Acts 8:26-40, 1 John 4:7-21, John 15:1-8
The Fifth Sunday of Easter
I don’t know about you, but I am, as a prayer in our worship book says, wearied by the changes and chances of life(ELW 325). Three deaths and three funerals preceded by months of struggle have left us all, I think, feeling swept under. In addition, there are those of you with serious illness and questions about tomorrow. Abide in me, Jesus says.
Other discomforts may have walked in the door with us and sat down in the pew with us. Maybe you have carried with you a sense of not being good enough, or even of failure. Or maybe you still feel the slap of those harsh comments made by someone who will never apologize for them. It could be that you are feeling disconnected from people.
You might be able to relate to the main person in our reading this morning from the Book of Acts. He was out there on the margins of society. So much so that no one bothered to tell us his name. You can bet that he was never the guest of honor if he was even invited to any parties. He was not allowed to go inside the Jewish Temple because he was an Ethiopian eunuch, a man who has had a procedure that leaves him non-functional in the procreative sense. (See Deuteronomy 23:1.) There is little doubt he was weary. When we meet him, he is reading about the suffering servant in the book of Isaiah.
He was reading about a sheep led to the slaughter, a lamb unable to speak as it is headed to be stripped of its wool, both humiliated and denied justice. No wonder the eunuch was drawn to this passage. “Who is this?” he wanted to know. Philip told him about Jesus. As they came upon some water, Jesus whispered, Abide with me. “What is to prevent me from being baptized?” the eunuch asked, and then he and Philip both went into the water to drown all those things that were not of God. With water and the Word, Philip baptized him.
This morning, Andrew Francis Stahl was baptized. Andrew’s parents, Chris and Kristin, and sister Charlotte, brought him to our font where he will, through water and the Word, be forever joined to Christ. Andrew will later affirm his baptism, as Jaina, Caitlin, and Casey will do on Pentecost. These young people have come to their decision because at home their families have encouraged them, and their church family has shown them the love of Jesus. They have been learning from teachers whose ultimate goal is that their students fall in love with God in three persons, as they have done, and are still continuing to do.
We are baptized incommunity. We are baptized intocommunity. God’s love calls us into relationship with people who are different than we are, people who need our help, people who may not always be kind, with those who are struggling, and those who are dying. We are called into relationship with the unnamed Ethiopian, and with sweet baby Andrew.
In The Divine Dance, the book some of you are studying, Richard Rohr quotes Miroslave Volf:
Because the Christian God is not a lonely God, but rather a communion of three persons, faith leads human beings into the divine communion. One cannot, however, have a self-enclosed communion with the triune God—a “foursome,” as it were—for the Christian God is not a private deity. Communion with this God is at once also communion with those others who have entrusted themselves in faith to the same God. Hence one and the same act of faith places a person into a new relationship both with God and with all others who stand in communion with God.[1]
We are forever joined not only to Christ, but to all the saints who were, and who are, and who are yet to be. All of life is lived within the grace of God’s love. Come to me all who are weary, and I will give you rest. Abide in me as I abide in you, Jesus says. Dwell in me as I dwell in you. Sit down, right here, next to me. Stay with me. I will never leave you.
On Holy Saturday, at the Easter Vigil, the Paschal candle,–the tall candle by the baptismal font—was lit. It was the light in the darkness of the night. If you look at the candle, you will notice the cross in the center. You will see five nails, for the ones put into Christ’s hands, and through his feet, and the spear that pierced his side. You will see two stalks of wheat at the bottom, for Christ is the bread of life. Imposed on top of all these are the Greek letters Alpha and Omega, for Christ is the beginning and the end. During this evening service, we hear the stories of salvation. We are brought with Christ from the darkness of the tomb into the light of resurrection, from death into life. We become part of a story larger than any one place or time, into life beyond the boundaries we humans set. The light of this Paschal candle is the light of Christ which no darkness can overcome. This is the light we receive in our baptisms. This is the light from which Andrew’s baptismal candle was lit as Christ whispered, Abide in me as I abide in you. Share my light.
We who are wearied by the changes and chances of this world come this morning to pray with each other, to invite peace among us, and to simply be with each other. Here, in the flames of the candles, the light of Christ, and through his broken body and poured out blood, the bread and the wine given and shed for us, in the reading of the word, and the singing of our hymns, we live into our prayer for God’s kingdom to come among us here. Abide in me as I abide in you, Christ invites us. Thanks be to God.
~Pastor Cheryl Ann Griffin
[1]Rohr, Richard. The Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation. New Kensington, PA: Whitaker House, 2016. p. 97.