First Reading: Acts 1:12-26
12Then {the apostles whom Jesus had chosen} returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away. 13And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. 14All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers. 15In those days Peter stood up among the brothers (the company of persons was in all about 120) and said, 16“Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. 17For he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.” 18(Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out. 19And it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their own language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.) 20“For it is written in the Book of Psalms, ‘May his camp become desolate, and let there be no one to dwell in it’; and ‘Let another take his office.’” 21So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 22beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us — one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection.” 23And they put forward two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also called Justus, and Matthias. 24And they prayed and said, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen 25to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.” 26And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.
Psalm 133
1Oh, how good and pleasant it is, when brethren live together in unity! 2It is like fine oil upon the head that runs down upon the beard, 3Upon the beard of Aaron, and runs down upon the collar of his robe. 4It is like the dew of Hermon that falls upon the hills of Zion. 5For there the Lord has ordained the blessing: life forevermore.
Second Reading: Revelation 22:1-20
1Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. 4They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. 6And he said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place.” 7“And behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.” 8I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me, 9but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.” 10And he said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. 11Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.”] 12“Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done. 13I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” 14Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. 15Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. 16“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.” 17The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price. 18I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, 19and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book. 20He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
Gospel: John 17:20-26
20{Jesus said,} “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. 24Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
The Ascension is Important and God’s Math
Today is one of those interesting Sundays. If you weren’t already aware of it, today we not only celebrate the final Sunday in the Eastertide, it’s also the Sunday that follows the Festival of the Ascension. Thursday is the actual day we observe Jesus’ return to the Father. Jesus’ Ascension took place 40 days after His resurrection, and next Sunday we will celebrate Pentecost, which occurs 50 days after Jesus returned to the Father in glory. I bring this up because Jesus’ ascension is also an important event for us to observe.
Church members will occasionally ask: “If all our sin was dealt with when Jesus died on the cross, why must we still confess it?” The answer is partly found in an often-overlooked aspect of Christian belief, that is Jesus’ ascension. According to the New Testament, God raised Jesus from the dead, and then, 40 days later, took Him up into heaven (Acts 1:9–11). Additionally, the New Testament letters of Romans, Hebrews, and 1st John all describe the ascended Jesus actively working for His people in God’s heavenly presence. Romans 8:34 and Hebrews 7:25 identify Jesus’ present activity as intercession. In 1st John 2:1–2, Jesus serves as an advocate for us before the Father.
But why do we as God’s people need an advocate? Was the Crucifixion not enough for our salvation? I would forward that the answer is both yes and no. Yes, we are saved by grace through faith alone, and yes, Jesus bore our sins on the cross, but we are also sinful creatures in constant need of forgiveness, so the single event of the Cross isn’t sufficient—if our faith is in the event or the object of the cross than our faith is misplaced. Only our faith in the person of Jesus Christ is sufficient. If all we had were the Cross, then we’d have no salvation. As vitally important as Jesus’ death is, Christ’s saving work involves more. To remain in God’s saving grace, we need Jesus’ ongoing ministry of intercession for our salvation. Remember Paul said, “I die daily” (1 Corinthians 15:31).
In this passage Paul is not only talking about the threats of persecution and death that he faced because of his proclamation of Jesus as our savior and Lord, but of also dying to the temptations of the Old Adam and the allures of this world. Paul was ready each day to give his life for the gospel and he daily made himself ready spiritually to meet his saving Lord. In the letter to the Hebrews, the author identifies Jesus’ ongoing intercession as key for Jesus “to save completely those who come to God through him” (Heb. 7:25). Therefore, to reduce Jesus’ saving work merely to His death ignores this important aspect of Jesus’ present and ongoing ministry for His people.
Salvation isn’t accomplished just because Jesus died, but because He was also raised and ascended into heaven. There, He continuously intercedes for us where He maintains the New Covenant permanently better than the Old Testament sacrifices and priests maintained the old. Jesus is the perfect and spotless Lamb of God as John the Baptist proclaimed, “behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).
Hebrews and 1st John go on to describe Christ’s heavenly ministry using concepts drawn from Old Testament sacrifices and priestly ministry. Hebrews looks to Leviticus chapter 16, the annual Day of Atonement, to explain how the ascended Jesus ensures His people’s salvation. Under the Old Covenant, the earthly high priests entered God’s presence in the Holy of Holies, once each year, to offer the sacrifice of atonement by sprinkling blood. But Jesus did something better.
Jesus returned to God’s presence in the heavenly Holy of Holies once for all time. There, as an ever-living sacrifice, He offered Himself before the Father the way the earthly high priests offered the sacrificial blood (Heb. 9:6–7, 24–26). Hebrews says that Jesus took His seat at God’s right hand after He made purification for sins (Heb. 1:3). Jesus presently rules on the heavenly throne as God’s exalted Son. The letter to the Hebrews also affirms that Jesus now serves as the Great High Priest who continues to work for the salvation of His siblings. He is seated at God’s right hand, but He is not silent. Even now, the ascended Christ ministers as the Great High Priest in the heavenly Holy of Holies (Heb. 8:1–2), perpetually interceding for His people (Heb. 7:25). This is just part of how He saves us completely.
Similarly, 1st John reflects on Jesus’ work in the light of Jewish sacrifices: Jesus Himself is the “atoning sacrifice” now located in the Father’s presence (1 John 2:1-2). As in Hebrews, Jesus isn’t silent in God’s presence. He actively advocates for His people when we sin. This advocacy supplies the rationale for John’s admonition for us as believers to continually confess their sins (1 John 1:9). Remember St. John writes, “If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But, if we confess our sins, God who is faithful and just will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness”.
Remember Jesus also instructed His disciples to “be perfect even as you heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). Jesus knows, and we know, that none of us are perfect, but Jesus’ command is with the understanding that we do fall short. Jesus understands that we are all in need of God’s continuous grace, thus the reality of ongoing sin requires ongoing confession and forgiveness of our sin. Jesus’ ascension makes this possible because Jesus, who is the atoning sacrifice, presently pleads with His Father and our Father for His people. Unlike in Hebrews, 1st John doesn’t directly identify Jesus as High Priest, but Jesus’ ongoing advocacy clearly implies His priestly ministry.
Paul in Romans 8:34, also highlights the importance of Jesus’ ongoing intercession at God’s right hand as a central means for preserving the relationship between God and God’s people. No one can condemn those who are in Christ. This truth depends not only on Jesus’ death, but, as Paul says, even moreon His resurrection and present intercession at God’s right hand. Paul can therefore confidently declare that nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:39).
Jesus’ love extends beyond the Cross—His death, resurrection, and ongoing intercession at God’s right hand are essential for His people’s salvation. Take out any one of those elements and, like the Jenga tower that falls to pieces when a key block is removed, Paul’s confident claims in Romans 8:35–39 collapses. This is also why Jesus prayed for us to be one even as He and the Father are one, which brings us to another interesting aspect of why these two events are important.
I’d like to pose a mathematical question that comes from our gospel reading for today: what is 1 + 1 + 1? Now the vast majority of people who have completed 1st grade will answer 3? These are the basic skill we were taught for the earliest of our elementary education. Well, I hate to burst your bubble, but based on the formula found in our gospel reading the answer is one. It’s a strange formula, but in reality, it’s a wonderful mystery.
It’s a mystery that’s worthy of us taking time this morning to contemplate. Actually, it’d be good for us to consider this amazing mystery anytime we recite one of the Creeds. On the surface this Divine formula might seem like some newfangled math, but it’s God’s amazing math, and it’s good for us to consider it more fully. By the way, this odd formula shouldn’t seem strange to you, this isn’t the first time most of us have encountered God’s unique math. Anyone who’s been married, or been to a wedding, has heard the Genesis and Matthew passage, “and the two shall become one. In other words, in God’s math, 1 + 1 can also equal 1. But for today let’s look at the unusual mathematical formula; 1 + 1 + 1 = one.
For the past several weeks, our gospel readings have come from the section of John’s gospel known as the Final Discourse of Jesus. Jesus’ final speech before His crucifixion concludes with these verses from the 17th chapter. It’s really a prayer between Jesus and our Heavenly Father and has often been called the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus. In a sense, it’s Jesus’ last will and testament, His final effort to teach, to exhort, to encourage and to empower His disciples before He ascends to the Father. But let me get back to the math part.
Listen to Jesus’ prayer; “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (vss. 20-21). It’s simple really, according to Jesus’ prayer, 1 + 1 + 1 = One. Maybe the best way to understand this would be to break this equation down into its different parts.
Start with the first two parts of the equation: 1 + 1. Remember Jesus’ words: “You, Father, are in me and I am in you” and later He comments as He prays to His Father, “We are one.” 1 + 1 — the Father and the Son are united. They’re united in every way. They’re united in will, in power, and in loving intent for humankind, in commitment to salvation, and in a mercy that endures forever. Jesus came that we might know God — His will, His intent, His love, His grace, His forgiveness, His power, and His peace. If we want to know what God is like, all we have to do is look at Jesus. It truly is a case of “like Father, like Son” carried to the ultimate. To see and know the One, is to see and know the Other. In God’s amazing math, 1 + 1 truly does equal one. Consider for a moment the vertical dimension of the cross.
God has reached down to this earth in His Son. He poured Himself out and became a Man. 1 + 1 became One, because “God so loved the world …”. But there’s more to this mystery. There’s another part of this formula for us to consider. Jesus also said: I pray “that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one.” And who are the “they”? Thanks be to God, that’s you and me, it’s everyone who would confess and believe. Again, using the image of the cross, now picture that horizontal beam.
Imagine it growing and growing and extending its arms. Watch how those arms grow and stretch and bend until they curve in upon themselves and form this huge circle that includes all of us, as well as our friends across the street, and over across the state, on over in Tennessee, and Virginia, and England, and Asia; all around the globe. They continue on encompassing the whole of humanity. There really is no magic to God’s math – because of His love and mercy, we are one in God!
The only reason this becomes complicated is because our self-centeredness is offended by the thought of being lost in the oneness of others. We’ve become inundated with the modern philosophy of “I-ness,” so that the concept of 1 + 1 + 1 equaling One, is somehow foreign to our sense of personhood. We somehow feel that it violates our individuality. But it’s God’s math, not reasoned calculus. It’s God’s math, not pop psychology. It’s God’s math, and it works.
It works because of the heretofore unmentioned, third divine partner linked to the first two — namely, the Holy Spirit. The Spirit accomplishes what God has ordained. The Spirit completes the work of God in Christ by calling us together, enlightening us with his Word, filling us with power through the sacraments, sending us out to gather others in His name and around the table with us. By His power, we are one — not by our own initiatives, not by our own creativities, not by our own inventions. We are God’s; claimed in the waters of baptism, joined together in His body the Church, and empowered for living as a community of faith – all accomplished through His Spirit. And this has four broad and far-reaching implications for us as a people and as a church.
First, the fact that God’s strange math works, that 1 +1 + 1 = One, means that we are stronger together than we are apart. Consider that for a moment. Our ones equal one — a whole. The gifts that God has given each of us individually, are to be joined together to benefit the whole. We are to be a living organism, the body of Christ, that works together in ways we cannot work apart. This means we need to share our gifts with one another. In fact, in the New Testament, whenever gifts are mentioned, they’re always mentioned in the light and context of the community. Only as God’s gifts build up this community of faith are they being used as they were intended to be used. Read Paul’s words in Corinthians or Colossians, you’ll see what I mean. The second implication for God’s strange math comes from the text itself.
Why are we all to be one? Jesus answers: “So that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” God’s purpose is fulfilled in that math. Our oneness is a witness to the world of who Jesus is. People look to us to understand Jesus because we claim to be His body. And further, the only way the world will know about His love for them is through us. We are the arms of the cross outstretched and growing, every time we join hands with others in love. Joined to Christ in baptism, we’re joined with one another in His body, and we have the responsibility to reach out to others in the love and forgiveness and grace we have come to know and experience in this place. The question we must ask ourselves is, how well we do that? Or perhaps, how often?
When was the last time we invited someone to worship with us? I’d like to think that it’s the best invitation we can ever offer someone — where else in this world do you hear about a love so great that it keeps on accepting us each and every time we come, no matter where we’ve been or what we’ve done? Where else in this world do we find acceptance and peace that’s not earned? Where else in this world do we hear good news that can literally change peoples’ lives? So why, then, are we so reluctant to make that simple invitation? We must reach out, we must invite — it can, and it will change lives. The third implication of the truth of God’s math, has to do with our stance in the world.
To believe, to really believe that we’re joined to Christ and to one another and can find wholeness and oneness in that union, puts us in direct opposition to the preaching of the world around us. I found a poignant example of that in a mail advertisement that came across my desk. It was titled “The Black Book of Executive Politics” and was written anonymously by “Z.” This is actually what the advertisement said about this book. Written by a world-class corporate infighter who prefers to remain anonymous, this priceless volume contains 43 street-smart hints, tips, short-cuts, ploys, strategies, and approaches for surviving — and making it big in the company political arena … People call company politics a “game.” But it’s a game you must play, like it or not, if you want to survive and succeed.
Listen to what the author claims will put someone at the top of the corporate ladder: “Why style — rather than performance – this is the key factor in determining who makes the boardroom. When teamwork isn’t the answer. How to make points with the boss without being obviously on-the-make. How to learn needed inside information without being unethical. And it goes on and on. The letter inside the ad states: “I’m talking about truly Machiavellian stuff here. I know it all sounds a bit paranoid. But there are times when a little paranoia can give you the backside protection you need. You’ll get the latest and most diabolical thinking on these political skills.”
The author ends with two seemingly contradictory thoughts. First, he plants the seed about the opposition: “How many people in your company are sending away for their copies of the Black Book?” And then he said, that if I act right away, I’ll get a free copy of “Creating a Loyal Staff.” A loyal staff? After I’ve learned that you want me to beat up my counterparts in the corporate arena and I’m not sure who’s reading the same Black Book I am? Give me a break. But there it is. I wonder what this anonymous author “Z” would have to say about God’s math?
In closing, let me share a story about what happens when we fail to allow God’s Divine math to work. It’s reported that Mahatma Gandhi, in his younger days, was impressed with Christianity. One Sunday in South Africa he went to a church, planning to ask the minister afterwards for instructions in the faith. But as he entered the building the ushers refused to seat him. “Why don’t you visit the colored peoples’ church?” he was asked. Gandhi never became a Christian. “If Christians also have differences, I might as well remain a Hindu,” he explained.
Yes, we have differences — but in God’s loving math 1 + 1 + 1 = One. For those who believe this, their eyes look upon their neighbor in a whole new way. For those who believe that we are one in Jesus and the Father, their arms cannot help but reach out to join those who know the same math. For all who believe, God touches and blesses and makes them one with Him and with one another. But we can’t keep this wonderful formula to ourselves. We need to share this Good News with those around us and invite others to join us in celebrating our oneness with God.
Amen.
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