Ever Watchful
Ascension and Seventh Sunday after Easter
Acts 1:1-11 and John 17:6-19
Mother’s Day – May 12, 2024
Thursday, May 9th was the official day of the Ascension of our Lord. The day that notes the special celebration of our Lord being lifted up to heaven to be with his Abba, Father.
Our scripture says that the disciples looked up, gazing, as Jesus was lifted from sight into the cloud. I can just imagine what a sight that must have been, and the emotions of wonder and even grief that they were again losing their friend, Jesus.
By this time, the disciples were fully on board with believing the truth about Jesus. The truth that he was the Son of God, sent by God to witness the truth of God’s word.
Let’s take a moment to pause, and look at the stained glass window here to your left, the one of Jesus being lifted up in the clouds, and imagine that you have walked with him for three years, and have seen him crucified, dead and buried, and witnessed his resurrection.
Think of the joy that must have been realized when they experienced in amazement and wonder that Jesus lived among them another 40 days after his resurrection, and now once again they must lose him. He will be gone from their sight, and they will not see him again.
There must have been unbearable grief and fear of what was to come to them.
So here in our first scripture reading, they stand…gazing up toward heaven. (go over and stand in front of window looking up….pausing to gaze……)
Indeed what a sight it must have been.
You know with today being Mother’s Day, I have to talk about mothers, and in fact, I want to talk about mothers because it reminds me of my mother and Dick’s mother, and my aunts…all of whom were great mothers.
I think we all know that not all mothers are great, but I believe the vast majority are, and I also believe that maybe those who are not so good at it really want to be and were maybe never shown how to be good mothers.
For now, though, we’ll concentrate on the good mothers.
Bless my daddy, he was one of those old fashion men that thought he should work and my mother should stay home with the children and keep the house clean and the meals cooked. You know…do the simple things (hahaha).
My daddy certainly knew these were not simple things, and he loved and respected my mother for all she did to help keep our home a home.
I’m going to skip all the really hard days of my birth and infancy that she had to deal with, and consider a normal day for my mom after which we were all in school.
Her day would consist of getting me and my three siblings off to school. This started with waking us up, and while we dressed for school, she made our breakfast to make sure we had a good meal to start our day before we got on the school bus.
Even though I had witnessed her daily routine before starting school, and even helped her as I followed her as she progressed through her daily chores, I really didn’t consider that was continuing to happen while I was away at school until I got older.
After getting us off to school, her average day would look something like starting a load of laundry, heading out to the chicken house to feed the chickens, stopping in the garden to gather the ripe vegetables, and then back to the house to hang the laundry. And yes, in the early days, we actually hung the laundry on a line because we did not have a clothes dryer installed until years later.
She would do the dishes by hand, no dishwasher, and then dust sweep, mop, and vacuum before stopping a moment to get a bite to eat, which most often was left overs or a tomato sandwich.
Then she would often sew, one of her favorite hobbies, or bake a pie or cake so we would have it to enjoy when we got home from school, and then she would retrieve the clothes from the line and fold them to have them ready for us to put away when we got home. Then she would start planning dinner.
Throughout her day, her focus was on making sure everything was neat and tidy. Her routine was well thought out and well-planned. She did all these things each day with her family in mind to make sure we were all taken care of, she was ever watchful of what we needed, and did her best to make sure that if it was a necessity, it was provided to us. Her labors and her protection were endless.
We are witness to this same type of labor and protection from Jesus with his disciples as we read our Gospel in John today.
In Jesus’ prayer, he is also preparing for his children to be taken care of when he leaves the world.
He is praying to the Father God because he loves his disciples that have in essence become his family on earth. He reminds God, these are the ones that you gave me. These are the ones that you tasked me to confide in, to share with and to love, and now I am asking for their protection.
“Holy Father, protect them in your name, so they may be one as we are one.” What a powerful statement this is that our friend Jesus prayed on our behalf.
Because he is ever watchful, Jesus recognizes that these people who have been chosen by God, these disciples who have been in the care of Jesus, are now targets living in a world of hatred. Jesus, therefore, fears for them. He fears for their well-being, their safety and their very lives.
“I ask you to protect them from the evil one,” Jesus continues in his prayer, and “sanctify them in the truth of your word.”
Jesus is praying to God to set them apart, declare them holy, and protect them as they become witnesses to the Son of Man and the truth of the word of God.
Jesus says, he has called upon them to be witnesses to continue for God’s special use and purposes, and protect them because without God’s protection, they will be harmed.
Sanctification means we don’t just know the truth, but we live the truth of the Word of God. When Jesus says we are not of the world, he’s not asking God to sanctify us to take us out of the world, but on the contrary, it is a plea by Jesus that we are protected to be sent into the world.
In this sanctification we are connected with Jesus, and are one as he is one with God.
If anyone in this place or watching us on Facebook Livestream did not grow up with a loving mother or a mother at all, I want you to know that you have the best mother in the love and protection of Jesus Christ who is ever watchful over you and all of us, even today.
For whatever reason, some people may not be good at the role they are called to do, they may not be good at taking care of you, clothing you or feeding you, but there is one that is ever watchful and ever mindful of what you need, and that is Jesus.
When we say Happy Mother’s Day, we certainly can include Jesus in that group, who is our protector and ever watchful over us.
To God be the glory!