Sermon for the Sixth Sunday of Easter (May 25, 2025)
Sermon for the Sixth Sunday of Easter (May 25, 2025) at St. James’ Episcopal Church in Hyde Park, NY. View the scripture readings and the Collect of the Day.
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Transcript
May only truth be spoken here and only truth be heard. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Please be seated.
Jesus says, those who love me, those who love me will keep my word. Those who love me will keep my word.
Yesterday I got to do something really special. I graduated from Bard College 21 years ago and yesterday I got to give the invocation and the benediction at the 165th commencement of the college. It was definitely one of those moments in life where our prayer says, like our opening prayer says, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpasses our understanding. Pour into our hearts such love toward you that we loving you in all things and above all things may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire.
I also would like you to know that that is how I feel about being your priest. Like St. Paul's letter to the Ephesians says, glory to God, whose power at work within us can do infinitely far more than we can ask or imagine. Glory to God from generation to generation in the church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever who can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine whose mercy exceeds all that we can desire.
So the commencement was delightful. That's wonderful. The president, as is usual, gave a charge to the graduates. He said, I'm going to give you 10 pieces of advice, and he said, now the tradition of the president's charge, imagine him, he's at the lector. He said, the tradition of the president's charge. This is the first time I've ever been up here, you guys, it's kind of weird, okay? The tradition of the president's charge, he said, comes from sermonizing. Sermonizing, like most academic tradition, and he said, sermonizing is where you say the same thing over and over and nobody listens to you.
I said, well, thank God that's not true. That's what I said to myself. I was like, thank God that's not true. And maybe especially for Episcopalians, right? Talk about people who say the same words over and over. But I have to tell you, I mean we do come here week by week, day by day, year by year, generation by generation, and I know that we're not perfect. I mean, I know that it's easy to stand outside the church and point at it and say, failure, hypocrisy, right? Mess. I know, fair enough. But I also know because I know you, I know that we are here and we are listening to those words that we hear week by week, year by year, generation by generation. I know that we are hearing the prayers that are coming out of our own mouths.
Those who love me will keep my word. This is in the context of Jesus saying his farewell discourse, his last message to the disciples on the night that he's betrayed before he dies. And you remember from the Maundy Thursday service that when he says, those who love me will keep my word in the context of this discourse to his disciples, his word is his commandment and his commandment. You remember this I bet. It's love one another, right? Love one another as I have loved you. That is the word. Those who love me will keep my word and he says, and my father and I will make our home with them.
So the word and essentially what it boils down to, what we're doing here day by day and week by week, year by year from one generation to the next. We're here to get filled up with the spirit of God so we can take it wherever we go. We're here to listen, pay attention, learn and ourselves say these words, these prayers that teach us and remind us that we're going to carry around with us everywhere we go so that we can love one another, so that we can love one another.
The morning prayer, the final closing prayer says, we're going to glorify God, not only with our lips, but in our lives, and those who love me, I think are going to keep my word remembering like St. Teresa says, Christ has now no hands but yours, no feet but yours. We keep the word, the message here with what we say, and here with how we listen with our hearts, with how we pay attention to the world around us.
We keep the word with our hands, with what we do, with what we create and make and shape and offer, how we serve, how we touch. We keep the word here. The love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, which has been given to us, and those who love me keep my word because their hearts are full of love, and I know that when we're here, we are listening because I know you.
I know that Ann, who is an extraordinarily gifted and creative person also sits with people who are dying day by day, week by week. I know that Tim spends his time raising money to protect and preserve God's creation, building relationships to make that possible. I know that Jeffrey picks his grandchildren up off the bus and keeps them company. I know that Bill, when he goes to his job at the hardware store, is good and kind and thrifty and helpful to everybody that he meets. I know, I know that Kathy, who spent her life being a nurse and caring for people, still does that everywhere she goes. I know that she brought to the Mother's Day tea and bought a ticket for someone that she met in the supermarket shopping line who was having a bad day.
I know that Wendy goes to the prison and teaches people, and I know that she prays for them. I know so many of you who go home to someone who needs you. I know all of you who are praying not just for the people right in your circle, but for the people in our country who are afraid for children around the world who live in war zones.
If you love me, you keep my word wherever you go, whatever you are called to do, and I want you to remember that ministry is not something that is confined to in here. It's not something you need to go to school to learn how to do. It's not confined to what you do or give to your church. It is your life. It is your classroom, your friendships, your family, your community, your prayer. It's your life.
From the midst of the city of God flows a stream of living water, and at the side of the stream grow the trees with their fruit, which they bear in every season, every age, stage of life, from the very young to the very old, from the unskilled to the skilled, and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. I think that you are the leaves of the tree, the balm of love that God has chosen to lay across everything and everyone that you encounter with your life, with your ministry.
They who love me, they who love me, keep my word. Amen.