Homily For The Third Sunday After Easter 2025
It has been pointed out that the Gospel lessons for the Sundays after Easter are all from St. John’s gospel with 3 of the 5 being found in the Upper Room Discourse. It would seem that this is more appropriate to Holy Week as Jesus prepares his disciples for what will follow than for Easter, after he is risen. The Gospel for today focuses on themes of separation, statements from our Lord like, “Ye shall weep and lament.” How does this fit in with the power of the Resurrection - surely the happiest of the seasons? How do we make sense of this?
In our Gospel, the Apostles are in the Upper Room. The Passion and Crucifixion are before them. Jesus tells them the truth, that pain, separation and grief are on the horizon. It would appear from the circumstances that all is lost.
In this world, those opposed to Jesus and his followers, will rejoice because Jesus will be crucified. Yet in Eastertide, we see what followed that separation, the great 40 days of his teaching and presence - confirming over and over again the reality of his resurrection. Joy began when they believed the unbelievable on that Easter Evening after Our Lord’s rising again - Jesus appeared in their midst showing them his resurrected, physical body. Now, their eyes were opened and in Easter they had their hearts and minds transformed by Our Lord’s presence and teaching. Truly, joy had replaced sorrow. Just as a woman is in travail, suffering in childbirth, yet the joy of a child being born replaces that sorrow. So too, the pain and anguish of separation from Jesus had been replaced by fullness of joy - a joy that no man can take away, a joy stronger than suffering or martyrdom or any of the challenges of this present life.
In Easter, we celebrate Christ’s resurrection. In some sense, we are like the disciples in that upper room. We truly believe Christ to be resurrected. Yet, we have a sense of burden, of sadness as we await his glorious second appearance. For all Christians are waiting for the return of the King who will replace the pretenders of this world. The world seems to rejoice while we wait, not in full sorrow as the Apostles in the Upper Room, rather with a sense of displacement, feeling like strangers in our own world.
Our Epistle tells us to lean into our identity as strangers in this world. St. Peter identifies Christians as strangers and pilgrims. The Apostle is harkening back to the words of Abraham to the inhabitants of Canaan, “I am a stranger and sojourner with you.” We might translate “stranger” as “alien” - “a person who abides presently in a foreign country.” Sojourners likewise are making a brief stay outside their home. What is communicated in this is the reality of having a different home, a different allegiance.
One would be tempted to believe that this is an escapist mindset - let the world burn, because it is passing away anyway. But this is not what is being communicated - instead the Christian is to invade the present age with the reality of the Kingdom of Heaven through joyful Christian living.
How do we do so? Is it by preaching to and teaching those around us? Perhaps. However, we all know words are cheap. Faith proclaimed is only as valuable as faith shown. The proof is in what one commits themselves to do. Doing, acting, living is worth a million words. It is telling that our Epistle is at the break between two sections. In the previous section St. Peter expounds the election and distinctiveness of those baptized into Christ Jesus as the new Israel of God. It is because we are redeemed people that we will act differently. Because we are truly strangers and pilgrims we will have different priorities - faithfulness in marriage, moderation in our eating and drinking, being careful and loving with our words.
For if we engage in sexual immorality, envyings, drunkenness - the sins of the flesh - these ways of life will destroy our reputation among non-Christian neighbors. There is to be such integrity in our actions, such alignment between our profession and our action that even our enemies will ultimately praise God. We are to be so eager for practical faithfulness that it may even serve to convert our enemies into brothers and sisters in Christ - having a change of heart leading to fullest conversion to faith in Christ. This is how St. Peter would have us live the joy of the resurrection.
The joy of the resurrection extends even to the Christian’s engagement with the civil authority. We are to submit to the civil authority recognizing that it is established by God. Submitting for the Lord’s sake to the laws of the land. Most laws are for the betterment of civil society - the perpetuation of an organized order that is beneficial to all.
Indeed, they are for the punishment of evildoers and worthy of no fear for the Christian who seeks to do right. Keep in mind Nero was on the throne when St. Peter was writing these instructions. We are pilgrims. Our citizenship is in heaven. Yet, it is by being law-abiding citizens that we show the proof of the resurrection to those around us. Unless the civil authority commands something contrary to the Lord’s commandments, we honor God when we are good citizens. We do not use our liberty as citizens of Heaven as a cloak for unrighteousness - that is, a veil for sinful rebellion, anarchy or extreme self-will. Instead, we honor all men as being made in God’s image, worthy of dignity, worthy of God’s final Word regarding salvation rather than focusing our energy on condemnation of them. We also love the brotherhood by our priorities. We fear God who will come to judge the living and the dead; the one for whom we must give an account of every thought, word and deed. We honour the king by acknowledging that God placed him there. God controls the civil authority and we honor Him by honoring them. Sometimes this is an easier command than at others but the fact remains we owe the civil authority honor - primarily through our supplications, intercessions on their behalf. We pray for their office, their decisions and we pray for the peace of the city for in it we will have peace.
So, we share in the promise of joy to the apostles - a joy that no man can take away - for this is the season of Christian joy as Christ has overcome sin and death. The promise of joy which was experienced by those apostles is available to us - in fact, the practical instructions of St. Peter are premised on our Christian joy - looking above in one sense, acknowledging our citizenship is in heaven. We are to be living as strangers and pilgrims in this present age - not abandoning the created order to the evil one but being lights of the new creation dispelling darkness through our loving obedience to Jesus. I would challenge all of us to look at the Epistle during the offertory, the preparation for Holy Communion.
St. Peter calls us to cast aside sins of the flesh - actions that would discredit our profession as Christians. Look at them and ask God to identify areas of struggle and then commit by God’s grace to turn from those sins. Repentance isn’t just for Lent or Advent; the Christian life is one of turning from our sins and walking in obedience and newness of life. Take a few moments to cast aside attitudes and actions that are contrary to God’s will so that we may all join together in truest celebration of the joys of our redemption - the first fruits of which we eat and drink in the Holy Communion. Amen.