Join us today as we celebrate Holy Communion for the Sixth Sunday of Easter, 5/22/22. To follow along at home, click here and print the Holy Communion Program. Text of today’s homily below.
CLICK HERE TO GET AN EMAIL OF EACH SUNDAY’S SERVICE IN YOUR EMAIL BOX and to receive email updates about the mission of St. Barachiel Chapel.
If you would like to have prayers offered for you, a loved one, a friend, for someone who is suffering, ill or who has departed, please email Archdeacon Mitch at mitch@heritageartsinc.com and we will pray for you. Please click here to schedule a chat with archdeacon Mitch if you are in need of pastoral counseling. And if you’d like to assist in the beautification, improvement and maintenance of St. Barachiel Chapel, or support our educational mission, please click here to make a donation.
Homily for the Sixth Sunday of Easter
Readings: Acts 15:1-2, 22-29, Ps 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8, Rev 21:10-14, 22-23, Jn 14:23-29
Revelation 21:10-14 American Standard Version
10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, 11 having the glory of God: her light was like unto a stone most precious, as it were a jasper stone, clear as crystal: 12 having a wall great and high; having twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels; and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: 13 on the east were three gates; and on the north three gates; and on the south three gates; and on the west three gates. 14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
John 14:23-29 American Standard Version
23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my word: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. 24 He that loveth me not keepeth not my words: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s who sent me.
25 These things have I spoken unto you, while yet abiding with you. 26 But the [a]Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said unto you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be fearful. 28 Ye heard how I said to you, I go away, and I come unto you. If ye loved me, ye would have rejoiced, because I go unto the Father: for the Father is greater than I. 29 And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe.
Brothers and sisters, human beings love to argue, quibble, and fuss over the rules. This is why every sport we play has umpires and referees, and also why, in most sports, the punishment for fighting with an ump is ejection from the game. We all understand that individuals who fight with umps and refs, if allowed to stay and continue, will quickly be joined by others who agree or disagree. Eventually the benches will be emptied, and after that the bleachers, followed by the disintegration of the entire game. We all know this to be true. If there are no rules, there is no game.
Human beings are so argumentative that we can become completely obsessed with the rules themselves and entirely forget the point of the game. We’ve had to devise rules for arguing about the rules, which we call parliamentary procedure. The Commonwealth countries – the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, South Africa, and so on – use the Westminster model, but here in the United States we seem to prefer Robert’s Rules of Order.
We’re so prone to fighting that we even have to appoint special law enforcement officers to administer the laws governing the laws. We’ve had to appoint bailiffs to maintain order in the courtroom. And we’re so awful that we flee to avoid lawful punishment. So we also have sheriffs to go and arrest the people who break the laws for breaking the laws.
Christians are little better than the rest of the culture. We love to argue over the rules, from the big stuff right down to the minutia. We started with one holy, apostolic, church for all believers and argued ourselves into over 45,000 different denominations. Imagine that -- 45,000! And while we argue over doctrinal matters both great and small, Christianity continues its Western decline, especially in Britain and the United States. 43 of the 49 countries evaluated by the World Values Study in 2017 showed a decline in religion. The old religions are dying, to be replaced by the religion of hedonism and the church of entertainment.
Jesus said that the Holy Spirit will guide us, and that if we only love him, we will keep his word. Let me suggest, brothers and sisters, that the proof is in the pudding, as the saying goes. Clearly we have not been listening to the Holy Spirit. If we had, we would not be fragmented into 45,000 denominations. If we had, we would still be one church.
We have failed. And, given our fallen nature, that’s not such a great surprise, now is it? But we can see in today’s reading from Revelation the promise that lies in our future: a New Holy City of Jerusalem, in which our various tribes are united as one, joined by the apostles and the heavenly host, shining like a precious, jasper stone, clear as crystal. Everybody, listen: jasper is a cloudy green or red stone resembling jade. It is never as clear as crystal. This passage is telling us that when Jesus returns, that cloudiness will be made clear, the impossible will be made possible.
Can we get to the New Jerusalem ourselves? Of course not. But we can certainly do better than we have done these last 2,000 years. Now, today, we must get back to the work with which we were tasked by Jesus Christ. We must heed the Holy Spirit, love Jesus Christ, hear his word, and rejoin our divided communions. We must begin the work of rejoining into one our broken church, lying in 45,000 fragments.