Easter 7/Ascension Sunday, May 17, 2015 (full size gallery)
This service had a theme around the Ascension 40 days this past Thursday and the approaching Pentecost next Sunday. John’s Gospel is thematic occuring much earlier and is the "priestly prayer", a final prayer on the Thursday with Jesus and the disciples before the resurrection . Acts depicts the period surrounding the Ascension and before the Pentecost next week. The bulletin is here
The sermon on the "priestly prayer" began with the last words of famous people. To this we can add our first priest, Rev. William Friend who died May 16, 1870, 145 years ago. The phrase on his grave is " Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace" from Psalm 37.
The sermon concluded with a summary of the prayer – "Here are the last words in summary– “Gather them in and make them one with you. Protect them. Take away their anxiety and give them your joy. Make them holy and send them out into the world so that the whole world can come to know who I am.” “Fill them with your love.” She challenged parishioners to listen for the word they needed most from the prayer:
"Claim the prayer that you need most as you listen one more time to these blessings that Jesus continues ask for in prayer for you, and for me.
Protection.
Resting in God’s loving presence.
Joy.
Holiness.
Love.
A mission that carries the fullness of God’s love into the world."
A busy weekend with a 50th wedding anniversary for Tom and susan Tilt on Saturday and then Sunday services. A wonderful celebration put on by their daughters with 2 priests and a bishop to renew the vows. The best part is that they wanted to go forward for another 50 years!
We had 31 in the service with the Half Marathon going on Fredericksburg and others traveling. It began overcast with some rain but by noon was beginning to clear and getting somewhat muggy. Earlier, the rain accentuated the new green leaves and the rain provided patterns on leaves of all colors. Moss was on the sycamores. A good time to walk – and absorb.
The red roses for service were grown by Cookie in her garden. We welcomed Hugh back after a long absence and also collected foods, particularly peanut butter and tuna for the Village Harvest on Wednesday. Clarence handed out the 2015 directory.
Next week is a big Sunday – Pentecost, visitation by Bishop Goff, baptism of Marie Elizabeth Duke all followed by a revival of the Pentecost picnic on the lawn.
Commentary from Canon Lance Ousley, Diocese of Olympia
This Sunday we have that suspended time between the Ascension of the Risen Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. Our readings for this Sunday focus on the resurrection community and its witness to the world. Jesus’ high priestly prayer in John 17 begins to signal his empowerment of them to do his work in the world and witness to the breaking forth of God’s kingdom even the night before he is crucified. Our Acts lesson offers us a picture of how the early Church saw itself as an Apostolic community bearing witness to Jesus’ resurrection in the wake of the Ascension. And it defines an apostle as a witness to the resurrection.
The stewardship rub for me this week is bound in the empowerment of the community to bear witness to the resurrected Christ after his ascension as his presence in the world today. There are several facets to this, but I want to focus on two in particular. One is our work as the Apostolic Community and how we faithfully live into Jesus’ empowerment of us to be Apostolic. And the other is how do we empower our fellow baptized to "preach" their experience of the resurrected Lord in their lives?
First, the Church as the Apostolic Community has been entrusted as stewards of the Gospel to show and tell the world of the Good News of the Resurrection with all its Kingdom implications. In our Stewardship of this message we are called to support our witness through our ministries that are counter to a culture that is selfishly Epicurean, living in a theology of scarcity. In short, we are to show the world that our lives are wonderfully different because of what we have experienced in the risen Christ and that life is abundant and available to them. The Church as responsible stewards entrusted with this should always be asking our faith community how we are living this reality out in the world. If the world can’t see a positive difference in the life of the church that is counter to the struggles they are facing then why would they be compelled by its message?
The other issue I think these readings address is our need to empower all the baptized in ministry. After all baptism is not just about one’s own life, but it is also about being empowered by the Holy Spirit to do Christ’s ministry for the world. While it is true we each are given different gifts for this ministry as Paul points out to us in 1 Corinthians, but we also are all to live Apostolic lives that witness to Christ’s resurrection. And a big part of this, I believe as stewards of these gifts, is for us to empower all the baptized to talk about how they have experienced the risen Christ in their ministries. This is a prophetic act as these stories unfold, and I have heard many shared from the pulpit as the prophetic word during worship.
As a rector, I learned that I did not have the only Apostolic voice in the parish, nor did God call me to be the only one there. God did call that whole parish to be an apostolic witness, and the more people who shared their experience from the pulpit in that community the easier it was for others in the pews to tell their stories of encounters with the resurrected Lord. It is a sort of permission giving for them, and it empowers people to tell their own Apostolic stories.
As stewards of the Gospel we are compelled to foster the Apostolic witness of all the baptized, both in word and deed. After all, Jesus is counting on us. Otherwise he wouldn’t have ascended and sent the Holy Spirit to us, would he?