IN THE END, CHRIST REIGNS OVER ALL - 7th Sunday of Easter, May 8, 2016; by Bishop Terry Brown

(Homily preached by Bishop Terry Brown for the Seventh Sunday after Easter, Church of the Ascension, Hamilton, Ontario, May 8, 2016.)

 
I think any preacher in Canada this Sunday has some major challenges: It is the Sunday after the Ascension: the earthly Christ has vanished, giving us or promising us the Holy Spirit of truth and wisdom, changing us from disciples into apostles, sending us out to live and proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ to the world.

Yet the context this week is a horrific natural disaster, a terribly destructive forest fire in Alberta that has disrupted thousands of lives and may well, in one way or another, impact us all. We might well ask, “Where is God in that terrible fire? Why does God let it continue?” And many other questions may well arise about our Christian understanding of God and nature. Just as we try to embrace nature with love and care, and we think of our observance of Earth Sunday two weeks ago, it explodes and becomes massively destructive.

It is also Mother’s Day, a secular holiday on which we give thanks for mothers and those who do the work of mothers.

And finally, the Anglican Church of Canada asks us to keep today as Jerusalem Sunday, praying and working for peace in that troubled city, “the mother of us all”, the home of the three “religions of the Book”, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. What a mixture for any preacher!

And we should note that poor Julian of Norwich, whose feast day it also is, has been supplanted. We’ll celebrate her in our Wednesday Eucharist.

Perhaps we might start with a quiet prayer for all the mothers who are caught up in the Fort McMurray fire, who are doing what mothers usually do in natural and human disasters, sacrificing themselves to look after their children and preserve their lives. And not just mothers, but grandmothers, aunts, and sisters; and fathers, brothers and friends. And not just Alberta; but all the places in the world where motherhood is fraught with violence, war, poverty, ill health, starvation and lack of opportunity. We pray for the mothers of Syria and Iraq; mothers who are refugees, including in our own community; mothers of Attawapiskat, and, of course, we pray for the mothers of Jerusalem, both Palestinian and Israeli, and their children, that they may live together in peace.

I believe it is good to think of Mother’s Day as a very inclusive holiday, as some have sought to be mothers and not been able, or have lost children, but yet are able to exercise motherly love. Often, in the words of Scripture, “she who is barren has many more children than the one who conceived and bore”. So we give thanks for our mothers and those who have taken the place of mothers in our lives; and pray that good motherly love may be part of our characters, whatever our gender. And that we may have the grace to accept the love of those who wish to be mothers to us.

Bishop Walter, in his Ascension Day sermon, pointed out that Jesus’ Ascension was the point at which the disciples ceased to be simply followers of the earthly Jesus but now, with that earthly Jesus gone, had to become leaders, apostles, not simply disciples; and that we are called to that vocation as the Holy Spirit is poured upon us: to be apostles in good relationships of Christian friendship with one another, but also sent out (that is the meaning of “apostle”: apo-stelein, to be sent out) to the world with the love of God in Jesus Christ.

But what about massive forest fires, earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes and floods? Where is the love of the Creator God in all of them? It would appear that God has given us a potentially dangerous world to live in; yet also the skills to live, learn, develop and flourish in this world. Take earthquakes, for example, caused by the earth’s tectonic plates shifting as the earth cools. That we know and can make some provision for. Indeed, we take on the risks of nature and sometimes nature wins. Floodplains have good soil so ancient and even modern civilizations plant gardens and even build cities in them; but floodplains are still floodplains and they sometimes flood. Likewise, forest fires, though immensely destructive, have an element of regeneration in them, they are a part of the cycle of nature, so humanity has to be careful.

To add to the mix, we can make things worse – for example, by massive deforestation, pollution of the oceans, excessive use of fossil fuels, and a wasteful lifestyle. We are all involved. I may be proud that my “carbon footprint” is small because I do not have a car; but I am about to make one very heavy carbon footprint as I fly back and forth across the Pacific Ocean for about the 20th or 30th time. We make our choices and we are called to choose with love.

We also like risky activities – perhaps white water rafting, or skiing or bungee jumping. And then there are our sometimes frail and vulnerable bodies that we do not treat so well through overwork or lack of rest. And then there are human-made disasters: wars, genocides, abuses, unjust economic and political systems, those who are happy to be ignorant or misled by an ultimately destructive ideology, religion or politician.  Indeed, Jerusalem today, with all its violence and instability, is often the result of religions in conflict, religions that have traded their God-given heritage of peace/shalom/salaam for violence and hatred.

This is the world in which we are placed and the world to which we are sent. It may feel like an enormous and impossible challenge. Yet the first apostles, at the Ascension, were sent into a Mediterranean world of war and natural and human disasters, with much less technology than ourselves, and the Gospel flourished.

First, we must make sure that our own house is in order, so that we are sent as a united and loving community (abiding in Christ and in one another, as envisioned by today’s Gosepl), not just as a bunch of individuals. And so we try to work together as a parish, with our various governing, advisory and programme structures; we try to be open to new ministries – new ways of being sent – without discouraging one another or the work of the Spirit. We are called near and far. We are called to be generous to those affected by the Fort McMurray fire: for example, through contributions to the Primate’s Fund. We are called to radical hospitality. We are called to be generous to mothers and those who look after children. We are called to motherly love. And if we want to continue in this building, we are called to the mundane tasks of furnaces, roofs, lawns, photocopy machines, budgets – but also bread and wine, which, blessed, brings it all together and sends us out.

I wanted to preach this Sunday as I am away the next five weeks in Vancouver, Brisbane, Solomon Islands and Fiji. The trip is a combination of work and holiday and I ask your prayers for my travels. Through the social media, many whom I visit already know of our parish. A couple Solomon Islanders have appeared here and more will come. I hope I can put together some sort of parish ministry visit next year to the Solomons that would broaden our vision but also provide some help and support. Marshal McLuhan’s “global village” is here and now and we are sent both locally and globally. And I am sure God’s Holy Spirit will continue to work among you while I am away.

Finally, overarching all of these concerns, is our continued reading of the book of Revelation as our Epistle during Easter and Ascension-tide; we have now come to its end. It is a reminder that no matter what the disaster, no matter what the tragedy, no matter what the difficulty, no matter what the disappointment – and John is writing to terribly persecuted Christians, rather like Middle Eastern and North African Christians today – no matter what the horror, no matter what the death, the Resurrected, Ascended and Glorified Christ reigns over all and will eternally reign over all, bringing all who are faithful to his side and wiping all tears away. So we work with that promise before us of the eternal heavenly New Jerusalem to come.

“The Spirit and the Bride say, ’Come’. And let everyone who hears say, ‘Come’. And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.”

Thanks be to God!