Sermon, Easter 6

Acts 17.22-31; 1Peter 3.1-22; John 14.15-21

HAPPY EASTER!

            So... perhaps you've noticed... each week as I exuberantly offer that greeting, there seems to be a little bit less... energy. In the greeting, in the response.

            We've gotten used to being in Easter. It's been over a month now - and we've decided we like that. Easter - a whole season. Grand.

            After all, as a friend of mine regularly jokes about Anglicans: Do something once, it's an experiment. Do that thing twice, it's tradition!

            So on the 6th week of Easter - well, golly, things will NEVER change! Right? Right?! Hmm.

            Except... Jesus has been talking about change for a while. And he continues that message today. Change is going to happen.

            This message, however, is not really one that the disciples want to be hearing. "What do you mean you're going to leave?" they seem to ask. "We've been following you around for years! Why would that change?"

            The disciples - good and faithful as they are - have become rather comfortable with doing things in a certain way. It's been a few years they've been following Jesus, and a pattern seems to have evolved. Heal the sick, eat with sinners, teach about a loving God, move to a new town. It's what they've come to expect! It works - so let's just keep on keeping on.

            And it's not dissimilar from what we hear Paul talking about in the passage from Acts. People of Athens are doing what they've always done: they come to their houses of worship, they sit in the same place, they recite the same prayers, they stand and sit at the appropriate times, they say the words they've always said. It's predictable; it's comfortable. And yet, without an infusion of new energy, it can become... uninspiring. Uninviting. Same old same old. They barely need to pay attention, because they believe that nothing will change, and that there's nothing else that can or should be done - and they are okay with that.

            Sound familiar? Sometimes churches today can get caught in that same loop. When the same old same old becomes good enough, when the desire to change and grow and adapt to an ever-changing world feels like too much effort.

            But here is where Jesus does what Jesus always does: in the midst of the "we've always done it this way" a change happens. Some external factor comes in, and influences things in such a way that a change is inevitable. Some force that causes the spirits of those involved to be stirred up, and to discern how to respond in a loving, Godly way. Some force that will lead to an infusion of sorts - a spiritual infusion of energy and enthusiasm for ministry.

            Infusion - it's a loaded word. To fill, to pervade, to soak something in order to extract the flavour or healing properties.

            And Jesus promises us an infusion of the Holy Spirit - forever - for all time. He assures us - his followers - that intermingling of something new and healthy and life-giving, so that new life can happen in each and every one of us.

            And with that infusion, we can do things more and more - because we will be accompanied along our journey by the Advocate - the supporter - the helper -

This is an infusion of Easter energy if ever there was one! The Spirit is COMING! To help US! To live and adapt with the interspersed reality of Christ IN US.

            The works we do, we do to God. Because God is in Christ, and Christ is in us.

WOW.

            Talk about an external force creating change!

            The disciples are forever changed by this reality - even if they didn't realise it or recognise it t the time. Their lives have changed, and will continue to change, as their unique and shared ministries continue to grow and evolve. There is no more same old same old with the Spirit!

            So Jesus makes sure that 'maintaining the status quo' is not an option after his ascension. Instead he encourages an even stronger commitment to the mission and ministry. To live fully. To love FULLY. To engage with the word and the Word fully.

            And then, to rejoice in knowing that the spirit of truth - which the world has a hard time accepting - is there.

            We are not orphaned. We are not alone. We are embraced and loved and chosen.

            And we are meant to follow the parental rules - or commandment - love God; love one another - as Christ has loved us.

            We are not to love individuals with a sense of pride or of getting it right - but rather, to love in community. Jesus has showed us that we are to love the people who need to be held up and those who are holding up; to love the people who are sick and those who are healing; to love the people who are oppressed and those who are oppressors. This is the hard work of following Jesus.

            As Peter's letter tells us: we are to sanctify Christ as Lord, and be able to make an accounting of our actions in the name of our God. Not what someone else did, or what someone else said, but a true accounting for the hope that is within us - with gentleness and reverence - and accounting of how we have lived out the mission of God's love in the world.

            So this is our challenge. This is our lesson this week. This is our invitation from Jesus himself: that we find new ways to love.

            That we find new ways to be with the presence of Christ that is in us, through the power of the Spirit.

            That we find new ways to engage with the presence of the Christ that is right before us - every moment of every day - in every person that we meet. When we want to see it - but more importantly when we do not.

            Jesus taught us well - he loved the unloveable, the sinners, the outcasts, the misfits. He healed the people no one else would go near; he ate with those no one else would even look at; he chatted with those that others would spit upon.

            Jesus taught us to love, by loving us, and by showing us how to love.

            And now Jesus calls us to love.

            May we embrace the support that we will need - from the advocate who is with us forever - and love the misfits and oddballs and unloved people of our society. May we do our best to keep Jesus' commandment to love.