Pentecost Sunday ---- 31 May 2020

Acts 2:1-21

1 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. 5 Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6 And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7 Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power." 12 All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" 13 But others sneered and said, "They are filled with new wine." 14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, "Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. 15 Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning. 16 No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: 17 "In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. 18 Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. 19 And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. 20 The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord's great and glorious day. 21 Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.'

1 Corinthians 12:3b-13

3b And no one can say "Jesus is Lord" except by the Holy Spirit. 4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses. 12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

John 20:19-23

19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." 22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."

To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

·        This is Pentecost Sunday and were we together face-to-face we might read the passage from the Acts of the Apostles which names all the peoples who heard the apostle preach in their languages. I’ve heard this passage done in English, Spanish, Slovak, French, Latin, Greek, German, and Tagalog, the language of the Philippines. It’s an amazing thing to hear. It might be as close as we can get to the Scriptural report of the Pentecost event.

·        What we celebrate today is the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the assembled disciples of Jesus, a group we may call the Early Church. If this pandemic reminds us of anything about our Christian lives, it reminds us that WE ARE THE CHURCH, and where we assemble for worship is called “church” because of that. The Holy Spirit among us now makes us the Church of Jesus Christ. We’d be as much “church” if we gathered around a picnic table to share the Word and maybe the Supper.

·        When I think of the Holy Spirit and the New Testament’s narrative of the Spirit’s working, I’m often left wondering why the Spirit does not work that same way today. Some of it appears mysterious and scary, even to the point of being “spooky.” Admittedly, there are those who maintain that the Spirit works now in the same ways the Spirit was seen to work in the early church – healings, languages, “speaking in tongues”, interpretation of those tongues, prophecy, and discernment of spirits. Some of this is spectacular and some of it is played for the spectacle I’m sure. The only time I’ve seen anything like this, it scared me.

·        Is this what is needed now among the disciples of Jesus? Is this how we want the Spirit shown? Sometimes when the Spirit is called on to do this sort of thing, those who want to see it grow tired and jaded; they long for something new and exciting… and they’ll move along to get it.

·        Never doubt that the Spirit of God moves among God’s people today. Sometimes it’s spectacular, but more often than not, it’s ordinary. It looks especially ordinary since we may have never known a life without grace and the presence of God.

·        So do you want to see the Spirit of God today? Do you want to know the wind of the Spirit?

·        Look at the parents of a child with special needs who continue to do what they can.

·        Look at the children of a parent whose health or mind has gone and yet they do what they can for that parent.

·        Look at people who keep the faith despite hate, exile, sickness, or failure.

·        Look at congregation members who work hard and continue to believe while the world goes to hell in a hand-basket around them.

·        Look at people who cook wonderful cabbage rolls for others while they themselves can’t stomach cabbage.

·        Look at people who work tirelessly to show Jesus’ love and concern in the simplest things they might do every day, often without even knowing they’re doing this.

·        Look at people who were not able to do all those things mentioned above and in their heart of hearts wish they could have.

·        I’m a great advocate of saying the Spirit works extraordinarily in the ordinary things of life. Baking? Carpentry? Farming? Accounting? Playing third base? Sure, these are gifts of the Spirit! Why not? They’re not so spectacular, as good as they might be and if they’re done for the good of those all around, the Spirit is present and active. What did Jesus say? “Love one another."

·        You and I are ordinary? Sure! Rejoice in that for the Spirit is there with us. That’s been the “new ordinary” since the first Pentecost. Remember the words of Paul…

To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

A Moment Aside --- 27 May 2020

Jesus, Divine Physician, come to our aid!
Heal us, O You who love humankind!

   Do you ever wonder about the Lord's Prayer? Well, the one we all memorized from our childhood is not the one found in the Scripture. Here is the prayer Jesus taught found in Matthew 6:9-13: 

Our Father in heaven,
    hallowed be your name.
10     Your kingdom come.
    Your will be done,
        on earth as it is in heaven.
11     Give us this day our daily bread.
12     And forgive us our debts,
        as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13     And do not bring us to the time of trial,
        but rescue us from the evil one.

A little different from our usual prayer. However it is not so different. Luke 11: 2a-4 is this:

Father, hallowed be your name.
    Your kingdom come.
3     Give us each day our daily bread.
4     And forgive us our sins,
        for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.
    And do not bring us to the time of trial.

A good bit shorter, although it carries the same ideas. Both versions do not have the ending Doxology "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever." 

So what do we do? For me, I'll continue to pray the Lord's Prayer as I learned it, for it speaks to my heart. How?

• It calls God "Father" which is a special relationship. I know this is a tough one for those who's relationship with their father here was troubled. Please don't let that stop you. You can even insert "Mother" there since God has no gender.
• It praises God by "hallowing" God's name. This could mean blessing, praising, revering, making special, or simply stating that God's name (which can mean all that God is) is particularly good for us to know.
• It asks God to bring about the Kingdom with all that means - justice, peace, forgiveness, intimacy with the Divine, and unity with all that exists. It means much more than the political rule of some person.
• It asks for daily bread - all that we might need today. It asks for our "bread of the day" referring to the Day of the Lord and all we need to come to that day as God's people. Is it lunch or is it Holy Communion. The answer is "Yes, and more!"
• It asks for forgiveness and the grace to forgive as we have been forgiven, which is pretty hard to pray for when you think about it.
• It asks that we might not be put to the ultimate test. Now, I don't know how to take that. Are we asking to have God exempt us from the time of trial... when God did not exempt Jesus? Are we asking for grace to endure whatever trials we might face, and not just financial/medical/political stuff. I mean the real trials: Who am I in the face of all creation? Who do I say God is? I don't know. It might be so.

In any event, keep praying this prayer - however you learned it, in whatever language you learned it in. Say it every day! Mean it every time!

     I once asked a wise man, a Christian teacher, how to pray. His answer was simple and incredibly profound; he said "Want to." When you pray as Jesus taught us, want to pray and want to pray those words.

The Seventh Sunday after Easter --- 24 May 2020

Acts 1:6-14

6 So when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?" 7 He replied, "It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." 9 When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. 11 They said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven." 12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day's journey away. 13 When they had entered the city, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying, Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. 14 All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers.

1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11

12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ's sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory, which is the Spirit of God, is resting on you.

5: 6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time. 7 Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you. 8 Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, steadfast in your faith, for you know that your brothers and sisters in all the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering. 10 And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you. 11 To him be the power forever and ever. Amen.

John 17:1-11

1 After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4 I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. 5 So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed. 6 "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. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; 8 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. 9 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. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. 11 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.

Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.

·        Before we begin, I’d like to ask… who’s tired of staying home and doing stay-at-home things?

·        I’m pretty much a home-body and I don’t mind staying home… some. Right now, I am tired of it and I’d enjoy seeing some of my friends. However, I know the reasons for staying home and I agree with them. We’ll touch on this again soon.

·        Today we hear Jesus’ words on unity, on being one – so that they may be one, as we are one. Of course he is referring to oneness with the Father. He prays (not just speaks about but prays) that his disciples might be one as he and the Father are one. This oneness is for the good of the disciples and it is also for the good of the world, the world he says he is leaving. The disciples remain in the world for the good of the world through the message of grace and salvation they are to share. (For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. – John 3:16)

·        Does it seem odd that John speaks of “the world” in both positive and negative terms? On the plus side, he says God so loved the world and then later on the minus side, as in today’s reading, he says the world does not hear him, although his disciples do. John appears to say the world is good and something created by God and loved by God and all who love God even while saying at the same time that it is the place of struggle and rebellion, the place of opposition to God. This can get confusing. It’s true that John’s Gospel can be confusing at times in both theme and wording. Yet, this Gospel maintains that God loves the world so much that God sent his only son and continues to send the Son’s disciples to continually reconnect the world and its inhabitants to God.

·        Here’s where our weariness with “social distancing” and the COVID-19 virus comes in. We may in fact feel exhausted, tired, cranky, and even lost and aimless because of our circumstances. What is our mission while we look out the window and maybe wait for someone to call us on the phone.

·        In times like that and in all other times, the Gospel tells us that Jesus has prayed for us and continues to pray for us even now. His prayer at the table of the Last Supper asked the Father to make us all one – one with each other and one with him. In living out the love of Jesus in the world as we find it, we experience that oneness - with Jesus, with the Father, with each other, and with the world that God loves. This is what Jesus’ prayer in today’s Gospel is all about. We are called not to simply be one with each other, as difficult as that may be, especially now; we are also called to know and live out our oneness with the rest of humanity and with all the created world.

·        How is this possible? By God’s grace and the gift of faith. Whether we’re alone, in small groups, or in larger bunches, opportunities to show and share the love of God will come our way. Really, it is only by the grace of God, a grace that will not fail us in doing what we need to do and being who we need to be… for the sake of the Kingdom of God, a kingdom that is much wider than we could ever imagine.

·        After all, this is what Jesus himself prayed for

Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.

A Moment Aside --- 20 May 2020 -- Ascension

     Tomorrow, Thursday, May 21, is Ascension Thursday. This is the celebration of the day when Jesus left his disciples and returned to "the right hand of the Father." It's an odd day on the Christian Church calendar. It means very little to some people, yet for others it is a very special day. It appears that Ascension is special to farming people and I'd guess that it was a welcome break from the work that needs to go on in a farming community. The date is always 40 days after Easter and because of that it is a Thursday. The narrative can be found in Act of the Apostles 1:6-11.
     It seems odd that such a day celebrates nothing less than the absence of Jesus. Jesus leaves his disciples and "ascends" into heaven. The book of Acts had Jesus going up until a cloud obscures him from his disciples' eyes. This leads to a few questions...
     Is Heaven "up"? Or is Heaven all around? Some folks wondered if astronauts would encounter God and the angels as they left the earth beneath their feet. "Ascension" could mean "going up" to a higher way of being rather than a helicopter ride to "up there."
     Something a pastor taught me years ago has stayed with me all these years. If Jesus ascended to heaven in his resurrected body - which was a real, material body that could be seen and heard and touched and could eat - then the body is somewhere. Jesus did not vaporize or blink out of existence. He went somewhere which means he is somewhere. Where he is is beyond me to figure out, but he is there.
     It is possible that Jesus rose and ascended and sent the Holy Spirit so he could be with us where-ever we might be. He is beyond the usual restrictions of time and space. To go further, he lives in each of us as his disciples.
     If we want to see Jesus today, we have a number of places to look. We can turn to the written Scriptures where his presence can surely be found. We can turn to the Church's sacraments, especially the Lord's Supper where his presence is assured to us. We can look to each other for each Christian is a reflection of Jesus' life and grace. (I must admit that some show this better than others, but that's how it goes.) If we are of a poetic mind and spirit, we can find the presence of Jesus in the natural world, in the astronomy of the skies, and even in the science that expresses the wonders of creation to us all.
     Hear the words of Psalm 139: 7-12:

Where can I go from your spirit?

    Or where can I flee from your presence?

8

If I ascend to heaven, you are there;

    if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.

9 

If I take the wings of the morning
and settle at the farthest limit of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me fast.
If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light around me become night,"
even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is as bright as the day,

    for darkness is as light to you.

However we see the Ascension and however we celebrate it, it means that Jesus is with us and within us. 

Something worth both remembering and celebrating.

The Sixth Sunday of Easter ----- 17 May 2020

Acts 17:22-31

22 Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, "Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. 23 For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, "To an unknown god.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. 26 From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, 27 so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. 28 For "In him we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your own poets have said, "For we too are his offspring.' 29 Since we are God's offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. 30 While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead."

1 Peter 3:13-22

13 Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? 14 But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, 15 but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; 16 yet do it with gentleness and reverence. Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame. 17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God's will, than to suffer for doing evil. 18 For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, 20 who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. 21 And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you—not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.

John 14:15-21

[Jesus said to his disciples] “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. ¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. ¹⁷ This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.

¹⁸ “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. ¹⁹ In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. ²⁰ On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. ²¹ They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”

If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

·         When I was in the seminary, I asked one of my professors, a man of great spiritual wisdom and someone I trusted, how I could know I loved God. He responded with this text from John’s Gospel. If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

·         Does this seem simple? I should hope so! Keeping the Commandments could be a snap! Don’t kill; don’t steal; don’t lie; honour your parents; you know the list as well as I do. There can be a twist however. The commandment says don’t kill. (In Hebrew, it says “Do not murder”, but we’ll leave that alone for now.) Still to be angry enough to want to kill goes against what Jesus taught. In addition, revenge and vendetta and grudges are all on very shaky ground.

·         Then there’s that “coveting” thing. If we like our neighbors’ rose bushes, stealing them during the night would certainly be wrong… and how about getting a bigger, better rose bush at the nursery, just to show them up?

·         Of course, we have no other gods before the Lord God, do we? Where does the majority of our attention go? I’ll translate that: What do we worship? There are lots of 21^st Century gods – Status, Money, Success, Career Advancement. I’m sure you could hear the capital letters there.

·         So how do we love God, today, here and now? By keeping the commandments. And Jesus says “my commandments.” Are they different from what God set down for Moses? Jesus would not wipe out what his Father laid out to the Hebrews in the desert, John also put these words down about Jesus’ commandments: “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”  (John 13: 34-35)

·         Matthew’s Gospel records Jesus responding to the question about the “greatest commandment” with these words: “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ” (Matthew 22: 36-39) What is said here pretty much covers the Ten Commandments and what they require. In fact they go somewhat further.

·         If you love your neighbor as you love yourself, you won’t kill them, rob them, steal from them, lie to them, or even be jealous of their spouse or belongings. Luther’s Small Catechism follows this line of thinking and has this explanation of the fifth commandment: You shall not murder. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not hurt or harm our neighbor in his body, but help and support him in every physical need.

·         Is this harder than following the commandments to the letter? More than likely because when is enough enough? To do that perfect following could place any of us among the most self-righteous of the Pharisees. It is God’s grace that continues to make the difference. To follow the spirit of the commandments requires the aide and grace of God as well as the forgiveness of God for our failures. In this as in everything, we rely on the grace and mercy of God.

·         The first letter of Peter says: For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit… It is not our own righteousness that does this, but the grace and spirit of God. As Pentecost approaches, we’ll hear more of the Holy Spirit, for it is In him we live and move and have our being… as Paul reminded the Greeks. It is there our hope always resides and God’s promises are fulfilled.

Bishop Susan’s prayer from May 14. 2020

God, you come to us in many ways unknown, unseen and unheard. Open our hearts, our eyes, and our ears to find you in silence, and in the sound of the seas, and wind that stirs the tops of the trees. Help us to know and feel your presence with us at all times and in all places so that we may believe, obey, and adore you. In Jesus’ name.   Amen.

A Moment Aside ---- 12 May 2020

O Divine Physician, grant us your healing!

   Faith is many things. It is a virtue and it is a gift from God. It is something to hold on to and use, to keep and to share. It is what makes us the people we are in the eyes of the world; it's our identity. There are a few things to add about it. Faith is not blind; it sees and acknowledges things that are wrong, whether those things are outside of us or within us. Faith can falter and we can ask what it is we believe in. Faith can be seen as assenting to a list of things, events, occasions, or words. Still in all, faith is trust in something. In the case of a Christian, it is trust in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who redeemed us, forgives us, and continues to be with us. 
   The little poster above (I don't know what else to call it.) reminds us that even we feel nothing, we can be faithful in giving our trust to God. Feelings come and go, dependent on mood, health, and the weather. Faith as a choice and a response to God's power in our lives need not change with rain or crankiness. 
   After all, God's grace does not change because of those things. We base our dedication to God, first and foremost, on God's dedication to us!


I just found out that today - May 12th - is International Nurses Day. It would be worthwhile for us to remember nurses, doctors, technicians, PSW's, EMT'S, volunteers, and all others who work with people in their illness and distress. Here is a prayer we can all join in on. (It's from the Lutheran Church in India. Christians make up about 3% of the population of India and roughly 30% of nurses in India are Christians.)

The Fifth Sunday of Easter ---- 10 May 2020

St. Stephen, deacon and martyr
whose story is told in the first reading.

Acts 7: 55-60

But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. ⁵⁶ “Look,” he said, “I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” ⁵⁷ But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. ⁵⁸ Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. ⁵⁹ While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” ⁶⁰ Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he died.

1 Peter 2:2-10

 Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation—

 ³ if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

⁴ Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and ⁵ like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ⁶ For it stands in scripture:

“See, I am laying in Zion a stone,
    a cornerstone chosen and precious;
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

⁷ To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe,

“The stone that the builders rejected
    has become the very head of the corner,”

⁸ and

“A stone that makes them stumble,
    and a rock that makes them fall.”

They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

⁹ But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

¹⁰ Once you were not a people,
    but now you are God’s people;
once you had not received mercy,
    but now you have received mercy.

John 14:1-14

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. ² 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? ³ 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. ⁴ And you know the way to the place where I am going.” ⁵ Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” ⁶ Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. ⁷ If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

⁸ Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” ⁹ Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? ¹⁰ Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. ¹¹ Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. ¹² Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. ¹³ I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.

If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.

·        We often end our prayers with “In Jesus’ name, we pray”, relying on what Jesus said about praying in his name. He said If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it. Could it be just that simple?

·        Yes, it can… and no, it isn’t that simple.

·        As a child, I prayed for snow on my birthday. A fairly harmless request, but also one that did not mean much. I was praying for my own will to be done regarding the weather. (It rarely happened, by the way.)

·        To pray in Jesus’ name means to pray with his authority, according to his relationship with the Father. Now as a not-so-good example, I have a friend who is an officer in the Air Force. As he put it, he “holds the Queen’s Commission”, which means he derives his authority from Her Majesty through the government of Canada. His authority as an officer is not from himself; in effect, he gives his orders “in the name of the Queen.”

·        I wondered how this might work for our prayers “in the name of Jesus.” We don’t have Jesus’ power to heal or to change the minds and hearts of those we talk to. Because of grace and our relationship with Jesus, we have the ear of the Father and that still doesn’t guarantee the bicycle we prayed for when we were nine.

·        To pray in the name of Jesus really means we must be of the mind of Jesus when we do pray. For us to pray that way means that asking is not a function of what we desire as much as it is placing ourselves in the mind of Christ and seeing things as Christ sees them.  I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 

·        If this is the case, what we pray for and pray about will most likely change. If it is for the glory of God and not for selfish gain, then what Jesus said will be. We might also pray for the spirit of wisdom in order to know what we should ask. 

·        There is very little that we cannot bring before God in prayer. If we are God’s beloved children as the Scripture tells us, health, peace of heart, repentance, pains and sorrows, needs for problems and fears are all things to pray about and pray for. And our prayer is not limited to that. It is in the name of Jesus that our lives are grounded. So the apostle Paul could write Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus… (Colossians 3:17a  NRSV) and So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31  NRSV)

·        Prayer is not a vending machine where you put in your money and you get what you pay for. Prayer grows from the relationship we have with God in Jesus Christ. That relationship will involve rebirth, renewal, and conversion of our minds and hearts to the mind of Christ, as Paul wrote in his letter to the Philippians:  Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied him-self, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. (Philippians 2:5ff)

·        When we are filled with God’s grace and animated by it, we will pray in the name of Jesus, for the mind of Jesus will come with his grace. We’ll make mistakes and missteps, sure, and we’ll stumble. And that’s were Resurrection comes in.

·        The author of the first letter of Peter tell us who we continue to be in God’s grace, despite any stumbling: like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.  This indeed is what we are called to and what we will come to in God’s grace and the mind of Christ.

If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.