Today's Scripture Readings
Acts 1:15-17, 21-26 (NRSV)
Psalm 1 (BCP., p.585)
1 John 5:9-13 (NRSV)
John 17:6-19 (NRSV)
Blog Reflection
Those who will be attending the 77th General Convention of The Episcopal Church might be feeling what those first Apostles did. We have four very viable candidates to be elected as the next Presiding Bishop. Whoever is elected to the task is the Primate for Episcopalians throughout this branch of the World Wide Anglican Communion. There is a lot more on the plate for The Episcopal Church than just the election of the next Presiding Bishop. Whoever is elected will be TEC's leader of the House of Bishops who helps guide us into the joys and struggles of what the General Convention decides with regards to any number of issues. Let us all be in prayer for the Bishops and Delegates to the General Convention as they prepare for this important Convention.
As Christians, the other readings present us with some troubling words. As Christians we profess our belief in Jesus as God's Son and the one who brings salvation to the world. However, these many words present us with proclaiming the love of God through Jesus in a climate that still marginalizes other religions with their diverse beliefs and practices. What we must take into account is that the writings of 1 John and this section of John's Gospel are written by Johannine communities. The Gospel of John in particular represents a very highly intellectual view of Jesus as opposed to the narratives of the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. It is strongly believed that there were three contributors to John's Gospel; one of whom could have been St. Ignatius of Antioch, a disciple of St. John the Evangelist. Having written that, it is important to be careful about reading too much into what Jesus says during what we call The Last Supper Discourse with a literal, face value interpretation. We must be very careful of what we call the "Jesus only" references, especially John 14:1-5.
We can interpret 1 John and the reading from John's Gospel today from a similar view point of last weeks readings. Jesus is praying that Christians will go beyond what we see the world is about; and respond with a reverence and respect for the dignity of every human person. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus gives to the Disciples and to all of us the means of how we can follow Jesus in word and example. Jesus showed us how to welcome the stranger. He was the example of how God values every human person so that no one is left on the fringes of society and/or the Church as if they do not matter. Jesus loved those whom others considered unlovable and received them with radical hospitality with the intention of reconciliation. Jesus not only told the Pharisees how to purge themselves of hypocrisy and relying on visible religious piety for the sake of being seen and celebrated; He taught all of us in our own hardness of heart. In the reading from John, Jesus is praying with earnest desire that those He has shared the Goodness of God with, will be the outstanding example of what He taught them. I truly believe that Jesus continues to pray that prayer for all of us.
I need this prayer as a Benedictine Novice as much as anyone else who follows Jesus. I continue to be inspired by The Rule of St. Benedict, in particular Chapter 53 about receiving guests. However, I have to confront within myself every day those attitudes and behaviors by which I am not open to welcoming Christ in others. I can get so wound up in what is on the outside that I forget what real Benedictine hospitality is truly about.
Whether our particular practice of hospitality is a ministry of receiving the countless individuals affected by racism, sexism, heterosexism, gender bias, the poor, the sick, the lonely, the Muslim, Jewish person or Atheist. Jesus is praying for us to be protected from the blindness that keeps us from opening our hearts to His presence with reverence and respect for every human person. Jesus did not leave us without God's help. Jesus sent us the gift of the Holy Spirit which we will celebrate next Sunday on Pentecost. When we allow the Holy Spirit to help us surrender ourselves to God's will, all of us can be an answer to the prayers of Jesus in our world. God knows how much our world needs us to be the answer to those prayers.
Amen.
Prayers
Acts 1:15-17, 21-26 (NRSV)
In those days Peter stood up among the believers (together the crowd numbered about one hundred twenty persons) and said, "Friends, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit through David foretold concerning Judas, who became a guide for those who arrested Jesus-- for he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry. So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us-- one of these must become a witness with us to his resurrection." So they proposed two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus, and Matthias. Then they prayed and said, "Lord, you know everyone's heart. Show us which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place." And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias; and he was added to the eleven apostles.
Psalm 1 (BCP., p.585)
1 John 5:9-13 (NRSV)
If we receive human testimony, the testimony of God is greater; for this is the testimony of God that he has testified to his Son. Those who believe in the Son of God have the testimony in their hearts. Those who do not believe in God have made him a liar by not believing in the testimony that God has given concerning his Son. And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.
John 17:6-19 (NRSV)
Looking up to heaven, Jesus prayed, "I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth."
Blog Reflection
Those who will be attending the 77th General Convention of The Episcopal Church might be feeling what those first Apostles did. We have four very viable candidates to be elected as the next Presiding Bishop. Whoever is elected to the task is the Primate for Episcopalians throughout this branch of the World Wide Anglican Communion. There is a lot more on the plate for The Episcopal Church than just the election of the next Presiding Bishop. Whoever is elected will be TEC's leader of the House of Bishops who helps guide us into the joys and struggles of what the General Convention decides with regards to any number of issues. Let us all be in prayer for the Bishops and Delegates to the General Convention as they prepare for this important Convention.
As Christians, the other readings present us with some troubling words. As Christians we profess our belief in Jesus as God's Son and the one who brings salvation to the world. However, these many words present us with proclaiming the love of God through Jesus in a climate that still marginalizes other religions with their diverse beliefs and practices. What we must take into account is that the writings of 1 John and this section of John's Gospel are written by Johannine communities. The Gospel of John in particular represents a very highly intellectual view of Jesus as opposed to the narratives of the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. It is strongly believed that there were three contributors to John's Gospel; one of whom could have been St. Ignatius of Antioch, a disciple of St. John the Evangelist. Having written that, it is important to be careful about reading too much into what Jesus says during what we call The Last Supper Discourse with a literal, face value interpretation. We must be very careful of what we call the "Jesus only" references, especially John 14:1-5.
We can interpret 1 John and the reading from John's Gospel today from a similar view point of last weeks readings. Jesus is praying that Christians will go beyond what we see the world is about; and respond with a reverence and respect for the dignity of every human person. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus gives to the Disciples and to all of us the means of how we can follow Jesus in word and example. Jesus showed us how to welcome the stranger. He was the example of how God values every human person so that no one is left on the fringes of society and/or the Church as if they do not matter. Jesus loved those whom others considered unlovable and received them with radical hospitality with the intention of reconciliation. Jesus not only told the Pharisees how to purge themselves of hypocrisy and relying on visible religious piety for the sake of being seen and celebrated; He taught all of us in our own hardness of heart. In the reading from John, Jesus is praying with earnest desire that those He has shared the Goodness of God with, will be the outstanding example of what He taught them. I truly believe that Jesus continues to pray that prayer for all of us.
I need this prayer as a Benedictine Novice as much as anyone else who follows Jesus. I continue to be inspired by The Rule of St. Benedict, in particular Chapter 53 about receiving guests. However, I have to confront within myself every day those attitudes and behaviors by which I am not open to welcoming Christ in others. I can get so wound up in what is on the outside that I forget what real Benedictine hospitality is truly about.
Ultimately, hospitality is not about the table you set, or the driveway you plow. Hospitality is about the holiest of holies. It is about the heart you make ready. Yours. (Radical Hospitality: Benedict's Way of Love. Lonnie Collins Pratt and Fr. Daniel Homan, OSB p.169).
Whether our particular practice of hospitality is a ministry of receiving the countless individuals affected by racism, sexism, heterosexism, gender bias, the poor, the sick, the lonely, the Muslim, Jewish person or Atheist. Jesus is praying for us to be protected from the blindness that keeps us from opening our hearts to His presence with reverence and respect for every human person. Jesus did not leave us without God's help. Jesus sent us the gift of the Holy Spirit which we will celebrate next Sunday on Pentecost. When we allow the Holy Spirit to help us surrender ourselves to God's will, all of us can be an answer to the prayers of Jesus in our world. God knows how much our world needs us to be the answer to those prayers.
Amen.
Prayers
O God, the King of glory, you have exalted your only Son
Jesus Christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven:
Do not leave us comfortless, but send us your Holy Spirit to
strengthen us, and exalt us to that place where our Savior
Christ has gone before; who lives and reigns with you and
the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen. (Collect for the Seventh Sunday of Easter. The Book of Common Prayer, p.226).
Grant, O God, that your holy and life-giving Spirit may so
move every human heart [and especially the hearts of the
people of this land], that barriers which divide us may
crumble, suspicions disappear, and hatreds cease; that our
divisions being healed, we may live in justice and peace;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for Social Justice. The Book of Common Prayer, p.823).
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