Easter 6, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The readings for this Sunday offer a rich variety of material.\u00a0 We have Paul preaching at the Areopagus in Athens telling his listeners that the \u201cUnknown God\u201d they have been worshiping is really the One who created the heavens and earth and gave his only Son for us.\u00a0 Peter reminds us that it is our baptism which seals our salvation.\u00a0 The Gospel reading takes us back to the last supper when Jesus is saying \u201cgoodbye\u201d to his disciples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our Gospel reading for today continues with that part of John\u2019s Gospel known as the \u201cFarewell Discourse\u201d (John 13 \u2013 16).\u00a0 Although the words are spoken on the night he was handed over to suffering and death, they only begin to make sense when we listen to them in the context of the Easter Season.\u00a0 Jesus is physically leaving us for the final time.\u00a0 Ascension Day is next Thursday, May 21st.\u00a0 So, Jesus is preparing us for his visible departure from us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the things Jesus does to prepare us for his leave-taking is the promise of an Advocate who will be present with us always, who will remind us of Jesus\u2019 teaching, and serve as a resource for our conscience \u2013 both individually and collectively.\u00a0 This promised Advocate is the Holy Spirit who will be given to us on the feast of Pentecost just two weeks from now (May 31st this year).\u00a0 The Holy Spirit is the outward sign that Jesus is still present with us in our thoughts and actions, as well as in our prayers \u2013 he reminds us that we are never truly alone, even in the midst of our loneliness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is one of the underlying gifts given to us in baptism.\u00a0 Baptism is the outward and visible sign that we belong to Christ \u2013 a relationship that is absolute and eternal.\u00a0 It\u2019s more indelible than any tattoo, but it marks us as Christ\u2019s own forever.\u00a0 It is through baptism that we, and the world, know that we have accepted Jesus the Christ as our Savior and have promised to follow him as our Lord.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another gift given to us by the Holy Spirit is an awareness of God\u2019s presence in what might seem to be the oddest places.\u00a0 Paul uses something he has noticed \u2013 the altar to the \u201cUnknown God\u201d as a segue into proclaiming the Good News to his listeners.\u00a0 Think of those moments when an apparently ordinary event or occurrence gave a flash of insight into God\u2019s love and gracious presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All of this together offer us some of the tools we will need when Jesus takes his leave of us on Ascension Day with a promise to return and take us to himself. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Easter 6, 2020 The readings for this Sunday offer a rich variety of material.\u00a0 We have Paul preaching at the Areopagus in Athens telling his listeners that the \u201cUnknown God\u201d they have been worshiping is really the One who created the heavens and earth and gave his only Son for us.\u00a0 Peter reminds us that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-father-george","category-inspirational"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":250,"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249\/revisions\/250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}