Fifth Sunday of Easter

          Jesus has just told his disciples that he is going on ahead of them, preparing a place for them in his Father’s house of many mansions. He tells them to believe in him, and set their troubled hearts at rest, because God has good things in store for them—greater works than they can even imagine! And even though these words in John 14 happen right before the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, they echo what Jesus says to his disciples right before he ascends into heaven: you will be my witnesses, you will receive power from God, remember what I told you, I will be with you always.

          Despite all the reassurance, the disciples' hearts were still “troubled”: where are you going? We don’t know the way. What is happening? Show us the Father! They just didn’t understand. But they would, eventually. Fifty days after Jesus’ resurrection, on Pentecost, the Holy Spirit would come down in wind and fire and bring Christ’s mighty power and presence upon his people.  And then these disciples would go out to all the ends of the earth, proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ.

They would tell others that Christ was risen from the dead so that all can have life eternal. They would tell everyone that Jesus alone is the way, the truth and the life. And great works would be done—just as Jesus had promised. Thousands would hear the good news and convert. The apostles would heal hundreds, cast out demons by the dozens. They would miraculously escape from prison, evade the authorities, and go on preaching Jesus Christ.

          And-- they would suffer. And they would die. All but one of the twelve disciples would be executed: crucified, skinned alive, tortured, beaten, poisoned or stoned to death. The 12th one—the one who wrote the Gospel words we read today—he  would die alone and far from home after suffering terrible hardship.

For refusing to give up their hope in Christ and their commitment to Jesus, the disciples would pay with their lives, like thousands of Christians would in those early years, like thousands of Christians still do today in places like Nigeria, Lebanon, Sudan. Fed to the lions and burned alive by Caesar back then; kidnapped and beheaded by Boko Haram today.

          It doesn’t seem like these could be the even greater works that Christ spoke of. Who considers suffering and death to be a victory? But consider this—in the first lesson, as the Deacon Stephen is stoned to death, the crowds lay their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. Saul, a persecutor of the church, who would later become its greatest Apostle, who we know as Paul. The death of Stephen was the tiny pebble that set in motion that great avalanche that converted Paul.

          Even as the rocks kill him, Stephen cries out to the Rock of  Salvation. Even as the crowds take up stones, the Chief Cornerstone is glorified. Even as those people ran to murder Stephen, they stumbled and fell over the great grace and gentleness that was his through being filled with the Holy Spirit.

And even though it seems those bloody rocks triumphed over Stephen and his preaching, they could not triumph over the Chief Rock upon whom all else is built, Jesus Christ. Stephen, like Jesus, witnessed to the end, praying for forgiveness for the very ones who crushed the life out of his body. If that is not a great work, a superhuman work, a work that can only come from God, then I don’t know what is.

          Most of us don’t have something so dramatic happen to us. In this country, we are unlikely to be required to shed blood for our faith. But these greater works are still going on among us right now. When Christ ascended into heaven, he sent the Holy Spirit among us here—right here at Grace-- so that we would know his presence and also be empowered to do great things. Christ made us a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people so that we can proclaim the mighty acts of the one who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. We were not a people, but now we are God’s people. We had not received mercy, but now we have received it.

          It may seem to you as if God does no great works in your life. You struggle with doubt, you might not know the Bible well. You feel unprepared to be a “real Christian.” You don't know what to do when stuff is hard. You feel like giving up when disaster strikes and it seems like God has no answers. You may wonder how you could possibly do greater works than Christ and his apostles did on earth.

          But remember--it’s not you who does them, but Christ through you. You are living stones, and Christ is busy building you into what he wants you to be. This is not without pain and sacrifice. It involves dying and rising every day to sin and God putting to death in you whatever would stand in the path of Christ the way, truth and life.

Whatever pains come, whatever sufferings, in whatever situation you are, Christ will use it all to the Father’s glory and you will have the strength and power, as Stephen and John and Mary and Peter did, to witness through your life to the power of the Lord in you.

Believe me, Christ is doing great works in you and through you. You may never know what those are. Ordinary things that may seem like nothing might be the greatest works that Christ has for you to do. Whatever happens, Christ is using you to spread his glory. And he has promised that you have a place with him, in his Father’s house. A place prepared just for you. And he will come again and take you home with him, so that where he is there you may be also.

Surely, where you are now, there he is also, right now, calling you as living stones, as chosen people to proclaim his glory in your lives. You may not know how. You may not know what to say, or do. You may, like Thomas, not know the way. You may hear the pastor say in church, “Tell others about Jesus” or “share your faith” and have no real idea what that means. But the Holy Spirit has filled you just as he filled Stephen.

It all starts small, and it’s all about the Holy Spirit using you to accomplish wonderful things even in the most ordinary ways. Things like coming faithfully to worship and  to hear God’s Word for you and receive his Sacraments even during the summer, or even when you go off to college! It's about ordinary things  like reading your Bible more regularly, reaching out to someone hurting and letting them know you are praying for them. It's a quiet word of encouragement, a behind-the-scenes job that no one knows you did, loving those who don’t love you back, turning the other cheek, refusing to return insult for insult, confessing your sins and receiving forgiveness, forgiving others who have hurt you and letting it go for Jesus’ sake—see? Ordinary things in your life as a Christian, that become extraordinary through the power of the Spirit.

In quiet ways, or in big ways, you are chosen and precious in God’s sight.  His royal children. His witnesses. And the one who is the Way, the Truth, the Life will be with you always.  Amen.