Easter 7 B John 17:6-19

Easter 7 B John 17:6-19

We have a kind of charming story in Acts today as our first lesson. The eleven apostles are standing around after the Ascension, once Jesus is gone and they are on their own for the first time and the first thing that they do is decide that there needs to be twelve of them as they start out on the work of building the church. Before, when Jesus was with them there had been twelve but after the betrayal of Christ, Judas was no longer around and there was a void to be filled. So they looked for a twelfth.

They looked among the followers who were with them when Christ was around, who knew Christ and had spoken to him and understood the mission and they chose two potential candidates: Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus, and Matthias.

So after they had narrowed it down to these two, they all gathered around and prayed that God show them which to choose and then they cast lots to see what they would be shown. They essentially rolled the dice or flipped a coin, assuming that the result that it gave them came from God and Matthais won the toss.

Hurray for Matthias! Imagine being Joseph? the one who wasn't chosen.  Watching waiting knowing that you were about to hear whether God wanted you for his incredibly important work or not?! And then hearing that you weren't the one or anyway that you would have to serve in a different way? That must have been difficult news. It is hard to take rejection at all, but that type of rejection must have really thrown poor Joseph for a loop.

Then again can you imagine being Matthias? All of the sudden at the flip of a coin being at once responsible for taking Judas' place, not a super happy task in itself, and for the work the building and maintaining of God's church? That was really the job that they were giving him. Before Jesus bodily left the earth he gave the disciples instructions to take the good news of the kingdom of God to all people proclaiming God's love, baptism, repentance and above all salvation and new life. Matthias suddenly got the terrifying news that we all share. That we are the new body of Christ on earth whose job it is to take care of the kingdom, to spread the word, to heal and bring peace, to make disciples and to talk to God because that is the task that Jesus left the disciples with and that the disciples commissioned us all with.

In fact that is exactly what is happening in our gospel lesson today. In it, Jesus is talking to God, praying to God on behalf of the disciples, this is just before he is arrested and goes to the cross and he is very focused on sending the disciples out into the world to continue the work that he has done and taught them to do when he is gone. And so he prays these words: as you sent me into the world, Lord so I send them.

As you sent me into the world so I send them, all of these mortals, all of these everyday people with their hangups and their limitations, with their trials and their lack of faith, with their fear and indifference with their good intentions and their tendency to fall short, with their broken relationships and their need for healing. Here you are Lord I'm sending them!

How terrifying! How Matthais must have been shaking in his sandals! Think about the way that Jesus was sent into the world. To be the voice of God, to forgive the sins of all, to heal people to speak the words of God and when he was sent there was a decent chance that he wasn't coming back! Kind of a scary send off for Jesus to then ask upon his own apostles.

But then again think about what Jesus is doing here. He is praying lovingly, tenderly to his Father in heaven asking that we, as we are sent out into the world, go in the same way that he did. It isn't a threat, it is a promise. Think about how parents send children out into the world.

I travelled this week through a few different airports on my way down to South Carolina and back and this is a perfect time of year to see parents sending children off into the world especially in places like airports. There were parents whose children were heading to early sessions for their first year of college, parents whose children were going off on vacations with friends and no parents for the first time, parents whose children had just graduated from college and were being sent off into the adult world for the first time. Even once in a while parents whose children were going off to Iraq or Afghanistan or some other terrifying place to serve their country. So there were many tearful goodbyes and proud mamas and papas at the airports this week.

In fact some of you might know this and some might not be aware yet that we have a student coming here to study in our congregations this summer. Her name is Courtney and she is going to be learning about being a pastor from you all this summer. She is actually the reason that I was traveling. She and I were headed to South Carolina for an orientation to this summer program but she left straight from the south to go to Cyprus, all the way over on the southeastern side of Europe for several weeks of work with a school program and so her parents came with her to the airport in Albany to send her off for this and I got to witness this sendoff first hand.

Now I want you to know that Courtney isn't that young, she is entering her senior year in college, she has lived overseas before, but when you are a parent sending a child to a far off place that has has a rocky history when it comes to war and peace, that really doesn't matter and so her parents came to the airport and they waited with her and they walked her as close to the gate as they could and they checked this and that, do you have your passport, do you have money, do you have a phone card? And they requested certain things, call us when you get there, email us from time to time, take lots of pictures! And the cautioned, don't go to the beach at night or alone, wear lots of sunscreen when you do and so on. And I watched as they lovingly hugged her goodbye, as they helped her gather up her things, as dad helped her get her backpack on, as they hugged her one more time, mom got two this time :)  And as they waved and sent her off into the world to do good work.

They even walked up to the balcony so that they could wave one last time before we disappeared into the terminal after security. It was quite a send off into the world and filled with many things, many emotions, there was pride, there was hope, there might have been a little caution bleeding into mild fear, there was sadness at leaving and letting go but never even as they stood there on the balcony behind glass, separated by security watching their child set off without them was there ever any doubt.

Any sense that they weren't sending her with every, single thing that she needed to succeed. She was prepared for everything and they knew it, they had made sure and they weren't gone from her life, she could still call on them if needed and believe me those parents would find a way to get to her if she did! They sent her off knowing that she could make it and brimming with excitement at what she would learn on the way.

This is how Jesus was sent into the world and this is how he is praying to God in the gospel lesson that we all be sent. And this is how Matthais was sent and how Matthais and the other apostles send us. Not without some fear and apprehension, lots of checks that we know how to call home and how to ask for help but completely sure that we can do the good work that we are sent out into the world to do, that we have the tools, that we have the good news that we are armed with our baptisms and fed at the table, that we are blessed with just with right gifts and filled with just the right spirit and with complete clarity that we are never ever alone in the work that we do. This is how Jesus was sent into the world and this is how Jesus sends us on His behalf. And this is good news! Thanks be to God.     Amen