7th Sunday after Easter – Year A
May 4, 2008
The Reverend Monna Mayhall
It begins at a very young age, and it continues for some time later…this ritual of asking the question of children…What do you what to do when you grow up?
I can remember some of my friends knowing exactly what they wanted to do after high school, and then some of them had an idea, but they wanted to keep their options open, and then some didn’t have a clue what they wanted to do.
And it’s an interesting thing that continues to happen every year about this time…during this last month of the regular school year…particularly as children graduate from high school and college with plans to move on to other things and places.
That question seems to come up again and is asked to those graduating, “What do you want to do?”
And parents, as they witness their children growing up before their eyes and in many cases the children transitioning to a more responsible life on their own, without their parents around them all the time, parents might ask themselves questions, like “Did I teach them all I could?” “Have I forgotten to tell them anything they might need to know?” and in that questioning, I imagine parents add many prayers of protection for their children, as they go do whatever it is they want to do.
But I think the better and maybe more important question than “What do you want to do?” might be the question of “Who do you want to be?”
And whether you are 8, 18, 38, 68, or 98…this is a question for anyone at any age…it’s a question we need to ask of ourselves, and not just once, but one that we must continue to ask ourselves as we journey through this earthly life.
I think this question of “Who do you want to be?” is indirectly asked of the disciples in the first reading we heard from the Acts of the Apostles.
In the first reading, Jesus reassures the disciples that they will not be left comfortless and helpless after he leaves, but that they will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes…and they will be witnesses to his life, death, and resurrection throughout the world to the ends of the earth. Then as the disciples are standing there with Jesus, he ascends toward heaven right before their very eyes, and he’s gone from their sight.
The apostles are left standing there staring toward heaven…maybe in shock…maybe waiting for something to happen…or someone to do something.
And two sharp dressed men suddenly appear and question the disciples about what they’re doing just standing there. I wonder if at some point the two men didn’t just shake their heads wondering, “And these are the ones who Jesus has entrusted to proclaim the Good News?”
Barbara Brown Taylor writes, “With nothing but a promise and a prayer, those eleven disciples consented to BE the church, and nothing was ever the same again, beginning with them. The followers became leaders, the listeners became preachers, the converts became missionaries, the healed became healers, and the disciples became APOSTLES, witnesses to the Risen Christ… and SO, they STOPPED looking up toward heaven, and looked at each OTHER instead. And THEN, they got ON with the business of [being] the church.”
Who do you want to be?
The disciples had to have asked this question of themselves many times after their spiritual leader was no longer physically with them. They had to decide to be the hands and feet of Christ in the world. They had to decide be loving and kind…just and forgiving. They had to decide to be all those things that Christ had been for them.
No doubt it was sometimes tough for them…maybe sometimes unbearable, but Jesus was an extraordinary teacher and he had taught them well.
But that didn’t mean that he didn’t worry about them, just as parents do for their children. In the gospel for today we hear the prayer that’s presumed to be one of the prayers that Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night he was arrested. The prayer is only recorded in the gospel of John, and it’s often referred to as the high priestly prayer.
Jesus prays to his Father for himself and for the people…and some might add with good reason! Because maybe the disciples hadn’t all been the sharpest knives in the drawer, and they didn’t always get it, and they doubted, and they made mistakes, but their hearts were right, and they loved their Lord.
And Jesus, maybe knowing the difficulties ahead, prays for their protection and for their unity –
- Then and now…I think this is a prayer for the church and for everyone –
Jesus came for all people, and while he was here, he tried to teach his apostles how to how to live and love, so that they could teach others. He tried to instill the values that really mattered, and teach the importance of loving God and loving neighbor. Maybe he even asked them “After I’m gone…who will you be? After I’m not here to teach you…who will you be?”
Maria Shriver, a member of the Kennedy family, TV news journalist, First Lady of California, author, mother of four, and wife of the Terminator Arnold Schwarzenegger, has just come out with a new book - “Just Who will you Be? Big Question. Little Book. Answer Within.”
I haven’t read the book, nor do I know anything about it, so I can’t honestly recommend it. But the title intrigued me and I saw an interview with her about why she wrote the book. She said she was asked to be the keynote speaker at college graduation, and as she was preparing her speech, it occurred to her that she didn’t know why she had been asked to speak. Was it because of her career as a TV journalist, or maybe because of her role as First Lady of California? She began to think about the difference between “WHAT she did” and “WHO she was” and did it really matter what she did.
Who do you want to be?
This question calls for reflection, and it doesn’t matter if you’re a car hop at Sonic, a corporate executive…a stay-at-home Mom…a retiree or a graduate…
...Because in our daily lives or when the bottom falls out of our compass and we can’t find true north or when the relationship that has been our mainstay disappears and we are standing there gazing upward…what we’re left with is who we are and who we want to be.
By the grace of God we are children of God, followers of Jesus, and the part of the body of Christ, may we, like the disciples, look at one another and want to BE the hands and feet of Christ in the world…may we want to be loving and kind…just and forgiving, and may we want to be all those things that Christ is for us.
