Year C Seventh Sunday of Pascha (Easter) 12 May 2013
Acts 16: 16-34 Psalm 97 Revelation 22: 12-221 John 17: 20-26
How would you feel if you knew that Jesus looked through the tunnel of time, saw you, and specifically prayed for you?
Every now and then, scripture gives us a glimpse of God’s future vision. We glimpse his concern and provision for the people of the future who would align themselves with him.
In this week’s reading we witness Jesus’ prayer for all believers, and he is specific about those who “will believe”, not just those who already do believe. It seems that Jesus was looking through that tunnel of time and he saw you, and he saw me, and he prayed.
Next question that comes to mind is; what do you think Jesus would pray about when he has you in mind? And following on from that question; would it change anything about your actions and priorities if you knew what he prayed?
We find the prayer that Jesus prayed in the Gospel of John:
John 17:20-21 ““My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you 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.””
There are three aspects to this prayer;
1. That all believers may be one,
2. That we may be “in” the Father and the Son,
3. That our unity should be a witness causing others to believe that Jesus is the Saviour.
Looking at the first aspect it is strikingly obvious that mostly, we are not one. And if we travel down to the end result we might also note that people are not flocking to the Church, but the very opposite is true…. We find people are rejecting and repulsed by the notion of church and the reason that most will give for this, is that the Church is full of hypocrites. What they mean by this, is that the people in the church pretend to love one another, but they don’t. Those in the church are actually talking about each other behind their backs and putting each other down, and those outside the church notice.
There are times when the community comes together as one. Those are usually times of great hardship and tragedy, although I think that we, as a community, are even failing in this compared to what once may have been, and the reason would be that there are less and less Christians in the community and our values have become so self-centred that we barely care about others at all.
What we witness is that the climate of society as a whole is a reflection of its members. When there are many Christians that make up society we see a rise in care and concern for the poor, justice and mercy in our courts and general good will towards all.
It has been long acknowledged that we need to grow our churches, as the numbers are growing few. But how can we do this?
We have an interesting reading from Acts this week and we read that St. Paul was in a town where a slave girl, who was possessed by a demon that enabled her to earn her owners money by telling fortunes, was proclaiming that Paul and his companions were servants of the most high God and that they would tell you how to be saved.
The girl was proclaiming the truth.
It struck me as being a bit like those people who feel they have to tell you everything about Christ, assuming that you know nothing and that you need saving. While it is great to have zeal such that you may want to share everything you know about God, we need to be careful that we are not doing the devil’s work by doing just as this girl was doing.
But what was wrong with what she said – everything she said was true?
Yes, but we are told not to worry about what to say because the Holy Spirit will give us the right words at the right time. This girl was speaking truth, but it was not by the Holy Spirit, and I am guessing that the words were inappropriate for the time…. Otherwise St. Paul would have had no need to silence her by casting the demon out in Jesus name.
The Holy Spirit is God, and God is respectful of our free will. It is the kindness of God that leads us to repentance and not the authoritative words that may be well meant but seem to judge and condemn. In fact it is our witness as a true friend that will allow a person to listen to any of our words about God, and it is those actions of a true friend that will speak louder than any word. So what is really needed more than any memorized scripture is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit such that others can see Christ in us, and such that we can sense His promptings.
The second element in Jesus prayer was that we should be “in” the Father and the Son. This is to be indwelt with the Holy Spirit to the extent that we are surrounded by the Spirit and filled with the Spirit. The Spirit testifies about the Son. When we are one with each other and “in” the Father and the Son, the world will believe that Jesus is the Son of God.
It isn’t clever words that bring people to Christ. It isn’t “you beaut” programs, youth groups or children’s services that bring people to Christ. It isn’t superior knowledge or intellect that brings people to Christ.
We can drive ourselves to exhaustion trying to bring people to Christ by striving to be knowledgeable, clever, technologically savvy, having Bible studies, the best music and programs but they will all fail unless we are “in” God and one with each other.
The Gospel of John also tells us in John 17:26 “I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
Jesus has made the Father known, and will continue to make him known - So we see that even though we know God, we have much more to knowing to do. This reminds me of a clever saying that one of my students told me this week, “I know the one who is you and you know the one who is me, but I don’t know every one of you and you don’t know every one of me.” I don’t know where it came from – she read it in a book, but it illustrates perfectly the relationship we have with God… at least from our perspective – we do know that God knows ALL of us, but we need to continue in knowing him.
Our knowledge of God will never be complete while in this skin, but the Holy Spirit is God. If we are “in” God, we do not need to be concerned about our lack of knowledge but we can trust that the Holy Spirit will continue to teach us.
Our second reading contains exhortation and warning.
Revelation 22:12-13 ““Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”
We can be confused into thinking that we need to do some religious activity, but scripture makes it very clear that these are not what God requires. What he does require, that demands our action, is that we love one another. Religious activity is an easy thing, but loving one another requires a whole greater level of sacrifice.
Christ in us is the only hope of glory. We cannot even do this one thing - to love one another, but if Christ dwells in us through his Holy Spirit, and we can give him the authority to live through us – such that we are “in” him and he “in” us, then he can love through us and in so doing we have hope of being one in Christ. We will then find our churches overflowing with those who’ve come to believe in Jesus because they’ve seen him living through us.
