EASTER RERUNS

A Sermon preached by the Rev. Michael Anderson Bullock

[Acts 11:1-18; Revelation21:1-6; John 13:31-35]

In the evening, as a way of closing out our day and recovering from one meeting or another, Bev and I usually sit down to watch some t.v.  Particularly at this time of the year, new episodes are being introduced to the programs we follow.  Tuesday night’s “FBI’s”, Wednesday night’s “Chicago’s” stand as our favored regulars.  Yet, we know that after just thirteen new installments, reruns will begin.  While the main attraction of the shows we both like is a function of their compelling storylines, nonetheless, it is true that reruns aren’t always a matter of repeating what we already know.  Rather, reruns can also provide the opportunity to refresh one’s memory about the narrative’s details.  Also, already knowing the storyline can free up our attention to recognize the more artful and deep ways the story is told.

In terms of the gospel lesson for today, if some of you wondered if this reading from the Fourth Gospel is some kind of rerun is, congratulations for paying such close attention!  The truth is that while we have entered the second half of the fifty-day-Easter season, today’s gospel reading and those that will close-out the season have left the specific of Easter morning to focus on the consequences of Jesus’ resurrection.  The way the lectionary tradition does this appears to be through a series of “reruns”.  Today’s offering is a case in point.

On this Fifth Sunday in Easter, our gospel reading opens with a quick and distinct location of time and place – a time and place that we have already been just a few short weeks ago.  The gospel’s scene returns us to the Upper Room, where Jesus’ “Last Supper” has occurred.  Having already washed his disciples’ feet, Jesus offers a stark and upsetting demonstration of what life on God’s terms entails, and what following Jesus entails.  Moreover, with the meal’s conclusion and the footwashing’s teaching point noted, Judas unobtrusively slips away to do what he has committed himself to doing.

We know this story.  It is all about Maundy Thursday.  It’s a rerun!  What we have in today’s replay picks up with the way the Maundy Thursday account ends, adding to it what amounts to Jesus’ “Last Will and Testimony”: Words that bridge between the familiarity of Maundy Thursday with what comes after the “Now” of it all.

As I say, reruns aren’t always just a matter of repeating what we already know.  Reruns can give us a chance to go deeper.

Of course, we all know this story.  We can all name this tune.  Jesus’ crucifixion, death, and resurrection are so familiar to us that we are tempted to think that we can fast-forward through them in order to reach a scene that is more – what? Manageable, more entertaining.  But today’s gospel, offered in the beginning of Easter’s second half, won’t let us do that so easily.  Known as Jesus’ “Farewell Address”, the bridging word our Lord offers is “Now”.

Now is the Son of man glorified and in him God is glorified.1

“Now”.  Now is the moment.  Now in this time.  Now.  Now.

Yet having made this point, am I alone in feeling that it is hard to dance to the meaning of Jesus’ “Farewell Address”?  Where might we find some traction in his “goodbye” words?  More to the point, where might the “Now” in Jesus’ address touch you and me – now?

Now is the Son of man glorified and in him God is glorified; if God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once.2

Not the most memorizable or compelling verses, are they?  Yes, we know where the “traction” is: In Jesus’ resurrection.  But how is Christ’s death and resurrection more significant than the morally inadequate, “in the end, the good guys win”?  What about the “Now.”  What about us?  What about God being “glorified” -- “Now” in this rerun time?

Part of the answer to these questions comes by way of how Eastertide itself concludes.  In the way the liturgical tradition keeps time, it is forty days (that number again!) – forty days from the resurrection of Jesus to his Ascension; and ten days later on the fiftieth day, the church marks the Day of Pentecost, which is Easter’s spiritual graduation day when the Holy Spirit (that is, the life and love the Father and Son share) is given to the followers of Jesus and to all bearers of God’s unabridged life.  But what about “Now”?  We have seen all this gospel program before.  In fact, we live it every day because we are “Easter people in a Good Friday world”.3  So, what about “Now”?

The ”rerun” that is today’s gospel lesson has challenged me (and I hope some of you) to look more seriously at what Jesus says is “Now” – now at hand in and through his death and resurrection, Jesus’ “glorification” (to use his term).  Can we avoid the temptation to skirt the issue of “Now”, as if it were one part of just another, old rerun?

For the record, to “glorify” means to elevate with honor, praise, and admiration, ultimately to the level of worship.  In Jesus’ death and resurrection, God’s glory (that is, God’s nature) is revealed in Jesus, who is God in human terms.  So it is that the “Now” that Jesus refers to is a pivotal moment when God’s “glory” is completely revealed for all to see and for all to live in.

In terms of Jesus’ “Now”, how does God’s glory get expressed in our lives?  Once again, my response brings me to the issue of “Witness” and to this specific question: namely, in the language of Jesus’ “Farewell Address”, to what extent are our lives “witnesses” to God and the God-life we see in Jesus?  In terms of the “Now” of it all, what’s the nature of our “witness?  How with our lives do we “glorify” God in the way Jesus did – with our lives?  In this rerun of Maundy Thursday, is there something within the familiar story that speaks to our “glorification” of and our witness to the Father and the Son?

Let me land this sermon about this gospel rerun.  If our witness is to be a response to what we know about life with God-in-Christ, then everything we are and everything we do is meant as a glorification of God.  As followers of Jesus, the actions of our lives are meant to express our gratitude for what God alone provides.  And the essential way we express thanks, the primary way we can glorify God-in-Christ, is to be human witnesses of God’s glory and grace.

For instance, based on the constitution of our faith (namely, our baptismal vows), the mere act of thanking someone for doing their job well but also with an expression of humaneness is a witness.  Or joining our small, Wednesday morning, rush-hour group in front of our church with signs that remind us to “do justice; love mercy; and to walk humbly with our God” – that, too, is also a glorifying witness of-God and to the God-life.  So is showing up for worship a glorifying witness because in our kneeling in prayer, in our singing aloud, and in our participation in Communion, we not only witness and honor God, but we also give quiet, personal witness to others who need to see us as a statement that they are not alone in seeking what we all need and cannot provide for ourselves.  “Now”.

We live in a time when the centrifugal forces of isolating darkness seek to be glorified and even worshipped.  As such, “Now” is a time when our faithful witness is needed as humane vehicles through which the light of God’s life may shine in the darkness.  “Now” is the time in our lives whereby a witness to life that is stronger than fear and death is needed.  The old refrain from the tradition of the Black Church resounds: “Can I get a witness?”

All of this may be a “rerun” for many of us, but “Now” is the time when our witness is most needed as a proclamation of truth, redemption, and hope.  If this witness is not from the followers of Jesus, then from whom?

Now is the Son of man glorified and in him God is glorified.

Thanks be to God.  Alleluia.  Amen.

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1.  John 13:31b

2.  John 13:31b-32

3. A phrase I learned from the Rt. Rev. Barbara Harris, Suffragan Bishop of the Diocese of Massachusetts