Father Gary’s Sermon
Inspired from John 17:11-19 & Acts 1:1-14
Proclaimed on May 8, 2005

Years ago a young mother was making her way across the hills of South Wales. While carrying her tiny baby in her arms, she was overtaken by a blinding blizzard. She never reached her destination. When the blizzard had subsided, her body was found by searchers beneath a mound of snow. They also discovered that before her death, she had taken off all of her outer clothing and wrapped it about her baby. When they unwrapped the child, to their great surprise and joy they found he was alive and well. She had mounded her body over his and given her life for her child, proving the depths of her motherly love. Years later, that child--David Lloyd George--grown to manhood, became prime minister of Great Britain during the difficult years of the WWI.

Such is the type of love that we associate with our own mothers on this Mothers’ Day. It is also the type of love that is demonstrated by our Lord in our New Testament lessons today. In the Gospel lesson Jesus realizes that he will soon be leaving his disciples. He is praying his last prayer, while he is yet among them. His prayer consists of two requests: first that his disciples be kept in safety; and secondly, that his disciples be kept in unity.

Later that night the first part of his prayer would be answered. Like the mother who died, wrapping her body around her child to protect him from the snowstorm, so Jesus went forth into the night cradling his disciples safely in his bosom, even while his own life was being sacrificed.

The second part of his prayer--that his disciples be kept in unity--was answered in his Ascension. During this time, he told his disciples to go to Jerusalem and wait. What happened during this apparently dormant period was truly miraculous. Jesus told his very diverse band of disciples, who previously could not get together without arguing and fighting, to return to the upper room and pray. In so doing they became unified in Christ.

The miracle is well described by Cotton Mather, a Puritan divine, who described it with an astute observation about bees. He noticed that every swarm has its own unique scent, and when different swarms meet the conflicting smells trigger a fight. However, he also noticed that when bees are pollinating plants, they get covered with pollen nectar that masks the smell of the individual groups. When they all smell the same, there is no competition and their work gets done. So the same is true about individual congregations and denominations when we all work at the mission of Christ. When we find ourselves getting immersed in the same mission with the same Spirit, our differences become masked which gives us the needed unity to get the job done.

The Church today is no better qualified to accomplish the mission of Jesus than was the first band of followers. I think the recent movie, Bruce Almighty, provides an excellent example of this. It is written by Steve Oedekerk--a Christian, directed by Tom Shadyac--also a Christian, and a Roman Catholic priest served as a consultant. Jim Carrey hilariously plays Bruce, a local Eyewitness TV News reporter in Buffalo, NY, best known for his humorous, homespun, human interest stories. Everyone is happy with him, but him. He wants to replace the retiring anchorman. He has a loving girlfriend, (played by Jennifer Anniston), who runs a day care center, is happy with her life, and adores Bruce in spite of his negativity. While he dreams of becoming a legend like Walter Cronkite, she tries to help the world one day at a time.

Bruce is then handed a great opportunity to do a live story at Niagara Falls, when the station announces the new anchorman. When Bruce discovers that it is not he, he does a meltdown on live TV. Thus begins the worst day of his life. One disaster follows another, as he’s fired from the station, beaten up by a gang of toughs, who then vandalize his car. Furiously Bruce furiously rails and rages against the Lord for his rotten luck.

God attempts to answer his prayers, but Bruce is too angry to notice, until God finally is able to get his attention. Played by Morgan Freeman in the guise of a simple janitor, God gives Bruce all his powers to be God Almighty in Buffalo, New York, for a limited period of time with two conditions: that he can not violate free will nor can he make people love him.

In a series of hilarious scenes, Bruce is shown abusing his powers, while finding himself overwhelmed by the responsibilities. Finally, he loses his girl friend, which happens to be named Grace. In a climatic scene, we see Bruce longingly chanting, “Love me, . . . Love me” to Grace, but to no avail. At this time God shows up and sarcastically says, “Welcome to my world.”

Finally, Bruce asks God how he does it, and in a scene reminiscent of the Ascension where the angel asks the disciples, “Why do you stand looking up to heaven?” God says to Bruce, “You keep looking up, but to keep looking up means that you depend on me to do everything for you.” In commenting upon on this statement the director of the movie refers to a story about a nun who went to God and said, “Why, God, why don’t you do something about the people that are hungry and sick?” And God said, “I did, . . . I made you.”

In the end, Bruce acquires his Grace, while reviewers across America complained that the end of the movie is too religious. Nevertheless, it is the story of each of us in our selection by Christ to carry on the mission. Made in the image of God, each of us, like the original twelve disciples, as well as like Bruce in the movie, are equipped with free will, and are literally gods in our own space. And like all of them, we tend to mess things up, and blame it on someone else. It is only when we acknowledge our responsibility, confess our faults, and accept grace and transformation, that we can work with others in unity to complete the mission of our Lord.

This is the miraculous nature of the dormant period following the Ascension of Christ. It is also the message of Bruce Almighty, as well as the message in our Scriptural lessons this morning. According to one reporter, the lessons are simple: (1) “Be the miracle” and (2) “Appreciate your life.” As stated by movie director Shadyac, “. . . to be the miracle we first have to appreciate our lives. We cannot be the miracle in the lives of others if we are not spiritually healthy.” Only then can we take on the mission of Christ, which is to give new life to others and protect them, even as the British mother protected her son from the cold, and as Jesus protected his disciples and brought them into prayerful unity.