Eternal Life

The readings for the Seventh Sunday of Easter can be found by clicking here.

Easter 7 – Year A

June 1, 2014

The Rev. Christopher Caddell

Right now is perhaps my favorite part of summer.  Early June – it’s not so oppressively hot that you can’t be outside.  The nights are still cool, the grass is still green, and the flowers are still in bloom.

It’s also a time of great anticipation.  A time when there is a lot to look forward to. 

High schools, colleges and universities are celebrating graduations with proud moms and dads looking on while those newly minted graduates see their dreams becoming reality.

This part of summer also seems to bring with it times of change.  This is the time of year, realtors will tell you, when those who are relocating from one place to the next will take that step.  My family was no exception, having arrived here in Dripping Springs two years ago this week.

This early part of summer also points to other exciting things coming – trips, and camps, and vacations that have been planned for months are finally coming close.  And even if those plans don’t include time away from home, at the very least this part of the summer signals a change of pace, a slowing down, a time for rest, recreation, and re-creation.

I wonder what you will do with this time. 

If you have been following along over the past few Sundays, you know that we have been reading what is known as the farewell discourses from John’s gospel.  This is a long section of that gospel in which Jesus takes his this last chance to tell his disciples those things that he would want them to know.

It’s after the last supper, after the foot washing, and the next stop is the Garden of Gethsemane and the arrest of Jesus.  Jesus knows that in just a few short hours his disciples will scatter and the opportunity to spell out some final instructions will be past.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled,” he says.  “Believe in God; believe also in me.”

“If you love me you will keep my commandments.”

“I will not leave you orphaned; Know that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.”

These are just some of the pieces of that farewell discourse that we have heard over the past few weeks, but this long monologue that Jesus shares with his disciples has many parts, many last words.

Jesus is looking to prepare his disciples for a world in which they will see him no longer.

And so, this morning, we come to the end of that discourse.  And in that Jesus offers a prayer.  It is a prayer both for the work he has left to do, as well as the ongoing work that his disciples will be engaged in after he is gone.

“Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son my glorify you.”

Jesus knows that all that is about to take place is the culmination of all that his mission has been about.  Making the Father known to all who would look and see.  Being the true reflection of the Father.  This is what Jesus was, and this is what Jesus was doing.

And at the very center of this prayer is Jesus’ desire for unity – not unity in the sense that all will be one monolithic block, but a unity that binds them together in the Father.

Jesus prays, “Protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.”

Curiously, Jesus’ prayer includes some language about eternal life.  Perhaps its not so curious – it is a major theme of Jesus words in John’s gospel, but it comes now at a place that doesn’t seem to fit.  Or at least it doesn’t seem to fit with our notions of what eternal life means.

Jesus says, “You have given the son authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.”

In a prayer that is aimed at giving the disciples those final instructions and preparing them for the days ahead when he is not present in the same way that he had been present, it seems strange that Jesus would be praying about eternal life for all whom the Father had given him.  These disciples still have work to do, there is the expectation that they will carry on the mission that Jesus has begun.

But Jesus goes on, “And this is eternal life, that they many know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”

It seems for Jesus eternal life is something that he expects for his disciples now, not something that they can expect in the future.  Eternal life is knowing God so intimately that they become one with the Father, just as Jesus is one with him.

“I am in the Father and the Father is in me,” Jesus said.

Essentially, what Jesus means by eternal life is what we might call the spiritual life.  For Jesus, whether it is in the grave or in this very moment, unity with the Father is eternal life.

And this is the gift that Jesus has to give to all whom have been given him – his disciples and us.

Fairly soon, the Diocesan magazine Reflections will be arriving in your mailbox.  I encourage you to take the time to read it.  The title for this edition is “Spiritual Practices, Living the Gift,” and in it you will find several articles from clergy and lay people who speak of their own spiritual journey.

One of those articles was written by Dan Morehead, a former member of this congregation, and the head of the search committee who was foolish enough to call me to this parish two years ago.

Dan speaks about his own spiritual journey and how it was in his mid-thirties when he began to feel that something was lacking.  Though he was well read in both theology and scripture, went to church three times a week, said devotions and prayed daily, he did not feel a closeness to God. 

Doing what he knew to do, Dan read about it.  He moved from theology to spiritual books, and discovered the Book of Common Prayer.  He began to practice contemplative prayer and take on some other spiritual practices.

It wasn’t an instantaneous change.  Things took time.  But gradually Dan recognized that God had been there all along, and it was the practice that allowed him to grow into that unity with the Father. 

Recognize it or not, we are all on a spiritual journey.  We are all seeking eternal life, a life bound up with the Father in which we are in Him and He is in us.  It is an impulse that does not come from us, but rather comes from the Father himself.  Yet it is also an impulse that we can suppress if we so choose.  But it is also an impulse that can lead to the gift that Jesus brings to all his followers, being one with him and the Father.

This is the beginning of summer.  A time when we are accustomed to change.  A time when the pace shifts and life takes on a new normal. 

The tendency might be to slack off.  To waste the days away as we move into the long hot summer.  To let everything slip a little, including our life in God.

The alternative is to use this time to be recreated.  My challenge to us this morning, myself included, is to take this time to recommit ourselves to those spiritual practices – to prayer, reading of scripture and theology, active participation in worship and the sacraments – to seek a more perfect union with the Father who is with us where ever we go.

There is a gift there waiting to be received.  It is a gift promised to the disciples and to us. It is eternal life, a life bound up with the Eternal, life in the Spirit.  And it is there for the taking.  Amen.