Acts 1.15-17,21-26;
Ps 1; 1Jn 5.9-13; Jn 17.6-19
Well
it's certainly a busy day for celebrations, isn't it?
The
Ascension, a Great Feast in the church, was this past Thursday, the 40th day
after the Resurrection! It is at this
time that we commemorate that the resurrected Jesus left the physical reality
of the earth and ascended into the full presence of God.
It's
still Easter! YAY! We keep that in our hearts and our minds. While this is the
7th and final Sunday of Easter - it's still Easter!
In
the calendar of saints, we anticipate tomorrow's Holy Day for St. Matthias the
Apostle, the man who became the twelfth apostle after the ... departure of
Judas Iscariot. We heard all about that process in the first reading today.
This weekend, the
Church further commemorates Julian of Norwich, a medieval spiritual teacher,
and Florence Nightingale, a nurse and social reformer from just a century ago.
And
in our national church, today we celebrate Jerusalem Sunday - an annual
celebration of companionship in God's mission with the Episcopal Diocese of
Jerusalem, this year with emphasis on the Princess Basma Centre for Disabled
Children, as it ministers with a wide variety of support services.
Continuing
our celebratory theme, society reminds us of Mother's Day! We give thanks to God
for all the mothers, grandmothers, godmothers, step-mothers, and anyone who
carries out a mothering ministry and role in life.
On
a smaller scale, somewhere, today, someone is having a birthday. Somewhere,
couples have their wedding anniversaries. In some home, a family gathering and meal is being
planned. It's a busy day!
There
are numerous other things to celebrate. According to the "National Day
Calendar,"[1]
apparently yesterday was national "archery" day (thankfully no one
brought bow and arrow this morning!), and today is "international
hummus" day - who doesn't love puréed chickpeas. Tomorrow is national
"dance like a chicken" day, which promises to make parish council
even more fun than normal.
So
as we can see, from the ridiculous to the sublime, today is a busy day, as the
day invites us to celebrate.
And
celebrate we shall! But we are being reminded, as people of faith, that
temporary earthly happiness is not the entirety of what we seek. The psalm
today is great to remind us of this - people whose delight is in God are like
trees, bearing fruit through their ministries. Celebrate and be happy:
wonderful! but our Godly celebrations truly move us from the ridiculous to the
sublime.
The
ridiculous - hummus day? Dance like a chicken day? These are silly, and fun,
and easily forgotten, as they haven't made a huge impact on our lives.
Our
other, secular celebrations - birthdays and Mother's Day - are meant also to
bring us happiness and to share love, and we use them for that. And we remember
that these days are earthly celebrations, there may be balloons and cake and
flowers. What beautiful ways to annually acknowledge and respect the
relationships that we have with one another here in this life. Mmmm, cake!
Even
farther from the ridiculous, the holy days and church commemorations continually
remind us of our true journey; people whose example serves to bring us along in
our own spiritual journey and faith formation. We bring them to mind, so that
their teachings may inspire and direct our own theology (or understanding of
God) - Julian, for example, helped articulate the protection of God's love and
joy in times of turmoil. Matthias, knowing the probable earthly cost of
apostleship, chose to live in the truth of the Resurrection and be chosen by
the Spirit as an Apostle. These are great celebrations, indeed!
Moving
onward toward the sublime: this word which conveys "great excellence or beauty" and is rooted in the
spiritual, it's medieval meaning to "[e]levate to a high degree of moral
or spiritual purity or excellence."[2]
It is this spiritual excellence that we
find in the Ascension, and throughout the Easter season. This excellence comes
from God, to whom we strive towards through all we do: in our worship, in our
ministries, in our celebrations. We aspire to be subliminal as we live our
lives as Easter people.
That means celebrating: celebrating the
joy of the Resurrection and the hope to eternal life every moment of every day.
During our good days when there's cake and flowers, and during our difficult
days when there's loneliness and sorrow. Celebrating Easter means living our
faith, infusing our lives with the presence of Christ, engaging in ministry
with all those whom God loves. Being an Easter people does not mean that God
will magically make this life all hunky-dorey, it means is that we are
empowered to engage with the world as the Body of Christ, to joyfully engage in
kingdom work.
Being an Easter people, living an
Easter life, means we are here for God, not for ourselves. Easter life means
that we are the church: not a Sunday social club, not a community centre. God's
people in God's world, working to see the divine presence in our lives, and
helping those we encounter to also see the light of Christ - that paschal truth
- shining brightly for all.
And that is something to celebrate.
So it does us good to remember and
distinguish those things which are earthly and those things which are heavenly.
Our earthly celebrations are good, but they are earthly: anyone can participate
in them, any time. They're lovely to participate in - the bigger the gathering,
the bigger the cake, right? And that's OK.
The heavenly celebrations, however, are
even better. They're more difficult to understand, because they run deeper, and so the joy they bring is greater. They're based in an intentionality that goes
beyond the secular, one that transcends the limitations of this life. These celebrations
are rooted in the testimony of the Divine! Testimony: a declaration of proof,
of evidence. This is what John writes about, that the evidence of God is
profoundly greater than anything any human can ever come up with, and "[t]hose who believe in
the Son of God have the testimony in their hearts."[3]
It is this evidence-based belief in God which brings us eternal life.
Just
as Jesus, in today's gospel passage, directs his prayer to keep all things on
God, we too are reminded to keep our celebrations focused first and foremost on
GOD.
God,
who created the entirety of the cosmos.
God,
who breathed life into all things.
God,
who dances through eternity.
God,
who embeds love and grace into all reality.
God,
who is not limited by our experience or imagination.
God,
whose words have been gifted to us.
God,
whose protection is eternal.
God,
who chose to take human form to bring us better understanding.
God,
who has named and claimed us in baptism, and made us heirs of the kingdom.
God,
whose word is given freely to direct us to the truth.
God,
who is made known to us by those who have gone before.
God,
who laughs and loves and delights in all levels of celebration.
God,
who is present in feasts of hummus and birthday cake and the heavenly banquet
of the Eucharist.
May
we celebrate God, who has done all of this and more, and who continues to
journey with us. May our hearts be so full with this truth and love and peace
that our lives are always busy with the celebration of God.
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