Richard Davenport

May 25, 2025 – Sixth Sunday of Easter

John 16:23-33

                As you probably know, Laurie and I are a big fan of board games.  If you haven’t paid any attention to them lately, board games have come a long way since the days of Monopoly and Sorry.  There are board games for just about any theme you can imagine, historical, fantasy, science fiction, or anything else out there. 

I could go on at length about board games, but the games themselves aren’t really what I’m after at the moment.  Instead, I’m going to talk a little bit about tariffs.  No, I’m not going to get into all of the political ramifications of the tariffs.  I’m not going to talk about whether they are a good thing or a bad thing.  I will certainly encourage you to do your own research.  There are plenty of people with a stake in the game on both sides and they would all love for you to embrace everything they say at face value.

No, instead I’ll talk a bit about the effect of the tariffs on the board game industry.  Board gaming has been a growing hobby for a number of years now.  If you wander through Walmart or Target, you’ll get just a very small sampling of the number and kinds of new games out there.  Board gaming has been growing, in large part, because of how cheap it is to produce a lot of things in China.  It’s allowed a lot of people to get into the business and make high quality products for relatively little money.

The issue now is that the tariffs have made the one place that supplies all of this cost prohibitive to work with.  The whole industry has been almost completely dependent on China for these goods and so there is no other company that can step in and immediately take over all of the production.

The effect is that a number of smaller publishers have already closed up shop. Reading board game news, as we do, over the past few weeks has meant every other day is a new discussion about the tariffs, their ramifications, and how the industry is trying to deal with it. Most of the discussion is about how the industry is going to collapse.  The whole house of cards comes crashing down and everyone who is a part of the hobby in any sense is going to suffer.

The mood is one of desperation.  Publishers scrambling to keep their business afloat.  Board game players saddened that their hobby appears to be coming to a grinding halt.  The only solutions presented are ones made with that same desperation, and not likely to bear much fruit.  Things do look grim for the industry.

The Gospel reading for today backs up a little bit.  We’re nearing the end of the Easter season, but John 16 moves us back to Holy Week.  In John’s Gospel, chapters 13-17 all occur on Maundy Thursday.  Jesus washes the disciples’ feet at the beginning 13 and chapter 18 is his arrest in the garden.  So it is in the midst of their celebration of the Passover and Christ’s institution of the Lord’s Supper that we have this discussion. 

Right up to the very end, Jesus has been preparing the disciples for what’s to come.  Unfortunately, none of his words seem to make a difference.  The disciples still run for the hills and do just about everything they can to distance themselves from Jesus.  The priests and Pharisees have finally gotten their wish.  They’ve caught Jesus in their trap and the disciples don’t want to get scooped up with him.

Soon they’ll desert him and deny him.  Soon they’ll be in hiding, knowing that the Pharisees and their goons could find them at any minute and drag them before the Sanhedrin, just like Jesus. Pretty soon, their whole way of life will come crashing down.  Their actions will be desperate, driven by hopelessness.  There doesn’t appear to be any positive outcome for all of this. The disciples know that people have seen them, know their faces.  Word about them will get around.  Maybe they can go back to their old lives, but maybe not.  Saturday and Sunday, as the disciples are huddled together in the dark of the upper room, they are thinking these might be the first days they will now have to live on the run.

It isn’t a sin to have the world come crashing down on you.  That sort of thing wouldn’t happen if we didn’t have sin in the world, but that doesn’t mean you did anything to directly cause it. These kinds of things happen whether we have any direct involvement or not.  A victim of circumstance, being at the wrong place at the wrong time, whatever it was, something bad has happened and you’re having to deal with it.  Jesus spoke about this very issue as well. 

Whether it’s your business drying up, a bad diagnosis at your last doctor’s visit, the sudden death of a friend, your home flooding, these are all bad things. They are potentially life altering and certainly inconvenient and stressful, but they are also a part of life in a sinful world.

The disciples didn’t have any choice in whether Jesus got arrested. Peter tried to do something about it, but it wasn’t up to him.  This was the plan all along.  It was always going to be this way.  Their choice was in how they dealt with it afterward.  Were they going to cower in fear?  Were they going to assume everything had fallen apart?  Were they going to run for the hills, leaving the whole thing behind?  Or were they going to trust in God’s promise?  Were they going to trust that even here, even in their darkness moments, God would still care for them?  Were they going to trust that God still had a plan for their future, no matter how insurmountable the odds may appear?

There’s a reason Jesus’ death occurred like it did.  Unjustly accused, reviled by the very people who cheered him on, abandoned by his closest friends, suffering the kind of pain only the worst criminals ever face, Jesus’ didn’t just endure physical torment, but also spiritual.  Jesus takes the worst of the worst and still triumphs.  Jesus goes into the darkest places in this world and shines the light of his power and majestic.  The darkness cannot overcome him, not even the darkness of the tomb.

The problem isn’t the situation.  God can handle that just fine.  He always does.  The problem is the feeling of hopelessness, the assumption that there is no future to look forward to.  Jesus knows exactly what he’ll face.  He knows what the disciples will face.  He knows how grim it will all look.  He knows the bleak situation will threaten to drive them to despair.  He knows it will look like there’s no hope.  Jesus lays it out for them very plainly.  They remark how he is not speaking in parables, but just telling them things directly.  Yet, even his plain speech goes unheard.  They will be scattered.  They will abandon him.  They will have tribulation in this world, but they need not be worried.  Jesus has overcome all of that.

In the church, we continue through the Easter season.  The season of Easter seems a little less exciting once you pass the actual celebration of the resurrection.  We look at all of the time Jesus spends with the disciples prior to his ascension.  Though the pageantry of Easter Sunday has come and gone to an extent, the season itself is valuable.  Yes, Jesus has risen.  Yes, he has triumphed over death.  But, he is still there preparing his people for what is to come.  He doesn’t leave them to fend for themselves.  Now that they’ve seen firsthand what God can do, they will be ready for what God is going to do next.  Jesus is going to leave them.  This is still part of the plan.  This is the way things are supposed to be.  But the disciples aren’t going to be alone.  God will still be with them.

Each year, we enter the season of Lent, knowing what is to come and why it has to happen.  Each year we hear the story again, as Jesus prepares his disciples for his arrest and crucifixion.  Each year we reflect on his death and burial, knowing that this is what awaits every sinner. Each year we gather here on Sunday, knowing that Christ has triumphed over the worst the world has. 

Jesus prepared his disciples for the tribulations to come and as they were sent out on Pentecost, no longer called as disciples but as apostles, as sent ones, they went knowing that wherever they went, God had already conquered there.  Even when they were being martyred for their faith, God had already conquered.  Even in their darkest moments, the light of Christ still shone brightly.

This is the sense we find in the Psalm in the introit today as well.  King David was well acquainted with darkness and the appearance that all was lost.  But, he offers up a prayer to the one who can rescue, who can save even from death.  He calls on those who meditate on his prayer to cast their burdens on God and be sustained by him.

God prepares us as well.  We hear the stories again, because they weren’t just meant for the disciples, but for all of us.  He calls us to repent, not for being in a bad situation, but for thinking there’s no way out. Even that sin, Christ has conquered and he offers his grace to us.

Will God restore the board game industry?  I don’t know.  God doesn’t make promises to industries.  He makes promises to people.  Whether the hobby flourishes like it used to or not, God will care for those people. He’ll care for you.  His mercy extends beyond any crisis you find yourself in. His grace carries you into to his kingdom.  Rest your hope in the knowledge that he has conquered the worst this world can do. He has overcome the deepest darkness. Whatever may be happening to you, know that he will find you, he will rescue you, and he will bring you safely home.