from the G-d who lies beneath, within and beyond all that is. 

Delusions of separation is precisely the stuff that repentance is actually made for.

 

No Shortage of Opposition

 

Those who would take Jesus’ call seriously to be bearers of the good news of inclusion, mercy and justice will always encounter no shortage of opposition. Indeed, as Peter’s letter said, it is fiery ordeals which the followers of Jesus should expect. Consider the fear and loathing we often experience on social and broadcast media. Ask the LGBTQ people, the people of color, the immigrants, the Jews, the Muslims and the women – all of whom find themselves under assault today.  Ask the working poor who are dying deaths of despair in Appalachia. Ask the loved ones of the victims of the gun slaughter du jour that we have come to see as normal. And finally, ask those of us who are called to stand in solidarity with them.

Given such opposition, it is not hard to imagine why we, like Jesus’ disciples, might find ourselves staring at the clouds, waiting for Jesus to return and set the world right. But, as the angels told the disciples, that work is now ours to do. And Jesus promises his followers that G-d will be present with us when we answer his calling to be messengers of his Good News. We will certainly need it. And we will need each other. Converting a world in which domination is the ultimate concern is a stiff order on a good day. And if we are to engage that calling we must begin with self-examination to locate where those concerns appear in our own lives.

 

So I leave you with some things to consider.

 

·         What is the vision of G_d that your life reveals? How does the Holy that dwells within you manifest itself? What G-d do others see in you?

 

·         Where do you labor under the misapprehension that you are somehow separated from G_d, your neighbor and yourself? How does that understanding impact the way you engage the world around you?

 

·         Where do you struggle to see the image of G-d you bear?  And where does your struggle play out in difficulties in seeing the divine image that others bear?

I think these are important questions and so I leave them to you to ponder in your hearts. I conclude with the Prayer for Guidance from the Prayers and Thanksgivings in our prayer book:

Direct us, O Lord, in all our doings with your most gracious favor, and further us with your continual help; that in all our works begun, continued, and ended in you, we may glorify your holy Name, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

[A Sermon offered on Easter VII, May 21, 2023, St. Richard’s Episcopal Church, Winter Park, FL]   

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Harry Scott Coverston

Orlando, Florida

frharry@cfl.rr.com

hcoverston.orlando@gmail.com

If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding. Most things worth considering do not come in sound bites.

Those who believe religion and politics aren't connected don't understand either. – Mahatma Gandhi

For what does G-d require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your G-d?  - Micah 6:8, Hebrew Scriptures

Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it. - Rabbi Rami Shapiro, Wisdom of the Jewish Sages (1993)

   © Harry Coverston, 2023

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