7th Sunday in Easter, Year A, June 1, 2014; The Rev. Pamela Werntz
Acts 1:6-14 All of these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women…
1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11 (but what about 4:16?) If any of you suffers as a Christian, do not consider it a disgrace, but glorify God because you bear this name.
O God our protector, may we have the wisdom, the strength, and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth – come when it may and cost what it will.
Today, in our church calendar, we mark the time between the Feast of the Ascension and the Feast of Pentecost – an official acknowledgement of a sort of liturgical limbo. In our New Testament narrative Jesus has triumphed over death; Jesus has gone to his heavenly reward; but comfort and the inspiration, the clarifying flame of the Holy Spirit that he promised to send has not yet arrived. The wonder is that this in-between season lasts for only nine days – because in my experience, the time between great distress and loss and comfort and clarity is usually much longer than nine days! Then I remember that our calendar days really don’t have much to do with God’s time.
Many of you know that I almost always have a bone to pick with the lessons as they are given to us in the lectionary, and today is no exception. The passage from 1 Peter skips right over some really important verses, in my humble opinion. The passage from the Gospel of John gives us half a prayer – stopping right in the middle of an idea. In 1 Peter, this line is left out: “If any of you suffers as a Christian, do not consider it a disgrace, but glorify God because you bear this name.” That seems pretty important to me – and it can be a key to understanding the reading from John that it is paired with on this seventh Sunday of Easter. I’ll read the skipped verse again. “If any of you suffers as a Christian, do not consider it a disgrace, but glorify God because you bear this name,” that is, the name “Christian.” The name Christian was a derogatory label when it was first applied. It was a bad word. Both the writer of 1 Peter and John the Evangelist know from experience that if you’re doing your job following Jesus, you are going to suffer, because suffering is a consequence of compassion and the struggle for justice. It’s a consequence of living in community and staying in relationship! Continue reading