St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Owings Mills MD
June 1, 2025
Year C: The Seventh Sunday of Easter
Acts 16:16-34
Psalm 97
Revelation 22:12-014, 16-17, 20-21
John 17:20-26
Unity and Liberation
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Well, today is the Seventh Sunday of Easter.
Yes, it is still Easter!
But, in today’s gospel lesson, we once again back up to before Easter, back to before the Resurrection, back to the Last Supper.
In today’s lesson from the Gospel of John, read for us by Deacon Amelia - I won’t get to say that for much longer! - in today’s gospel lesson, Jesus prays for his disciples and for all his disciples to follow, very much including us here today.
Jesus prays most of all for our unity, that we may be one just as Jesus and the Father are one.
Jesus prays that we might all be united in love.
Now, if you know even just a little bit of church history, you know that over the centuries and even in our own time, we have often fallen far short of Jesus’ great hope for us.
All too often, the Church has been disunited, fighting over all sorts of stuff, and I guess that all those controversies seemed important at the time – sometimes even worth dying for, perhaps – and yet, looking back, it’s often hard to understand what all the trouble was about.
Some of you have been around long enough to remember the battles in the Episcopal Church over ordaining women, which was a big change, a big step, for sure.
My friend and mentor Dave Hamilton, whom I’ve mentioned to you many times, was a young priest back in the early 1970’s when the church was bitterly divided by that issue.
Dave was absolutely opposed to women’s ordination – so opposed that at a church meeting, he got up and said something like, “May my right hand wither if I ever participate in the ordination of a woman!”
Strong statement!
Well, a few years later, after Dave had had a change of heart, he did indeed participate in the ordination of a woman, placing his right hand on the ordinand, just as all of us priests will do for Amelia on Saturday.
Well, after the ordination was over, the bishop turned to Dave and asked him, “How’s your hand?”
Now, a few decades later, our church is so much richer because of ordained women – this community has been so blessed by extraordinary women clergy, very much including Ann Copp and Caroline Stewart, and now our Assistant Rector, Amelia Bello.
Now, I’m not saying that there aren’t some important principles worth fighting for.
Of course there are.
But I am saying that we need to be very careful about the battles we choose because we know that Jesus’ great desire for us is unity.
And unity is so important because if we’re fighting among ourselves, then we just won’t have the energy, or even the credibility, to do the work that God calls us to do.
And that work is liberation.
God is the God of liberation.
And Easter is God’s supreme act of liberation, freeing Jesus from the tomb, revealing to us that sin and death are defeated, revealing to us that love and life have won.
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!
And with God’s help, God’s work of liberation continues in and through the Church.
And we certainly hear that work of liberation loud and clear in today’s first lesson, from the Acts of the Apostles.
We pick up right where we left off last week. We don’t hear anything more about Lydia, but Paul and the other disciples are still in the Greek city of Philippi.
There, they encounter an enslaved girl with “a spirit of divination,” an ability to tell fortunes, which was very profitable for her owners.
Well, just as the demons always knew Jesus, this “spirit of divination” knows Jesus’ followers, so the enslaved girl cries out, “These men are the slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.”
We’re told that she went on this way for days, which very much “annoyed” Paul, though we’re not told why.
Finally, in the name of Jesus, Paul casts out this demon from the girl, which lands Paul and the others in jail, at least until God engineers yet another liberation.
God’s work of liberation continues in and through the Church.
But I want to reflect a little more on the enslaved girl.
Because, unfortunately, we don’t know what happened to her next.
Deprived of her money-making skill, maybe her owners released her. Maybe, like Lydia and other women in Philippi, she became a follower of Jesus, too.
Maybe, but probably not.
More likely, her owners found a new and even worse way to exploit her, which is very sad and troubling to consider.
But I think this episode is a good reminder for us that God’s liberation – the liberation that we are called to do - is much deeper, much more challenging than just an easy fix.
Think of the Israelites on their long exodus, out in the wilderness for forty years.
Liberation - doing God’s liberating work - requires commitment, community, and confidence, over the long haul.
So, last week, I met with Bishop Carrie to prepare for her visit next Sunday.
I brought next week’s draft bulletins, last week’s announcements, and a copy of the 2024 Annual Report, all to give her a better sense of what we are about here at St. Thomas’.
I could’ve talked about this place for a long time – and I may have gone on a little too long - but one thing I emphasized is our unity.
We’re a pretty diverse group so, yes, of course, we disagree about all sorts of things, from politics to current events to how the Orioles can salvage this season.
But, for the most part, we stick together, we pray together, serve together, love one another.
And it’s that God-given unity that gives us the strength and courage to do the holy work of liberation.
And this work of liberation isn’t just swooping in with a kind of spiritual band-aid.
No, it’s deep work of listening and learning, getting to know the people in our community, building relationships, with all the risks and challenges that come with any real relationship.
It’s because of our unity that we’ve had the strength and courage to walk beside our Afghan friends, not seeing them as a problem to be solved, but as beloved brothers and sisters.
It’s because of our unity that we’ve had the strength and courage to walk beside the children and teachers at Owings Mills Elementary School, not seeing them as a problem in need of an easy fix, but as beloved sisters and brothers.
Yes, the forces of division are very powerful, especially these days, but with God’s help, we can be an answer to Jesus’ great prayer for unity.
With God’s help, we can be one – and as one, united church we can continue God’s holy and challenging work of liberation.
And if we do this work, then the best news of all time will continue to echo off these old walls – the best news of all time will continue to ring out in Owings Mills and beyond:
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Amen.
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