Enduring Hope

Intro

I’d like to start with a few orienting observations, which will hopefully help us plow our way forward for the remainder of the year. Pentecost commemorates the gathered disciples receiving the Holy Spirit. Then two weeks ago, the first Sunday after the Feast of Pentecost, is the Feast of the Trinity, which commemorates the revealed truth about God Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, ever three, and ever one. Then last week, a happy coincidence, we commemorated our patron saint, St. Barnabas, together with Confirmations and our bishop’s annual visit.

Today we finally launch into the season of Pentecost proper, which will last through the remainder of the year until the first Sunday of Advent. Some may know the season of Pentecost as “Ordinary Time.” However, the way that we, especially us Americans, use the term “ordinary,” doesn’t quite do it justice.

The word, “Ordinary,” carries with it quite a negative connotation. If I said to you, “this dish was ordinary,” what might you say that I mean? That this dish wasn’t bad, but that it wasn’t good either. It’s more or less, “meh.” So for us, “Ordinary” means “meh.” Neutral. No feeling either way. Neither good nor bad. Just, ordinary.

But the real meaning of the word is, in my opinion, different. Ordinary really means the normal order of events – the way that things are supposed to work, the way that things are supposed to be. Ordinary, then, takes a much different sense. I want everything to be ordinary, because when things are ordinary, it means that things are the way that they are supposed to be.

And so we come to ordinary time, the season of Pentecost, which will lay out for us a world the way that it’s mean to be. We begin to read the Bible a little different during Sunday worship: more than being based on events, we will be seeing, through the stories of Scripture and of the way that the church unfolded over time, a picture of a world that reflects its new reality: that the promised shepherd has come and has lead his people into the that place of green pasture and cool waters.

So we come to today’s readings. In the Gospel story of today, we see the commissioning of the Twelve Apostles. “Apostle” is a noun that comes from the Greek verb “to send out.” So, the Apostles, very literally, means “the sent-out ones.” They were people, twelve men, that Jesus directly commissioned and delegated to go and do the same things that he was already doing and to teach the things that he was teaching. This is why we don’t call people apostles anymore, because for us it means a very specific thing: someone who was directly sent out by Jesus to do the work that Jesus was already doing. Obviously, the ministry of the apostles remains today in the office of bishops.

Why It Matters

Jesus’ message according to St. Matthew could be summarized by one phrase: the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

And this is precisely the message and the point that these messengers, these “sent-out ones” went and taught. But not only taught, but also reflected. You see, the thing about Jesus, is that he not only brings the teaching, but he also gives us snippets of what exactly this means for the world overall. Namely, that the kingdom of heaven look a lot like earth, but at the same time fundamentally different at the same time. So people in the kingdom of heaven look a lot like normal people, except they’re not sick.

The message, and I think the whole point of the season of Pentecost, of Ordinary Time, is to show us, to give us a glimpse into the future, to take a peek into the kingdom of heaven, and to remain in hope that Jesus has indeed restored all things, and that he now reigns over all things, as we await for the consummation God’s work of salvation for his creation.

Dig Deeper

The concept of the kingdom of heaven is tremendous. We could spend weeks and weeks just fleshing out what we mean by this phrase and its implications.

But I will only mention one brief thing about it today. To help us, take out your bulletins and go back to the OT lesson for a second.

Israel has fled Egypt, and they have wondered the desert for four years. During this time, they became afraid that they would die in the wilderness, so much so that they even wondered if it might have been better to stay in Egypt, to stay in slavery, and at least have a place to die, than to die in the wilderness from hunger or from thirst. Of course, during this time, God gave them manna and water, and sustained them through the entire journey. So they arrive at Mount Sinai and God tells them that their obedience to the Covenant that he has made with them will set them apart, will make them “[God’s] special treasure,” a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” Moses tells them what God has said, and they respond that they will do everything that God has told them.

And so the kingdom of heaven really is basically this: when God’s creation lives according to the ways that God has created them to live, and both live in perfect harmony with one another.

Of course we know the rest of the story. We know the story both in the text, but also within ourselves. We know the struggle that it means to truly follow God and to live according to his precepts. We know deep down that the ways that God would have us live are far better than we could come up ourselves, and yet we cannot seem to get it right, both individually and as a society. Why is this? As St. Paul says, “I do what I don’t want to do, and I don’t do what I want to do.” We see it in history, over and over again.

But listen to how St. Paul, in our second lesson today, looks at this. He says, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.”

This is the very core of the Good News, that even though we constantly fall short of being good enough for God, than even then he chooses to rescue us. So we are given hope, that regardless of what the world might look like, or of how many times I fail, that God’s faithfulness endures, and that the work that he started will one day be completed.

Take-Away

Friends, the kingdom of God is at hand. Go on and live your life knowing that the God who created you, and who knows you infinitely more intimately than you know yourself, as redeemed you, and has prepared the place for you in his kingdom, through the life, death, and resurrection of his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, to whom we give glory, now and forever. Amen.