If we receive human testimony, the testimony of God is greater; for this is the testimony of God that he has testified to his Son. Those who believe in the Son of God have the testimony in their hearts. Those who do not believe in God have made him a liar by not believing in the testimony that God has given concerning his Son. And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.
[Jesus said:] "I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. "And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. "Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth."
Today we come to the seventh Sunday of Easter, the last in the Easter Season. Next Sunday, we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit and the birthday of the church. During these weeks after Easter, we have been considering the nature of God revealed in Jesus. This was not the nature of God that was expected by the disciples.
This God revealed in Jesus is a God who is with us, not to set the bad guys straight but rather to join us in how we respond to one another and to seek relationship with all people and all creation. This God in Jesus gets zealous and angry when the poor get ripped off and this God forgives those who have broken their relationships and calls them back into lives of repentance, forgiveness and the hopeful process of reconciliation..
This God revealed in Jesus shows no partiality. It was a surprise to think that God loves all people rich, poor, Gentile, or Jew, slave or free, woman or man - without partiality.
What is more, this God revealed in Jesus is calling us to a life in relationship with one another that is one just as God’s own self is one.
From the First Letter of John we have read about how the followers of this way of Jesus knew in their hearts when they had heard the loving word of God. It came through the witness of others of faith. They knew it when they heard it. And even more than this, to know this way of Jesus was to experience life, abundant and eternal.
In the passage from the Gospel, the writer has just told of the hardships the disciples will face. Now, we hear Jesus pray for those disciples and with them all of us. Jesus prayers for them and us as the struggles of this life will challenge our oneness of following this way of Jesus. So Jesus prays
1. (What):
Holy Father, protect them in your name - why- so that they may be one, as we are one. When the disciples become of one mission, they hold one ministry. this unifying mission and ministry is to tell the good news that God loves all,. We are made to be loved and made to love. We are called to the way of compassion. When the we follow this way, we grow in oneness that is like God’s own oneness.
A reading from Page 208 in Paul Young's The Shake (Reading about how the Trinity is not a higher archy but more like a mobile)
We are to be one in God and with God. We are to be one with one another. Jesus tells that there are forces that would try to pull the disciples away from this oneness, protect them, he prays. Protect them that they may be one as we are one. Protect those early disciples so that they may hear the direction of their hearts. Protect them that they may act in the way of compassion even when it means tough love. Protect us, the disciples of today. How shall God protect them? How shall God protect the disciples of today?
2. (How )
"Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. ( known through the witness of those who have found this Spirit of Jesus spoken of in 1 John). In this Gospel, they are already made holy by knowing the truth. That truth is that peace comes through treating one another with respect and justice. Peace does not come through bullying or force.The Disciples will need this holy sanctification because they will face bullies. They will be pressured to take the way of the society around them. They will need to remind themselves and each other of this truth, God does not need bullies to get God’s message out. And where are these disciples supposed to live out this holy truth, a monastery? a shrine? No.
3 (Where)
As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. God has so loved this world. This is one of the most difficult of our teachings. Jesus actually sends disciples out into the world. They were sent out there with their families. They were sent out with their skills and jobs. They were common people among common people. They were not sent off to be isolated and thus kept pure. They were sent of to be in the world and still not exactly of the world. They were sent out apart from each other and yet one with each other no matter what might separate them. They were sent out to live in the love of God and bring the good news of God's love to others.
God knows us. There is no hiding from our God. God knows us better than we know ourselves and God loves us. The prayer from our Gospel asks that we find oneness in that love. We know when we have found it. In that oneness there is life, abundant and eternal. In that oneness, we touch something we know unifies us, builds us up, and helps us care for all that God has given to us. In that oneness, we find a peace that helps us to go out into the world with God and one another.
Footnotes:
The Revised Common Lectionary is © Consultation on Common Texts. Texts are from the New Revised Standard Version of Holy Scripture, © 1989 by The Division of Christian
The Shack by Wm. Paul Young, Published by Windblown Media, Newbury Park, California. Copyright 2007.
