7 Easter Year A 5/17/2026
Acts 1:6-14; Psalm 68:1-10, 33-36; 1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11; John 17:1-11
Rev. Mark A. Lafler
Today is the Sunday after the Ascension of our Lord Jesus…
(And we had a glorious celebration on the feast day of the Ascension last Thursday evening)
Next Sunday is Pentecost…
When we celebrate the birth of the Church…
When we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit…
The season of Easter…
As we call it Eastertide…
Is almost complete.
And today marks the last reading in our lectionary where we hear the encouragement, the hope, and the good news from the small New Testament book of First Peter.
As we have talked about throughout this series…
St. Peter writes to the church during a time of rising persecution.
A time of difficulty and struggle.
Living a life of faith can have real challenges.
Even in our moment in life…
The time and place we live in…
We have freedom of speech and freedom to worship…
But we can experience the challenges of living in faithfulness to Jesus.
It’s not always easy to live and to encourage in this life…
what is good, true, noble, and beautiful.
To stand up for injustices can be very intimidating.
Even the fact of sharing our faith in this world can bring hardship.
I remember many years ago, shortly after my conversion to follow Jesus, I went to a friend’s house to share my new way of life…
I shared how Jesus became real in my life…
I shared the good news of salvation in Christ…
Through his death and resurrection…
And how this changed me…
And in response, my friend shared with me how we can no longer be friends if I have these views…
And I haven’t seen him since.
Following Jesus is not always easy…
It does involve pain.
In fact, in our reading, St. Peter suggests we should expect difficulty.
He writes:
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.
If anything, we should expect to have troubles when we live our life according to the teachings of Christ Jesus that are found in our Holy Scriptures.
Jesus said in the Gospels… in John 15.20:
If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.
You see, if we share the good news of Jesus…
We will come across resistance…
In a world that looks inward for truth and believes the greatest sense of reality is found in one’s own personhood…
The gospel that says truth is found outside of us in the person of Jesus…
The gospel that says Jesus is Lord and that we are not to live for ourselves alone…
Not everyone is going to appreciate that message.
When we stand up against the powers of this world…
Many will try to silence our message of the gospel.
Power does not like to be confronted.
The good news of the Gospel is an offensive message to those that live life for themselves.
But the verse I want to focus on today…
The verse that jumped out at me…
And caught my attention…
is verse 14…
It says:
If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed,
because the spirit of glory, which is the Spirit of God,
is resting on you.
We don’t often associate blessing with persecution…
Very rarely would we even think that…
It certainly isn’t a natural correlation that we put together.
But that is what our Lord said in the Sermon on the Mount.
Back in Matthew five (v. 11-12) Jesus said:
Blessed are you when people insult you,
persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven,
for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
This idea really rubs up against our comfy American life…
But challenges are going to come…
What do we do when they come?
Let’s look at our key verse again from St. Peter:
If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed,
because the spirit of glory, which is the Spirit of God,
is resting on you.
The last bit of the verse says:
The Spirit of God is resting on you.
What a promise!
And this word rest is full of meaning…
God rested on the seventh day after his work of creation…
And the Sabbath rest became a great covenant sign between God and his people in the Old Testament.
Of course, the Sabbath rest also became a great point of contention between Jesus and the Jewish religious leaders in the New Testament.
But rest is also what Jesus invites into…
He said:
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am gentle and humble in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
(Matthew 11.28-30)
And ultimately Jesus made the way for the rest to be realized on the cross…
Before he died, Jesus said:
It is finished.
(John 19.30)
In the original Greek (tetelestai),
the phrase points toward being “paid in full” or “completed,”
Thus, It is finished signifies that He had fully accomplished the work of salvation and fulfilled the prophecies of scripture.
In other words, the work was done…
It is time to rest in his finished work.
Back to 1 Peter…
When insults and troubles come because of our witness of Jesus…
The Spirit of God is resting on you.
And this is the very thing we long for when we go through tough times…
Rest!
When we are exhausted…
We need rest.
When the ways of this world seem to be overwhelming…
We need rest.
And God provides that rest in the person of the Holy Spirit.
It is what we prayed in our collect…
The prayer that is appointed for today…
It says:
O God, the King of glory, you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven:
That is a reflection on the Ascension, but the prayer goes on with this petition…
Do not leave us comfortless,
but send us your Holy Spirit to strengthen us,
and exalt us to that place where our Savior Christ has gone before…
The prayer is an appeal for God to strengthen us in our weakness…
To give us comfort and rest…
Through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
You see, for the Christian there is a dance…
A dance of wholeness and rest between us and the Holy Spirit…
The world is full of restlessness…
Our world works on a 24-hour cycle…
Demanding our attention…
Not wanting to take breaks…
It just keeps on going and going…
Gripping us with the fear of a breaking story…
Or with the desire that we might be missing out…
Therefore, we must always stay connected…
Only driving up anxiety and stress…
Building pressure to conform and keep up.
But the rhythm of Jesus is different…
The dance isn’t stressful…
It’s a rest found in the work of Jesus…
And delivered by the Holy Spirit.
St. Peter wrote:
The Spirit of God is resting on you.
There is a story from the Philippines about a driver of a carabao wagon…
He was on his way to the market when he came upon an old man carrying a heavy load.
Taking compassion on him,
the driver invited the old man to ride in the wagon.
Gratefully the old man accepted.
After a few minutes, the driver turned to see how the man was doing.
And to his surprise, he found him still straining under the heavy weight, for he had not taken the burden off his shoulders even while he road on the wagon.
We can do the same thing…
We can accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior…
We can be baptized…
Receive communion…
And yet hold on to the things of this world…
We can hold on to the shame…
The guilt…
The traps of life…
And yet Jesus calls us to rest.
In a chaotic world…
Even in times of struggle and persecution…
The Spirit of God is resting on you.
Today…
Enter more fully into that rest…
And acknowledge that the Holy Spirit is resting on you.
Amen.
