About God's business

Mourning has broken

Easter 7, Year C
June 1, 2025

Seminarian Shawan Gillians

I come to you in the name of our God who is creator, kinsman, redeemer, and conqueror.

Today's gospel lesson seems like the perfect foundation for a message on unity and the need for oneness in the church. There are some who would say certainly Jesus focuses us in that direction. It's also the first day of Pride Month and in a few weeks we'll celebrate Juneteenth, both traditions with a rich history in the fight for equality and equity. The moment is truly perfect. I'm given the chef's chase. I don't think anyone could dispute that we are living in times that, at least on the surface, indicate an increasingly fractured church. We can all use the bomb of the gospel on that point.

Now after that one I have to tell you I'm not going to preach on you at this point. Instead I would like to talk to you for just a little while about mission. So that we understand the atmosphere in which this mission work must take place, I want to quickly draw your attention back to verse 21 of today's gospel lesson, the portion of Jesus's prayer (and it is a prayer that reveals the mission of God) that involves not only the sending of God's son but also the sending of the church by God's son. Jesus’ part of the mission was to be an example to us of how to live and then to die. for our sins XXXX having accomplished his mission, Jesus left clear instructions as to our mission as the church—to be a living testimony of God's love to a world that feels so filled with hate. But let's back up and give some context to why the authors of the lectionary have given us a gospel lesson that actually reflects a time before Jesus was crucified.

According to John's gospel, you see today is not only the seventh Sunday of Easter, it's also Ascension Sunday. By this time the disciples have seen Jesus their rabbi, the person they knew to be the Messiah executed in the most heinous way by the Roman state. So we're talking about a group of people who've just had the very foundation of their faith shaken. I know that doesn't apply to any of you but imagine with me if you will not to mention the very human reaction to the loss of a friend someone with whom they'd spent the last three years and had come to love. From that deepest place of despair and let's not forget confusion about Jesus's death and what it meant for their future, a miracle Jesus rises from the dead and the savior friend and teacher they thought they'd lost is back with them. Oh the sense of relief the band is back together. For 40 days it feels like old times again and maybe, just maybe, during those 40 days the disciples were hoping Jesus would stick around, that this long goodbye we have been witnessed to over Easter time would turn out not to be a goodbye at all.

But it wasn't meant to be and the disciples who have already lost Jesus once are now on the precipice of losing him again. Can you imagine the feeling of abandonment? Again, I know none of you will ever admit to wondering if God has abandoned you, but I will put up my hand. The feeling must have been within the disciples: Jesus, we know you're all powerful. You rose from the dead. You could stay but you're leaving. Why are you leaving us? And if we place our post Easter selves in this context, we would surely expect an empathetic Jesus to sense his disciples distress and if even if he cannot stay to offer some form of comfort. But Jesus doesn't offer comfort nor does he pray for God to give them peace or to change the hearts and minds of those in power in the government. He didn't pray for any of that. Instead he prays to God to consecrate the disciples’ mission. He prays that the world will see God's love through them. Can you imagine it at a time when you're feeling afraid for sure and maybe feeling abandoned by God and definitely feeling uncertainty about what the future holds, what you get is encouragement to go out and make God seen in the world.

Now in our humanistic way of being, many of us would have been more concerned about how we were being seen in the world than about how God was being seen in the world. Jesus, I don't know if y'all saw what he did to him but the Roman state is not playing around so I'm rather confused. You want me to go out in that environment and make God seen. Think about what that means. About how important God views the church's mission to God's plan for humanity. I know this will be difficult to hear because it's difficult to say but God's plan for the world is bigger than our feelings. i'm going to say that again: God's plan for the world is bigger than our feelings. Saints, what God is telling us is that the time for our mourning has broken. Yes, the world is a scary place for some of us right now. Yes, some of us are wondering where God is in all of this. Things look pretty bad, and I'm not sure they're going to look better any time soon.

But despite all of that we have to be about God's business. This is no time for the church to fold in on itself. There's a world of people out there who need us. And by the way not all of them will identify themselves as Christians or, if they do, it may have been years since they stepped foot inside a church. For all we know,  we may be the only glimpse of God these siblings of ours get. The Episcopal Church in the United States is uniquely positioned for God's mission in this time. We are affluent. We hold positions of power and influence. Our voices in the public square are not so easily diminished or disregarded when we speak to the inequities we see in our society. We have the opportunity to show a world that is hungry for love that God loves them without regard to race or gender or sexuality or socioeconomic status or any of the other foolish ways we humans try to segregate ourselves.

I consider myself fortunate inasmuch as my membership in the Episcopal Church was knowingly made. i was 33 years old when I came to the Episcopal Church. i made that decision because I was awed by the church's openness, acceptance, and inclusion. That same church that I've come to and love so much has the opportunity to show the world that Jesus is love and that, because he is love, there is a way to serve him that doesn't include hate and bigotry. We can do that. We are called to do that. I am convinced and convicted that this is our time and that is the mission. Amen to that.

We are blessed at St Stephen’s to have recently completed construction on a beautiful fellowship hall. How will we use it? Does it fulfill God's plan for us to use it for festival offerings? Tthere's certainly nothing wrong with those. Even if we only ever use it for Bible studies or Christian formation or church committee meetings, will we truly have consecrated that space, set it aside for God's mission? Can we say that by our use we have been a living testimony to God's love? Will we use this asset as an opportunity for mission ministry for the displaced, for those who no longer have the security or comfort of meeting in their previously assigned places? How will we use our blessing to be a blessing. I once heard a preacher say "God will give it to you, if he can get it through you." How will we live in God's mission?

Some within the sound of my voice will no doubt still be in mourning over the current state of affairs in our world, and that's fair. But I came by 67 Anson Street to ring the alarm to let you know that our mourning has broken, and it's time for God's people to be about God's business. Amen, amen.

 © 2025 Shawan Gillians

Image credit Photo by Andhara Cheryl on Unsplash