Eastertide Sermons, 2000 The Most Rev. John T. Cahoon, Jr. Metropolitan, Anglican Catholic Church Archbishop Ordinary, Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic States Rector, St. Andrew and St. Margaret of Scotland Anglican Catholic Church Alexandria, Virginia

Today and tomorrow and Tuesday and Wednesday constitute the short season we call Rogationtide. They are the last four days of the season of Easter, and they are the days which lead up to Ascension Day, this coming Thursday. On Thursday, after we hear St. Luke tell us how Jesus went up into heaven as the disciples watched, we shall snuff out the Paschal Candle. It has burned in the chancel since Easter Day to represent the forty days Jesus spent with the disciples after his resurrection.

The word "rogation" comes from the Latin word which means "to ask," as in "inter-rogate." What we are asking God for at this season is a successful spring planting which will lead to a bountiful harvest in the fall which will provide plenty of food to keep us going all winter.

The religious calendar of ancient Israel featured several spring and fall fertility festivals. Israel had a largely agricultural economy. That means things in Israel were rather different from our own service and information-based economy—but the idea of agricultural festivals still rings true. We still have to eat, and we still have to depend on God to set up the conditions under which we can work to produce food.

The planting and harvest dimension of Rogationtide make it a fitting conclusion to the season of Easter—the season in which we think about the promise of resurrection from the dead and eternal life in heaven which Jesus' resurrection gives us. What makes the connection is the Old Testament concept of firstfruits.

The firstfruits are what comes up earliest in the harvest. God told Israel to give him the firstfruits. His command is still binding on us. If you give to God first, you show that you trust him to take care of you with what is left over. If you wait around to see what you have left over before you give to God, you show that you don't trust him much at all.

St. Paul calls Jesus the "firstfruits of them that slept"--the firstfruits of the dead. Jesus' resurrection is like a spring harvest which provides a preview of what is going to happen in the fall. Jesus is the firstfruits of the dead, because he came up out of his grave first. We are the latter fruits of the dead, because we shall come up out of our graves later on—at the last day—in the fall, as it were, when Jesus comes back to earth.

Our hymn today captures the idea perfectly. "Christ is risen/ Christ the firstfruits/ Of the holy harvest-field/ Which will all its full abundance/ At his second coming yield."

Today we ask God to give us a good harvest in the fall. We are pretty confident that he will do it—or at least that Giant and Safeway will continue to make us think that he has done it. Most of us are pretty well divorced from a close, daily connection to issues of planting and harvest, but we will notice if a drought or a frost somewhere else makes fruits and vegetables scarce or outrageously expensive.

Jesus addresses the general issue of asking God for things at the beginning of today's gospel. He tells the disciples, "Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full."

So we have a clear commandment from Jesus to ask God for things. If we ask God for things and it turns out they are the things he wants to give us, he will give them to us. One of the first things we learn when we get started asking God for things is that he doesn't always give us what we ask for. If he does give us what we ask for, he doesn't necessarily give it to us right away. Sometimes he says, "Yes;" sometimes he says, "No;" sometimes he says, "Wait;" sometimes he says, "Keep on nagging, and I'll think about it."

I have no glib answer to the question, "Why does God give us some of the things we ask for and not others?" We pray every week for people to be healed of their various infirmities, for example. Some of them get well, and some of them don't. We ask God to make things happen in our lives and in the lives of people we care about. Sometimes he does what we ask, other times he doesn't. I have discovered that all this does not become particularly clearer or easier to understand the older you get.

What we can be sure of is that God is our father who loves us, and he wants to give us what is best for us. I have a hard time accepting the idea that God knows what is best for me better than I do. But that is a lesson that praying for things can teach me.

As we go on in prayer asking for things and then seeing what happens we develop a better understanding of what God is up to. We also develop a deeper understanding that everything depends upon him anyway. We can even come to want what he wants rather than what we want, because we learn that what he wants for us is always better.

In the long run, of course, this transitory life ends, just like the labor pains we have talked about the past couple of weeks. Easter has given us the hope and the promise of a better life in heaven after Jesus comes back to resurrect us and take us up.

While we wait for him we can take great comfort in the words that end today's gospel; words which accept reality as it is, and also promise us something better. Jesus says, "In this world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world."

The Collect: O LORD, from whom all good things do come; Grant to us thy humble servants, that by thy holy inspiration we may think those things that are good, and by thy merciful guiding may perform the same; through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Epistle: St. James 1:22

The Gospel: St. John 16:23

Starting last week and continuing on for several more, the Prayer Book's gospel readings are taken from the long speech Jesus delivered to his disciples at the Last Supper. Last week he said the disciples' sorrow at his death and our sorrow until he comes again are like labor pains. Labor pains are horrible when they are going on, but after a little while, they go away and joy takes their place.

Today he tells the disciples what will happen as a result of his Ascension—his going away into heaven to sit on the right hand of God until he comes again. The first thing that will happen is that the Holy Ghost will come to earth. That cannot happen while Jesus is still here.

While Jesus is on earth, God's presence is, in a sense, localized in him. After he goes back to heaven the Spirit can come to earth, and God will be fully present everywhere. Jesus says, "I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you."

Then Jesus spells out several things the Holy Spirit will do when he comes. First of all, he will show the world what sin really is. What it turns out sin really is is disbelief in Jesus and a lack of trust in what he commands and what he promises. If we really believed who Jesus is and what he teaches, we would never disobey. So in that sense, every sin is a manifestation of disbelief in Jesus. Jesus says, "He will reprove the world of sin…because they believe not in me."

The Spirit will also show the world who is really righteous. The proof that Jesus was who he said he was—the Son of God and the Messiah of Israel, and therefore the one who has God's authority to teach—the proof is in the Ascension.

It might have been possible to fake the resurrection—maybe he was never really dead, maybe somebody stole his body and substituted someone else—but it would be extremely difficult to fake taking off from the Mount of Olives, and going up, up, and away into the clouds of heaven. Jesus says, "He will reprove the world of righteousness…because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more."

Next the Holy Ghost will show the world what judgment is. God has passed his judgment on the devil. According to the Epistle to the Hebrews, the greatest power the devil has over us is to make us afraid to die. Jesus' death and resurrection break that power, because they prove that death gives us nothing to fear. We shall return from our graves in bodies and go to heaven, just as Jesus did. Jesus says, "He will reprove the world of judgment…because the prince of this world is judged."

Then Jesus talks about the ongoing role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church. To understand what he is talking about, it is helpful to remember that when Jesus went back to heaven the Church had no New Testament, no Creeds, no Prayer Book, no hymnal, no set of canon laws, and no calendar—in short, the church had none of the things we think of as essential to her existence. All of it had to evolve and be worked out under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Jesus says, "I have many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth."

Over a period of time the church and the Holy Ghost worked it all out. What it means to be a Catholic Christian is to accept the decisions of the early centuries. The first four centuries brought a consensus on what books would constitute the authoritative New Testament. Ecumenical councils spelled out the basics of the creeds. Local churches living under those decisions of the whole church developed their own books of worship and discipline.

The church also had to decide how much of the Old Testament--the Hebrew Bible--would continue to be binding on Christians. Its decision was essentially that anything the New Testament did not get rid of specifically remained binding. Sacrificing animals went out, because Hebrews said its purpose had ended: the obligation to give ten percent of one's income to God off the top—tithing—remained binding upon us. Circumcision went out, because St. Paul said it was no longer necessary: the obligation to honor one's parents remained binding. The need to abstain from cheeseburgers and shrimp cocktail went out because of what Jesus said and what St. Peter saw: the obligation not to covet remained binding.

The Church continues to live under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Some people believe that means that the Holy Spirit can lead the church into new truth that contradicts former truth—in short, that the Spirit can change his mind, and, therefore, change the church's basic teaching and practice.

Our church rejects any such idea completely. We believe that God knew exactly what he was doing when he inspired the Holy Scriptures. We believe he knew exactly what he was doing when he led the church to make the decisions she made when the church was still one and undivided.

To think anything else is to suggest we should believe in someone other than "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever." And it is to suggest that we have rejected the Holy Spirit whom God and Jesus have promised us will guide us into all truth.

The Collect: ALMIGHTY God, who alone canst order the unruly 0 wills and affections of sinful men; Grant unto thy people, that they may love the thing which thou commandest, and desire that which thou dost promise; that so, among the sundry and manifold changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed, where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: St. James 1:17

The Gospel: St. John 16:5

Easter I, April 30, 2000 ("Low Sunday")

Last Sunday we dealt with the question, "Is there life after death?" The answer we got is, "Yes, there is." We are part of Jesus' body through baptism; Jesus rose from the dead; so we shall rise from the dead too. There is life after death. Easter answers the question.

Today's gospel lesson brings us face to face with a different, though related, question. That question is, "Is there life after birth?" Is there real life in this life, or are we just here to wait around for something better?

Jesus had to figure out a way to keep the experience of his resurrection alive. If people could only experience Christ's resurrection if they saw him dead and buried on Friday and then alive again on Sunday they would indeed have witnessed an arresting miracle, but not a miracle with much real staying power.

Without some way of keeping it alive, then after all of the original eyewitnesses died off. Jesus' resurrection would have passed into the category of religious oddities from the dim past. It could not have continued to shake the earth and change people's lives for two thousand years.

In today's gospel lesson we find out how Jesus did it. First of all, astoundingly enough, he set up a church. Jesus established what some people think is the most dreary of all earthly phenomena, an organized religion. He appointed a group of men to be the foundation and the skeleton and the organizing principle of this organized religion.

The men were originally his students — his followers, his disciples. On Easter night he breathed the Holy Ghost onto them, and he called them "apostles." An apostle is a person who is sent. Jesus said to them, "My father apostled me, so I am going to apostle you." My father sent me out, so I am sending you out.

He was sending them out to tell people that he had risen from the dead, and that if they got connected to him in baptism they could rise from the dead too. He sent them out to build a church where they could proclaim this message about life after death.

As time went on, those men and the men they set apart to succeed them in their church offices were not just called apostles — ones who are sent out but also bishops — overseers. One of the New Testament's requirements for a bishop is that he be a witness to the resurrection — one who believes it, and one who proclaims it.

The church that is structured around bishops who are in a direct line of succession to the original apostles is the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church we talk about in the creeds. I myself was made a bishop by three other bishops and each of them was made a bishop by three bishops and so on back to the original apostles in an unbroken succession from the first Easter night until now. We are linked to what happened in the upper room when Jesus first sent them out.

Jesus also gave the apostle-bishops a particular power — a power which defines further what it means to be part of the Catholic and Apostolic church. That power is the power to forgive sins. Some people think, quite mistakenly, that the power to forgive sins is something conniving, medieval Roman Catholic priests made up so they could scare their people and keep them in line.

But from today's gospel we see that that is not so. Jesus gives the apostles the power to forgive sins. He says, "Whosoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosoever sins ye retain, they are retained." We experience that power in the Prayer Book's various General Confessions and Absolutions and in private confession. The power to apply the forgiveness Jesus won for us on Good Friday to actual people and their actual sins is in the hands of the bishops of the church, and through them, in the hands of the priests.

When I ordain a priest I quote Jesus' words from today's gospel almost verbatim. I say, "Receive the Holy Ghost whose sins thou dost forgive, they are forgiven; and whose sins thou dost retain, they are retained." That is not Dark Ages Romanism. That is the Book of Common Prayer.

The connection of all of this to Easter should be obvious. We did not see Jesus dead. We have not seen his literal risen body. We know his risen flesh at the altar and in the church, but we cannot have exactly the same experience the disciples had on Easter night. We experience his resurrection in having our sins forgiven. Every sin is a little Good Friday. Every absolution is a little Easter.

If you think you have nothing for which you need to be forgiven, or if you insist on telling God how good you are and how much better you are than certain acquaintances and family members you might name — then the resurrection will have little meaning for you. If you think you can stand up with Jesus face to lace and you don't need a church or a bishop or a priest -- then the resurrection will have little meaning for you.

As St. John puts it, "This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." And his Son lives to forgive our sins in his Catholic and Apostolic Church.

The Collect. Almighty Father, who hast given thine only Son to die for our sins, and to rise again for our justification; Grant us so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness, that we may always serve thee in pureness of living and truth; through the merits of the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle. i John V. 4.

The Gospel. St. John xx. 19.

Easter Day, April 23, 2000

I approach writing my Easter sermon with the same trepidation with which I approach writing a sermon for Christmas Eve. The hymns are great, the vestments and the flowers are diverting, there is something gratifying about having lots of people in church, and there is the promise of good food and drink and even presents when church is over. It seems that on one of the two biggest days in the church year, all a sermon can possibly do is ruin it.

If I ever really get stuck, Easter provides a wide range of crowd-pleasing topics. I could talk about how eggs symbolize new life, and how a chick cracking through its shell makes us think of Jesus coming out of his tomb. Or I could tell you the legend of the woman who came back from the Jerusalem market just before sundown on a spring Friday afternoon, and stopped at the foot of the cross, and Jesus bled into her basket and onto her eggs, which is why we color eggs at Easter.

Or I could tell you that it is perfectly o.k. to share my fascination with the Easter Bunny, because rabbits are a symbol of life, too. I could even flame on about how new Easter clothing also represents the fresh start springtime gives us, and also puts us in mind of the white robes newly baptized people wore on Easter in the ancient church.

But there is really only one important thing to say on Easter, and that is that God has raised Jesus from death. Jesus, who was dead on Friday afternoon, was alive again on Sunday morning. He was not alive in some misty, spiritual, emotional, good vibrations sort of way he was alive in a body.

It was a body that could eat, a body that could be touched, a body that was recognizably related to the body that was crucified but it was a new kind of body: a body that could appear and disappear at will; a body that could make its way through walls — even the walls of a tomb.

The resurrection of the flesh is not something we just believe happened to Jesus. If we are baptized into Jesus' body, God will raise us from death too. We will be resurrected in bodies at the last day to go to heaven to enjoy God at his heavenly banquet forever.

The ultimate good news of Easter is that because Jesus rose from the dead in his body, and we are going to rise from the dead in our bodies, then in the long run everything is going to be all right. Everything. "All things work together for good to them that love God." All things. "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." All. "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God."

The Collect. ALMIGHTY God, who through thine only-begotten Son Jesus Christ hast overcome death, and opened unto us the gate of everlasting life; We humbly beseech thee that, as by thy special grace preventing us thou dost put into our minds good desires, so by thy continual help we may bring the same to good effect; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost ever, one God, world without end. Amen.

This Collect is to be said daily throughout Easter Week.

The Epistle. Colossians iii. 1.

The Gospel. St. John xx. 1.