Zealous for God – Br. Lain Wilson

SSJE Sermons

Feast of Saint Simon and Saint Jude

Ephesians 2:13-22

Today, one week before Election Day, is a day that I didn’t expect I needed Simon and Jude.

We don’t know much about these apostles—we know their names, and that early tradition consistently linked them together in mission to Persia and Armenia. We know that Simon was called “the Zealot” (but not what is specifically meant by this), and that Jude has come to be venerated as the patron saint of desperate or lost causes.

We don’t know much about them, but these small, memorable associations are somehow exactly what I needed today.

I’m sure many of us have felt, or maybe are feeling even now, a sense of despair—that we are going down a road with no return, that there will be something about who we are that is irrevocably broken. Here in the US, our major party candidates promise two very different visions of tomorrow—you may despair that the other side may win, or you may despair that neither vision speaks to the challenges that you and your loved ones face. I’m sure many of us feel like we’re facing one of the most desperate of lost causes.

And that’s just politics. Each of us bears wounds that others cannot see, tugging at our attention, drawing us to doubt our hope that we can become who we were created to be. For many of us, part of this will be about how we view our neighbors, with contempt or hate. If externally we face an ever-more-divided populace, internally, we can come to feel a division in who we are now and who we are supposed to be.

So what are we supposed to do?

We can pray, of course. We’ll pray for unity this evening. We Brothers will engage in a vigil next Tuesday, on Election Night, going from 7 PM until the last polls close at 1 AM, to pray for unity, guidance, and protection.

But more than that we can take the example of Simon and be zealous. But not zealous for a political candidate, or for an issue, or for a movement. We can instead be zealous for God. Which may sound a bit strange, at first. What do I mean by being zealous for God?

Fundamentally, what I mean is taking the God revealed in Scripture seriously. Taking seriously that God is a “faithful God, without deceit, just and upright,” as Moses recites in Deuteronomy (Dt 32:4). Taking seriously that God’s faithfulness remains from one generation to another,” as the Psalmist sings (Ps 119:90). And taking seriously that Jesus “is our peace,” that he can break down dividing walls and remove hostility and proclaim peace (Eph 2:14, 15). Taking seriously that our internal and external divisions are not permanent, that we as individuals and as a people are not irrevocably broken, that this seemingly most lost, most desperate of all lost causes is not in fact lost, because we take seriously that God is powerful to heal, to mend, to save. Amen.