The Sunday after the Ascension (May 29, 2022)

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May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be alway acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, our Strength and our Redeemer. Amen.

The end is nigh. It’s common for certain religious groups to predict the end of the world. Last week we talked about The Seekers, one of the first UFO cults in the United States that predicated the end of the world would come about on December 21st and then the 24th of 1954. The Aztecs predicted that it end in 2012. Christians aren’t immune from making these predictions either. Harold Camping first predicted that the end of the world would happen around September 6, 1994. When that didn’t happen, he revised his prediction to May 21, 2011 and then again to October 21, 2011. Pat Robertson, of 700 Club fame, predicted that judgment would happen in the fall of 1982. What these predictors often miss is the words Jesus uttered in Matthew 24:36 “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.” It’s probably that people feel drawn to these predictions because we want to have a sense of control; it’s more tangible and comfortable for us to latch on to the words of false prophets than of Jesus’ somewhat open-ended promise that he will come again. While we shouldn’t get caught up with these kind of specific predictions, Ascensiontide is the perfect time for us to meditate on the fact that Christ is coming again. The Ascension of Christ marks a “mission accomplished” in terms of his first coming: he became Incarnate, he lived a life of perfect adoration to the Father, he died for our sins, he was vindicated by the Father in the Resurrection, and he established the Church by giving his Apostles the authority to forgive and retain sins. The Ascension marks an end to the first coming which means that we should look forward to the second coming. The first Christians understood that their task was to live with the anticipation of the Second Coming (St. Paul even argues that it’s better not to get married because of the impending return of Christ).

But it raises the question: if the end is night, if Christ could return at any moment, how does that change what you do?

The truth is, the end is night. Because Christ has come, it means that the next step in salvation history is his Second Coming in which he will come to judge the quick and the dead. The end brings significance to the present, then. If the goal is to be a professional athlete, then one will dedicate the present to all sorts of strenuous and arduous training. If one wants to be a successful Jeopardy! contestant, then they’ll dedicate themselves to learning all sorts of arcane trivia. If your goal is to be a good spouse, then it means putting in the work of loving your spouse in the present. The Christian life is similar because it has to be lived with the end in view. We know that Christ will return but we don’t know when. And this can produce in us two different responses. One could use the fact that Christ has not come as an excuse to enjoy the present. The delay could be a reason to engage in hedonistic impulses. On the other hand, the more optimal decision is to use this delay in Christ’s return as an opportunity and incentive for the pursuit of holiness. it is this option that St Peter encourages us towards in today’s epistle reading so that we should ask the question “How should we then live?” For Peter, this means three things: sobriety, prayer, and charity.

“Be ye therefore sober.” Or, as the RSV says, “keep sane.” The Greek word here means something like “be in the right mind” or “be sensible.” The idea is that we are to act reasonably in light of what is coming. If it’s true that Christ is coming, then we must be sober, we must keep an eye no so much on the “signs of the times” like those who make the predictions about the end of the world. Rather, the goal insofar us to keep an eye on what’s happening in our own souls. What is fitting for us right now? That’s what it means to live soberly.

In combination with this sober living, Peter commends a life of prayer as the proper response to the fact that Christ is coming again. Prayer is the elevation of the mind to God. We often think that prayer is a special responsibility of the clergy or of monastics. And it is, insofar as we have a special obligation to pray, and you can be sure that I pray for you. However, prayer is not reserved exclusively to the clergy; it’s a responsibility of the laity as well. And why is prayer so important? Because when we pray, we spend time with the one we love, we spend time conforming our will to his will. And so it is appropriate, knowing that he will return to judge us, that we should devote ourselves that we won’t be found wanting.

The final thing that St. Peter commends to us is charity, or love, depending on the translation you read. While there’s no such thing as “private prayer” because we pray in the company of Angels, Archangels, and all the Company of Heaven, we might say that it is generally an activity that is more inward facing. But charity is, by definition, outward facing. But prayer and charity are intricately connected: we can’t pray well without love nor can we fully love without prayer. You may notice a resonance with the summary of the Law: Love the Lord with all your hear, with all your soul, and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself. So we’re called to love but often that’s an ambiguous directive. Most people want a more practical application of that. And Peter gives it to us: love, when it’s active, looks like hospitality which is to genuinely receive the other without grudging. Hospitality itself isn’t always necessarily uniquely Christian; a non-Christian can be hospitable. But Christians are hospitable for two unique reasons: because we recognize that God has shown us hospitality in his Incarnation and Passion. And also, we realize that anyone in need of hospitality is a divine image bearer. As John Chrysostom reminds us, “If you receive your neighbor as though he were Christ, you will not complain or feel embarrassed but rather rejoice in your service. But if you do not receive him as if he were Christ, you will not receive Christ either.” Peter contextualizes our hospitality to the Body of Christ: just like Paul, he recognizes that our charity and hospitality expresses itself through particular gifts we’re given by the Holy Spirit. So St. Peter says that we should “minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” He gives us examples of what this looks like: if a speaker speaks, he should speak “God’s words”, in other words, the speaker speaking to the Body of Christ must preach the Gospel for the good of the Church. Another gift that Peter isolates is that of serving or ministering to others which we should do in the way and with the strength that God gives us. The point is that whatever particular gift we have, the purpose is to serve the mission of the Church: “that in everything God will be glorified through Jesus Christ.” And so love is a constant characteristic that should bind us together. But the beauty is that in this Body of Christ, love is demonstrated in a plethora of ways. Which is a sign of the Holy Ghost, whose coming we celebrate next Sunday on Pentecost. But love means using the gifts the Spirit gives us for the good of the Body.

Many of you here at St. Paul’s do so much with your gifts for our community. I’m thinking of our vestry and wardens, our choir and music director, our altar guild, those who coordinate and participate in coffee hour, and all the other countless people who contribute to our common life. If you’re one of those people, thank you for what you do. Today is a good opportunity to remember why what you do is so important. If you’re someone who has been here a while but haven’t jumped in yet or you’re new but wanting to get involved, pray for discernment so that you can know how the Holy Ghost has gifted you. Oh, and come talk to me, I’m happy to help direct you in this regard. But our goal is expressed well in the doxology of our reading: “that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.”