Wednesday, April 17, 2019
Old Testament: Isaiah 50:4-9a
Psalm 70
Epistle: Hebrews 12:1-3
Gospel: John 13:21-32
When I was an undergraduate at UAB, one of my favorite novels was Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams. The book manages to fit ghosts, robots, time travel, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge all in the same story. In a line that has stuck with me for years now, the title character professes his belief in “the fundamental interconnectedness of all things.” I didn’t profess belief in much of anything back then, but it turns out the joke was on me.
In the Apostles’ Creed, we affirm our faith in “the communion of saints” (BCP 96), and the Letter to the Hebrews reminds us of the “great cloud of witnesses” that surrounds us (Hebrews 12:1 NRSV). The notion that we are mystically connected to all the people of faith who have come before us offers comfort. Through the saints who have witnessed God’s grace, we find strength to “lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely” and to “run with perseverance the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1 NRSV). The bond that ties us to each other and to the communion of saints is “Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2 NRSV).
This eternal communion, our “fundamental interconnectedness,” is not just good news but the best news I can imagine. We are never alone. We are all in this together. All of us are caught up in the renewal of the whole creation. Our faith is that Christ came in to the world not merely to set us free from sin but to restore the cosmos to health and wholeness.
The Good News that we proclaim is without boundaries. The Holy Spirit whispers it everywhere and always. I heard it from a character in a novel by a really funny atheist author and from that great cloud of witnesses that we share communion with though Jesus Christ. And as it turns out, I think I believe in “the fundamental interconnectedness of all things,” too. Amen. Amen. Amen.
The Reverend Jeff Evans
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