Those in Need, Abide in Christ, Experience Christ

Reception

Good evening, everyone! As I pass out our readings for today, let us look forward to this upcoming Sunday, in some churches called Rogation Sunday. This is a day the church celebrates the labors of the masses: farmers, factory workers, etc. Those unheard masses that are essential to the functions of every person on this earth. Today’s readings and homily focus on the mass of people in Christ’s body, those that call themselves Christian, and our need in Christ. It is a celebration of the global community of Christians and a looking forward to His Ascension!

Collect for Purity

Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy Name; through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Readings/Lessons

Old Testament Lesson

A reading from the Old Testament, the book of Isaiah, the 41st Chapter,

Isaiah 41:17–20 “When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue is parched with thirst, I the Lord will answer them; I the God of Israel will not forsake them. I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. I will put in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive. I will set in the desert the cypress, the plane and the pine together, that they may see and know, may consider and understand together, that the hand of the Lord has done this, the Holy One of Israel has created it.”

The Word of the Lord,

Thanks be to God.

New Testament Lesson

A reading from the New Testament, St. Peter’s letter to the Christian church, the 3rd Chapter,

1 Peter 3:8–18 “Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. For “Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,”

The Word of the Lord,

Thanks be to God.

Gospel Reading

The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, According to St. John,

Glory to you, Lord Christ.

John 15:1–11 ““I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”

The Word of the Lord,

Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Exposition/Sermon

In the beginning of St. Mark’s gospel, we are offered this striking statement by Jesus, who, speaking to a crowd of people questioning who He surrounds Himself with, says, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Is this a rhetorical statement? Well, not only Christ show His mercy here but continues on Old Testament themes of God working through those “sick” to demonstrate His power, grace, and plan.

Was it not the “sick” people of Israel, constantly turning to idolatry, that God chose as His model nation, to demonstrate the Kingdom to come in Christ Jesus? So does sickness refer to separation from Christ, our one mediator with God. So does spiritual apathy denote said sickness: a lack of care for a brother, an undue egoism, betrayal, anger, bitterness, neglect. We’re not called to be of the world, of jealousy, vengeance, and individualism, but to strive as one community. So do our Old and New Testament Lessons repeat this theme.

That when Christ refers to those sick, he refers to those in need of support. Those in support he calls blessed, as in his beatitudes: “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” This is not to speak of poverty as a sickness, but rather to re-frame the biblical idea of poverty as poverty of the spirit, a sickness, that which is far more detrimental than any other form of poverty. Thus, many early Christians write about causing upon themselves material poverty if it increases their spiritual wealth, the only currency which matters.

And St. Matthew’s assurance from Christ that the poor in spirit are blessed ties into Isaiah’s prophetic assurance that the Lord God will provide answers to those poor and needy. The reason this is important is that there are multiple Greek words used for “poverty” in the bible, one which denotes a purely material poverty, and the one used in Mark and Isaiah, here, that denote simply a lack of something that one needs, or a destitution that one calls out for.

So we too, all of us born, are in need of support for our sickness, our spiritual poverty, and need uplifting. Where can we receive this? In spiritual communion.

St. Peter, in our lessons today, speaks earnestly of one thing: unity. Unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind, he lists. Yet, it is this last point which sticks the most to a radically Christ-centered life—the humility of the mind. A Christian humility seeks to follow the life of Christ both in his ministry and suffering. It means departing from the sensible aspects of this world and seeking to transform oneself and those around them in order to orient themselves towards that heavenly kingdom in which they are invited.

And transformation is started, moved, and catalyzed by one ineffable act in the Christian’s life—one of mystery and beauty beyond our comprehension of its effect—the life of prayer. ‘For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer.’ That not only is prayer the heart of Christianity but that moment in which we stand most humble before God. Thus, Evagrius Ponticus in the 4th c. speaks of prayer as “communion.” That same “communion” we get when we gather, when we share the Lord’s cup and bread—his blood and body. It is in these acts, by a union of God’s will and our compliance, that we become united. And this unity is not one of rationality, the Greek text does not speak of the intellectual mind (‘nous’) but of the emotional mind (‘phreno’). One example, preaching, or speaking to others about the good news of Christ, as Paul writes, “for since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.”

The early church consistently speaks of prayer and these acts of unity as being one between believers, but most importantly, as one of divinization, where we become partakers of Christ’s nature—human and divine. That is our calling first and foremost: reconciliation and peace—to seek and pursue it.

So radically transforming oneself to be like that greatest man is the essence, the root of the Christian life and destiny of mankind writ large. To be reconciled after The Fall, to orient oneself to Him who died for us, for, as St. Peter writes, “Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh and made alive in the spirit.”

So we learn two things here, 1) that at one point we were all counted as unrighteous, and through Christ’s grace we were brought out of it. 2) We are also called to be put to death in our flesh, in our worldly desires, and desire instead new life, in the spirit.

It is this unity, that is given and provided only by Christ as “you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” And as the Apostle John gives as metaphor for this fundamental ontology of the Christian being, He is the true vine, we are its branches. The vine is life, the vine is salvation, the vine does not need its branches. Yet the vine rejoices in our enjoinment to it. St. Augustine speaks that the Scriptures here “declare in so many words that the Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, is the head of the Church, and that we are His members. For as the vine and its branches are of one nature, therefore, His own nature as God being different from ours, He became man, that in Him human nature might be the vine, and we who also are men might become branches thereof.”

As water is given to a vine and spread to its branches. Christ, the Son of God, is given spirit (life) by His Father, the root, to give to us all, His branches. This water, water of the spirit, water of life, is that ability to operate in His divinity. Not our own. We do not become separate gods, for separation negates unity. We are only made alike Him in Him, and in our unity and humility with one another.

Yet we are not in Him in the same kind of way that He is in them. And yet both ways tend to their advantage, and not to His. For the relation of the branches to the vine is such that they contribute nothing to the vine, but from it derive their own means of life; while that of the vine to the branches is such that it supplies their vital nourishment, and receives nothing from them. And so their having Christ abiding in them, and abiding themselves in Christ, are in both respects advantageous, not to Christ, but to the disciples.

So when the poor and needy, representing us in our spiritual darkness and fallenness without Christ, call out, he answers. He responds as St. Matthew recounts, “come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Note how the antidote to our brokenness in our Isaiah passage is this water, that which we seek, that which He gives in a pool, out of the dry lands. Thus, we remember Moses, who disobeyed God by angrily striking a rock to provide material water to the Israelites. That lack of faith, that lack of spiritual water, “rocked” the Israelite nation. It is not any spiritual leader or human that gives water, renounce all that, it is God, through His Son, who provides us the water we need.

This water is accounted as spirit, life, rest, and according to St. John, a chance to abide in Him. I spoke two weeks ago about how this season of Eastertide calls into action a movement from Christ’s death to His resurrected self in the lectionary readings, so recount that verse from the 23rd Psalm: “He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside still waters.” Recount how it is Christ that stills the stormy waters out on the ship. In our restlessness, our being-in-the-world, we are given nothing but Christ as our salvation. As Christ bellows, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” We do not deserve, yet as we abide in Him He chooses to abide in us, to give us fruit, to give us peace, to take upon our labors, our faults, the works of the devil, as we point them up to the cross.

Christ’s calling and metaphor, given by St. John’s account alone, provides the basic foothold for this unity and humility of mind for the Christian community. That is, through prayer an entrance into the body of Christ in which He is head. And, once in said heavenly kingdom, an earnest prodding that John 15:10–11 “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”

To sum, the Christian life is one of community, one of communion, with none by Christ as the head of the body. We only come to gather in Christ, to feast in Christ, to love in Christ. So, Christ came not for the righteous, but for the sinners. Not for the healthy, but the sick. I do not know how many of you feel today in your wrestling with the Spirit, but do know it is not complicated to be part of Christ’s body, which is the church. It is a communion of broken people all seeking to become like God, sharing in his nature through prayer and love. We want to model He who suffered for us such that we can propel that love outwards. That, as a communion, we may relay the words that St. John ends with here, that “these things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” Christ never needs us, but he wants us, he urges for us to join his communion—to remain humble with your brother and sister, to love them, and to see evermore the pursuit of good over evil.

I end now with a line from Psalm 148—a Psalm of praise: Psalm 148:4 “Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens!” Let us, as brothers and sisters, as one communion, love Him who leads us, who brings us into peace, and who takes upon our negative thoughts and mundane labors. All our fear, all our anxiety, all our hopelessness, all our disunity, and all the other works of the devil, may we send them to the cross!

Collect for the Sixth Sunday of Easter

O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Benediction

Let us end tonight in a benediction, from the words of St. Paul,

1 Peter 5:10–11 “And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

Go in peace to love in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.