Sermon - Seventh Sunday of Easter

Angela Shelley Wiggins, seminarian

In late spring we do a lot of sending off – we celebrate graduations and send our graduates out to do new things. We prepare for summer weddings and we send the couple off to be a new family. When the school year ends, we'll say goodbye to colleagues and neighbors who are moving away for new jobs. We say "best wishes" and "stay in touch," and promise we'll see each other again. It's a time of joy and possibility, of sweetness with a touch of sadness mixed in.

We're proud of the graduates and excited for the newlyweds and the neighbors who've found new jobs in new places, but sometimes we want things to stay just like this, just a little longer. We try not to talk about the sadness we feel in the midst of all this hope, joy and promise. Sadness because we recognize that while something good is beginning, something else good is coming to an end.

I remember the summer between high school and college. I was so excited I started packing in June. In the last few years, as children of our friends have graduated, and we've watched our friends send them off into the world, I've become more aware of the parents' perspective. We've talked about the apprehension that lurks just beneath the joy, their sense that it's come too soon.

They worry: Will everything be okay? Are they prepared? Did we do enough? Did we do too much? Did we teach them everything we meant to? What did we forget?

And they try to pack in every bit of wisdom and nurture they can before summer ends. Sometimes they resort to extreme measures. They pull out the big guns – Dr. Seuss. He's never let them down before.

Oh the Places You'll Go is a typical Dr. Seuss book in many ways. It has the clever rhymes and whimsical illustrations, but its intended audience is a little older. This book began as a graduation speech. Now it's a popular graduation gift from parents and godparents, a fun way to express their hopes and their apprehension. It's a chance to sneak in that last dose of parenting before sending the graduate out into the world.

After years of bedtime renditions of The Cat in the Hat and One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, it's fitting to send the graduate off with one last bedtime story, a story that promises success, "98 and ¾ percent guaranteed."

Dr. Seuss expresses the joy and optimism of proud families: "Today is your day. You're off to Great Places! You're off and away!" He proclaims, "Wherever you fly, you'll be the best of the best. Wherever you go, you will top all the rest."

But Dr. Seuss is also a realist. He acknowledges, "sadly, it's true that Bang-ups and Hang-ups can happen to you." He writes about places where "streets are not marked. Some windows are lighted. But mostly they're darked." But he's sure the graduate will emerge from the dark times and continue the journey.

Dr. Seuss also warns the graduates about the perils of loneliness, "Whether you like it or not, Alone will be something you'll be quite a lot." And he tells them that being alone can be very frightening, "so much you won't want to go on." But he assures them, "But on you will go though the weather be foul. On you will go though your enemies prowl. On you will go though the Hakken-Kraks howl. Onward up many a frightening creek, though your arms may get sore and your sneakers may leak."

Dr. Seuss is confident that the graduate will endure these challenges, and accomplish good things. He captures the hopes and prayers of parents, godparents, and teachers. He writes the words parents are searching for as they send their children out on their own.

It's funny how the other calendars of our lives sometimes intersect with the lectionary. In our regular lives, we're sending forth graduates, newlyweds, and friends. We're preparing ourselves for new relationships and changing relationships.

In our Gospel lesson today, Jesus is preparing his disciples for a new kind of relationship. When Jesus is no longer physically present, they will relate in a whole new way, and Jesus wants to prepare them for that time.

Like parents sending graduates off into the world, Jesus is preparing to leave his disciples to leave them on their own, yet not alone.

The first half of the Gospel of John is sometimes called "The Book of Signs" It tells of the signs and wonders Jesus did to reveal who he was – the Word Incarnate, God Among Us. The second half of the Gospel of John opens with the Last Supper and it relates Jesus' instructions to his disciples on how to live when he's no longer present among them.

The Gospel of John positions this prayer of Jesus at the end of the Farewell Speech to the disciples, and just before the account of the passion, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. It's a turning point in the story.

Jesus' words in the Farewell Speech and in his prayer give us a glimpse of what Jesus wants for his disciples. It's not a To-Do list or a checklist. Instead, it's in John's poetic language that slows us down to contemplate the mysteries he describes. In the Farewell Speech and prayer, we hear Jesus' hopes for his disciples, his prayer for his disciples, for us.

The relationship between Jesus and the first disciples is changing. The time of seeing Jesus perform wonders is ending. The time of eating and drinking with Jesus is coming to a close. No longer will they be an intimate group gathered around the table They will no longer see Jesus physically present among them, but Jesus wants them to know he's not leaving them alone and unprotected.

Over and over at this Last Supper he tells them, "Do not let your hearts be troubled." Jesus says, "I will not leave you orphaned." And "My peace I give to you."

We would like to include some of the assurances Jesus offers in our own sending forth messages. We want our graduates, our newlyweds, our colleagues to know they will not be alone. We want them to not be afraid. We want them to have peace. Imagine how much more comforting it must have been for the disciples to hear that although Jesus is leaving them, he's not leaving them alone.

At the conclusion of the Farewell Speech, Jesus prays to God the Father, both for his own work and for his disciples. Jesus prays for the disciples gathered in that room for the Last Supper, and he prays for the disciples gathered today in this room. Jesus prays for us, for his disciples in all ages and places. And this is his prayer. First he prays, "Holy Father, protect them in your name." Jesus says that he protected his disciples while he was on earth. Now that he is "no longer in the world," he entrusts them to the care of the Father.

Jesus prays for us just as we pray for the ones we love. The prayer we pray for those absent from us is the prayer Jesus prays for us, "Father, protect them. I can't be with them. Father protect them."

Jesus prays for protection for his disciples, "that they may be one, as we are one." He prays that his disciples will be one, will be unified, just as he is one with the Father.

Jesus also prays that his disciples will be protected from the evil one. This is similar to the prayer Jesus taught his disciples to pray, the prayer we say every week, "save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil."

The other main petition in this prayer is "sanctify them in the truth." Jesus prays that God will sanctify his disciples, He prays that God will sanctify us, set us apart to do God's work. It's interesting that Jesus didn't say, "Set aside a few from among them." Instead his prayer is for "those whom you gave me." Jesus prays that all his disciples will be set apart.

Most of us like the idea of Jesus praying for our protection. We'd like to be protected from danger and evil. It's a little more disquieting to hear Jesus pray for God to sanctify us, to set us apart, All of us. Not just the super-holy, not just the clergy, but all of us. Sanctified, set apart for God's work. All of us.

In our Gospel lesson today, Jesus' work in the world is coming to a conclusion. His work was revealing who God is and he has done this work through signs and wonders. And Jesus' work, revealing the glory of God, will be accomplished in his crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. And his work will be accomplished through his disciples who will continue to reveal who God is. We have been set apart for this work, the work of revealing who God is. Sanctified by God through the prayer of Jesus.

In the liturgical calendar, We're in the seventh Sunday of Easter, between the ascension of Jesus, and Pentecost. Ascension, the day we mark Jesus' physical absence and his glorification, And Pentecost, when we celebrate the fulfillment of his promise to send the Holy Spirit in his absence.

We live in the fulfillment of that promise, with the presence of the Holy Spirit. We're celebrating mysteries we cannot describe, and telling stories we cannot comprehend. This is the work we've been set apart for, the work of making God known.

When we remember that we are the ones set apart, we have a new perspective. We're not staying behind and sending others off. We're all set apart to do the work of God, we're all sent out to make God known.

As Dr. Seuss concludes, "be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O'Shea, you're off to Great Places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So... get on your way!"

Or as the Book of Common Prayer puts it, "Let us go forth into the world, rejoicing in the power of the Spirit. Alleluia, alleluia!"

Amen.