AEaster5 Philip and Stephen

Imagine you were Philip and you were standing watching from close by your brother Stephen as he is held down by a pile of rocks thrown by strangers imagine saying to him reminding him what our teacher told us what our teacher said to me as you Stephen stood next to me on that moment earlier remember this Stephen remember what he said I am the way the truth and the life no one comes to the father but by me Stephen he was 

Stephen he was talking to you and he was talking to me I am the way the truth and the life no one comes to the father but by me you’re going first Stephen before me but you won’t be the last all you did was tell the truth tell it in life to a hard hard hearted audience but the truth is that he is with you he is the path you were on he is the one who is holding you close even now he is the one who went before us the one who is with us as we go to the one who greets us when we arrive and the one who will be with us always

He will be with us always I go to prepare a place for you there he is in the city that will have been awaiting our arrival for years the city that he made that he owns that he is master of where we will join him and we will be with him forever and Philip we built it now we are building it now those stones are foundation stones in the church the city built with the blood of the martyrs in the mortar is the city that has the stones even of our persecution even of his gift of 

The stones even of his gift to sacrifice are the living stones you and I Philip the living stones out of which his home and ours is built God bless you Phillip God bless you Phillip we will see you again in him in Christ who is the way the truth and the life and through whom we all go to the father as we all have walked with him and he with us amen amen

May 10th 2020

Fifth Sunday of Easter

Acts 7:55-60

1 Peter 2:2-10

John 14:1-14

Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16

JRL+

the place where we are going

NOBODY COMES TO THE FATHER EXCEPT THROUGH ME.

My mother's advice: there should always be an alternative route.

Do we really have to go this Way? Through the Cross and the shame of it, as if we were extras in an old Michael Been song ("I still believe") ... enduring the Passion before the hope of Resurrection?

And then the pain of resurrection itself. Do you think that Jesus felt nothing? Like open heart surgery and a flood of air into flattened lungs, after three days - three days - in the tomb in the garden beyond Golgotha?

It must hurt...

And this is the way to Paradise? "Today you will be with me in Paradise" Jesus assures The Good Thief, as they are both expiring on their crosses, the ultimate public execution engines of SPQR.

(We are more sophisticated now.)

Almighty God, whom truly to know is everlasting life: Grant us so perfectly to know your Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life, that we may steadfastly follow his steps in the way that leads to eternal life; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Even when we know what we are getting into. Amen, Alleluia.

• Acts 7:55-60
• 1 Peter 2:2-10
• John 14:1-14
• Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16

as his glory passes by

This morning (Wednesday in the 4th week of Easter) as I read the passage from Exodus, I little remarked the assurance from God to Moses that he would put his hand on him and hide him in a cleft of the rock ... until I saw verse 3  in the responsorial psalm for this coming Sunday's Eucharist:

Be my strong rock, a castle to keep me safe,
for you are my crag and my stronghold; *
for the sake of your Name, lead me and guide me.

Even as he is being martyred, Stephen the deacon can feel this comfort. It is beyond me. But he does.

Look at what he prays - following Jesus: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”

Forgive them, Lord, for they do not know what they are doing.

Somehow in the depths of what would be despair, the first martyr of the church has hope - hope beyond hope, beyond life. And what is more, and more explicit and important, he has obedience: total trust in God. I'm not sure his thoughts were on himself at all, simply on the witness he made to Jesus.

And this is discipleship - following Christ - too: for Christ died for the truth, which he would not betray.

He - Christ - has become that Truth.

When nothing can save you, save you from the fires or the stones of persecution, that Truth will.

‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going.’ (John 14:1-4)

Or, in the Scholars Version of the Jesus Seminar, in heavy black:

Don't give in to your distress. You believe in God, then believe in me too. There are plenty of places to stay in my Father's house. If it weren't true, I would have told you; I'm on my way to make a place ready for you. And if I go to make a place ready for you, I'll return and embrace you. So where I am you can be too. You know where I'm going and you know the way.

(Robert W. Funk et al., The Five Gospels, Polebridge Press/Macmillan, 1993. p. 450)

Which really gets the point across. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid! as the angels said to Mary. The messengers of God are pretty consistent. You only have to be afraid of ... God.

Look at all that stuff about the burning bush and leading the people out of Egypt and the horse and his rider drowned in the sea and all the temptations entertained by the people who wander and all the times God takes them back, like the wife of Hosea who was never faithful but always forgiven.

Trust God. There is no need to be afraid of anything else.

He is like a cleft in the rock, a safe place, in which his hand will cover you, even as he passes by.

‘See, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock; and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by; then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen.’ (Exodus 33:21-23)

Even as they throw the stones.

Even as the plague lurks, seeking whom it will devour.

Stay safe, people. Stay the course.

And we will bow to each other, and greet each other across a safe distance, or through a window at the hospital, or by means provided by Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison, and Steve Wozniak and all the rest.

Keep the faith. Keep it as we pass through kingdoms of anxiety into strange cities that have awaited us for years. Remember we are not alone, in this time or in all time. Stephen is still praying for us.

Even as we do wrong and turn our backs on the Messiah, only to pick up stones to throw, we are safe, in the cleft of the rock we are hidden, as his glory passes by. 

• • Acts 7:55-60
  • 1 Peter 2:2-10
  • John 14:1-14
  • Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16

https://www.lectionarypage.net/YearA_RCL/Easter/AEaster5_RCL.html
http://edgeofenclosure.org/easter5a.html
https://episcopalchurch.org/lectionary-calendar

O Lord, from whom all good things do come: Grant to us thy humble servants, that by thy holy inspiration we may think those things that be good, and by thy merciful guiding may perform the same; through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources/book-common-prayer/collects-epistles-and-gospels-39 [Readings are St. James 1.22-end and St. John 16.23-end]

Fifth Sunday of Easter
Almighty God, whom truly to know is everlasting life: Grant
us so perfectly to know your Son Jesus Christ to be the way,
the truth, and the life, that we may steadfastly follow his
steps in the way that leads to eternal life; through Jesus Christ
your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity
of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

https://bcponline.org/

martyrs and mothers

In the name of God, source of all being, eternal Word, and holy Spirit. Amen.

The modern martyrs in their deaths and in their lives follow a pattern, a pattern we can follow back through the lives of saints to the early martyrs of the church. There is some formula to this, not out of laziness, without care for factuality, but intentionally as a pointer to us later followers of Jesus that they are indeed followers of Jesus, even into the lion’s mouth of death.

Janani Luwum, Archbishop of Uganda, arrested and called at night to the palace of the tyrant Idi Amin, was confronted by the dictator himself: Will you stop speaking out for your people? No! He refused. And so the dictator pulled out his own pistol and shot him down on the spot. Later his body was found, he’d been “shot trying to escape” or words to that effect.

Kaj Munk, the Danish playwright, premiered a new play in the days of the occupation, just at the feast of the Holy Innocents, after Christmas. It compared Hitler to Herod. That was too much. His body was found in a ditch, he’d been shot by the Gestapo.

Medieval martyrs and ancient witnesses, earlier in the history of the faithful, made testimony at the cost of their lives to the truth of the gospel.

Early Christians took heart, knowing that they followed the footsteps of their Lord.

And so we have Stephen, the deacon, the first martyr of the church, remembered this day, in the story of the book of Acts. His story patterns for us how disciples might joyfully follow Jesus, even in the midst of persecution and the threat, and fact, of imminent death.

Three times we see his story pattern after Jesus’ own passion. First, he sees what Jesus promised; his Lord at the right hand of the Father. This infuriates the crowd (already pretty upset for his description of their folly). And so they move in. As they begin to put him to death he cries out in words that resonate down the centuries, and back to the Cross of Christ, “Forgive them, they do not know what they are doing.” And then, as he succumbs, the prayer “I put my soul into your care”.

These words are his witness. The story of his witness is a gift to us.

We do not know much about who was there; apart from Saul (later Paul) no one is named.

We do have much more to go on, in the accounts of the resurrection of Christ. And first among the witnesses to his resurrection are the women at the tomb.

The angel said to the women,

“Why look for the living among the dead?”

“He is not here, he is risen!”

“Go tell my friends, set out for Galilee, there they will see me.”

It is the women, among them Mary of Magdala, who are the first witnesses to the empty tomb and the first to carry the message of the risen Christ.

And among them, as after his ascension they await the next chapter, is Mary his mother.

She is the one who saw it all. From Annunciation and Nativity, childhood and precocious youth, to his ministry wanderings and his fateful journey to Jerusalem, Mary was present. She was there at his crucifixion, and we learn (from Acts 1:14) that she was with the disciples as they wait for the Spirit to descend.

A mother’s witness. A mother’s martyrdom. From early days, she heard and saw all these things, and cherished them in her heart.

What sorrow it must be to know your son will die.

As so many mothers know.

So today, Mother’s Day, we remember not only the witness of the martyr Stephen, but the gift of mothers: a gift of life, a gift of love, of love as strong as death.

O God who so loved humankind that through your holy Spirit you conceived in Mary your only Son, our Lord, so grant us the obedience, and the fortitude, to follow the pattern of her witness, and the example of your saints, as we proclaim the death of Jesus, his resurrection and ascension, even as we await his coming in glory. Through that selfsame son, Jesus, Amen.

• Acts 7:55-60
• 1 Peter 2:2-10
• John 14:1-14
• Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16

Said the angel to the women, "Why seek the living among the dead? He is risen; he is not here, alleluia, alleluia!"

"Be not afraid: go tell my friends to set out for Galilee, there they will see me, alleluia!"

-- Eastertide antiphons at New Camaldoli

Last Days' Discount

Almighty God, whom truly to know is everlasting life: Grant us so perfectly to know your Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life, that we may steadfastly follow his steps in the way that leads to eternal life; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

In the name of God, source of all being: the Life;
Eternal Word: the Truth;
and Holy Spirit: the Way.

When I worked for publishers I would sometimes represent them at conferences and trade exhibits. Once I was sent to a meeting of the American Academy of Religion and Society of Biblical Literature joint annual meeting, in Chicago, with the reminder that on the last day of the show there would be a flood of people coming to the booth who would want a "Last Day's Discount". However I was given the authority to set discounts for the show, and announce them as they chose. So I set a fairly (by industry standards) generous discount at the beginning of the show, and (to the publisher's delight) when people would ask me what my "Last Day's Discount" would be, I'd reply, "These are The Last Days. This is the Last Days' Discount."

All is indeed moving toward completion, perfection, fulfillment, since the Resurrection.

Stephen bore witness to this – he was able because he had set aside malice and embraced the kingdom of God.

The crowd was still stuck in anger and deceit, slander and envy— all the tools of false security, the weapons for victory over perceived enemies—

At peace, Stephen was able to pray with confidence, drawing on a deep well of freedom, truth and faith. He knew he was in God’s hands.

Standing before the crowd in Jerusalem, Stephen testified to what he was seeing: the glory of God – and Jesus standing at God’s right hand.

Stephen saw beyond the skies what the crowd could not see – the faithful presence of God even in this eventuality.

Stephen witnessed to a new way of being in the world – not as victim or as hero – but as witness to the truth.

And so even in his death he pointed to Christ – commending his spirit to God, asking forgiveness for his killers – becoming a living stone set deep into the foundation of the spiritual house which is the Church.

With faith in Christ, and without regard to the consequences to his own body, Stephen proclaimed Jesus the way, the truth, the life – and came home to the Father rejoicing in the Spirit through that same Jesus Christ.

Just so we witness and pray, as we too cast aside the false armor of self-protection (the cheating tricks of soul’s cowardice). Confident in God’s care and love, we proclaim his kingdom and act to live into it.

Peter exhorts new Christians to grow in faith, to understand that Baptism is just the beginning of the path of salvation – that we should seek God’s word to nurture us, from our earliest days – receiving with humility as if infant children the sustenance of the Word. He adjures us to put away sin and evil of all sorts, so that we may offer ourselves to be built together into a Temple – a living temple – to the praise and glory of God.

What does this look like? Instead of envy, slander, malice, and deceit (v. 1), practice love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness and forbearance.

How can this be? Through the Spirit.

We are called to testify to what we have seen and heard, and what we have experienced, in our lives, of Jesus’ work. We are witness to how God provides, guides, and reshapes our lives.

We are called in faith to take a stand, to bear witness, and to express belief in action.

This call may be subtle; it may be loud. It may be joyous; it may be painful. Responding to it may lose us friends.

Living into the forgiveness and mercy of God is a new way of Being.

Like Stephen we know that forgiveness is not an act of individual heroism – it is an act of God at work in the world through his people.

Forgiveness in itself is a vision of the peaceable kingdom, the reconciliation of all things in Christ, which is the true consummation of time, the real victory.

So these are the last days – for Christ is already at work in the world – reconciling all things to himself. God is faithfully present to us as we are called to join in this work.

Lord, as you have called us to walk in your way, make us the people that you would have us be, that we may reveal your truth, and lead others to the fullness of life; that we may be a chosen people, a royal priesthood; that we may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. Lord, lead us in the ways of peace. Guide us in the path of life.

--David Adam, Clouds and Glory (SPCK, 2000) 68.

Come my way – Spirit; my truth – Word; my life – Creator.

Source of all being: you call us into life, you sustain us, and you provide for all our needs. Eternal word: your truth is a light to our path and we come to the Father only through you. Holy Spirit: you illumine us, guiding us as we seek to follow Jesus.

You are peace, Lord: you are the way. You are love: you are the life. You are justice: you reveal the truth in your righteous mercy.

What we face in our lives as Christians, your faithful people, we do not face alone. You are with us – through the Spirit we experience your presence and your power. Your gift of love, your sustenance of faith, and your light of hope: [these] accompany us through all our days.

Help us now to realize your triumph over death and sin, the ultimate adversary. Move us to proclaim and embody that victory in the world.

Empower us – fill us with hope – embolden us with faith – so that we your people may be as your own hands and feet and voice, advocating the love of your creation that fulfills your word.

May love’s redeeming work be evident (manifest) in all we do and in all you accomplish, in us and through us, for the glory of God.

Lord, guide us that we may walk in your Way, rejoice in your Truth, and be kept for ever in the Life which you give, which is eternal; through him who lived and died and rose again for us, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.


Jesus, live in our hearts – forever!

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The Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year A
Acts 7:55-60
Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16
1 Peter 2:2-10
John 14:1-14

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this is real

He is the Way. Follow him through the Land of Unlikeness; you will see rare beasts and have unique adventures.

He is the Truth. Seek him in the Kingdom of Anxiety: you will come to a great city that has expected your return for years.

He is the Life. Love him in the World of the Flesh: and at your marriage all its occasions shall dance for joy.

-W. H. Auden, "For the Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio" (1944)


In the name of God, merciful Father, compassionate Son, spirit of Wisdom. Amen.

This is real: We lost him. Jesus died.

This is real: God has him. He always has.

This is real: God has you, too. He has given you to Jesus, and Jesus will never lose you.

After Judas left the table, at the Last Supper, Jesus turned to his disciples, and, in the Gospel of John, gave what is called his Farewell Discourse and his Priestly Prayer. This takes up the 14th through the 17th chapters of the Gospel of John.

Today we look at an early part of that discourse, at the dinner-party that Jesus knew meant good-bye. Jesus is reassuring them - after just giving them the fright of their lives, by telling them that the Son of Man must be betrayed, and handed over to death, and crucified. The hope of the resurrection has yet to be grasped.

He assures them of three things:

They will always abide with him, and he with them: he is going to prepare the abiding-place for them, and he will return to guide them there.

There is a way to God for them, and they will have access to the Father, through him.

While he is gone, and they may be tempted to scatter, they will nevertheless be empowered to do even more than he has done.

And what is it that he has done? Remember what he just told them: the Son of Man must be betrayed, and handed over to death. He is going ahead to open the way.

He is the way: he is the door. He is the path to life beyond death, to life in the kingdom of heaven.

Even should they suffer as he has suffered, he will be with them. And beyond the threshold of death, he will vanquish death - it will no longer be the end.

Death no longer has the last word.

Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and giving life to those in the tomb. (Burial I, BCP, p. 483; Burial II, BCP, p. 500)

Christ has made a road straight through the gates of hell and on into the pastures of abundant life, eternal life, in the kingdom that has no end. This is not some other world: this is our own world, transformed by the work of Christ. And now we can live in that world transformed, as we are transformed into his image. So too we can work in this world in his Name, as we become one in spirit and mind and heart with him. This is what it means to pray in Jesus' name: not some magical formula to "make it so" but being clothed in Christ's righteousness. As we become his people we become able to do what he has done, to follow him where he has gone before, even into the valley of the shadow of death, because indeed he is with us: to guide us, to abide with us, to walk with us every step of the way.

He is the way: through him we come to God.

He is the truth: through him we know God.

He is the life: through him we abide in God.

Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Following Jesus, we come to the Father. Believing in Jesus, we come to know God. Through Christ we receive eternal life.

We have finally found a way to live in the presence of the Lord. It is through Christ: and because he has opened up this new way, God's way, we can move forward with confidence into the future, into the rest of our lives. And we can live in obedience to what once would have seemed impossible commands.

He has given a new commandment: "Love one another as I have loved you."

We know that the love of Christ is sacrificial. It is without limit; it is full of joy.

The way of love begins with the first and greatest commandment:

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.

And the second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets. (Matthew 22:37-40)

And it is borne out in the Great Commission:

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age. (Matthew 28:19-20)

None of these things is possible without God. In Christ all things are possible.

He has promised: that he will abide with us. He will guide us. He will lead us.

And how will he be present? And how will he guide us, lead us, abide with us?

How will he work in us and through us even greater works than he has done?

Even as Jesus ascends to the Father, the Father sends the Holy Spirit in his name, to empower, to enlighten, to guide, and to refresh his people.

"He will teach you everything and bring all things to your remembrance.... I'm leaving you well and whole. That's my parting gift to you. Peace. I don't leave you the way you're used to being left-feeling abandoned, bereft.... Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." (John 14: 26-29)

You are God's people, and in God's care. And it is through the witness and work of the people of God through the ages, and through you, that God is glorified.

Through the miracle of the church, through the joy of faith, through the presence of Christ among us in the breaking of the bread, in the prayers, in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, God is glorified - and we receive eternal life.

This is the mystery of all the ages - and it is open to us to know and to share in, freely, as God's gift to humanity through his son Jesus Christ. Eternal life comes from the same source that is the origin of all life - from God in Christ.

This is amazing news, and blessed assurance. We belong to God, we are his; and he is the source of all life and all being, from the beginning to the end.

There is an unbroken chain of witness, of glory, from God the Father to his Son, to his disciples, to us - we are the people of God on the face of the earth today.

We are his witnesses; and to him we give glory. This we do and can do because we live in the presence and the power of God in the Spirit - and we celebrate our new life, together, every time we come together around the Lord's Table.

As we remember Christ's sacrifice, his offering of himself - his whole life, his witness to God the Father, his willingness to give his life to the glory of God, his resurrection to the new life and his ascension to be with God the Father - we remember and make present in our own lives the power and glory of God.

This simple act, of sharing bread and wine and the good gifts of the earth, makes present to us in our world and in our lives the practical presence of God.

It shows that God's gifts of creation are good, and that what he has made lasts. He has made the world, and he has made us to rejoice and be glad in it.

Let us celebrate together the life we have in Christ, received in his Name and to his glory. Let us live together in that new life, in Christ, rejoicing in the presence of God and in the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

JRL+

Acts 7:55-60
Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16
1 Peter 2:2-10
John 14:1-14