Bishop Aitken’s Sermon
For Congregational Use - May 1, 2016
(Recorded at Trinity Lutheran/Duluth on Monday, April 11th)
Greetings to you in the name of Jesus, Crucified and Risen for the life of the world!
I’m Bishop Aitken of Northeastern MN Synod and it’s my honor to bring you the sermon this morning. I also bring you greetings from your synod staff and from you Presiding Bishop, Elizabeth Eaton. I like how she frames our life together, using four ways of talking about us:
1-We are church
2-We are Lutheran
3-We are church together
4-We are church for the sake of the world
This May 1st, which is the 6th Sunday of Easter, the Gospel text appointed is from St. John the 14th chapter. I’ll be using that Lesson in my sermon today. All 136 synod congregations are represented at the Synod Assembly today by their voting members and pastors. I’m going to ask that you remember all of our synod congregations and our whole ELCA in your prayers at worship today. And especially, would you pray for our synod ministries: Companion Synods of India, Russia, Honduras, Our Campus Ministry, Our Seafarer Ministry, the School of Lay Ministry and also the Seminarian Debt Relief Fund and Seminarian Scholarships.
In John 14, our gospel text today, we see that Jesus has a very difficult job to do. He has to tell his disciples that he is not always going to be physically with them. He says something strange; “I am leaving you, and if you love me, you’ll rejoice that I am going.” Rejoice that he is going? Those disciples were his students; they lived with him for three years. He taught them, and modeled for them what the Kingdom of God really like. He was the face of God on this earth. Jesus knew that his disciples were on again/off again, they sometimes got it, and sometimes didn’t. They depended on him, now he was leaving, and we know they had already complained to him that they didn’t have enough faith!
I’ll tell you a quick story about me when I was in Jr. High even though it’s a little embarrassing. I loved church, I believed in God, and I loved learning about the faith. But I had friends who didn’t go to church and frankly made fun of God. And because I liked them, I had a struggle on my hands – a sort of spiritual crisis. So I went out one day and I demanded that God prove God’s existence. I wanted God to open the sky and either show Almighty God’s face or Jesus’ face or some sign. And it didn’t happen. It was only because I had a smart dad, and a great pastor and congregation, I realized that my plan wasn’t the best way to think about or live into faith.
Jesus says to his disciples, ‘I can’t be with you physically always; there is coming a day when you will be without my physical presence.’ The disciples must have gone through a crisis. They were like that farmer who has seed, but not enough for all his fields, so he doesn’t plantany of it and so there is no harvest. Or like that woman, who really wants to start a business, and gets all kinds of encouragement from her friends, but as she looks at the amount of money she has,and realizes it’s not enough, she throws up her hands in despair and doesn’t even consider a starter loan, so no business ever gets started. We can be like that too, can’t we? Sometimes I think we are like that kid who gets swimming lessons, maybe six or ten weeks’ worth, but on the day of the test, doesn’t feel he has it together enough, and so doesn’t even enter the water that day.
We can be on again/off again, like those disciples; we believe, and we have trouble believing. But Jesus goes on to say something remarkable in this lesson this morning, He says, ‘You will not be abandoned just because you won’t see me physically. The Father and I are one and we are going to come and make our home in you.’ Think about that. Almighty God the Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer, Reconciler of the whole universe has decided to make God’s home in us!
Last week I had a call from a friend from way back many years ago in college. We had mutual friends. And there was a great rift between he and another mutual friend. – We all knew it. They didn’t talk to each other for over two and a half decades. But he called me and told me, “The war is over, we called each other, I got forgiveness from him. I gave him my forgiveness. It was a marvelous moment. Then he talked about how God never quits working on us. And when Jesus says he’s never going to abandon us, this is how it works often. The indwelling of this Holy trinity works on us over time, in some sort of mystery in our life, works on us, helps us and brings us new life, so that we can bear the image of God, even God’s forgiveness for each other.
I was fortunate a several weeks ago to be a Reader at one of our Pastor’s Doctor of Ministry Dissertations. In this Dissertation, he discusses that word; Perichoresis, ( Pear-eh –core-ee-sis) which is about the mutual relationship of the three persons of the Holy Trinity, and how their relationship works together - just as Jesus is saying in this text: “The Father and I are one, and we will come and make our home with you. You won’t be alone. And then Jesus says something else, he says, ‘And we will send the Holy Spirit, who will remind you of everything I’ve taught you, and who will teach you and empower you.’
This is the good news. Believe it. Today, tomorrow, and until the day you die, then into the Life to Come! This presence of Christ is what the disciples experienced after Jesus’ physical appearance was gone from their lives. They experienced this indwelling as you and I do through the Word, through the Sacraments of the church, through the conversation and faith formation that we receive through the church.
Christian, child of God, Servant of Christ, you belong to Jesus who does not demean you, who does not act in a patronizing style, but who actually comes to empower you. He hasn’t left you alone. And he adds toward the end of this text, “I give you peace, not the kind of peace you get from the world, but the kind of peace you could never buy. You have this peace of God in Christ. Live in this faith – step out in the faith of your Risen and empowering Savior, Jesus.
To the glory of God - and to the good of your neighbor.Amen.