Easter VI

During this time of physical isolation, we look for ways to share words of comfort and hope in the face of uncertainty and fear. We encourage you to pray over the words that follow, and follow the links within the liturgy. Thanks this week to Dave, Barbara B., and Heather!

PRELUDE: “Healing” (Haugen)

OPENING PRAYER

Come then and listen,
all you in awe of the Most High.
The God who preserves us from evil.
The God who helps us pass through fire and water.
The God who listens when we cry out.
The God who sends us only mercy.
At all times and all places,
God is worthy of our praise,
Amen and amen!

HYMN OF PRAISE: “Rejoice the Lord is king”

Rejoice the Lord is King!
Your risen Lord adore!
Rejoice, give thanks and sing
and triumph evermore.
Lift up your heart, lift up your voice:
rejoice; again I say, rejoice!

Jesus the Saviour reigns,
the God of truth and love;
when he had purged our sins,
he took his seat above. R

God’s kingdom cannot fail;
Christ rules o’er earth and heaven;
the keys of death and hell
are to our Jesus given. R

Rejoice in glorious hope,
for Christ, the judge, shall come
to glorify the saints
for their eternal home.
We soon shall hear the archangel’s voice;
the trump of God shall sound, rejoice!

PRAYER OF CONFESSION

It feels like we’ve been tested, God,
and the results are mixed.
In the midst of trouble,
we struggle to trust in you.
In the midst of sadness.
we struggle to trust in you.
Even in the valley of the shadow of death,
we struggle to trust in you.
Renew our trust, as you renew our strength,
and help us to walk with you.
Amen.

ASSURANCE OF PARDON

God is “slow to chide, and swift to bless.”
Praise to God, singing alleluia,
ever glorious in faithfulness! Amen.

SPECIAL MUSIC: “Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus” (Stead)

FIRST READING: Psalm 66

Bless our God, all peoples,
and let the sound of praise be heard.
God has preserved us among the living,
and kept our feet from stumbling.
For you, O God, have tested us;
you have tried us as silver is tried.
You led us into the desert,
you laid a burden upon our back,
you let sickness furrow our brow,
we passed through fire and water;
but you brought us out to a land of plenty.

I will come to your house with burnt-offerings;
I will pay you my vows,
the vows which I made with my lips,
and swore with my mouth when I was in trouble.
I will offer fat beasts in sacrifice, a savoury offering of rams;
I will prepare you an offering of bulls and goats.

Come then and listen, all you that fear God,
while I tell what God has done for me.
I cried aloud to God; high praise was ready on my tongue.
If I had cherished evil in my heart,
God would not have heard me.
But truly God has heard me,
has given heed to the voice of my prayer.
Blessed are you, O God,
for you have not rejected my prayer,
nor withdrawn from me your steadfast love.

SECOND READING: John 14.15-21

15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be[a] in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”

HYMN: “We praise you for the sun”

We praise you for the sun,
the golden shining sun,
that gives us healing, strength, and joy;
we praise you for the sun.

We praise you for the rain,
the softly falling rain,
that gives us healing, strength, and joy;
we praise you for the rain.

We praise you for your love,
your patient, endless love,
that gives us healing, strength, and joy;
we praise you for your love.

REFLECTION

James Bond is one.
Harry Potter is one.
Anakin Skywalker is one (sort of).
Batman is one.
Dorothy (of Oz) is one.
Frodo Baggins is one.
Almost everyone in the Marvel Universe is one.
Anne (with an e) is one, and Little Orphan Annie too.

If you guessed orphans, well done. If you guessed orphans after hearing Little Annie’s middle name, don’t pat yourself on the back too hard. Curious, isn’t it, that all these fictional characters—mostly aimed at children—are orphans. This is worth exploring, wouldn’t you say?

Whenever I have a question that relates to comic books, or comic book characters, I call my friend Ted. He knows comic books. He may be the only minister who signed up after learning that “to seek justice and resist evil” is at the heart of our call as a church, a bit of comic book hiding in plain sight.

“Ted,” I say, “I’m calling about all those orphans in the Marvel Universe.”
“Sure, he says, “it’s all about abandonment redeemed by dedication to a higher ideal.”

Now, with any trip to the mountaintop to consult with your comic book guru, there will need to be some pondering, unpacking, maybe some reframing. But before we do that, Ted also gave me a quick illustration of the opposite. Seems that in the golden age of comic books, DC introduced a character called Mister Terrific, who was, well, terrific. Athlete, scholar, self-made millionaire, Mister Terrific had it all, then turned to helping others mostly out of boredom. Needless to say, audiences didn’t respond to the character, and he was soon retired. Superheroes need to suffer on the road to becoming superheroes, so it would seem.

Before we draw a link between John 14 and some mountaintop wisdom, let’s look at the choice of the word “orphans.” One of the pivotal (and often ignored) passages in scripture is found in Mark 3 (and Mat 12, Luke 8) where Jesus’ family comes knocking, and someone in the group says ‘your mother and brothers are here, looking for you.’ He looks around the room and asks ‘who are my mother and my brothers?’ A pause, and then ‘you are my mother and my brothers, along with anyone who does what God intends.’

Clearly, the church has found this awkward through the ages. For most of our history, we have billed ourselves as ‘family-friendly,’ where we honour mothers and fathers, and seek to love our siblings, literal and metaphorical. But here, Jesus seems to reject his mother and brothers, making himself an orphan. In fact, he is redefining family, and adding to the concept rather than replacing it. Still, it is dramatic, stepping out of kin and clan and naming friends and fellow-travellers as his family as well.

Back to John 14, Jesus is busy explaining this new universe they have entered, a universe where family is redefined, where the Spirit is promised, and where the faithful are Jesus’ kin and clan. And he describes it like this: “If you love me, keep my commands.” It’s pretty simple, and it opens that other instruction, to love God and neighbour—the heart of the law. In other words, Jesus is saying “if you love me, keep the command to love God and love your neighbour.” Or in other, other words, ‘when you love me, you are loving God, and cannot help but do what God intends.’ That’s a lot packed into seven words.

He then promises an advocate, the Holy Spirit, who we know will arrive in just two weeks’ time (Pentecost). He calls the Spirit the “Spirit of truth,” something the world cannot accept, and something that will live within us. Then the same promise, restated: “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” And finally, some poetry, a new psalm that expresses the heart of the gospel:

Before long,
the world will not see me no more,
but you will see me.
Because I live,
you also will live.
On that day you will realize
that I am in my Father,
and you are in me,
and I am in you.

We cannot be orphans, since death is no more. We are alive in Christ, and he is one with God. “You in me, and I in you,” the re-formed family of God.

So what about suffering, or “abandonment redeemed by dedication to a higher ideal”? All of the characters listed a moment ago began with suffering and loss, and applied that same suffering and loss to the service of others, to prevent them from being defined by the same experience. And isn’t that just another way of saying Jesus died on the cross to save us? The way it works is a mystery, but the outcome is the same: suffering redeemed for the salvation of others. “Because I live, you also will live.”

That’s the cosmic answer, the “meta-narrative” that animates the universe of Christianity. Closer to home—today—there is another answer: our sense of abandonment (in this time of COVID-19) redeemed by dedication to a higher ideal. The higher ideal is being the body of Christ, even when we’re separated by disease and the threat of death. Jesus said “you are in me, and I am in you.” Our suffering is his suffering, and his suffering is our suffering. In any part of the body, suffering is added to the great well of suffering that God keeps—as God tends to it, and holds it in our stead. We surrender it to God, trusting that we never suffer alone, nor will we ever be orphans. Amen.

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE

This adapted prayer is from the Book of Common Worship, Presbyterian Church (USA).

Merciful God,
your Spirit hovers over us and all our troubled world,
interceding for us with sighs too deep for words.
Help us now.
Chaos and infection have shattered our lives.
Stay with us as we wait
for news, for healing, for help.
Give us strength and courage to bear the unknown.
Uphold us with your sustaining grace,
and show us your care
through neighbours, strangers, and friends.
Sustain all those whom we love
with your healing and your peace,
and comfort those who mourn.
Guide the hands and strengthen the hearts
of medical professionals as they work to save.
Let those who have been afflicted know that you are near;
give them rest from pain and fear,
and restore their hope,
we pray in the name of Christ, our light. Amen.

THE LORD’S PRAYER

Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.

HYMN: “Love Divine”

Love divine, all loves excelling,
joy of heaven to earth come down,
fix in us thy humble dwelling,
all thy faithful mercies crown.
Jesus, thou art all compassion,
pure, unbounded love thou art;
visit us with thy salvation,
enter every trembling heart.

Come, almighty to deliver;
let us all thy grace receive;
suddenly return, and never,
nevermore thy temples leave.
Thee we would be always blessing,
serve thee as thy hosts above,
pray, and praise thee, without ceasing,
glory in thy perfect love.

Finish, then, thy new creation;
pure and spotless let us be;
let us see thy great salvation
perfectly restored in thee,
changed from glory into glory,
till in heaven we take our place,
till we cast our crowns before thee,
lost in wonder, love, and praise.

BLESSING

Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way,
and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless
until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. Amen.
—1 Thessalonians 5:23

God be with you till we meet again;
loving counsels guide, uphold you,
with a shepherd’s care enfold you;
God be with you till we meet again.