The readings appointed for today can be found at http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearA_RCL/Easter/AEaster5_RCL.html#gsp1
+++
The Farewell is the Beginning
The Gospel we hear today, is one that many of you will find
familiar within another context.
Funerals. Or, the burial of the dead, as the prayer book
calls this sacred rite. This Gospel is offered as one of the possibilities of
scripture appropriate to a funeral—and it in, in my experience, the passage
chosen most often by families as they mourn.
Chosen, quite simply, because of the deep comfort that so
many find in the words, “I go to prepare a place for you.”
How many of us long to know that those whom we love, and see
no longer, have found their place in the house of God, in the life that is to
come.
That Jesus, ever in front of us, will not leave us
comfortless.
Will not leave us comfortless, in life or in death.
So, yes, this passage is frequently proclaimed at funerals...but
it would be just as suitable at a baptism or confirmation. Those moments when
we commit ourselves to living a life in Christ.
Because, while Jesus seeks to prepare his friends for his
departure by assuring them that they will follow him, he also is extolling to
them the importance of continuing the work that he has set before them. The
work of love made manifest in action, belief made visible through a life lived
in testimony.
This is a passage, meant for the living.
The living, the living who long for Christ, like a newborn
longs for milk. Not just to sake the thirst, but to live. To live and to grow.
To grow in body, but we are more than body…and hence the author of 1st
Peter’s description of our spiritual longing for Christ as one akin to the
newborn’s longing for milk. And, when we are fed, we grow.
We grow in faith; we grow in love. We grow in our ability to
set down the stones that would destroy and take up the stones that would build.
Today’s readings are about how we are called to grow in
faith; and in that growth, to grow in service; and in that service to grow in
love.
In a just a moment, I will be inviting our youngest members
to join me at the chancel steps for a story. It is a story about beginning to
grow. It is a story about finding strength to take on the big adventures that
await. It is a story in which a little garden elephant wonders if he grows all
by himself, or if he is in fact connected to others.
As I read the story, I want each of us to consider how we in
our connection with each other help each other to grow. In love and in
strength.
And, in your consideration, I ask that you remember that
upon every baptism we, the community of faith, the household of God, commits to
do everything in our power to support the newly baptized in their life in
Christ.
So consider, what you, what we, what this community does to
support each other as we grow in faith and in love. Because, we don't grow unless we are fed.
So, children, join me at the steps... as we consider a
little garden elephant.
“Pomelo, Begins to Grow” by Ramona Badescu, illustrated by
Benjamin Chaud.
 |
| For a review of this charming book, go to |
No comments:
Post a Comment