I wonder if you\u2019ve got a summer holiday booked. There\u2019s a lot to get ready for a holiday isn\u2019t there. There\u2019s the planning when and where you\u2019re going to go. Then sorting out passports and insurance if you need them. Closer to the time you\u2019ve got to pack, decide what\u2019s going with you and what\u2019s staying behind. If you\u2019ve got pets and they\u2019re not going with you, then a kennels or cattery needs to be arranged, or kindly neighbours to come in and feed them. If we\u2019re in paid work then often arrangements need to be made for cover and who\u2019s going to do the important tasks while we\u2019re away. After all that, we really do need a holiday. <\/p>\n
This week we\u2019ve been celebrating the feast of Ascension, when Jesus returned to the Father in heaven. He\u2019d spent some time with all his friends and disciples after having been raised from the dead, and much of that time had been spent preparing them for his departure, making sure that they knew what they were meant to be doing whilst he was gone. Of course, he wasn\u2019t going to leave them alone, he was going to send the Holy Spirit to help them understand what they were to do, and to empower them to do it.
\nWe\u2019ll be celebrating that next Sunday at Pentecost. However, Jesus\u2019 preparations for his departure weren\u2019t all in that last month. Some of his preparation had been happening during his ministry, before he died, and the reading we have read from John\u2019s eye witness account of the good news of Jesus is an example of this. <\/p>\n
In this reading we are back on Maundy Thursday evening. Jesus and the disciples have eaten the last supper together, and before they leave for the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prays for his disciples and for those who would believe because of their message. The section we heard this morning is Jesus\u2019 prayer for his disciples. He is quite clear, he\u2019s not praying for the world, he\u2019s praying for his friends. And what is it that he prays?<\/p>\n
The language here is quite complicated and intertwined, so I am going to draw out a couple of threads for us to explore in what Jesus prays. One of the first things that Jesus does is describe the disciples. Now this is raises a question for me. Why did Jesus do this? Surely his Father already knew who the disciples were and what they had done.
\nWe don\u2019t have very many of Jesus\u2019 prayers recorded word for word, so it seems to me important that this one is recorded like this.
\nI wonder if Jesus says these things about the disciples not for God\u2019s sake but for their sake. They get to overhear Jesus telling the Father how we sees them. <\/p>\n
When I was ordained, as part of the service, the bishop asked the question:<\/p>\n
\u201cHave those whose duty it is to know these ordinands and examine them found them to be of godly life and sound learning?\u201d<\/p>\n
And somebody senior answered: \u201cThey have.\u201d<\/p>\n
then the bishop asked:<\/p>\n
\u201cDo they believe them to be duly called to serve God in this ministry?\u201d<\/p>\n
And the answer came:<\/p>\n
\u201cThey do.\u201d<\/p>\n
The bishop didn\u2019t need that information at that point, he\u2019d had several reports detailing answers to these questions over the preceding years of my training. That wasn\u2019t the point. The point was about having those things said publicly so that everyone there knew that it was the case, and for me. When I have my doubts about ministry, and about whether I can do it, I can look back at that time and reassure myself that my suitability for this role was tested and publicly witnessed to.<\/p>\n
I wonder if Jesus was doing something similar for the disciples. I wonder if, in later life, when things were tough, they remembered hearing Jesus pray this prayer and were reassured that they were his disciples. Perhaps it wasn\u2019t even that much later, perhaps in the dark hours that followed this prayer, this was one of the things they hung on to, whilst Jesus hung on the cross and died, and they wondered what it was all about.<\/p>\n
So, how did Jesus describe his disciples, those who followed him?<\/p>\n
In verse 6 we read that they were given by God into Jesus\u2019 care. They were God\u2019s, for God created them, and they were entrusted to Jesus. What an encouragement that would be, that God knew their names, knew them, loved them, and provided for their care, when they didn\u2019t even know that is what God was doing.<\/p>\n
Jesus goes on to say that they have kept God\u2019s word, that they have received God\u2019s word and have believed that Jesus came from the Father, bringing the word to them.<\/p>\n
This is the core of discipleship, of Christian faith \u2013 believing that Jesus was sent by God the Father, and receiving, believing, and obeying God\u2019s word. I suspect that hearing Jesus saying this, they would have had a bit of self-doubt about whether they could live up to the billing that Jesus was giving them. Perhaps over the following days of Easter, that firm belief that Jesus was from God might have wavered, but they came through in the end, as they met him, alive again. <\/p>\n
What, then, does Jesus ask his Father to do for these disciples, that he has spent most of every day of the last three years with?<\/p>\n
In verse 11 we read,<\/p>\n
\u201cHoly Father, keep them in thy name, which thou hast given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jesus\u2019 first priority is that his friends be kept safe in God\u2019s name, and that they may be united. The pinnacle of unity is the unity of the Trinity, the self-giving, other-preferring love of the Father, Son, Spirit. Jesus asks the Father to give his followers that organic unity \u2013 to be one. In his letters Paul expresses this as the unity of the body. All those who follow Jesus are one body, we have no choice. If we are in Christ, then we are one, as the Trinity is one. We might fight like rats in a sack, but there is no getting out of the sack, so we need to learn to get along, more than that, to love each other as Father, Son, Spirit love each other.<\/p>\n
In verse 15 we find Jesus praying:<\/p>\n
\u201cI do not pray that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sometimes I wonder if, over the following years, the disciples wished that Jesus had prayed that the Father would take them out of the world. Many of them faced torture and death for their faith in Jesus. We believe that, in the end, God does keep us from evil one, but in the mean time there is plenty of temptation, fear, and pain that the evil one continues to dole out. That is why we continue to pray, \u201cdeliver us from the evil one.\u201d When we are struggling with living in the world, either because we don\u2019t know how to be distinctive, or because we feel pressured or oppressed, this can be our prayer. \u201cFather, keep us in your name, and keep us from the evil one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then, finally in verse 17 we hear Jesus pray this:<\/p>\n
\u201cSanctify them in the truth; thy word is truth.\u201d<\/p>\n
To be sanctified is to be made holy. Sometimes this is understood as being set apart, or separated away from, but we\u2019ve just heard that Jesus specifically prayed that his disciples wouldn\u2019t be taken out of the world, that is set apart or separated. He asked that the Father sanctify the disciples in the places that they were already.
\nWe know that by Jesus death and resurrection we are declared righteous and holy in God\u2019s sight. We also know that we aren\u2019t yet holy through and through, this is one of the works of the Holy Spirit as we continue to walk the way of Jesus, to be completed when we reach the end of our earthly lives. One of the things that is required for the work of sanctification is truth. <\/p>\n
It seems to me that there at least two aspects to this. The first is that we need a reliable plumb line to measure against. Only a true edge will give a straight line. We need an external, objective, truth to know what is right, as our own vision and perspective is flawed. God gives us this in the word. <\/p>\n
The second is that we need to be honest with ourselves about our own areas of failing and weakness. Nothing can change if we pretend that nothing needs to change, so if we choose to deny or ignore the places in our lives that need sorting out, then we cannot move forwards in the work of sanctification.<\/p>\n
But, there is no need for despair \u2013 God\u2019s truth is there, and part of the work of the Holy Spirit is to reveal to us, convict us, of areas that need to change. Jesus prayed that for his disciples before he left, and continues to pray for us now, in his ascended glory. <\/p>\n
We too can be united, protected, sanctified as we continue to receive and keep God\u2019s word, believing that Jesus came from the Father and will return from the Father in glory to bring in the fulness of his Kingdom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I wonder if you\u2019ve got a summer holiday booked. There\u2019s a lot to get ready for a holiday isn\u2019t there. There\u2019s the planning when and where you\u2019re going to go. Then sorting out passports and insurance if you need them. Closer to the time you\u2019ve got to pack, decide what\u2019s going with you and what\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[477],"tags":[1338,1337],"class_list":["post-1030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-eyton","tag-1-john-59-13","tag-john-176-19"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1030"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1030\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1031,"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1030\/revisions\/1031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}