MAJOR IN

A Sermon preached by the Rev. Michael Anderson Bullock

[Acts 16:16-34; Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21; John 17:20-26]

I remember the feelings I had when I had to declare a college “major”.  Once the decision was made about where I would go to college, most of the following conversation centered around the specific focus my study would take.  “What’s your major?”, they would innocently (and somewhat mindlessly) ask.  For someone like me (that is, for someone whose future unquestionably and irrevocably included going to college), declaring my major focus of study felt like a huge and life-defining decision – a lot like answering the existential question: “What do you want to be when you grow up?”.  Yikes!

On the morning that I, my Father’s oldest son, was to depart for college and thus leave “home” for the first significant time, my Dad and I were in the kitchen fumbling with breakfast in a vain effort to avoid the realities of our impending “goodbye”.  Not an inheritor of expressing his emotions (but in his Irishness full of emotion!), Dad (an alumnus of my new school) mildly warned me to be careful because “they drink a lot down there!”  That exorcism being put forth, my father then unexpectedly spoke directly to the haunting feelings that were lurking within me about the new life I was about to begin.  Not being someone who pretended to be wiser than he was, nonetheless, Dad turned to me and with  stunningly profound (and as it turned out lasting,) precision said: “Your job is to learn how to learn.  Then others can teach you what you need to know about what you need to do.”

With that freedom and direction, I left for college, never (in fact) to return as I left.

As followers of Jesus, we gather this day at a similar moment in our discipleship life because functionally speaking this is the last Sunday in the season of Easter – functionally speaking.  Next Sunday (that is, the “Fiftieth Day” and officially the last day of Eastertide) – next Sunday is “Pentecost”, an occasion that marks and celebrates the culmination of life with God-in-Christ.  This is to say that on Pentecost we mark the gift of the Holy Spirit to all those who know God’s Christ, so that in a real way for the followers of Jesus, “Pentecost” is graduation day.  (So, be sure to come back next Sunday for your diploma or your class reunion and for what will undoubtedly be a most awesome “Commencement Address!).

But what I am posing to you now (ahead of Pentecost’s authorizing graduation) is a kind of baccalaureate ceremony: that is, a time to celebrate a graduating class with reflection and spiritual contemplation on the meaning and impact of our “major” because as baptized Christians, our major has been all about being one with Christ and being members of his Body.

That major, one we all have in common no matter the specific details of our class work – that major is reflected in today’s gospel reading from John.  This lesson, admittedly sounding a bit arcane, is known as Jesus’ “High Priestly Prayer”; and it is in his “commencement” prayer (if you will) to the Father for his disciples’ protection, guidance, and evolving faithfulness that Jesus implicitly names the “major” all his followers have.  That “major” is “priesthood”, Jesus’ priesthood.

[Jesus, praying to the Father] … so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.1

In making God’s name known to all who pay attention to Jesus, we have been enrolled in a course of study and a hands-on experience of “learning how to learn” to represent Christ in the world … so that the love with which [The Father] [has] loved [Jesus] may be in [us], and [the incarnate life] in [us].

In terms of our graduation relative to Pentecost and the gift of the Holy Spirit, we have been given a share in Christ’s own priesthood; and with such a high calling, we strive to continue to learn what we need to do so that Jesus is in us and we are in him.  So, two questions emerge with respect to our graduation.  The first is: What is priesthood?  The second is: What does it mean for us to function as priests in Jesus’ Name?

I am keenly aware that my response to these questions is a matter of my having been with you for almost nine years.  This is to say that I would not be disappointed in the least if, in an attempt to summarize your experience of me as your priest, that this issue of “priesthood” would surface in your thoughts and in evaluating remarks.  I, in fact, would be grateful if this were the case.

I say this (and not for the first time) because a priest’s job is to represent God to the people and the people to God.  Or as the Lord puts it in today’s gospel lesson: … so that the love with which you have loved me may be in [you], and I in [you] – which is you can’t give away what you don’t have.

This is all about Baptism (something we will focus on next Sunday on the Day of Pentecost).  In and through Baptism, we share in Christ’s life, death, Resurrection.  Therefore, we share in Christ’s ministry of representing God to the people – all people – and all the people to God.

Ok: That’s what we have majored in all these years together; and that is what we continue to strive to realize about what God amazingly asks us to be and to do.  So it is that at the celebration of our graduation at Pentecost and with the booming proclamation from the Maker of heaven and earth that we are rightfully given all authority and privilege to claim what our diploma entails, the “Commencement Address” will present these two telling questions: “My fellow-graduated, baptismal priests, where is your altar?”  And what do you do at that altar that resonates with your majoring in Christ?

… so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.

Strike up the graduation march!  We have work to do.  Amen.

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1. John 17:26