Saint Bartholomew's Episcopal Church
Livermore, California
5/12/2024
7 Easter
Collect: O God, the King of glory, you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven: Do not leave us comfortless, but send us your Holy Spirit to strengthen us, and exalt us to that place where our Savior Christ has gone before; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.
Scripture (John 17:14): I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.
Reflection: This notion that the world ought to hate us as Jesus' followers is an odd one. Does it mean that we are called to consistently come out in opposition to the world and actively seek its hatred? This has certainly played out, both in past and present, in the history of the church. But no, this is not what Jesus means. What he means is that people for whom the only point on which they are unwilling to compromise is that God is love, and that love is revealed in the self-giving acts of Jesus Christ, are automatically going to be people whom the world hates. Our world is a place that wants us to take a stand for just about every point but this one. It wants us to succumb to anger and fear and see whole nations and whole classes of people as our mortal enemies. If we are willing to yield on every point but the one and only central one, the world looks at us with utter perplexity. And yet it is this perplexity that allows the grace of God a chance to break in. Do we have the guts to risk the world's hatred so that the Word of God might gain a point of entry?
5/5/2024
6 Easter
Collect: O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.
Scripture (John 15:11): I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.
Reflection: It's easy to gloss over the end of verse 11 in the 15th chapter of John's Gospel as it sits right in the middle of a longer passage with a very clear and oft-repeated theme. But if we take a moment to read just these few words and let their meaning sink in, they are a game-changer. Jesus is promising us that if we obey his commandment to love one another we will get not just joy but complete joy as our reward. That word "complete" is hard to misinterpret. It means a joy that leaves absolutely nothing out, one that is unassailable and lacking not even the slightest thing we might desire. Loving one another in the way Jesus commands is no easy task. It means laying everything on the line, even our very lives, for each other. And this includes not only the people we like--it applies to all of our neighbors. But Jesus minces no words about the reward we can expect for faithfully doing this. It's joy, complete joy, boundless joy, eternal joy. The reward is everything we could ever desire or imagine, and even then some.
4/28/2024
5 Easter
Collect: Almighty God, whom truly to know is everlasting life: Grant us so perfectly to know your Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life, that we may steadfastly follow his steps in the way that leads to eternal life; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.
Scripture (John 15:5): [Jesus said] I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.
Reflection: This sounds pretty harsh, right? Apart from Jesus we can do nothing. But it only sounds harsh until we put it into practice. Jesus is telling us that, as his disciples, we have to do a very hard thing. We need to put away absolutely everything, even our most treasured possessions and relationships, that doesn't keep Him at the very center. Nothing in our lives can be an end unto itself, something we do apart from Christ and his life-giving Spirit. This can mean a difficult and painful stripping-down of our lives. But the rewards are staggering. Far from leaving us as hollow shells, possessing nothing and detached from the rest of the world, this process leaves us wide open to enjoy everything and everyone aright for the first time. When we live with Jesus as the one and only true Vine in our lives, we get back everything else our hearts desire as well, and in a far better form than we had ever imagined possible. We find ourselves in right relationship with everything and everyone in our sphere. The only question is do we trust Jesus enough to give up everything and allow Him to reorder our lives into something infinitely better than we could ask for or imagine?