Fifth Sunday of Easter
Year B
Acts 8:26 - 40
I John 3:14 -24
John 14:15-21
Psalm 66:1-11
Johanna Morrigan
I was right here in 21st Century Minnesota - in the midst of this miraculous Easter season where the promises of God are still being fulfilled.
It's the season that calls out to us, reminding us of Jesus' last and greatest commandment - to love and to serve one another as he loves and serves us.
The long season of Lent is over. It's time to join the butterflies and break out of our cocoons. God has need of us and there's work to be done.
It's time to wake up, throw open the windows, smell the fresh air and look around. It's time to recognize the needs of God's children, to take stock of our wealth and to share from our abundance.
So what is this abundance - this wealth ? In his first letter, we hear John say that it's what we have of the world's goods - food, clothing, money.
And we Episcopalians are a generous people. We give to the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief. This month we are collecting the money from our UTO boxes - all those dimes and nickels and quarters that we drop in those little blue boxes when we are grateful for something. We bring food to the food shelves, and send clothing to flood victims. We are a generous people.
But is this really our true wealth? What we own? What we have earned through hard work and honest labor?
What about the greatest treasure of all - the gift that Jesus promised that his Father would send to each one of us? ...The gift that we can't earn or work for ... The gift that is freely given to us when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. The translation of this morning's gospel reading calls this gift the Advocate. But the word "advocate" doesn't even begin to capture the amazing reality of this gift........
For each one of us who believes that Jesus Christ is the only Son of God and our savior, God gives us Godself - the Holy Spirit.
As Christians we are the recipients of this greatest of all gifts - the gift of Godself living within us. Now THAT is wealth.
And just what is it that are we supposed to be doing with that wealth?
God creates each one of us with unique talents and gifts. And then, God adds God's Holy Spirit. It's like adding the leaven to the bread. God takes the ingredients of those special and unique gifts and adds Godself to work in them until they become the bread to feed the hungry.
Just as we ask the Holy Spirit to sanctify the bread and the wine in the Eucharist to be for us the body and blood of Jesus Christ - God gives us the Holy Spirit to sanctify the gifts that God has given us. So that when we put our talents and skills to use in God's service, they become a sacrament - an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace.
God's grace shines through us - and brings light to a world who is so desperately in need of God's love and compassion.
So what are your gifts?
Where does God call you to allow God's love to shine through you?
Perhaps it is through your gift of music........
Or your gift of laughter......
Perhaps it's the radiance of your smile, or your ability to organize and get things done when people like me have their heads up in the clouds waxing some poetic nonsense.
Your gift may be the ability to gather God's children in worship and prayer
The glow of God's love may show through your creativity or your common sense.
Your ability to recognize the wounded and the hurt, and to bring them to the healing grace of God's love may by the gift that the Spirit is seeking to bring to fullness within you.
Your carpentry skills may be how God wants to shine through you.
Or it may be your aptitude for doing figures and math..
Your gift may be that of humor and wit, or the honesty and wisdom you bring to conflict.
God's love may shine through your ability to sit quietly and lovingly with someone who is dying.
There are no gifts too big or too small, too exciting or too mundane, too weird or too ordinary - that God does not have need of them.
Where does the Holy Spirit kindle the fire of God's love within you?
None of us are exempt. God needs to move and love through each and every one of us if God's work of bringing the Kingdom is to ever be accomplished.
God resides in all of us: young and old; big and little; men and women; gay and straight; rich and poor; able-bodied and disabled; open-minded and closed-minded; cranky and pleasant; trusting and cynical; out-going and shy; confident and insecure; coordinated and clumsy.
There is a particular ministry that God needs each one of us to fulfill. No one who confesses Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior is exempt. It is not something that the other guy can do just as well. It is only something that you can do - because you are who God is calling to do it.
Whether it's to become a lay reader, accept a call to the Ministry Team, or arrange for rides for those who have no way to church - it doesn't matter.
What does matter is to stop and listen to that inner voice of the Spirit - the one that is nudging you to step forward..... The one that says, this is what is needed from you - not from someone else, but from you..... The one that is saying, "see, here is how I need to shine through you."
Yes, the Easter season is the season of wonder and delight when God calls us to fulfill God's promises. And if God's promises are to be kept, each one of us has a job to do - a gift to share - a treasure to reveal - the treasure of the risen Christ that lives within us....
I saw Christ last week.
He was wearing blue jeans and an old shirt.
He was over at the church repairing the furnace - again.
He was all alone and working hard.
For just a minute he looked a little like our Junior Warden.
But it was Christ ... I could tell by his smile.
I saw Christ last Sunday.
She was leading Morning Prayer.
She didn't talk real loud and stumbled over a word or two.
But you could tell she really believed what she said.
For just a minute, she looked like one of our Lay Readers.
But it was Christ ...I could tell by the love in her voice.
I saw Christ yesterday.
He was at the hospital visiting a sick friend.
He washed his friend's face with a cool cloth.
He opened his prayer book, and they prayed together quietly.
For just a minute he looked like one of our Lay Eucharistic Visitors.
But it was Christ ... I could tell by the tears in his eyes.
I saw Christ this morning.
She was washing windows at the home of an elderly woman
who can't get around much anymore.
She was chatting and laughing with the woman while she worked.
For just a minute, she looked like one of our Ministry Team members,
But it was Christ ... I could tell by the joy in her voice.
I saw Christ last month on Easter morning.
She was wearing an acolyte's cassock and cotta.
She was serving the priest.
And then she was offering me the cup of salvation.
For just a minute she looked like one of our youth.
But it was Christ ... I could tell by the love shining in her eyes.
Lately I've seen Christ just about everywhere.
Taking food to the sick, visiting the lonely,
inviting a friend to pray,
fixing a broken toy, wiping a tear away.
And for just a minute they look like someone I know.
But it's always Christ ... I can tell by the way they glow.
When's the last time someone saw Christ glowing through you?