Who can tell me what is special about today? Of course – today is Mothers’ Day – when we celebrate our mothers and all they mean for us and have done for us. [if appropriate ask children for examples]. As Christians we can thank God for all the help and care he has given us through our mothers. When we were born, our mothers were with us, close to us, feeding us, caring for us, watching over us. But as we grow older, life changes. How many brothers or sisters do you have? The more brothers and sisters you have, the harder it is for your mother to be in all places at once. As our boys have grown, one plays football, one has a social group they go to on opposite sides of Adelaide. They have a pretty good mum – but she can’t be in two places at once. No mother can be everywhere all the time where we are—at school, the doctors, playing sport, when we are out with friends.
But Jesus can be everywhere with us. And he is. As we celebrate Mothers’ Day today, we also celebrate Jesus’ ascension—his going up into heaven. 40 days after God raised Jesus from the dead, he seated him at his right hand in heaven. Let’s look at what Paul said in Ephesians:
God raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and kingdom, and every name that is called on, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. (Ephesians 1:20-23).
To symbolise Jesus going up into heaven, we extinguish the Christ candle today [extinguish candle] and as we see the smoke rising upward, that can remind us of how Jesus rose up into heaven. But Jesus is not up there far away from us. Paul tells us that Jesus now fills everything in every way. Let’s read together from Ephesians 4:10 He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe. So we move the Christ candle next to the font, to remind us that in baptism, Jesus joins himself to us to make us the children of God, so that Jesus is with us wherever we are, as our victorious King. He has promised to be with us always, to the very end of the age. Let’s pray the Growing in faith at home prayer
SERMON
As she approaches the town where her father lives, her car glides around the bend and suddenly the colours change. The light sky is swallowed by a darker cover and the yellow fields of barley and oats become the bottle green and mud brown land for livestock, not crops. A flooded field shines silver: a reflection of the slate-grey sky, the sun gleaming through the clouds.
She has been driving for four hours. She is coming home.
Yesterday, her dad phoned her. He had been looking through his old family albums again and had landed on one particular photo: a baby sitting in the middle of the backyard on his own. Underneath, someone’s written Baby John.’ Baby John is him, now eighty years on.
On the phone to her dad she had said, ‘I’m coming home.’
“Coming home” is a short fictitious story by Holly Sykes[1] about an adult daughter coming back home to look after her elderly father. When she arrives, and her father opens the door, things are just as she remembers. Her father is quite in control of life, managing fine. The phone is placed correctly on its cradle, the kitchen benches are clean and well organised, the draining board on the sink is empty, the hands on the clock are pointing to the correct time, the fridge is well stocked. Her father begins making her a cup of tea. You didn’t need to come” he says to her. “There’s things in the fridge for tea, if you’re staying.”
In today’s Gospel reading we hear of someone else returning home to their father. Jesus prays to his Father: “I am coming to you.” But first he must go to the Cross. This is what Jesus means when he said that his hour has come to be glorified—to suffer and die and be lifted up, to pay for the sin of the world that he would bear himself. This prayer, often referred to by scholars as ‘Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer’ is a part of John’s in-depth coverage of what Jesus says and does on the night of his betrayal, which began back in chapter 13 with Jesus washing his disciples’ feet and giving them his command to “love one another as I have loved you” so that all people would know they were his disciples (John 13:34-35). He had addressed them about his coming departure and eaten the Last Supper with them, before he would be betrayed, arrested and crucified.
Now, in chapter 17, Jesus prays for the disciples: “Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one” (verses 12-15).
The mission of the evil one is to destroy the church. For the disciples, it seemed as though Jesus’ death would mean the devil’s triumph, and without Jesus, the church would be little more than a sandcastle in front of a tidal wave. Earlier in John Jesus had declared of the devil: “The thief comes only to kill, steal and destroy.” The disciples are vulnerable, then, as they remain in the world. The world and the flesh are enemies to God, just as Jesus prays to his Father in heaven: “I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.” Paul says in Romans 8 that the world regards Christians as little more than sheep to be slaughtered. It is the natural condition of humanity to want to silence God’s word, even when that silencing means doing away with those who speak it. We might think back to how frightened the disciples were of hostile persecution from the Jewish religious authorities, as they gathered behind locked doors on the evening of the resurrection.
Jesus prays not only for his closest disciples, but all of those who will believe in him through the disciples’ message in the future: “I have given them your word, and the world has hated them…” How else would the disciples be vulnerable? They would be tempted to compromise faithful teaching in the pursuit of a false unity—of not upsetting those whom they were called to teach, being friends with the world rather than making friends of God; being people-pleasers, rather than pleasing God. But also, within the church, they would be tempted to forget Jesus’ command: “Love one another as I have loved you.” Instead of being servants to one another they would be tempted to seek recognition, be regarded as the most deserving of the Holy Spirit and his gifts, looking for status and followers, tempted to place confidence in themselves as the builders of God’s church, causing division and factions.
Disunity is something that has plagued the church from the earliest times, for it is the human way to turn aside from God’s clear word and our need to call on the name of the Lord, and to instead charter the course of the church by human ways and means, with each of us thinking our way is the right way, and the best way. That’s what causes divisions and factions, and then the devil has us right where he wants us. Our attempts at unity often result in the opposite as we end up favouring one person or group of people over another. True unity can only come from God. All through his letters to the churches the Apostle Paul deals with this issue, picking up on the same theme that Jesus prays for—unity: “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:4-6).
Yes, on the night Jesus prays for his Father to protect the disciples and to make them truly one, they sure were vulnerable, small and weak. They would struggle with the way of the flesh, struggle to remember Jesus’ words two chapters earlier in John 15, where Jesus said: “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” Would they remember that apart from Jesus, they could do nothing? How on earth did the church survive for 2,000 years?
Because the future of the church was not up to the people of the church. It is up to the Creator of it: God.
Our first two readings today are about Jesus’ ascension. At the beginning of the book of Acts, Luke says that in his former book—the Gospel of Luke—he wrote about all that Jesus began to do and teach. Now, ascended into heaven, enthroned as King, Jesus continues to do and teach, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion. His is the highest authority we must come under, for he is the one appointed head over everything for the church. Through him, our Father in heaven gives the Holy Spirit; the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, that we might know him better, and his incomparably great power for all who believe, to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth.
Yet today’s Gospel reading is not paired with the other two Ascension texts. It is a narrative of what happens before Jesus’ death, let alone his ascension. Why does it appear now, at this point in the lectionary, after Jesus’ Ascension is marked on our calendars?
Because, as ascended King, Jesus continues to pray for his church. Paul declares in Romans 8: “Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us” (Rom 8:34). The prayer in John 17 that Jesus prays is a prayer he continues to pray for believers of all times and places. He continues to pray that his followers today will continue to accept his word. He continues to pray that we would be set apart from the world by faith in the word he has given his church, and made pure as the Holy Spirit comes and purifies us by it—“Father make them holy in truth, your word is truth.” Jesus continues to pray that his Father would protect his church from the evil one and all of the evil one’s temptations for us to abandon this holy word for life, and life together in the church. He continues to pray that his Father will protect them by the power of his name—that as people set apart for faith, we would continue to pray to our Father in Heaven for all things, rather than trusting ourselves. He continues to pray for all who believe in him through the teaching of the Apostles, that we all may be one, just as close in relationship as the Father is in Jesus, and he is in the Father, immersed into; baptised into the very life of God; the Holy Trinity. He continues to pray that we will be brought to complete unity as God is one; of one mind under his word.
Did you know that the ascended Jesus continues to pray for you? He continues to pray for each one of you here today! He continues to pray for St Paul’s Lutheran Church, Glenelg. He continues to pray for the Lutheran Church of Australia and New Zealand. He continues to pray for the universal church; the saints of all times and places. He continues to pray: “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
Jesus ascended into heaven, so that just as we have been joined to him and his death, resurrection and ascension in our baptism, we too will rise and ascend with him in the same way. That is why Jesus continues to pray for you these words of his prayer in John 17: “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
On that day, it will be like the daughter coming home to her father in the story. It will be as if your Father in heaven will open the door and invite you to come in and sit down with him, putting the kettle on for a cup of tea, so that you can chat with him at the family table.
As we sail in the ship of the church to come home, our Heavenly Father does not want us to be tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown backwards and forwards by every wind of teaching, as Paul says in Ephesians 4:14. That’s why Jesus continues to pray for all his Heavenly Father’s people that we would be one, as those whom he has set apart and made holy in God’s word of truth. By holding fast to this word, the people of faith will all arrive at the safe harbour of heaven, and reign with Christ in glory forever. Amen.
[1] See https://www.fairlightbooks.co.uk/short_stories/coming-home/
