The Seventh Sunday of Easter (Cycle A)

The tie in between today’s readings: Infinite Intimacy

Psalm 27:1-8, Acts 1:12-14, 1 Peter 4:13-16, John 17:1-11

Whether you want to acknowledge it or not, Christian, you have an enemy. Actually, you have three: the world, the flesh, and the Devil (Ephesians 2:1-3). Through Christ, you escaped the Kingdom of Darkness and have gone over to the LIGHT. You are hated for it. Your adversaries will do everything in their power to make you as ineffective as possible for the Savior. The world will force you into compromise and silence so that you cannot “infect” others with the gospel’s message. The flesh will tempt you into sin to make your testimony for the Kingdom of God hypocritically laughable. Satan wants to get at you, to sift you like wheat, perhaps even bring you to martyrdom. What’s a believer to do? Well…you do have God Almighty on your side.

Our reading in Psalm 27 begins with the line: “The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear?” The Psalm continues for three more verses imagining various dangerous scenarios. The writer answers each situation with undeterred confidence. The Lord, Himself, will hide and protect him to the praise and glory of His great name. The Psalmist looks forward to dwelling in the house of the Lord forever because his Father, the God of the universe, knows him intimately.

Acts 1:12-14 gives the roll call of the Church’s leadership just after our Lord’s Ascension into heaven. Everyone is named, illustrating the Lord’s intimate connection with them. They are His! Our reading in John 17:1-11 reinforces this idea as Jesus, in His “High Priestly Prayer”, states that the Father had taken them out of the world and given them to Him. They have sat at the feet of their Master and, even at this late date, still have much more to learn. But there’s one thing they do believe: Jesus and the Father are one and, in Jesus, they are one with the Father. They, in a sense, have come to know the one true God and Jesus Christ, whom He has sent. In that knowledge, they have intimacy with the Father, and in that intimacy, they have eternal life. Jesus finishes with a petition for unity in His Church. Even though they are no longer of the world, they are still living in the world. They must depend on the Lord and each other. There are big challenges ahead waiting for not only them, but for the rest of us, who follow in their footsteps.

Our epistle in 1 Peter 4:13-16 starts right into our inevitability sufferings for Christ, which brings us back around to our aforementioned enemies. The Apostle makes his distinctions between the kinds of sufferings a Christian may encounter. In verse fifteen, he warns against the personal sins of the flesh and our fallen nature, which are shameful things to be excused and coddled by any person who claims the name of Jesus. If this is your situation, don’t lose heart. God will restore you. Repent, confess, and be reunited in fellowship with the Lord and His Church. But don’t forget that the Almighty has not rescinded the law of “Reaping and Sowing”. Be prepared to face the consequences of your actions. For the others, those blessed of the Father who innocently suffer at the hands of the world and the Devil for Christ’s sake, he encourages them to rejoice and praise God. The Holy Spirit is acting in them. Glory is coming!

God calls us out of this world of darkness and into His kingdom of light through His Son, Jesus Christ. If you have not already done so, make this the day that you get serious with the Lord. Forsake your sin. Seek forgiveness through the blood of Christ. He will never turn you away. Pursue God like a lover and in that intimacy find eternal life. Don’t fear the trials that will come. Greater will be He that is in you than he that is in the world (1 John 4:4-6). Through Christ, who loves us, we are more than conquerors (Romans 8:37). Amen!