Scripture Readings: Acts 2:1–21 | Psalm 104:24–35 | 1 Corinthians 12:3–13 | John 20:19–23

“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 12:12-13)
 
Happy Pentecost.
 
Here we are, fifty days after Easter, celebrating one of the central festivals of the Christian faith. Today we rejoice in God’s gracious gift of the Holy Spirit… His personal presence and power, poured out onto His people… enabling us to do far more than we could ever imagine.
 
Many people consider Pentecost to be the birthday of the Church: the defining moment when the new community of Jesus Christ the Risen Lord first came into being… the beginning of a whole new era… God’s new creation coming to life in the middle of the old creation... dramatically upending history, and opening up a new way forward.
 
But what exactly is the point of Pentecost?

What was it God intended to accomplish by pouring out His Holy Spirit on His people? What is this “new creation” supposed to look like? What is the Church being empowered to do? Or maybe it’s better to say, what are we being empowered to become?
 
Just like the Ascension, which we explored last week, the story of Pentecost is not an isolated episode… a strange story that stands alone. Pentecost is a part of the whole arc of God’s great story, which finds its center in Jesus Christ… in what He has done, and in what He is still doing today.
 
Last week we spoke about how when Christ Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father in Heaven, His eternal reign as King of all Creation had begun. And just before He ascended, as Jesus told them that He was returning to His Father, He promised them He would soon send them the ultimate helper and gift: the Spirit of God. Christ  commanded them to wait in Jerusalem until this all came about. There was so much for them to do, but they couldn’t do it on their own. To truly be His witnesses in the world they needed God’s own power at work in them.

And today, on Pentecost, we heard that this is exactly what happened. Acts 2:1-4, “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.”
 
God’s Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples, and filled them with His holy presence… just like God’s holy presence and glory had filled the Tabernacle and Temple long ago. But unlike the Tabernacle or the Temple, the centre of the Church Jesus Christ the Risen Lord would not be bound to a building.
 
It would be the new community itself where God’s holy presence would dwell… the people of Jesus were now to be the “place” on earth where all the world could encounter the Living God. We Christians are to be the sacred sign of the Life of Heaven at work in the world… spreading out from Jerusalem to the farthest corners of Creation.
 
But is this really the story of the people who claim the name of Jesus today? Does the world around you and I catch a glimpse of the life of the Living God when they encounter us?
 
It’s not an easy question to answer.
 
We know there are many Christians living faithfully today, who through big and small ways are making known the New Creation that God is bringing about. Their work may not make the headlines these days, but the seeds of the Kingdom are still being faithfully planted, tended, and watered… and will produce the harvest the Lord is bringing about through their labours.
 
But we also know that there are many today who use the name of Christ as a weapon… a tool to try to build up their own kingdom, or tear down those who oppose them. For many of our neighbours today, “Christians” are simply one of the various factions fighting over control of our society… using “spiritual” language to get their own way in the world.  
 
And we know that these devastating temptations to bind the Christian faith to this or that cultural movement or political party are nothing new. They’ve been forces pulling at the Church for centuries… almost from the start. All throughout our history, Christians have also followed the ways of the world… tearing down and lashing out at anyone we see as enemies. And even seeing it as God’s plan somehow to use His power to push and keep them down.
 
You might think I’m being a bit extreme. But I’m not. Tragically, I’m not. There are lots of those who, like us, claim to follow the ways of Jesus today, who truly see themselves at war… and they’re on all sides of the divides that are tearing our society apart. Those who think the “Christian” thing to do is to tear down all who stand in their way.
 
Is this what the Living God had in mind when He created the Christian Church? When He poured out His Holy Spirit, His personal presence and power, onto the people of Jesus? Is this what we are to celebrate at Pentecost?
 
Or is there something more?

Thankfully, the actual story of Pentecost found in the Scriptures paints us a very different picture about what this New Creation Community of the people of Jesus is to look like… the kind of power that is still at work in it, and how we are to take part in it today.
 
In a word: Pentecost is about Peace. God’s peace breaking out into our warring world.
 
That first Pentecost we read about today, Jerusalem was a city divided. Jewish pilgrims who had been scattered across the Mediterranean world, had gathered in the Holy City for one of the sacred festivals of their faith. Coming together, even despite their cultural and linguistic differences, bound to each other only by their devotion to the Living God.
 
But when the Holy Spirit of God shows up, suddenly, these scattered Israelites were being brought together in a whole new way: by the Good News of the Messiah, Jesus the Risen Lord, which they could somehow all hear in their own languages.
 
We know how hard it can be to understand… to draw near to and share our hearts with people from other cultures. It’s not impossible, by any means! But still, there are lots of barriers. I mean, just consider how hard it can be for people from different generations of the same culture, even the same family to truly understand one another.
 
Imagine that day, when suddenly strangers from so many different nations, so many different ways of life, were suddenly in an instant all on the same level? All spoken to in the language of their heart, with no need for translation? All suddenly equally invited to take part in this new thing that God was doing?
 
That first Pentecost, suddenly, all sorts of divisions were overcome. God’s scattered people were able to truly come together… they were reconciled, setting aside the differences of language, culture, and distance that so often keep us apart… invited together to believe the Good News of Jesus, and to let it change their life.
 
From the very start, the Church has been a community of reconciliation… of those who were scattered being reunited… a broken body being renewed.
 
God’s Holy Spirit’s first action that first Pentecost was to bring God’s people back together.
 
Again, when we look around at the Christian Church today, true unity is hard to see. The strong temptations to cut ourselves off from each other… to divide up the Body of Christ for all sorts of reasons, have also been a constant danger for centuries. Our own Anglican tradition is no stranger to these tragic divisions. Even though we often try to hold to the Via Media, the “middle-way”, we too can easily let ourselves become estranged from our sisters and brothers in Christ… ignoring, competing with, or even fighting against each other, all the while thinking we’re doing God’s work, and faithfully following His ways.
 
Again, thanks be to God, Pentecost points us to the work of the Holy Spirit in overcoming these deadly divisions, and how He intentionally uses our differences to bring God’s blessings to life! In St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle makes this claim: 1 Corinthians 12:4-7,
 
“Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”
 
Right here we find, not an argument for conformity, but a vision of the one true God working with variety. With real differences, but all aimed towards a common, good purpose. St. Paul goes on to describe all sorts of ways that the one Holy Spirit empowers God’s people, not so that they can be independent, but so that they can depend on and be blessed by their brothers and sisters in Christ. 1 Corinthians 12:12-13,
 
“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.”
 
Racial, class, economic, and social divides… all broken down by the one Spirit of God. All believers are equally invited and empowered to share in God’s new community. One might be a hand, another a foot. Yet another an eye or an arm… yet all belong together. All have a true part to play. All suffer when one is cut off. Such is the Spirit’s work in the Church, drawing us together, with all our differences still intact, to show the world what the reconciling love of the Living God really looks like.
 
This is, of course, something that neither the first Christians, or disciples like you and I today can do on our own! Even the most sincere efforts we humans make to be truly united end up in trouble. To become one, we need God’s own power to break down the walls that we have build up between us. Only when our attempts at reconciliation flow from Him will they gain ground.

But as important as Christian unity is (and I believe it REALLY IS important!), this is only the beginning of the heavenly peace, the New Creation that Pentecost has opened up. For the people God’s Spirit had gathered together in reconciling love, were soon to be sent out and scattered among the nations to share God’s love with everyone.  
 
As we heard last week, right before Jesus ascended into heaven, Acts 1:8 tells us that Jesus gave His followers a promise and a mission. He said to them “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
 
The Holy Spirit was going to empower them to be Christ’s witnesses, His messengers and heralds, sharing the Good News of God’s reconciling love through Jesus Christ. Not just with their own people, but with their neighbours, and strangers, friends and foes alike… with everyone.
 
Jesus sent them out into the world. Not just to their fellow Jews, but to all nations. To those who already believed in the Living God, and also to those who do not! To those who have very different commitments, and convictions… very different ways of life, to share the Good News with them too! Inviting them to believe in Jesus, the Risen Lord and become His people too.
 
The same promise and mission of peace was told in our Gospel reading today, which tells of the Risen Christ’s first encounter with His disciples . after His resurrection:
 
John 20:19-22, “When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’ ”
 
Now in many ways, the Gospel of John presents the story of Jesus differently from Matthew, Mark, and Luke… but that doesn’t mean the same Spirit is not at work in and through it! For John, the giving of the Spirit happens on Easter, but the overall message is the same: Jesus, the Risen Lord brings the personal presence and power of the Living God to His people, so that they can be sent out and share with others… what they themselves have received.
 
And what is that? Here, Jesus says it’s His peace. The peace of God’s love… reconciling sinners to the Living God through what Jesus Himself accomplished… once and for all making peace between Heaven and earth through His blood on cross… sacrificing Himself in order to save His enemies… to bring true life to the very ones  who brought about His death.
 
We Christians have often tried to use the powers of the world… violence, coercion, force, to bring about our vison of Christ’s Kingdom, but this only contributes to tearing apart the New Creation God Spirit is bringing about. The Spirit of God is given to us to draw us all together in the love of Christ.
 
Christ gives us His peace at Pentecost, and this is the seed from which God’s New Creation is grown: Peace with God, peace with one another, and peace to share with everyone.
 
But to do that… to become a people truly shaped by Christ’s peace today, we must also become a people shaped by forgiveness. The forgiveness of God, of one another, and forgiveness shared with everyone.
 
In our Gospel reading, St. John tells us the Risen Christ tied His peace directly to practicing forgiveness: Jesus “breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
 
The forgiveness of sins, like the fiery glory of God, was another way that the Church of Jesus was like a new Tabernacle and Temple, for that was where God’s people would go to be reconciled to Him, and to their neighbours. But instead of bringing sacrifices to the Christian community to be forgiven, Jesus had already sacrificed His Holy life on the cross to bring them forgiveness.

Yet the Church community was now to be the place where this forgiveness could be encountered… could be made known, and experienced. Where the freedom from guilt, and shame, and broken relationships would become a lived reality.
 
Overcoming the barriers that divide people today is impossible without forgiveness. There is just too much hurt, too many wounds, and guilt, and shame, and fears on all sides to move forward without God’s forgiveness at the core.
 
And if we read through St. Peter’s Pentecost sermon, we’ll find that forgiveness is at its core too. From the first breath, the Church has been calling us all to believe the Good News that Jesus is the Risen Lord… and that He has given His life to rescue and reconcile world to God. That everyone, that all of us, must turn around and embrace this gift of forgiveness… not only for ourselves, but for each other, so that Christ’s peace may reign in us, and the world come to know to power of God’s saving love.
 
So how can we faithfully respond to the message of Pentecost? What are we being asked to do? Or to let the Spirit of God do in and through us?
 
We’re called to believe, repent, and forgive.
 
We need to believe the Good News of Jesus the Risen Lord. To take this truth to heart, and let it be the foundation of our lives. To entrust ourselves wholeheartedly to the arms of our loving Saviour, and cling to Him always.
 
We need to repent… to turn away from those old sins and temptations that kept us in the dark, tearing ourselves and each other apart. We need to step back from of our self-centered divisiveness… and let God’s love lead the way.
 
And we need to forgive… to share what we have ourselves received from Jesus: to look at those who have hurt us, and who might even seem to be our enemies, in the light of the cross of Christ. To recognize one another as those Christ loves and has died to save… just like you and I.
 
Of course, we can do none of these things on our own. We need the gift of God’s Holy Spirit… His presence and power at work in us to believe, repent, and forgive.
 
And this is the promise of Pentecost: that God really has poured out His Holy Spirit, and is at work even now in the lives of His people… doing what we can’t do on our own: making us into the place where the blessed life of the Living God is truly known here on earth, and where the peace of Christ in His beloved Creation has already begun to reign. Happy Pentecost everyone! Amen. 

Today we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit of God to dwell with us in power, filling us with His Holy presence, and preparing us to live as His people in the world, faithfully following Jesus Christ, the Risen Lord. 

​The story of Pentecost can be found in the Book of Acts, Chapter 2, and it is an integral part of the story of what the Living God has done, and is still doing today.

To learn more about how Pentecost fits into this wider story, check out this grat video from the Bible Project exploring the first half of the Book of Acts:

​Our service of Morning Prayer, Bulletin, and Sermon this week can be found here:

And our Songs for this week can be found here:

Scripture Readings: Acts 1:6–14 | Psalm 68:1–10, 32–35 | 
1 Peter 4:12–14, 5:6–11 | John 17:1–11

Why is it exactly that we Christians celebrate the Ascension?
 
The story itself is strange enough: forty days after the miracle of Easter, when Jesus Christ overthrew the chains of death, becoming the firstborn of God’s New Creation, the Risen Lord is lifted up as His disciples gaze in wonder, until a cloud finally takes Him from their sight. It all seems so odd… so otherworldly… so disconnected from our day to day lives, even as we strive to live as Christ’s disciples today.  
 
Why should we spend our time reflecting on this confusing part of Christ’s story? Surely there must be other, more pressing concerns for us to deal with?
 
And I mean, wouldn’t it be better for us if Jesus had just stuck around?  It seems strange to celebrate His mysterious disappearance… especially with all the trouble down here on earth to attend to.
 
But for the first Christians, and for us today, the Ascension of Jesus the Risen Lord is actually an incredible gift of hope for our world that seeks to transform how we live today.
 
From the earliest days of the Christian Church, the Ascension of Jesus has been at the core of some of the most radical, and revolutionary claims ever made. And far from being seen as irrelevant, the Ascension was significant enough of an event to be included in both the Apostle’s Creed, and the Nicene Creed: the early Church’s attempts to define the heart of the Christian story for ages to come.
 
Just think, every week, millions of Christians around the world and throughout history have proclaimed their faith, affirming that after His resurrection, Jesus Christ: “ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.”[1]  
 
So as strange as the Ascension might seem to us, perhaps we should spend some time trying to understand exactly what it means, for us and our world.
 
But to do that well, we need to turn to yet another part of the story of Jesus: the strange nature of His birth. Or as the Nicene Creed put’s it: His incarnation.
 
We say this word every week as well… but let’s stop and think about what it means. It comes from the Latin words “in” meaning “in”, and “caro” meaning “flesh”, the same word at the root of “carnivore”… that is, “flesh eater”, or “carnal”… meaning “mortal”. So “incarnate” means “in-the-flesh”: Jesus Christ “became in-the-flesh… and was made man.” Seems straightforward enough, I suppose.
 
That is, until we think about who it is exactly we are saying has become “in the flesh”! The “only Son of God”, we say with the Creed: the One who was “eternally begotten of the Father”… in other words, there was no such thing as time before Him! He is the One who is “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God”… everything true of God is true of Him. He was “begotten, not made,” that is, He is not a Creature, a part of Creation, but the One through whom “all things were made.”
 
And yet this One who was of “one being with the Father” became a human… stepping into Creation and taking on the reality of Creaturely life.  
 
This may not sound all that strange to us, as we say these words week after week when we gather for worship… but to make this claim was to completely mess with how the universe was understood.
 
Think of it like this: imagine going to a movie, and watching the actors playing out a scene on the big screen. We can simply get caught up in the story the actors are playing out, or maybe we might start to think about all the work that went on behind the scenes… the writers, the producers, the directors who all played a part in creating the story, but did not step in front of the cameras and become a visible part of the film.
 
Now imagine as you sit there in the movie theatre, the sole writer, director, and producer of the film suddenly walks down the aisle, and somehow steps through the screen and starts taking part in the scene along with the other actors!

This is the kind of beautiful madness and mystery we’re talking about: God breaking down the walls we assumed were unbreakable. In short, in the very person of Jesus Christ, both the Creator and the Creation are now united. The beautiful truth of the incarnation is that Jesus Himself is God-and-Humanity… Heaven and earth… bound together… forever! If that blows your mind, you’re not alone.
 
And this is where the radical nature of the Ascension of Jesus fits in… with that little word: “forever.”
 
It’s not at all about Jesus leaving our world behind. The Ascension is about Jesus lifting up our world with Him.
 
The Ascension of Jesus Christ means that our Creator and His Creation are still united… and always will be.
 
After all, we Christians believe in the “in-carnation”… but there’s no “out-carnation.” Not stripping off of His humanity. Christ didn’t just ditch His resurrected body somewhere in the atmosphere. Whatever it means for Jesus to Ascend to Heaven, it doesn’t mean that.

Christ was raised to new life… not to become a disembodied spirit, but as the firstborn of God’s New Creation… with a resurrected body, still bearing His scars, and yet more real… more alive… more filled with God’s life-giving Spirit than ever before. Christ has passed through death, and come to life, not as a ghost, but as the start of a renewed Humanity, united to the life of the Living God.
 
The beautiful bond begun at His birth… in His incarnation… the bond between Heaven and earth was not broken by His death, nor was it set aside as He Ascended.
 
None other than Jesus Christ the Risen Lord, God-in-the-flesh, sits at the right hand of the Father in Heaven. And He will reign that way forever.
 
Ok… I’ll admit that was not all that straightforward, was it? But then again, most of the deepest truths we encounter in life are not straightforward either. Beauty can be complicated… confusing even, and yet still draw us in deeper into it’s mystery. We need not comprehend it completely to be moved by it… or even be transformed by it.

If there’s one thing you get from what I’ve said so far, I hope it is this: in Jesus Christ, the Living God has not abandoned the world but has bound Himself to His beloved Creation… and because Jesus is alive and will be forever, that bond will never be broken.
 
The Ascension of Jesus is not about Jesus stepping out of the world, it’s about Him raising it up! And reigning at the right hand of God the Father as the Saviour King of Creation.
 
If we simply think of the Ascension as Jesus leaving, we miss the point… which is where He is headed! He’s being lifted up… glorified… the Son of God, faithful even unto death, has now been highly exalted.
 
In a sense, the Ascension is like Christ’s cosmic coronation. The moment when His Kingship over God’s Creation was made clear to His disciples… and challenging what they expected God’s Kingdom to look like.
 
In Acts Chapter 1, the disciples had been hanging around with the Risen Jesus for some time now. Forty days, to be exact. But in that time, they still had their old assumptions about what Christ was doing, and what He had in store for them.
 
Acts 1:6, “when they had come together, they asked him, ‘Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?’”
 
They expected the Kingdom of God to arrive in an instant. For the redemption of Israel, and the fulfillment of all the promises God had made through the prophets to suddenly transform the world. They were anxious to see what the Risen Christ would do to set the world back on track.
 
But Jesus had other plans… bigger plans… plans to not only bring God’s Kingdom to Israel, but to the whole earth… and to send out His disciples as His witnesses to bring this about. Acts 1:7-8, Jesus replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

They were to bear witness by the words they spoke and the lives they lived, that Jesus Christ really is the Risen Lord of all Creation. Like royal ambassadors, and heralds, proclaiming the beginning of a new King’s reign, Jesus would send His disciples out into the wide world to make His Kingdom known… to help His world that does not yet see Him as Lord to believe the Good News, and to share in the life of His Good Kingdom, which has already begun.
 
And this remains the calling of every Christian, including you and I: to speak and live each day as witnesses of the Risen Lord Jesus… sharing in the life of His Good Kingdom even now, and helping our world do the same.
 
And this is possible for us because our Lord Jesus Christ Himself remains with us through His Holy Spirit. And it’s through the Spirit’s power that the work of God’s Kingdom continues today.
 
The authors and theologians, Dr. Tim and Dr. Aaron Perry point this out in their book on the Ascension: “The promise of the Father, the gift for which [St. Luke tells us the] disciples are to wait, is revealed to be the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, who will come in the end time to set all that is wrong to right, to pacify the warlike, and to render the land fruitful once again. This wonderful universal renewal of creation, Luke tells us, is now possible because of the ascension of Jesus.
 
Luke wants us to comprehend the coming of the Spirit as the earthly echo of the heavenly enthronement of the victorious Son. Jesus is the heavenly King and as such, he is absent. Through the coming of the Spirit, though, he remains present to his followers. The coming of the Holy Spirit, the promised power from on high, is the sign and guarantee of Jesus’ reign and the manner of Jesus’ continued presence.”[2]
 
When we are tempted to think of Jesus our Lord as completely absent… as disconnected and detached from the cares of the world, and of our own struggles… when we can’t seem to see any signs of His Kingdom at work, remember His Holy Spirit, “the Lord, the Giver of Life.” Remember the gift of His holy presence and power, poured out on God’s people… a precious gift made possible because Christ has been lifted up.

We’ll have more to say about the Holy Spirit next week, as we celebrate Pentecost. But for now, it’s enough to remember that it’s through the Holy Spirit that Jesus our King reigns on earth… and it’s through the Spirit that His presence and power are made known in the lives of His people.
 
So how are we living by God’s Holy Spirit today? How are we bearing witness to His rule, here and now in Gondola Point?
 
We might not be sent across the world… but maybe we could go across the street? Or even start across the table?
For those of us who feel unsure of what we could do… can we start by devoting ourselves to prayer, and then let God’s Holy Spirit open up doors and lead the way?
 
The Ascension of Jesus is a message of hope for our world: that no matter how broken and dark things might get, God will never abandon His Creation. It’s future… our future rests firmly in the nail-pierced hands of the One through whom all things were created, and who through His resurrection power at work is making all things new.

So let us take courage. Christ Jesus is Lord of Heaven and Earth right hear and right now, even when we can’t see Him… and through His Spirit at work in us, we get to share in the life of His Kingdom, right hear and right now. Amen.


[1] The same wording is found in both the Apostle’s & the Nicene Creeds. Quoted from the Anglican Book of Alternative Services.

[2] Tim Perry & Aaron Perry, He Ascended Into Heaven: Learn to Live an Ascension-Shaped Life (Brewster, MA: Paraclete Press, 2010), 45-46.

(Photo of Risen Christ taken at Rothesay Netherwood School, Rothesay, New Brunswick)

Today we celebrate the Ascension of Jesus Christ, the Risen Lord, to the throne of Heaven, reigning forever at the right hand of the Father.

Here is a great video from the Bible Project that explores what it means for Jesus to be the Son of Man, ruling over God's good Creation even now.

​If you want to dig a bit deeper, here is a nine part Podcast Series by the Bible Project on the same theme: 

​And our Songs for this week can be found here:

Scripture Readings: Acts 17:22–31 | Psalm 66:8–20 | 1 Peter 3:13–22 | John 14:15–21

​“I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live.” (John 14:18-19)
 
One of the biggest challenges we face in the West today is loneliness… isolation… the ongoing lack of connection.
 
Earlier this month, the U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, made the striking claim that their country is facing a “loneliness epidemic”… a serious and a growing breakdown of people’s general sense of togetherness, that has dramatic implications for everyone’s wellbeing.
 
He writes that “Loneliness is far more than just a bad feeling—it harms both individual and societal health. It is associated with a greater risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia, stroke, depression, anxiety, and premature death. The mortality impact of being socially disconnected is similar to that caused by smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day, and even greater than that associated with obesity and physical inactivity. And the harmful consequences of a society that lacks social connection can be felt in our schools, workplaces, and civic organizations, where performance, productivity, and engagement are diminished.”[1] And as much as we might like to draw a line between ourselves and our neighbours to the South at times, this same story is playing out all over Canada as well.
 
Loneliness is just as much a problem for us and our communities.
 
In many ways, this isn’t a new problem. All throughout the human story, we people have had to search for ways to belong… to be surrounded by others we can share life with, in all it’s ups and downs.
 
In fact, overcoming isolation was one of the first acts of compassion and rescue in the story of the Holy Scriptures. In Genesis Chapter 2:18, the very first thing in all of creation that the Living God says is not good is that the human He made should be alone. To remedy this, God creates a community… created to share life side by side. From the start, the Living God longs for us His children to belong together.
And yet, here we are, so far from that gathering in the Garden… cut off in so many ways… and unsure how we are supposed to come together again. The question before us calls to min the words from the Beatles’ song, Elanor Rigby: “All the lonely people… where do they all belong?”
 
No doubt, all of us have stories of when we felt isolated and alone. And maybe some of us are feeling this way today, and are longing for something more… somewhere to belong.
 
Before we turn to our Scripture readings this morning, I just want to take a moment and share a small part of my story… from when I was a small and lonely boy, and someone saw me and stepped into my life.
 
I have a vivid memory from my very first day of school… in part because it was everyone else’s second day. I had missed that crucial first day of Jr. Kindergarten when everyone else came together, made new friends, and found out what school was about… and so when I arrived, a timid and socially unsure child at the best of times, I was overwhelmed by the feeling that everyone else already belonged, and I was stranger. When it came time to play, I remember just standing there all alone, while everyone else knew what to do, and could easily join in the fun with their newfound friends.
 
Mercifully, this moment did not last too long. Another boy saw me standing their, and came over to me, and in a friendly voice he simply said: “Do you want to play?” And suddenly I belonged. I was welcomed… invited in. Able to share in the fun that was happening all around me, but that seemed so far away.
 
Now I was supposed to belong there already. After all, I was a student not really all that different from the rest, but that’s not how it seemed to that frightened and isolated little boy. As far as I could understand at the time, I really was alone… until this other boy came and found me and befriended me. And from this simple invitation to play, a lifelong friendship has grown. It was such a simple gesture, a simple act of kindness and hospitality… but even so, it truly changed my life.
 
I know this story might seem pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but just remember: everyone is capable of feeling cut off and alone, no matter their age, or stage of life. Everyone has times when they feel lost and don’t know what to do. Everyone can lose sight of where they truly are meant to belong, until someone else invites them in. And everyone can play a part in helping others discover that they don’t need to be alone.
 
We often hear that God loves everyone… that everyone belongs by God’s side… but what does that love really look like? How can we come to know the power of this love that truly changes lives?
 
Does God’s love for everyone mean, that basically, everyone can just keep doing their own thing? That because God loves everyone, there’s no need to bother about actually letting them know? In other words, does it really matter that everyone comes to know the Good News of the Living God?
 
Our Scripture readings today teach us to say “Yes!” It matters so much! More than we often realize… though perhaps for different reasons than we might usually assume.    
 
Our first reading today from the Book of Acts Chapter 17 tells the story of the missionary Apostle, St. Paul, and his time in the city of Athens. One of the great centres of Greek culture and civilization, that had spread all across the Mediterranean world and beyond, Athens had a history of great thinkers and philosophers… not to mention a very diverse religious life as well.
 
But then St. Paul, this Jewish stranger from the backwater regions of the Roman Empire arrives… someone who could not have felt more isolated and out of place in Athens. Acts 17:16 says that St. Paul “was deeply distressed to see that the city was full of idols”, which for someone raised on the Ten Commandments, never mind the rest of God’s Law, would have been a major obstacle. For the Jews, idolatry… worshipping statues, or anything other than the Living God alone was unthinkable, and the source of all kinds of wickedness and sin.  And yet, despite his isolation, St. Paul stays in Athens a while, where he begins to get into some debates with his fellow Jews and Greek philosophers about the Good News of Jesus.
 
Unsure about the message this stranger was trying to share, the Greeks invite St. Paul to say more in a more formal setting at the Areopagus, where these kinds of discussions were held for a crowd to hear. And put on the spot, St. Paul starts to share the Good News about the Living God with these people who in some ways seemed so different from him, but who he knew God still loved.
 
St. Paul, this Jewish Christian, a stranger in Athens so many ways, invites his listeners to come to know the Living God, who is so unlike anything they had yet imagined. Acts 17: 24-28,
 
“The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’”
 
St. Paul points out on the one hand that the Living God is not like the other spiritual beings they worship through idols, and living for this God looks very different as well. But on the other hand, he claims that the one true God has always been reaching out to them in love… graciously providing everything they need, and longing for them to truly come to know Him too.
 
I suppose St. Paul could have left it at that. Encouraging his listeners with his message of this unknown God’s love for everyone… But St. Paul knew that coming to know the Living God and the reality of His saving love makes all the difference in the world! Acts 17:29-31,
 
“Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
 
What does St. Paul think it means for the Living God to love everyone? It’s an invitation for everyone to repent… to turn around… and turn away from everything that keeps us from Him, and to place our trust in the love of the Living God made known to us in Jesus Christ… the One who was raised from the dead, and who will reign over God’s Kingdom forever… sorting out all of the messes we humans have made that cut us off from one another and from our Creator, so that God’s good justice and peace will fill all the earth.
 
St. Paul’s point is that God longs for us all to belong, and be right with Him. In love, God has reached out to find us all in Jesus Christ, no matter how far off we may be… to bring us all home. To draw us together to His side, and share His New Life with us.
 
Through the strange words of this stranger, God Himself was speaking to the people of Athens, inviting them to draw near to the One who had been right there all along, and let Him change their lives for good… helping them find their own place in the world He created for them to share.
 
Turning now to our Gospel reading, we hear the words of our Saviour, Jesus, speaking to His disciples, on the night He would be betrayed. Christ speaks words of comfort to them, knowing full well the horrors of the cross that the next day would bring… reassuring them, that He would never abandon them… even in death. That even if the world could no longer see Him, Jesus and His Heavenly Father will not leave them all alone.
 
John 14:18-21, Jesus says: “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live.
 
On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”
 
Jesus wants them, and you and I, to know and share in the love and life of the Trinity, the Living God… Father, Son, and Spirit, holding onto His holy ways, and knowing we truly belong in Him. This is an image of community… of sharing in a deep relationship… and fellowship… of knowing, and being known, and having our lives transformed by the presence and influence of the other.
 
At this crucial moment in His life, and the life of His followers, Jesus invites them to trust in His love for them… a love they have come to know through His whole life… through the things that He said and did… a love that He ultimately shares with God the Father, and with God the Holy Spirit, and which He was about to share with the whole world, offering His life upon the cross for everyone.
 
We come to know the power of God’s saving love… a love that truly changes lives through Jesus Christ on the cross. Dying and rising again to reconcile us all to God, and give us New Life… breaking down every barrier that keeps us apart from God, and from one another.
 
And even more than that, this love show us where we belong in His great rescue mission too… serving as God’s partners as He keeps seeking and saving all who are lost.
 
“In a little while” Christ said, “the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live.”
 
As Christ’s followers today… as the community who has already come to know Him, and through Him has come to know God’s saving love… we find our sustenance and strength from our ongoing connection to Jesus.
 
And though the world today may not see Jesus… the world does see us! So if they can see the life of Jesus at work in us, through the Holy Spirit, the whole world can catch a glimpse of the Living God and His life-changing love  through us as well.
 
This is why how we live our lives as Christians really matters. It’s not to prove how morally superior we think we are, but to mirror God’s own character… His mercy and compassion, His justice and peace… His holy, life-changing love… so that through you and I, the Living God can reach out to everyone… inviting them to draw nearer and come to know that in Him, we all truly belong.
 
In Jesus Christ, God has made Himself and His love known to the world in a unique and ultimate way… and His Holy Spirit has been at work in all the world, seeking us out and drawing us all to the Father’s side through Jesus His Son. And now we all get to be part of His great invitation… our simple, everyday lives shaped by God’s love are how others will come to know where they too belong.
 
The story of my friend’s invitation to play has a sequel to it. Two years later, I missed the first day of Grade 1. But this time, instead of just being a stranger in my classroom, I was lost in a strange new part of the school, wandering the halls alone after the first bell range, without a clue where I was supposed to go.
 
As I wiped the tears from my eyes, and walked back and forth, looking for anybody who might help me find where I belonged, that very same friend saw me, left his classroom, and stood there with me… and again, I was no longer alone. On his own, this little boy helped me discover that I was actually supposed to be in his class again too! Such a simple, beautiful thing… to be together with friends… to belong.
 
God loves everyone. God is seeking out everyone. God came to us in Jesus so that all of us might come to know Him and His saving love.
 
It doesn’t matter what age we are, or where we come from, we get to be part of God’s gift of love to everyone. So, like my friend all those years ago, let’s not hesitate to step out and share God’s welcome with the world. To help those around us come to know the Good News of God’s love in Jesus Christ, the Risen Lord… to draw near and share in His New Life… and find our place together by His side. Amen.
 


[1] Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation: The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on the Healing Effects of Social Connection and Community (https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/surgeon-general-social-connection-advisory.pdf)

Scripture Readings: Acts 7:55–60 | Psalm 31:1–16 | 1 Peter 2:2–10 | John 14:1–14

​“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” (1 Peter 2:9)
 
What does it mean to be a success in the Kingdom of God?
 
Over the past few weeks, as we have been moving through the season of Easter together, our readings from the Book of Acts have followed the remarkable sermon St. Peter delivered at Pentecost. That morning, filled with the Holy Spirit, St. Peter offered to God’s people a dramatic call to repent, resulting in the eager reception and open hearts of thousands of Jewish pilgrims from all over the Mediterranean world. As far as sermons go, this one clearly made an impression, and we’ll say a bit more about its significance when Pentecost comes around in a few weeks. But by all accounts, St. Peter’s first message was a massive success! A dramatic and dynamic first step for the Church of the Risen Christ.
 
But then today in our reading from Acts Chapter 7, we heard about a very different sermon in the early days of the Church with a very different result.

We heard the end of a message from St. Stephen, one of the first deacons in the Church, who had boldly proclaimed the truth about the Risen Lord Jesus to his fellow Jews in Jerusalem, only to be stoned to death by them… accused of blasphemy and murdered by an angry mob.
 
It's hard to imagine a more opposite, not to mention undesirable, response, especially compared to St. Peter’s Pentecost sermon, where thousands of people responded in faith. And yet, the public witness of St. Stephen about the Good News of Jesus, the Risen Lord, has, from the very beginning, been seen by believers as a massive success as well.
 
But in order to see why it’s a success, we need to get a better sense of the bigger picture… and wrestle a bit with what it actually means to succeed in the Kingdom of God. Let’s start with a closer look at the speaker who gets rejected: St. Stephen.  
 
As I mentioned before, St. Stephen was one of the first deacons… set apart for the ministry of service within the Church, and caring for the practical needs of Christians, so that the Apostles could focus on preaching and teaching. And yet, even though it was not his job, so to speak, the Book of Acts recounts how God’s Holy Spirit empowered Stephen to speak about the Good News of Jesus in ways that many responded to… helping them come to know the Risen Lord through Stephen’s words and his deeds… but also drawing the attention of those who stood opposed to this message. Acts 6:8-14,
 
“Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and others of those from Cilicia and Asia, stood up and argued with Stephen. But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke. Then they secretly instigated some men to say, ‘We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.’ They stirred up the people as well as the elders and the scribes; then they suddenly confronted him, seized him, and brought him before the council. They set up false witnesses who said, ‘This man never stops saying things against this holy place and the law; for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses handed on to us.’”
 
Because of his Christian ministry, St. Stephen got into conflict with some of the Jewish factions in Jerusalem, who seized on his connection to Jesus in order to drag him to court to silence him. They claimed that St. Stephen and his message about Jesus was a threat to the Temple of God, and to all they held dear… and that he was promoting blasphemy, and so was deserving of death.
 
What’s clear is that St. Stephen had challenged their understanding of what it meant to be faithful to the Living God… calling them to change course… to reconsider what they believed about God’s Kingdom, and how to live in it.
 
To be fair, that was also what St. Peter had said to the crowds in his sermon on Pentecost. He didn’t mince words in an attempt to appease his audience, or worry about the backlash he might receive… he simply told them the story of Jesus’ betrayal, unjust arrest, and cruel crucifixion… rejected by the very people He had come to save.
 
St. Peter had boldly proclaimed that God’s people had failed to believe in… to trust in their Messiah, rejecting the Saviour God sent to them, and so they all shared in the blame for His death.
 
Sounds like a harsh sermon. But remember: no one would know more about failing to be faithful to God’s Messiah than St. Peter, who had been so close to Jesus, and had even bragged about remaining steadfast by Christ’s side, even if he would have to die with Him… and yet, before the night was over, St. Peter would betray His Lord three times over.
 
St. Peter knew all about failing to follow the Way… failing to trust in the Truth, and failing to cling to the One who is truly Life. Yet he had also come to know the forgiveness and the freedom that the crucified and Risen Christ offers to all: he knew that God calls everyone to repent… to turn around and turn to Jesus in faith, and find in Him God’s Way, God’s Truth, and God’s Life… no matter how lost, deceived, or dead in our sins we may be.
 
St. Peter’s message was that despite everything we have done to mess things up… Jesus Christ has died and risen again to pardon and to save us all. To turn us all around from our old lost ways, and all of the lies that bring death… and to lead us into life instead.
 
This is the Good News the first Christians dedicated their lives to sharing with those around them: retelling the story of Jesus the Risen Lord with their words and with their lives.
 
And this is what St. Stephen had dedicated his life to as well… putting into practice the self-giving love of God he learned from his Master, and helping others do the same… living out the Gospel of Jesus Christ… even if others would end up rejecting him for it too… which is of course, what happened.
 
St. Stephen’s life and message challenged and confronted those who refused to believe that they had had a hand in the death of God’s Messiah… and who were convinced that Jesus and all who followed Him were just deceiving God’s people, and trying to lead them astray.

So, they had St. Stephen arrested, and just like Jesus, accused him of blasphemy. And there, before the court, St. Stephen was given the chance to defend himself.
 
But what would he say?
 
Would he listen to the temptations to compromise his message, twisting it around to conform to what he thought others wanted to hear? Maybe he could convince them too if he made his message a bit more appealing?
 
Would he listen to the temptations to make the Gospel’s claims less shocking… less challenging or confrontational, in order to get others to accept it? Maybe he could avoid risking his neck if he just toned it down a bit?
 
But the truth is, the Good News of Jesus can be hard to hear, because the Good News of the Risen Lord brings to light and exposes how frequently lost we are… how often we fall for and even spread lies… how much of what we think will guarantee our survival only leads to death.
 
The Good News of Jesus calls us all, no matter who we are, or how close to God we might believe we are, to repent… to turn around, again and again, and draw nearer to the One who is Himself the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
 
The Gospel calls us to cling to Jesus Christ… to trust in Him, and follow Him wherever He may lead us. And St. Stephen wholeheartedly answers this call… even though it would cost him his life.
 
Standing in front of the court, after retelling the long story found in the Scriptures of the faithfulness of the Living God, despite the deep unfaithfulness of His people, St. Stephen responds, in Acts 7:51-60, “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do. Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers. You are the ones that received the law as ordained by angels, and yet you have not kept it.’
 
When they heard these things, they became enraged and ground their teeth at Stephen. But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. ‘Look,’ he said, ‘I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!’  But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’  Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them.’ When he had said this, he died.’ ”
 
Like Jesus, St. Stephen was slandered and falsely accused. Like Jesus, he remained faithful in the face of temptation, and certain death. Like Jesus, St. Stephen embodied God’s great mercy and self-giving love, pleading for the forgiveness even of those who were murdering him. In life and in death, St. Stephen walked in the footsteps of his Saviour.
 
And because Jesus Himself is the Way, the Truth, and the Life… what it means to succeed in God’s Kingdom is to stay true to Jesus… no matter how others around us respond.
 
That’s why St. Peter’s Pentecost sermon was a success… not because thousands of people believed it, but because by the Holy Spirit’s power, St. Peter spoke faithfully about the Risen Lord, and invited his hearers to trust in Him too.
 
That’s why St. Stephen’s final words in the witness stand  were a success… because, even in the face of violent resistance, and incredible pressure to back down, the Holy Spirit of God empowered St. Stephen stayed true to His Lord… to remain faithful to Jesus, not just by the words that He spoke, but by the way His life, his actions lined up with those of His Lord.
 
St. Stephen was a success in God’s Kingdom because He entrusted His life to the Risen Lord, and stayed true to the One who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
 
So, for you and I today, hear in Gondola Point, what does it look like for us to be a success in the Kingdom of God?
  
We won’t likely have the opportunity like St. Peter to speak to thousands of pilgrims all at once, or like St. Stephen to be surrounded by those accusing us of blasphemy, ready to strike us dead… although many of our brothers and sisters in the Church around the world do face these challenging situations.
 
But what are the ways that we can be tempted in our lives to step aside from the Way? Or to distort the Truth? Or to give up on the Life that we have been invited into, and entrusted to share with the world?
 
As individuals and as a Church family, we too face the temptations to change what we say and do to attract those around us, or to avoid suffering rejection.
 
We too can be easily tempted, like those who opposed St. Stephen, to try to hold onto our old ways. To resist Christ’s call to let go and turn away from the ways of life that are keeping us from staying true to Him… and holding us back from where He wants to lead us.
 
But even when we stumble and fail to stay faithful, Jesus, our Risen Lord remains true. He stands steadfast for us. He took up His cross, and gave up His life to bring us God’s forgiveness and freedom… and He calls us to follow Him, filled with His Holy Spirit who gives us the grace we need to stay true to Him too.
 
In short, success in God’s Kingdom, does not depend on the immediate results that we can see or achieve… but ultimately on the faithfulness of our Saviour, Jesus Christ the Risen Lord, and the renewal of our lives… our words and actions, to stay true to Him no matter what.
 
So, whether we find people flocking to our words of hope, and joining in the life of our Christian community… or if they turn against us, and we find ourselves seemingly alone… Remember what St. Stephen saw!
 
Jesus Himself, at God the Father’s right hand, standing up for his faithful servant… welcoming him into the joys of heaven, and reminding him that no matter what others may do, if the Living God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead is with us, our success is assured. And we too will share in the victory of the Kingdom of God forever. Amen.    

The coronation of King Charles III took place this weekend, and so we lift him up in prayer,
​inviting God's blessings and grace upon him and all the peoples under his reign.

Lord, enthroned in heavenly splendour:
look with favour upon thy servant Charles our King,
and bestow upon him such gifts
of wisdom and love
that we and all thy people
may live in peace and prosperity
and in loving service one to another,
to thine eternal glory;
who with the Father and the Holy Spirit
​reigns supreme over all things,
one God, now and forever. Amen.