Camel Lurch Moments
This sermon can be listened to hear
Gate Pa – 7th Sunday in Easter- Year C - 2022
Psalm Psalm:97
To use my experience of camel riding on the hill where the ascension took place as a way into – John 17 and Jesus’ prayer, Easter and resurrection, the Ascension.
People to wonder -how does resurrection/ascension change our present,
- how does it affect what we see as of utmost importance?
And in light of that to consciously live resurrection lives
The Sermon
1. Introduction – Riding a Camel
o Around Jerusalem and
Bethlehem
o Up to Galilee and
Nazareth
One the first day out we visited traditional
site of ascension. And in the car park some of us went camel riding. Getting on
the camel was ok. It was a little nerve wracking but ok. I wasn’t ready for
going up.
The camel puts one leg out and up. It felt
like the whole thing lurched way over to one side, and I was left staring at the
pavement, scrambling to hold on, heart in mouth, thinking “this is going to
hurt!”. And then the other leg goes out and it felt like we were lurching all
way back over to the other side, still scrambling to hold on. I was terrified.
And then we were up. The world looks very different from up there. With my heart
racing, everything changes somehow.
I was reminded of that event as we talked about Ascension on Tuesday at the mid-week service. It made me think of the three stories we are in at the moment. They are all camel lurching moments, taking the participants from thinking they had it under control - to scrambling to hang on – and finishing with a whole new way seeing their world.
2.
John 17
-
For himself and all he faces
-
For his friends gathered with him, his
dicsiples
-
For us – those who will come to know
God’s life because of those disciples, who through the trust (belief) they put
into the way of Jesus and the presence of God in that way will invite us to join
them.
In this prayer Jesus prayers that they, and
all of us, will be drawn into this oneness with God, immersed into the love
that is at the heart of God, that Jesus and the Father shared and revealed, and
that we share in with each other.
I wonder what was it was like for those
disciples to listen to that prayer right here at the end? And what it was like
to remember that prayer after all that was about to happen?
This is a camel lurching moment. They are hanging
on for dear life. And when Jesus is finished everything looked different.
It would change how they lived. It would shape what they saw as of utmost importance.
3. Easter
for the last 6 weeks we have been in the season
of Easter
-
The week of weeks
-
The great 50 days
-
Which sits at
centre of our church year
-
And ends with Pentecost
next Sunday
During this 7 weeks the gospel readings have reminded
us of the stories of Easter, the stories of the resurrection of the crucified
messiah, raised from death to become the fully human messiah.
These 7 weeks offer us a time to reflect on what
resurrection means for us, what it means to live resurrection lives.
For those first disciples, resurrection was a camel
lurching moment. It was bad enough that Jesus dies horrifically. But now he is amongst
them again, but not as they had known him, and not in the way that you and I
are. I can’t think of anything being a more camel lurching moment.
But I suspect for many of us this easter
resurrection has become a bit ho hum. And for many it has become simply a point
of doctrinal belief that determines if someone is in or out. It no longer has the
power to shake us up, to send us sideways staring at pavement, wondering if we
will survive.
The resurrection changed their present. It would change how they lived their lives, and shape what they saw as of utmost importance?
4.
Ascension
“This God is a God
that's always drawing in. This God is a God who's always making disparate
things connected to one another and in relationship… This unity with God and
each other is where divinity is taking the world.” (Matt Skinner – Working Preacher
podcast)
The ascension as reported by Luke is another
camel lurching moment. It blows their minds. Jesus died, them rose and was
among them but not as be had been, and now is gone again. What now!?
It changed their present. It would change how they lived their lives. It would shape what they saw as of utmost importance?
5.
Conversation
- how does the resurrection changes our present?
- how does ascension change our present?
6.
Conclusion
today in John 17 we listened to Jesus pray for each of us
here
Out of our conversations - what is it we need Jesus to pray for us today
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