First reading: Acts 7:55-60
Psalm: Ps 97:1-2,6-7,9
Epistle: Revelation 22:12-14,16-17,20
Gospel: John 17:20-26

—Holy Father, I pray not only for them,
but also for those who will believe in me through their word,
so that they may all be one—

Christ is risen, Alleluia!
Indeed He is risen, Alleluia!

Song

I recently purchased a CD of music by a group from Cornwall in England. It is by the Port Isaac’s Fisherman’s Friends. For those who don’t know, Cornwall in located at the very southern tip of England a peninsula that juts out into the sea. Port Isaac is a fishing village along Cornwall’s west coast. This group of ten men, from varied background, with varied voices, began singing together in a seaside park in summers and in the pubs in winter. They were recently discovered, and the CD I purchased is their first major release. It opened at number 9 in England’s top 10.

People

I won’t tell you the name of the song until the end of this talk, but its words are especially pertinent today and to this Parish community. I sincerely hope and pray that you will listen.

The song begins:

For all the small people, tall people,
the dispossessed and the absurd,
All the broken hearted and the recently departed,
the unwashed, the unheard.

The lonely faces in empty spaces,
the unloved and the denied
For all the dreams that bloomed and those that died.

It is about people; you, those next to you, and those throughout our Holy Church. We are all types and all kinds, from many backgrounds, in many different circumstances. We possess all the good we have done and we bear the sins and failings we have committed. We are varied colors, liberal and conservative, men and women. We may like pierogi or biscuits and gravy, tacos or greens. You can figure that much out. Just look around. This is about you.

What is Church

So here you are, in church. Some of you are new, some have been here since the day they were born. So I ask, why in heaven’s name are you here? What are you looking for? What do you want? What do you expect to see or to get?

The question is not more or less difficult regardless of how long you have been here. St. Stephen, St. Paul, and St. John have all worked at answering that question. Jesus handed us the answer. Many, if not most, do not get it.

You, I, all of us, but today especially you, need to reflect on this question. Why are you here in Latham? What are you doing here? What is today’s motivation, what is the motivation in ten weeks, ten years?

Is your motivation to get a pastor? To hold successful fundraisers? To be more Polish or less Polish? To keep the place clean and tidy? To fulfill a parent’s expectations? To sing? To be left alone? To make pierogi and Polka dance? To find a boyfriend or girlfriend? To be respectable in your community? To be a good chairperson, or some other office on the Parish Committee? To reinvent liturgy or the order of the Church? Some of these things are noble and fine tasks, some not, but…

There should be only one, and absolutely only one reason for being here. Jesus never bid us to go ye therefore and make accountants, managers, and chairpersons. He never called bingo or looked for pierogi making volunteers. He never even invented church in the sense most people think.

Being Christians

Jesus called you to be Christians. He called you to walk in faith and to do the work He handed you. Jesus created the Church as a singular expression of that place where Christians perfectly represent community, a place for the community’s encounter with Jesus Christ in the most intimate of ways. He did not make an organization to be managed and manipulated by His people. Rather, He called His community into being Christ to everyone, not just club members with a ticket and a position, and only within the walls of this particular building.

You, and indeed a vast majority of people who call themselves Christians, need to get off the shtick of being and doing church. We do so much and so often that we exclude the possibility of being the Church Jesus wants. We involve ourselves in planning committees and committees on committees. We have a mission statement embossed in gold. We make pierogi and hand out bingo sheets till our hands bleed, and none of it, none of those wounds will come close to that of Jesus —“ and what He and His Church are all about.

We could invite

So what to do? Ask what you do. You could invite new parishioners to your homes or to meetings and regale them with the sins of Father A or Father B. We could discuss the idiocy of Mr. S and his plan, and discuss why Mrs. M is a selfish crab. We could focus on the small of doing church, maintaining the status quo and managing —“ and nothing will ever change —“ sin is self-perpetuating.

Oh, indeed, you can be and do church. You can become experts at it, even give advice to others as to how they should do it. You can tell others why their being and doing is wrong.

What would Paul say?

St. Paul encountered that among the Corinthians. He wrote (1 Corinthians 1:12):

What I mean is that each one of you says, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apol’los,” or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.”

His answer: I am sure his words said it more eloquently, but basically shut up and start living for and in Christ. Christ is not divided!

Echo Christ

Paul echoed Jesus words. May they be one! Jesus continued and prayed to the Father:

—[may] the love with which you loved me
be in them and I in them—

The way the Father and Son love each other is the love we are to have. We are to love and be one. It is time to move on. It is time to stop the being and the doing and to take the many kinds of people here, across this region, and in the Church —“ joining with them and together being Christ to the world.

Do what is right —“ and hold yourselves to the highest of standards —“ the Christian life lived fully and in community. Do it here, and not just in Latham.

In a Capital Region, of only a few hundred thousand people, we walk as divided churches. A choice must be made, to set aside and to forgive the past. More than forgive, to see Christ in each person, clergy or not. A choice must be made to see Jesus Christ in the priest that lives two miles from here, in all the priests and all those previously dispossessed and hurt wherever they may be. Forgive and love as the Father and Son love. Be one as the Father and Son are one.

What would Jesus do is the question. If we are not living it we are not Christians, we are only hearers of the Word that forget what Jesus asked in the Gospel.

The title of the song is The Union of Different Kinds. Its refrain is:

Mother nature don’t draw straight lines
We’re broken moulds in the grand design
We look a mess, but we’re doing fine
We’re card carrying lifelong members of
The union of different kinds.

We are indeed all different, partially broken, but in our common baptism we became card carrying lifelong members of a union of different kinds —“ a union of different people —“ who are one in Christ Jesus. It is time to love and live like we are. Amen.

First reading: Acts 15:1-2,22-29
Psalm: Ps 67:2-3,5-6,8
Epistle: Revelation 21:10-14,22-23
Gospel: John 14:23-29

—Whoever loves me will keep my word,
and my Father will love him,
and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.—

Christ is risen! Alleluia!
Indeed He is risen! Alleluia!

Context

When my wife puts her hand on the doorknob, her coat over her arm, my children look up from what they are doing to ask: “Who will take care of us?”

The questions of children for their mothers are astonishingly the same as the questions the disciples were asking Jesus.

Today’s Gospel must be seen in the context of the questions the disciples were asking, very much like children. The Gospel according to St. John devotes 5 chapters to Jesus’ discussion with His disciples at the Last Supper. During the verses immediately preceding today’s Gospel the disciples ask:

“Where are you going?”
“Can we go with you?”
“How long will you be gone?”
“Why are you leaving?” and
“Who will take care of us?”

Complex answers?

Good mothers would never leave their children hanging. Their first and most natural instinct is to care for their children and to reassure them. Likewise, Jesus did not leave His disciples hanging. He gave them real answers to their questions, and today especially to, “Who will take care of us?”

“Who will take care of us?” — “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.” [John 14:16]

But, this answer seems complex and sometimes we don’t quite get its meaning. Like children, we want simple answers and most of all reassurance that all will be ok. Today we should reflect on that reassurance. Our trust in Jesus, our love for Him and His word, and the presence of the Paraclete make everything more than ok; they guarantee our assurance.

Trust:

Reassurance starts with trust.

Infants work to shape their view of the world and their place in it right from birth. A strong foundation of trust, built in a loving and caring environment, is the first step in their reassurance, and leads to their becoming loving and generous adults. Children learn about love by being loved. Today we honor mom for her part and key role in teaching us to love. Children learn in the environment of community—”the family, mother and father, siblings, the extended family and Church.

We often equate success with independence, but those lessons from home, from the family and Church, are not about independence. Rather they are about being interdependent —“ being part of a community.

Children watch the model practiced by family, and this forms their understanding of the world. Their mannerisms and speech, their ability to love and to trust, all depend on what they see and hear at home and in the family of Church. This gift we give our children is the sense of reassurance, that they are cared for and protected in the world and beyond the world.

Mom is at the door and she is leaving. If her children do not have a sense of trust and community they will panic. There will be screaming and shouting, and most of all dread fear. However, if they have learned trust they know that mom won’t leave them alone and unprotected. They know that she loves them —“ and because of this they are reassured.

In the community of faith reassurance starts with the way Jesus built up the community of the disciples by showing them love, care, and compassion. The disciples received love right from its source. Jesus taught them to stand together as a community of believers, interdependent. They watched Jesus’ model, and this formed the disciples’ understanding of the world, their mannerisms and speech, their ability to love and to trust. All was and is built on Jesus’ way. Jesus reassures us. He tells us that we are in good hands within His community, within His way. He asks that the life of the Christian community teach and enable trust among all its members.

Keep my Word

Reassurance depends on love. Like moms everywhere, Jesus asked His children to: —keep my word—

Loving Jesus and keeping His word are completely connected. They are the requirement for our receiving the reassurance we crave.

What is essential in loving Jesus and keeping His word is not merely obedience. A child might detest the words that he is hearing and yet obey. A child might even detest his parents, but to avoid punishment, he obeys them.

In contrast to this, Jesus is talking about keeping His word in the sense of holding it dear. “Holding Jesus’ word dear,” implies that we hold a positive attitude towards that Word and the Word-giver. That is, we want more than anything to hear and obey Jesus out of love for Him and His word.

The result that flows from loving Jesus and keeping his word is that we are the protected; that we have reassurance. Jesus promised that by loving Him and keeping His word the Father will love us. The Father and Son will come to us. And, the Father and Son will make a dwelling with us. Loving Jesus and keeping His word draw God to us, and if God is with us none can stand against us.

I will send the Paraclete

Finally, reassurance depends on presence.

When mom is going out she might reassure her children by telling them that the babysitter is coming over. Now I’m sure that the babysitters mom chooses are capable, but every so often mom mentions that one babysitter —“ and her children leap up from what they are doing and rejoice. That babysitter reads to them, romps with them, acts out plays and makes chocolate chip cookies; she nurtures their young lives like a loving parent, and as long as she is with them they are not afraid.

I don’t know about the Holy Spirit being compared to a babysitter, but if you can imagine Jesus as a mother, then it may not be so hard to imagine the Spirit in this other role. The Spirit is after all the One who cares for the church in the interim between Jesus’ departure and return, the One who comforts, teaches, reminds and, yes, sometimes even romps with the sons and daughters of God.

The Holy Spirit is the presence that gives us reassurance:

—I have told you this while I am with you.
The Advocate, the Holy Spirit,
whom the Father will send in my name,
will teach you everything
and remind you of all that I told you.

The Greek word for the Advocate is Paraclete, literally —one who stands by our side.— Jesus didn’t leave us alone or hanging, but left the Spirit to be by our side, to be present, to reassure.

Who will take care of us?

To answer the disciples’ question then, “Who will take care of us?” requires us to engage in trust, to love by holding Jesus and His word dear, and to recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete who is at our side. This effort is cooperative, interdependent, requiring us to be on the inside of community, part of family, part of Church.

When we think of our mom, we think of that key person who played such a magnificent role in our life. She prepared us for this way. She brought us to the Church. She taught us trust and how to live in the community of family. She taught us to love Jesus and to hold His word dear. She stood by our side — and by that model we can recognize what the Holy Spirit is doing. Teaching us in this way she prepared us for that most magnificent of events.

Where are we going?

St. John’s Revelation describes the new and heavenly Jerusalem, the Jerusalem that will be present here on earth. By our trust, our love, our living in community, and with the guidance of the Paraclete, we are ever approaching this place.

I want you to think of this place, the place you are from —“ NY Mills, Utica, Rome, Syracuse, and imagine it as this heavenly city. Can you see the new Utica descending from heaven with gleaming walls —“

It gleamed with the splendor of God.
Its radiance was like that of a precious stone,
like jasper, clear as crystal.

And in this new city you will find God as the only temple, and its light will be from God with Jesus, the Lamb as its lamp. This is the road we are on. This is the promise for those who trust, for those who love Jesus and His word, who recognize the Paraclete standing at their side. This magnificence is what we will see, what all of our ancestors will witness when they rise. This is what our mothers want for us. We will all share together in the reassurance that will be forever. Amen.