At Parade Rest before our Lord
Sermon for Sunday, May 4, 2008
1. Good morning. Let’s pray. O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing to You O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
2. Opening Comments: Today is Ascension Sunday and it’s therefore the Sunday before Pentecost Sunday. So today the focus of our lectionary readings is on our Lord’s ascension to the Father.
Forty days before that first day of Ascension was Easter Sunday when Jesus rose from the dead and for the next 40 days He appeared to His disciples and followers in all sorts of different places and contexts. Reports were flying around all over the region surrounding Jerusalem about His post-appearances.
This morning I’d like us to focus on the Gospel reading in John 17 verses 1 through 11.
Let me give you some context to this discourse. These verses bring us to the climax of a long discourse Jesus gave at the Last Supper. At this point Jesus ceases speaking directly to the disciples and turns to His Father in prayer.
All week I have known that I needed to focus in on this Gospel reading but what I haven’t known is what precisely our resurrected Lord wanted us to take from this reflection. What I mean by this is that while there are all sorts of wonderful lessons to receive from these verses the challenge is to discern what one thing does our Lord want us to focus in on. I didn’t know what that was until slightly after my Father–in-law’s funeral just 2 days ago.
Let me tell you how I came to this realization. It may help in our fully grasping what it is that our Lord wants to give to us this morning.
As many of you know Randi’s father “Cubbie” passed away on Wednesday and we had to race to Seattle to attend his funeral. Our son Fr. Lucas was invited to conduct the Committal service since he has a special relationship with his grandfather. Also the funeral was to be a military funeral as Cubbie had been an officer and a marine. Both Lucas and Adam wore their Air force uniforms and prepared for a “full bore” military farewell to an old warrior.
It was a very very moving ceremony. Everything from the Marine honor guard with their crisp movements and their slow salutes to their folding and presenting of the American flag to my mother-in-law to the native American Vietnam vet rifleman who gave us a seven gun salute.
And all of this was completed by this old warrior’s two grandsons dressed in full military attire officiating at his sending off. First Lieutenant Lucas Dalgleish was the chaplain for this service, Hayley, our daughter sang the Lord’s Prayer and Captain Adam Dalgleish escorted his grandmother to her place of honor and stood close in a posture of “Parade Rest” throughout the entire service.
Show photos of Lucas and Adam.
After the service I found myself coming back again and again to the image of our son Adam standing at “Parade Rest” close to his grandmother and it suddenly struck me that God was trying to tell me something.
Now I need to add here that I was touched many times during that short by powerful service but the image that kept coming back to me was Adam’s posture which in military parlance is referred to as “Parade Rest.”
When I asked Lucas about Adam’s posture he gave me this term. It’s the posture one adopts at times like these. The hands are linked at the back and slid down the back but Adam had added one additional element and he held this element for the entire service. Did anyone notice what that additional element was?
Yes, it was his lowered head. It was a posture of humble respect but while the word “rest” is used to describe it one get’s the sense that action is just a hair’s breadth away. Had his Grandmother needed him at any time he was ready to be at her side in seconds for while his head was down his eyes keep glancing at her making sure she was OK.
Now remember this was a funeral and in a Christian funeral the primary theological focus is always upon the joy of the anticipated resurrection of the beloved deceased person.
The focus is always on “resurrection” and as I reflected on all of this it struck me that in our Gospel reading this morning Jesus’ prayer to His Father was in effect an affirmation of His victory over death and His claiming the fruits of this victory as He prepared to depart this earth and go to be with His Father for ever and ever. And then it stuck me that perhaps the correct posture that we should all assume as we listen to this prayer is that of “Parade Rest.” You see as I read these words again and again the reality of what was going on here began to sink in and I too found myself beginning to look for a more perfect posture to adopt before our Lord at this pivotal time in His life as he was about to go home to His Father.
What I was looking for wasn’t meaning but rather the correct posture.
So as I read these words of Jesus may I encourage us to imagine our Lord praying this prayer and as He did so a legion of angels gathered around him and assumed the posture of “Parade Rest” as they listened to their Lord give His parting prayer to His heavenly Father.
And may I encourage each of us to assume this posture in our hearts as I read: Please listen to these words and allow yourself to listen to them in the context of a funeral.
John 17:1After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. Did you hear that? Jesus was recognizing that the time for His great trial and glorification had come and so now He was asking His Father to glorify Him. Reading on:2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. God granted Jesus authority over all – all – all people so that He might gain eternal life for them! Jesus is not just one among many – all authority was given to Him to what end? To the end that He might gain life eternal for us! But what is eternal life? Look with me at verse 3:
3Now this is eternal life: that they may (come to) know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. If someone ever asks you why Jesus came to earth – just repeat this to them – that they may come to Know God and Jesus Christ whom He sent. This is where it all leads! Reading on:
Now listen to Jesus give his credentials – they “why” the reason for His receiving glory from His Father:
4I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. Do you feel a bit strange listening in to this private conversation between Jesus and His Father? No! It’s not private – we’re family – members of His family – brothers and sisters of His. Let’s keep reading: 5And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. 6“I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word.7Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you.8For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.9I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.10All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them.11I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one.
Did you hear Jesus’ parting request? “Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name – the name you gave me – so that they may be one as we are one.
On the basis of the holiness of God’s character, Jesus requested the Father to preserve the disciples. The verb “protect” (tereo) is generally used in John to mean “obey” in the sense of keeping commandments. Here it is applied to persons in the sense of “preserve,” with an implication of defense. Jesus is asking His Father to “preserve” us by His Name – that is all that is Him.
And then Jesus concludes by asking that they – His disciples – the Church - may be one as He and the Father are one.
What unites us as Christians in our mutual love of Jesus!
But now I want to turn to what I think the overarching focus of this morning’s readings was really all about and it was the word and the reality “Glory” or “Glorify.”
The Greek word is oxa¿zw doxazo; and it means to render or esteem glorious.
So what does “to glorify” mean: praise, honor, or distinction extended by common consent: renown b: worshipful praise, honor, and thanksgiving <giving glory to God>
2 a: something that secures praise or renown <the glory of a brilliant career>b: a distinguished quality or asset
This is what Adam and Lucas and the Marine Honor guard were seeking to add to Cubbies life by their presence! And this is what Jesus was asking for now as he accomplished what He had come to do!
So try to imagine what He was asking for: John 17:1After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.
Glorify your Son! What was Jesus asking for?
We brought honor to Cubbie on Friday morning. We honored an old warrior! And all present were deeply blessed.
What was Jesus asking for? What did His honor guard look like when He entered heaven?
To understand that in truth is to understand glory – is to understand what you and I are heading towards at the end of our Christian lives. We will be part of the crowd giving honor and glory to Jesus – what will that look like?
Our sons did a great job – this was good practice for them. But what about you and me – how would we give glory and honor to Jesus?
I leave this question with you. Keep trying to answer it for as you find better and better ways to honor your Lord you will be growing. Truly the great man or woman is truly capable of giving great great great honor and glory to our Lord.
Amen and Amen!
Let’s Pray . . .