Seventh Sunday of Easter 2008
Acts 1:6-14
Psalm 68:1-10,32-35
1 Peter 4:12-14,5:6-11
John 17:1-11
Alright, time to remember you childhood. Well, mine anyway, and think of the Joni Mitchell song “Both Sides Now.”
Rows and floes of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere
I’ve looked at clouds that way
But now they only block the sun
They rain and snow on everyone
So many things I would have done
But clouds got in my way
I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
Its cloud illusions I recall
I really don’t know clouds at all…
I’ve looked at life from both sides now
From win and lose and still somehow
Its life’s illusions I recall
I really don’t know life at all
I’ve looked at life from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
Its life’s illusions I recall
I really don’t know life at all.
In this song Joni Mitchell explores the complexity of it all. How understanding life and love is like trying to get a hold of the clouds.
They look so solid from down here…like they have a substance like cotton balls or whipped cream.
But then, I remember
my first close encounter with a cloud,
hiking up
We think we have it figured out….life. Love. The why’s of suffering and the how come’s of change.
And just as we go to close our hand over it, it’s gone.
Like the disciples on Ascension Day. Thinking that they understand now. See,
Jesus is alive! He didn’t stay
dead. So now, with all that power over life and death he
can really take care of things on earth…things like overthrowing the Roman Government
and reworking the tax structure.
Restoring the
But there goes Jesus, just when we thought we could capture him in our own hand. Off he goes…talking about the Holy Spirit and power and being witnesses not just hear in town but to the ends of the earth…
Huh? What? Is this just one of life’s illusions after all?
And so the disciples rub their necks and look dazed and when
the cloud has dissipated they go back to
Until next Sunday when the Spirit arrives in full force on Pentecost and everything changes again…
But for now, we like things that are solid. That we can see and touch and taste and wrap our hands around. Things that we can understand. And if we can’t understand it…we like having people around us that do. Like computer technicians and auto mechanics and accountants.
We also know, though, that we are also surrounded with clouds. With stuff beyond our understanding. Like why people suffer…we struggle with that one. Why justice seems so out of reach for so many people. Why we have to continually fight wars and bully people….
But just as we struggle with those deep issues of life and death…as we seek to either avoid the whole topic or nibble about the edges of it…
We are also surrounded by issues of hope and faith. For you can’t hold hope in your hands either. And you can’t always explain where people get their faith.
At some point we just have to make that leap of faith…or be pushed off the cliff of reason, trusting that the clouds will hold us up after all. That the promises of God are really true…not just for me or you or those people. But for all.
At some point we start taking seriously the words of Jesus that eternal life is ours not later, after we die, by and by….
But now. Jesus says: “This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”
This is about the present. The now. Today. In the midst of joy or in the midst of suffering or in the midst of simple every day stuff…eternal life is knowing God, knowing Jesus. Eternal life is being known by God, known by Jesus.
Being protected in God’s name. Not protected from “The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,” or all suffering, trauma, sickness and death. But being protected in God’s name from falling into total and utter despair. Protected from giving up on the world and humanity. Protected from ourselves… our desire to be first and foremost in the world. Judy’s song is rather depressing. Yeah, we don’t know clouds at all. We can’t box them up and label them, or program them and send them away. And we really don’t know life at all either, thank you Judy. But we have faith. Like clouds. Sometimes thick, sometimes thin, always changing and drifting. But always there. But more than that, God has faith in us. And we are always one with God and with Jesus and with the Holy Spirit. It isn’t something we can put on a shelf. But it is in the very air that we breath. And that can help us not only survive but prevail.
“The God of all grace…will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you.”We don’t always get
it, we don’t always understand it, we can’t always hold onto it. But it is there.
So, I’m going to listen less to Joni bemoan life and more to Sarah Bettens who sings:
“Don't stop trying, there's always reason to go on living
as long as you can breathe
stay clear of extremes
just say what you mean
but try not to be mean
you should say thank you often, like your hair
wave to strangers everywhere
do what your supposed to do
don't look at what the others do
think before you buy a car don't marry someone
you met at a bar
there's no such thing as going too far
love who you are
don't be scared of what's ahead
but wear the helmet to protect your head
be aware, say you care, don't say fair..
read what you like
be on your brother's side
it's okay to wonder why
but don't expect to understand your life
don't expect to understand your life ...
Just live it to the
fullest, full of the Spirit, full of love, full of the eternal life of God
which is already ours.
And that is enough.
Amen.