HELLO!

As mentioned in previous blog, we are keeping Gwen Shannon and her family in our prayers. Norm’s funeral will be held at our church Saturday, June 6^th at 11 am. If you would like to write an online condolence, here is the link: https://walkerfh.com/tribute/details/4074/Norman-Shannon/obituary.html Gwen appreciates all the calls she has received.

This Sunday comes to us over a long weekend. I expect several of you will be away, so I will wave a little longer to our online worshippers during the announcements. The Gospel text happens to be the same reading used at the very first church service (held in an old hockey arena in Toronto) of the newly merged United Church of Canada in 1925. “And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Protect them in your name you have given me, so they may be one, as we are one.” Jesus is no longer in the world. The incarnation is over. Jesus has been resurrected. But we are still in the world, Jesus’ works are now in our hands (14:12), and Jesus is counting on us to be his presence in the wake of his absence (21:15-17). This is our mission. How shall we do this?

In his book entitled, Tokens of Trust, former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, describes the strangeness and wonder of a Jesus who prays: “Yes, Jesus is a human being in whom God’s action is at work without interruption. But wait: the Jesus we meet in the Gospels is someone who prays, who speaks of putting his will and his decisions at the service of God. He is in a relationship. In him there is divine purpose, power, and action; but there is also humility, responsiveness, and receptivity.” I’m inclined to add one more word to this list: vulnerability. Jesus ends his ministry by asking into uncertainty. Hoping into doubt. Trusting into danger. Asking is the last act of love he pours out to the disciples gathered around his table. The last gesture of hope he extends.

Earlier in John’s Gospel, Jesus commands his disciples to love one another so “everyone will know” they are followers of Christ. Our ability to love one another across differences, our willingness to preserve and cherish our God-ordained oneness, is precisely how the world will know who we are and whose we are. Our love for each other is how the world will see, taste, touch, hear, and find Jesus. It’s through our love we embody Jesus, make Jesus relatable, possible, plausible, to a dying world. Jesus spent his last night on earth pleading for love. Praying the Church would be one as he and God are one. Not uniform, but unified. Committed to a sacred tie that binds. Determined to love, reconcile, bless, across all barriers.

I recall a sermon I once heard at a preaching seminar, the homiletics professor explained each of us, wherever we go, are a poster for Jesus, those who are pondering Jesus’ mission are either convinced or dismayed by the evidence, the witness of our words, actions, spirit. Jesus’ last prayer is that we will rise to this challenge, this mission. Peace, Kevin

PS The editor of the Opinion Page of the Halifax Herald tells me my column “meeting the stranger” will appear in Saturday’s May 16^th paper. I’m not sure if non-subscribers will be able to read it online, sometimes it is so available, sometimes not. If you are interested and it is available online to non-subscribers, I will send it to you. Just let me know.