Easter 7
Preparation
Please begin by reading
John 17:20-26 in your Bible.
If you do not have one at hand, we have provided that text for you at the end of
this reflection.
Reflection--Being
One
The seventeenth chapter of John is a
long prayer that Jesus prays on behalf of his disciples just before leaving for
the Garden of Gethsemane, where he will be betrayed and arrested. It's beginning
is an acknowledgement of what is about to happen: "Father, the hour has come."
Jesus is leaving, but he knows that the disciples will
remain, for there is yet much work to be done. He prays, at verses 15-18, "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."
In today's passage, Jesus makes it clear that his prayer of
blessing and protection is not just for the first-century disciples. It is also
for those who heard their words and believed. Others in turn hear and believe
from these new disciples. And so the process continues, generation after
generation. Jesus' prayer extends to each and every one, including you and I and
those who will hear our words, believe, and carry on the telling of "the old,
old story."
There is a remarkable unity in this unbroken chain of
disciples. Jesus' prayer reveals that Jesus and God "the Father" have a unity.
Jesus prays that we too may have and share in that unity. "May they also be in
us," he prays. We are to be one with each other, as God the creator and God the
redeemer are one, and we are to also to be one with them. Further, it is a unity
grounded in friendship. We are called to service, but not to subservience. Our
relationship with Jesus is to be a relationship with one who trusts us with the
deepest knowledge of the things of God. We have been chosen for open friendship.
(John 15:14-16)
Further, it is not a temporary unity, but one that outlasts
this life. Jesus prays that we may be with him where he is. Finally, and most
importantly, this web of relationship is grounded in love. "I made your name
known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have
loved me may be in them, and I in them."
We are heirs, then, to the most remarkable privilege and the
highest calling. At some point, we hear the ancient faith story passed on to us
and we claim our own calling to become part of God's family. Slowly, subtly, but
surely, life-changing and life-giving transformation comes. At some point, often
years later, we realize that we have crossed a gulf and are in a very different
place, sometimes spoken of as being "in the world, but not of it." It is not a
lonely place, but a place where we are one with those who have made the same
journey before us. Better yet, we know without doubt that God is in us, and that
we are in God. We know without question that we are loved.
Yes, God still honors Jesus' ancient prayer for us.
revclay
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John 17:20-26
[Jesus prays:]
"I ask not only on behalf of
these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word,
that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they
also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory
that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are
one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the
world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved
me. Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me
where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before
the foundation of the world.
"Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know
you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I
will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in
them, and I in them."
[NRSV]