Sermon - May 4, 2008: Seventh Sunday of Easter

Pastor Heisley

Homothumadon. It happened over and over last week. It was a personification of homothumadon. Homothumadon: Greek for “with one accord,” or ”with one passion.” 

There were about 30 of us on a motor coach and we visited 7 of Mount Olive member Lynn Dobson’s wonderful pipe organs in across the Twin Cities. And every one of them, like every pipe organ, like every choir, like every orchestra, had a variety of voices that sang with one accord, with one musical passion. Today we are called to sing our lives in the same way. 

Homothumadon is a Greek word that is used 12 times in the New Testament, and 10 of those times are in St. Luke’s second volume, the Acts of the Apostles, here, today in the first chapter, verse 14. 

Jesus ascended into the heavens from the Mount of Olives. He ascended and left his Word, left scripture, left community behind him. Left the Church to be his Body. He ascended and the disciples who witnessed his ascension returned from the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem and stayed there in an upstairs room where they constantly devoted “themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers.” 

Homothumadon. With one passion they prayed without ceasing. With one accord they gave themselves to life in community, life as the church. And with homothumadon they lived in the here and now, not in the past, not in the future. They lived now, just as Jesus had told them. “’You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’” It’s a little surprising that a disparate group could stay together, pray together, witness together and nevertheless retain their individuality. But it happens. In the power of the Holy Spirit, it happens. Through prayer, it happens. 

In December of 1997 I almost turned down the call to become your pastor because more than 30 of you had voted against calling me. To me that sounded like a lack of homothumadon, a lack of unity of spirit and passion, and it scared me. Leaders of the congregation explained, however, that this is Mount Olive. They meant that people vote their beliefs and ultimately support the majority. That’s homothumadon and that’s what Jesus teaches us today. 

We do not focus on our differences. They are many and focusing on them could make us weak and could ruin our community of faith. We focus on that which we share, on the gifts of God we have in common, on prayer. We focus on praying to the same God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And in that focus, we who are many are one. 

Our celebration of Easter is rapidly coming to an end. On Thursday, in a glorious liturgy, we looked to the sky as Jesus ascended, focusing on what he has left us: Holy Scripture, his Word, his powerful presence in Christian preaching and teaching and community and consolation. Now we add to our focus prayer and unity. Jesus calls us to be in this upper room in prayer and to act in unity. And Jesus calls us to leave this place, eyes fixed on being His Body in the world. 

Today’s reading from the first letter of Peter tells us something about what that is like, what it’s like to look not to the heavens but into the face of life lived in the present. Peter’s letter begins this way: “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. To the exiles of the Dispersion…who have been chosen and destined by God the father and sanctified by the Spirit to be obedient to Jesus Christ and to be sprinkled with his blood: May grace and peace be yours in abundance.” 

To exiles. Peter writes his letter to exiles in the name of Christ, to those who suffer for bearing the name of Jesus. It was not easy to be a Christian when Peter wrote. When Trajan was emperor of the Roman Empire, for instance, Christians who refused to eat meat or to participate in pagan civic festivals were denounced as unpatriotic and dangerous. And “to be denounced” is the same verb that was used for the mocking of Jesus on the cross. To be denounced was to suffer deeply, to live in exile. Peter teaches us that this suffering was not individual, however. 

Throughout the entire letter every reference to “you” is plural. Suffering is to be borne in community with others. Homothumadon. With one accord. With one passion. But how do we suffer, how do we live in exile? After all, we live in what many still mistakenly call a Christian nation. We live in a place where the Church is still strong. 

How do we live in exile? It seems to me that there’s a threat here to the way that we hear today’s lessons. We don’t suffer for being Christian. We don’t live in exile from anything or anyone. How can we hear these lessons? 

Well, I feel like I live in exile when I read in the press or online that the Church has made yet another sinful pronouncement, supporting war, hating gay and lesbian people, treading upon the poor, blaming the sick for their diseases, and on and on. All of these things remind me of our exile as people who follow Jesus the Christ who proclaims in his suffering that we should make peace, not war, that all people are welcome to come to him, that the poor are to be loved and supported, that disease is a reason to increase love and concern and care for others, not to reject them. 

I often feel like we live in exile, especially when we act with one accord to worship a risen and ascended Lord whose name many pronounce but whose life the actions of many deny. Dear sisters and brothers in Christ, we live in exile in our own village in the city, here in this upstairs room and across the face of our living in the world beyond this place. 

In Jesus’ longest prayer in the New Testament, from which today’s gospel reading is taken, we hear him speak with confidence to God who is enthroned in grace: “’Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.’” 

Here, in our exile is eternal life. Here, in our community is eternal life. Here, now is eternal life: knowing Jesus the risen One; suffering together for his glorious sake; keeping our eyes focused on today in this world, knowing that we are unified by the all-powerful presence of God, who raised Jesus from the dead and who now has elevated him to glory. 

Today we live homothumadon: with one accord; with on passion. Amen.

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