Year C Easter 7 WED 2022 Attract/Repel

Year C Easter 7 WED, 1 June 2022 St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA

"Attract/Repel" Collect: O God, the King of glory, you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven: Do not leave us comfortless, but send us your Holy Spirit to strengthen us, and exalt us to that place where our Savior Christ has gone before; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen. Ephesians 4:1-16 I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it is said, ‘When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive;    he gave gifts to his people.’ (When it says, ‘He ascended’, what does it mean but that he had also descended* into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.) The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knitted together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love. Matthew 8:28-34 When he came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes,* two demoniacs coming out of the tombs met him. They were so fierce that no one could pass that way. Suddenly they shouted, ‘What have you to do with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?’ Now a large herd of swine was feeding at some distance from them. The demons begged him, ‘If you cast us out, send us into the herd of swine.’ And he said to them, ‘Go!’ So they came out and entered the swine; and suddenly, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and perished in the water. The swineherds ran off, and on going into the town, they told the whole story about what had happened to the demoniacs. Then the whole town came out to meet Jesus; and when they saw him, they begged him to leave their neighbourhood. One of my favorite things to do as a child was to play with magnets. They still fascinate me. I loved the ring magnets, stacking them on a dowel rod. Positive to positive or negative to negative. It made the magnets hover over the one below it. Positive to negative, though, and there was an attraction that was hard to break. This morning we see Jesus attracting and repelling, just like those magnets. Let’s start with the negative. In our Gospel reading, there are two demoniacs. This is a slight change to other versions of the story when there is only one. But the outcome is the same. The demons possessing these two were going to be exorcized, and they ask to be placed in a herd of swine. The swine, being smarter than the humans involved, it seems, immediately cast themselves from the cliff. Jesus is repellant to them. Like those magnets. Nothing could allow them to be near one another. When asked to flee, Jesus is happy to oblige. But then we have the vision of the Church as St. Paul describes it in Ephesians. I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. We lead a life to allow us to be drawn into the fullness of Christ. We remove the hindrances of the calling of Christ, seeking and maintaining that unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. We will use these words on Trinity Sunday, when we have a baptism. One body and one Spirit. One Lord, one faith, one baptism. One God and Father of all. What attracts us cannot be hindered or stopped. We may remove ourselves from that, but God is drawing all things unto Godself. A Unity. The culmination of time and space and matter. The Alpha will be the Omega, the beginning will lead to the end. This attraction to the dream God has for all creation is amazing and beautiful. It is awe-inspiring, and daunting. There is so much work to be done, but looking back we have come so far, thanks be to God.

Attraction and Repulsion. Those magnets, again. It is one or the other. There is no neutral in this.

Friends, Christ will draw all things into the dream God has had for humanity and the whole universe at the dawn of time. He has removed all hindrances, and it is up to us to get rid of any excuses that may slow our journey. A journey together, a journey to unity in the bond of the Spirit.

The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. Amen