Rogation Sunday

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We have had some very engaging and interesting conversations in Catechesis on Sunday mornings, (that’s Sunday School). We have been discussing the biblical witness to the four marks, or signs of Christ’s Church. In fact, we all confess these signs of the Church each time we celebrate Holy Communion together. The marks or signs of the true universal Church have been expressed, known, and confessed by the members of Holy Mother Church from the time she was birthed on Pentecost by the Holy Spirit until this very day. She is ancient – she is present – and she is future, but these are not the marks. The marks or signs of the Body of Christ, the Church are these: she is One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic. We make this confession about Holy Mother Church in the Nicene and the Apostles’ Creeds when we say these creeds of our belief in Holy Eucharist and the Office of Morning and Evening Prayer. 

One thing we have not talked about in Sunday Catechesis, which we will take up here, are the marks of a Christian. – What are they? — There are many aspects that we could point to, showing what signs or marks identify Christians and their thoughts, words, and deeds. Considering the ways and means of the current culture, one would think that it would be easy to identify a Christian. — Yet, Christians do not walk around with blinking lights on their heads, carrying signs that say, “Look here! This person is a faithful Christian, wherein there is no guile?” — No, Christians are not marked with outward physical and visible signs that distinguish them as Christ’s followers – their marks are very different. Rather, Christians are marked with an inward spiritual promises and blessings – divine promises from GOD – that lead to visible and outward expressions, acts, and works, that substantiate a true Christian. The principal inward promise and blessing for the Christian, we discussed in last week’s Gospel homily. That promise is the Holy Spirit, whom JESUS said He would ask the Father to send to “abide with you forever … [for] He dwells with you and will be in you” (St. John 14.16-17). 

During the service of Holy Baptism, God the Father, at the request of GOD the Son, sends GOD the Holy Spirit to dwell in our hearts, and as such, He marks us as Christ’s own forever, and seals the grace of GOD’s promises in our hearts, making us new creation Christians, ready to be formed. Then the Holy Spirit, whom JESUS calls the other Comforter, leads and assists the new creation Christian, through the balance of his/her life, to partake in the divine nature of Christ (cf. 2 Ptr. 1.3-4). A man, woman, or child participating with faith in the life of the Church, (Word and Sacrament), being led by the grace of the Holy Spirit, begins to grow from grace to grace in the Divine Nature, thereby expressing visibly, the fruits or aspects of Christian character. This character under construction by the Holy Spirit, helps to reveal the true mark of every believer, as a true citizen of the Kingdom of GOD – Christ in us, through the Spirit, our hope of glory. Such a person, marked as a Christian by the Holy Spirit’s indwelling, if true and faithful, is as glaringly evident in this world, as a person with a blinking light on their head and a Christian sign in their hands. 

Yet, dear brothers and sisters of St. Mark’s, this does not all happen, until the man, woman, or child ask for GOD the Father’s grace to send the Holy Spirit to transform our lives as Christ’s own forever – not until we ask Him in JESUS’ Holy Name. — If we beseech not the Father, in the Son’s Name, any effort to transform our lives into the reflection of JESUS’ life, trying to show that we are truly marked as a Christian, it will all be in vain. For, as the Holy Scriptures declare, “there is no other Name under heaven, given among men, by which we must be saved [and transformed into the Divine Nature” than by the blessed Name of JESUS” (Acts 4.12). — This promise is ours, dear brothers and sisters, if we have asked in JESUS’ Name, for those who call upon the Name of the LORD shall be saved! (cf. Acts 15.11) And if we are saved, having called upon the LORD’s Name, we are now accepted by GOD in the Beloved – for His mercy endureth forever. 

This is what JESUS tells us in today’s Gospel. Let’s read it again.  In St. John 16.23-24, JESUS says, “Most assuredly, I say unto you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” Until this time, on the night before the LORD was betrayed in the Upper Room, JESUS had taught His disciples to pray directly to the Father, BUT to come to Him for all their mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. Yet, as the time of JESUS earthy ministry was to be fulfilled, JESUS told the Twelve in St. John 14.15-17, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Comforter to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth.” JESUS is going away to a place where the Twelve will no longer be able to seek Him out to teach them and comfort them like He did when He was with them in Galilee and Judea. This is why the LORD tells the Twelve, a little later, in the Upper Room, in St. John 16, that they are to pray to the Father in JESUS’ Name, and He will answer them. In that passage, JESUS says, “In that day, [when JESUS has departed from them], you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God” (St. John 16.26-27). That is, JESUS will no longer be the one comforting His people, but rather it will be the Father, through the Holy Spirit. — -The Father caring for the Church and her membership throughout all space and time – how can this be? — It can be, because, we have been accepted in the Beloved. 

This idea of being accepted in the Beloved, comes from St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. We find this phrase in the letter’s opening, and this theme of being accepted in the Beloved, being comforted by GOD the Father because we are found in GOD the Beloved Son, encapsulates the whole of Paul’s letter to the Ephesian church. Further, it describes the transformed relationship that Christians have with the Father, because of the Son, which goes as far as the Father listening and dynamically acting upon our prayers, in JESUS’ Name. JESUS is the Head, and we are the Body – He is the Bridegroom and we are the Bride. As such, when GOD sees the Church and her membership, He sees His Beloved Son; we are in Him and He in us. — Listen to how St. Paul describes this new relationship between the Father and the Church, through the Son. In Ephesians 1.3ff we read: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him … by which He made us accepted in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1.3-4 & 6). 

Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is a message to all Christians everywhere, that we do not worship and stone or metal god, but the Living GOD, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. And Paul’s message is that this GOD loves us and has chosen us, and not the other way around. GOD interacts with His chosen people, dynamically through His Son, and we are called to live as His Son lived – to live and grow as sons and daughters of GOD, making a difference in this world for GOD’s glory. We are in Him and He is in us because His Holy Spirit dwells with us and in us, therefore we are accepted by the Father, just as JESUS was, when He travelled through the Vanity Fair of this world. We are marked as Christians by the presence of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, who helps us participate in the Divine Nature of Christ, being seen in Him as members of His Body by the Father as His Bride – flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone. Just like a godly couple – you cannot see the one without seeing the other, and thinking of the one always causes you to think of the other. This is GOD the Father’s perspective of the Church and her membership – as JESUS’ spouse – His ever-present Bride. This is why He accepts us in His Beloved. 

And because we have been accepted in the Beloved as His Bride, GOD the Father has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. You see, “Those whom God blesses with some, He blesses with all spiritual blessings; to whom He gives Christ, He freely gives all these things. It is not so with temporal, [earthly] blessings. In that regard, some are favored with health, and not with riches; while some are blessed with riches, and not with health, etc. But, where GOD blesses with spiritual blessings, He blesses with all. These spiritual blessings in heavenly places … are heavenly things and are designed to prepare men for Heaven.”¹  –  GOD’s spiritual blessings are multifaceted, yet, for now, let us think of them in two parts. First, being accepted in the Beloved, which is the security of receiving GOD’s spiritual blessings. And second, being given the privilege to ask the Father for the Spirit’s giftings and leading in JESUS’ Name – for the Spirit helps us prepare for Heaven. The two spiritual realities – being accepted in the Beloved by the presence of the Holy Spirit within us and being given access to the Father through the Beloved’s Name, this is how we are to think about how we are marked as Christians. And if we believe and know that we are marked in Christ with acceptance and access to the Father, through the Son, then we will be able to understand how the transforming power of the Holy Spirit enables us to overcome the world. We overcome the world as JESUS did: asking the Father for every good gift according to His will and not our will, that we might be victorious over sin and death, tribulation and frustration, setbacks and let-downs, and despairs and desolations. Understanding how we are marked as Christians, (with acceptance and access to the Father through the Son, by the power and indwelling of the Holy Spirit), we can overcome the world, just as JESUS overcame the world, receiving the peace that passes understanding, which the LORD promises us. 

In the coming weeks, our lectionary and Proper Readings of Holy Scripture will instruct us more about JESUS’ Ascension into Heaven and His sending of the Holy Ghost on Pentecost. Today, we have focused on the fact that we have been graciously given an opportunity to participate in the Divine Nature of Christ, which gives the Church confidence and conviction that we have acceptance and access to the Father, in the Beloved. If this is true, both St. James and St. Peter tell us that Christ’s Divine Nature should become expressive in us through love in works – works such as love, joy peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and self-control, which, when the world shall behold, they will “glorify God in the day of visitation” (1 Peter 2.12).  

For brothers and sisters of St. Mark, “we are His workmanship, created in Christ JESUS for good works, which GOD prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2,8 &10). Works such as our brother James the Just describes. Works like, laying aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, so that we might receive with meekness the implanted Word of GOD that is able to save our souls. Works like, doing GOD’s Word, and not being hearers of it, only. Like bridling our tongues that we speak no evil thing, thereby belying our neighbors or taking the Name of the LORD GOD in vain, thereby showing our Christian religion useless in this world. (cf. St. James 1.21-27).  

But none of this happens, brothers and sisters of St. Mark’s, until we ask the Father in JESUS’ Name, to send His Holy Spirit into our hearts, that whatever we ask in accordance with the Father’s will, that JESUS has showed us, and the Spirit continues to show us, we will receive in JESUS’ Name. — Dear Church, I tell you these things that you may have the peace of GOD which passes all understanding. For in this world, you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, because JESUS has overcome the world, so too can we do. That is because, we have acceptance and access in the Beloved, to the Father. — And having acceptance and access, let us be among those people who call upon the Name of the LORD and are saved, for as JESUS said in another place: “For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (St. Luke 11.10-13). Amen. 

1 Henry, Matthew. BlueLetterBible.org. “Commentary Study on Ephesians”. Accessed 21-May ‘25. www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/mhc/Eph/Eph_001.cfm?a=1098001.