Sermon for the Seventh Sunday of Easter (June 1, 2025)
Sermon for the Seventh Sunday of Easter (June 1, 2025) at St. James’ Episcopal Church in Hyde Park, NY. View the scripture readings and the Collect of the Day.
Photo taken by Mother Meredith in Ascensiontide 2025 at Mills Mansion near Hyde Park, NY.
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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.
This is the seventh Sunday after the Sunday of the resurrection. So we are almost to the culmination of the season of Easter. How long is Easter? 50 days, right? It ends or it's sort of like, maybe it's fulfilled, at Pentecost 50 days after the resurrection. 50 days after the resurrection, the Holy Spirit descends from heaven to fill the hearts of the disciples just as Jesus promised. He promises to send the Holy Spirit all through this discourse that we've been hearing him when he has finished this last supper with his disciples and he has washed their feet.
For weeks now we've been hearing his final words to them, his last instructions, right? What are the instructions? I give you one last commandment, and what is the commandment? That you love one another as I have loved you, so you ought to love one another. By this, everyone will know to whom you belong. By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples, that you have love for one another. And so we've been hearing him elaborate upon this commandment for a few weeks now.
In this same speech to his disciples, he promises them. He says, I am going to be taken from you, but I will not, as the prayer this morning says, I will not leave you comfortless. I'm going to send you my spirit to be with you, to comfort you, to guide you. When I in my body am not with you, when I am with you in a different way. And at the conclusion of the gospel, according to St. Luke and at the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles, after he has risen from the dead, right, he walks with the disciples, eats with them, shows up, goes in and out of locked rooms for 40 days.
On Thursday, last week, we celebrated the Feast of the Ascension. That is the 40th day after Easter. And on the feast of the Ascension, we remember that Jesus takes those same disciples and in their sight he reminds them. He says, I will send you the Spirit. And so you are to wait. You are to stay together and wait until that promise is fulfilled. And then in their sight, he is lifted into the sky and they see him no more.
Ascension tide lasts for these 10 days so we are now in the midst of ascension tide, of the time in which we know that Jesus reigns in heaven, and we are awaiting the fulfillment of that promise that the Holy Spirit will be among us. That's really interesting. In our prayer book, there are two prayers for the Feast of the Ascension. And let me see, I can refer you to where they are. I didn't mark this. If you want to look at them, you can find them on page 226 of your prayer book. So you might want to look at them more closely later.
What I want to say now is this. We always have a prayer of the day, right? Usually there's just one the collect of the day. It's called a collect because it kind of collects the themes of the day. It kind wraps everything up, presents it to us and offers it to God, and it takes all of our prayers and offers them to God is thematic. So it's really interesting when there's two collects for the day, there is a tension on Ascension Day. One of the prayers focuses on Jesus' presence with us here on earth and ask God, give us faith to perceive that according to his promise, he abides with the church on earth even to the end of the ages.
And the other focuses on Christ's presence in heaven and asks that we would have the grace to be lifted there with him, not just after we die, but that our life here in some way is sort of united with Christ who dwells in eternity with Christ, who reigns in heaven. So there is this tension, right? Jesus Christ is both in heaven and here with us, and we are called not only to kind of open our eyes, to perceive his presence all around us. May you see the face of Christ in everyone you meet. May everyone you meet see the face of Christ in you. But also I think when we talk about asking God for that peace which passes understanding, we are in some sense realizing that our life has this eternal and heavenly dimension, that there is some part of us that is already at one and dwelling with Christ beyond time and space. Now, try to wrap your head around that. That is what Ascension Day is trying to teach us. We are here and we are also in some way lifted to be with him, and he is there, but he's also here among us.
So I want to look at this awesome story that Riley read for us this morning from the Acts of the Apostles. Paul and Silas, remember last week, they went to Macedonia, the Holy Spirit told them. So they did. They went, Paul and Silas are in Macedonia. They're walking around in the marketplace they're telling people the good news, and there is this enslaved woman, and she has, St. Luke says, she has the spirit of divination. So she has somehow the ability to see what is not visible to everybody. And she keeps following Paul and Silas around and saying, these guys, these belong to the most high God. Now you know Paul is not perfect. Have you noticed this? So he gets annoyed and finally he's like, will someone shut her up that he pray. He prays that this demon will be cast out of her, this spirit, whatever it is. And it is.
This is not such good news for the people who have enslaved this woman, right? Because we're told that they're making a lot of money out of the fact that she can see what other people can't see. Okay? So before very long, Paul and Silas, the slaves of the most high God have been hauled into court and they're found guilty of, I don't know exactly what it says. They're found guilty of disturbing the city. They're advocating customs which are not lawful. They're guilty of being Jews. And so the magistrate orders that they be flogged, throws them into prison. The jailer says, I'm going to do a really good job with these guys, these bad guys. He puts them in the middle cell with lots of walls around them and he chains them up. He puts their feet in stock. So they are very secure. And remember, they've been beaten, they're wounded. They're probably in a lot of pain.
Around midnight, the prison is very quiet because Paul and Silas are singing and praying and all those captives are listening to them. And then there is an earthquake and the walls of the prison shake, every door is opened, every chain is broken, and every captive is at liberty. This is good news, except for who? For who is this bad news? for the jailer? What will happen to the jailer when his boss or bosses find out that everyone in the prison has been set free and run out. So he's going to be in trouble. I mean, so St. Luke says he is about to kill himself, not only I think because maybe he would be punished by death for sort of failing to fulfill his duty, but also he has lost all his honor. They’re saying like, you had one job, he had one job and he failed. What does he have left to live for? So he is about to kill himself in the dark. And then he hears a voice.
Do not harm yourself for we are all here. Do not harm yourself for we are all here. And he turns on the lights and he realizes not one of those freed prisoners has taken this opportunity to escape. What would you do if you were in prison and you were chained up and you were behind locked doors and there was an earthquake and your chains broke and the doors opened, I'd be gone. I'd be out in there. And that one of the prisoners has left. And so the jailer, he drops his weapon and he runs to the person who said, do not harm yourself, for we are all here with you. And he says, what do I need to do to be saved? And they say, all you need is to believe on the Lord Jesus. All you need is to believe on the Lord Jesus and hear his word. And they tell him about Jesus.
He came down from heaven by the power of the Holy Spirit. He became incarnate. He was born to this poor woman. He came to save us all to care for us all. And after they put him to death on a cross, he rose again and he ascended into heaven and he is reigning there. And we are here to proclaim his love and his power. And this jailer says, I'm all in. He takes these prisoners to his house, he washes their wounds, and the story ends with them all enjoying a banquet together, right? The jailer and his family are baptized and they break bread together, and they're all together in one place.
When we talk about being both simultaneously living our lives in heaven with Jesus Christ and here on earth with Jesus Christ, we're talking about the fact that being called into this community of love does not mean that we now get to float up above the problems and the suffering of the world. We have power, resilience, strength, comfort, and courage from our life with Christ and Heaven. And we use it to go into the place where people are hurt and suffering.
We have freedom and we use it to set other people free instead of running away from suffering. Because we are at liberty. We run toward the suffering and we offer care. And the story from Acts shows us what the result of that looks like. Enemies are reconciled to one another, right? Wounds are tended. The jailers wounds and the prisoner's wounds. People are fed, brought together. Remember that our prayer book tells us, and we affirm that our ministry as the church, the body of Christ on Earth, the presence of Christ on earth is to reconcile all people to God and to one another in Jesus Christ, to reconcile all people to God and to one another. So that means when the doors open and we are free, we go back and we continue to reach out our hands to offer care and to seek reconciliation.
Jesus has been telling us week by week through the season of Easter, love one another as I have loved you, so you also ought to love one another. And this Sunday, he ends that speech with prayer and he prays that we all would be one reconciled to God and to one another. And I want you to notice this part of his prayer. He says, my prayer is not only on behalf of these who are sitting around this table, it's not only on behalf of my disciples, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they all may be one.
Who are those that believe in Jesus because of the word of the people who sat at that table with him on the night before he died? Who are they? It's us. I want you to remember that on the night before he died, Jesus was at table with his friends, reminding them to love one another, to use their freedom to set others free. I want you to remember that he prayed that we would all be one, and that when he prayed that prayer, he prayed for you that we all would be one in Christ Jesus. Amen.