Year B Lent 4 WED 2024 Wherever He Goes

 Year B Lent 4 WEDNESDAY, 13 March 2024

St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA

“Wherever He Goes”

Collect: O Lord our God, you sustained your ancient people in the wilderness with bread from heaven: Feed now your pilgrim flock with the food that endures to everlasting life; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

John 5:19–29

Jesus said to the Jews, “Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing; and he will show him greater works than these, so that you will be astonished. Indeed, just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whomever he wishes. The Father judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son, so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life. 

“Very truly, I tell you, the hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself; and he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not be astonished at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and will come out—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.”

I saw a cute little collection of videos the other day. It was toddlers mimicking older folks getting out of chairs and other things where the aches and pains require a response. And the toddlers did as they saw. Monkey see, monkey do. It was rather cute.

Jesus is saying that he is following God’s lead. As the Father, so the Son. 

So often we want to think there was the age of miracle and prophecy. God never stopped being at work in the world. Ever. Then and now.

We all hear rumors that the Church is dead, or the Episcopal Church is doomed. There will never be none. Some of us are just too stubborn to go anywhere else. Or for me, it took me so long and we went so far to find what we found in the Episcopal Church that I cannot imagine ever not being here.

I came because I heard the call of God and the insistence of God. I had thought about it two serious times before, but it was not worth the price. But when we were really ready, it came quickly and joyfully. When people ask why we came into the Episcopal Church there are reasons, many of them. But the “Why?” is that God called us.

God is still at work, and the best thing that we can do is to be open and ready, and when we hear God call “Jump!”, we do.

The old phrase rings so true. The Most Important Things In Life We Cannot See. That Bread of Heaven is still what feeds my soul. Eucharist, God’s Word, those still quiet moments in the Daily Office. This is when and how God feeds me. He does not feed me for ONLY my nourishment, I have been fed so I can feed. I have been blessed to be a blessing. If I am following God I cannot go wrong. 

When Jesus goes on to speak of the Dead hearing his voice, it can get confusing. Are these the dead here? Or these the Dead waiting in Sheol or Hades, the waiting place of the souls of the departed.

We tend to explore this more on Holy Saturday, we often can get bogged down focusing too much on the metaphysics. So I will spend my energies on the things I can know. 

God is at work.

He invites each and every one of us to follow his lead, and be at the work at hand, just like Jesus did.

He gives us life after this life so that life, and our service of God, does not end.

The adventure of what comes next is not something that we as God’s Children need fear. From life to life. From love to love. From Now to Then, seamless and beautiful. 

Amen