Sermon for St. Anne’s - Sunday 1st June

Seventh Sunday of Easter, Sunday after Ascension Day

Acts 16.16-34

Psalm 97

Revelation 22.12-14, 16-17, 20-end

John 17. 20-end

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer

 ‘Glory’ is a great word for us to reflect on today. Central to our reading from Acts and to our Gospel is a mystery, which is the promise Jesus gives us that this thing called glory, whatever it might be, is a gift to all of us from God and that it somehow unites us in love with God, with Jesus and with all of Creation. My friends at work who are Brighton supporters chant ‘Glory glory Brighton’  and although they may be thinking about glory as victory over Millwall I think they may be onto something more profound than they realise. Because the glory that Jesus speaks of in today’s Gospel has connections with the sense of joy and unity and togetherness that my friends speak of experiencing when they’re singing and following their team together.  ‘Glory’ as Jesus presents it today however is about much much more than winning a cup final.  It is a  gift from God; a gift from God to Jesus and from Jesus to us, and that gift is one which is unifying loving and ongoing. The glory which the sports fan sings of depends on the beating of opponents, but the glory which Jesus talks of in today’s gospel welcomes and loves difference; it’s a way of being which is infinitely loving, constantly growing and constantly giving, and which is always open to us to accept.

In today’s reading from Acts the story of the jailer shows just how that form of glory can be expressed in the world as it is, with all cruelty, injustice and division that we see and experience every day.  It’s a story with so much that’s human and recognisably contemporary –there is the exploitation of the slave girl for money, which today we’d call human trafficking, Paul’s tetchy annoyance at being followed , the pursuit of grievance and the exploitation of division between Jews, Christians  and Romans by the magistrates, and then the use of violence to silence and subdue the Apostles. This is a story of Human beings at their worst, acting in ways which have recognisable echoes in our own times and throughout history.  Human nature then as now creates real and metaphorical prison cells and punishes difference.  It exploits prejudice and encourages division and suspicion.  The jailer’s role is to obey all that’s worst about these destructive aspects of human nature.  In following his instructions and putting Paul and Silas in the stocks he’s acting as an enabler for all the destructive forces that can imprison us and which distance us from God- our prejudices, our desire to hurt and punish people we dislike, our selfish pursuit of our own interests. But even he can be redeemed-and his release from the prison he runs shows us God’s glory at work even in the ‘innermost prison cell’ of his and our own natures.  Paul and Silas give expression to God’s glory in the confinement of their prison cell by praying and singing hymns. It’s intriguing to think what those hymns may have been-in those first days of Christianity they may well have been psalms, perhaps even Psalm 97 which we said earlier. Take another look at the words of today’s Psalm and you’ll see why Paul and Silas might have used its words to help them through their ordeal. The words of the psalm speak of the glory of God’s righteousness and justice existing here and now, in their time and in our own, and bringing about earth shaking transformation

‘His lightnings lit up the world

The earth saw it and trembled’

The glory which the psalmist says ‘all the peoples have seen’ is the love of a God who encompasses all creation, and who offers the experience of sharing in that glory to all who hate evil and are faithful to him. 

In John’s Gospel Jesus helps us to understand that God’s glory is the source of the life fulfilling energy which is at the heart of loving relationships, and that we can all share in that glory.  Jesus puts relationships at the very centre of the Gospel; Jesus’s own relationship to God His Father, their relationship to the disciples who are with Him in that moment and the relationship they will have with all of us who come later.  It doesn’t matter where we are in time and space, or where we are in terms of our own personal journey.  God’s glory is there for us all to experience when we choose to love rather than hate, when we choose unity rather than division. The gospel is Jesus’s prayer, his prayer on all our behalf, that we may know that glory in just the same way that the disciples do. It’s always and constantly there for us to discover through our own prayer, and it’s always there for us as a gift from God which has the potential to transform us just as the jailer and his family are transformed.  This is glory as a state of being in which we can all rest in mutual respect, belonging and love.

Jesus makes no distinction between the disciples who knew Him when he was with them on earth and we who come later.  His prayer encompasses everyone and everything.  We can all, wherever we are in time and space, be welcomed into the glory which is God’s love for us and all creation. And that sense of unity with God and with creation isn’t something we have to puzzle at understanding- it’s ours whenever we feel ready to listen, to pray and to love.

In the name of the father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,

Amen.