2 Pentecost, Year A

“A MATTER OF IMPORTANCE”
PROPER 3 - Isaiah 49: 8 – 18; Psalm 62: 6 – 14; I Corinthians 4: 1 – 13; Matthew 6: 19 – 34
A sermon by The Rev. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, IL on May 25th, 2008

“What’s important?”

That seems to be the “bottom line” in Jesus’ teaching, heard today in our (expanded) Gospel text from Matthew, chapter six.

“What’s important?” Or, we might ask ourselves, “What’s most important?” in our lives.

We make evaluations every day, assessing the importance of everything from the parts of the newspaper we need to read in the morning, to the more important choices of where to work or where to live.

In today’s text, we are called to assess the importance of the most vital reality in our lives, our relationship to God.

So, let’s unpack this text a little, digging into its riches.

The first thing we ought to take note of is the context of the passage….We are in the latter half of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5: 3 – 7: 27), and we find that today’s passage falls shortly after the Lord’s Prayer (6: 9 – 13).

In fact, Jesus’ comments about “do not be anxious…” expand on the phrase of the Lord’s Prayer which says, “Give us this day our daily bread.” (Such expansions are common in Matthew, who also loves to include two teachings of our Lord on the same topic.)

Now, you’ll notice that we’ve expanded the length of the text for today: The lectionary calls for reading verses 24 – 34, but we’ve added five verses earlier. The reason for that expansion is that it puts Jesus’ teaching into better context. Allow me to explain: If we read beginning at verse 24, we might be tempted to think that Jesus is simply asking His disciples (including us, His 21st century disciples) to simply give or sell everything we have, and take up a vow of poverty.

Indeed, some Christians over the centuries have taken these verses to mean just that, and they have given or sold everything they possessed, have taken a vow of poverty, and have chosen to live out their lives as a hermit, or in a monastery.

But if we begin at verse 19, we get a different sense of what Jesus seems to be saying, and that sense is:

Jesus wants us to sharpen our skills, to see what’s most important in our lives.

We are to sharpen our visual skills – our spiritual visual skills – in order to assess the value of everything we do, everything we own.

So, with this idea in mind, let’s have a look at the text before us today:

The first thing we notice is the word “mammon”. What is “mammon”, we should ask. The word comes from the Aramaic (a Semitic language which is a cousin of Hebrew, and which was the commonly spoken language of Jesus’ day),[1] and it is usually translated as “money”. However, it has a wider definition, that of “property”.

So Jesus’ warning that we “cannot serve two masters” applies not just to money, but to everything we own. In other words, His teaching applies to all of life!

Now, we notice that Jesus begins to focus on the “eye”, saying it is the “lamp of the body”. We may not think of the eye in those terms, but ancient peoples did. Apparently, for them, the eye was not just an organ of vision, but it was an instrument which cast light on things, so that we might see them clearly.

So Jesus seems to be calling us to assess clearly the importance of everything in our lives.

But what about this business of “give us this day our daily bread”, or, as Jesus expounds on it on the passage we study today, “do not be anxious”?

Essentially, it seems that Jesus wants us to recognize our dependence upon God, the giver of all good and perfect gifts (as the Book of Common Prayer puts it). For all that we have, including: our health, the intelligence and skills with which to work (and earn money and accumulate wealth), all of these and everything else which enables life ultimately comes from God!

So, it’s a matter of perspective, it seems. It isn’t a matter of possessing money or things, it’s a matter of how we view their importance, and their relationship to God.

One final thought…Think of it this way: When all is said and done, and our life on this earth is over, everything we have will be lost to us….Our relationships, our money, our possessions. The only thing we will have left is our relationship with God, that’s all. Shouldn’t we be cultivating that relationship here and now, assessing its lasting and central importance (when everything else is considered)?

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[1] In Jesus’ time, Hebrew was a largely liturgical language, and was used mainly in synagogue and temple worship.

Trinity Sunday, Year A

“GRABBING HOLD OF THE CLOUD”
Genesis 1:1 – 2:3; Canticle 13; II Corinthians 13:5–14; Matthew 28:16–20
A sermon by The Rev. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, IL on May 18th, 2008

Back in my singing days, we used to have a saying which tries to describe the process of learning to sing….

“Trying to learn to sing is like trying to grab hold of a cloud…,” it said.

The saying makes a lot of sense. After all, trying to learn to sing is often a very challenging and mysterious process. To be sure, part of the process is objective and easily observed (one simply takes a deep breath, opens the mouth, and sings!). But much of the process of singing is mysterious and defies easy observation and analysis.

Truly, trying to learn to sing is often like “trying to grab hold of a cloud.”

What has been said here about singing is also true about the Holy Trinity….trying to understand it is a whole lot like “trying to grab hold of a cloud.”

And, like singing, part of the mystery of the Godhead, the “three-in-one”, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is easily observed and understood. For, if we think about it carefully, that’s essentially what Holy Scripture does: it testifies to the truth of the observable work of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. As we read our Gospel text for today, we see that the risen Christ instructs His disciples to “Baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,”[1] for example.

As we look at Scripture, we can see that it records the great works of God in:

1. Creating the world and everything in it; (the work of the Father)
   
   
2. Redeeming the world from its rebellion against God and the purposes of God; (the work of the Son)
   
   
3. Sustaining and guiding the world in a continuing way. (the work of the Holy Spirit)

But, as clear as biblical teaching is about the work of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, it is less clear about the ways in which the three persons of the Trinity relate to one another – though we should be quick to add that it does say some things about the relationship between the three.[2] Furthermore, the word “Trinity” does not appear in Holy Scripture at all.[3]

As a result, the Church wrestled with the mystery of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit for much of its first five centuries of existence. For example, the Church in those early years posed many questions about the Triune God, including:

1. How can there be three parts of God, but only one God? Related to this question is the one of approach: should we pay more attention to the different “persons”[4] of the Trinity, or more attention to its unity?[5]
   
   
2. Was the Father first, who then “begets” the Son? And then, does the Father “breathe”[6] forth the Holy Spirit? Or, do both the Father and the Son “breathe” forth the Holy Spirit?
   
   
3. To what extent are the three persons distinct from one another? Also, does one person of the Trinity share qualities with another person, or with both?

What I’ve catalogued here is a brief (and admittedly incomplete) recounting of only some of the questions that the Church’s theologians wrestled with during those early years.

And along the way, the Church rejected two notions about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They were:

1. Modalism: This idea, which originated in the 2nd and 3rd centuries,[7] attempted to guard the unity of the Godhead by suggesting that the three persons of the Trinity were not permanent. Thus, Modalists argued, the Father appeared in history first, then departed the scene and reappeared as the Son, who then ascended into heaven, only to return as the Holy Spirit.
   
   
2. Tritheism: This concept argued that the three persons were totally independent, autonomous beings, each of whom is divine. An analogy that describes this mode of understanding is provided by McGrath[8] where he suggests that tritheists would describe the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in terms of three human beings, each of whom is distinct, but all of whom share a common humanity.

Eventually, the Church would reject both notions, as the Church wrestled to articulate its faith in the Nicene Creed, which was formulated at the Council of Nicea in 325 AD, and which was refined into the version we say each Sunday at the Council of Constantinople in the year 381 AD.[9]

So perhaps our image of “trying to grab hold of a cloud” isn’t so far off the mark after all…..part of the mystery of God will always elude us so long as we are in this life. The words and terms we use which try to describe the divine mystery will always fall short somehow.

And yet, the God who revealed Himself in the created order of the world and all that is in it, the God who redeemed the world in the work of the Son, and the God who sustains the world in the work of the Spirit can be known (at least to some extent) and experienced. That is the clear indication of Holy Scripture, and the Church has maintained this truth down through the ages.

Having described some of the difficulties we encounter as we try to describe the Godhead, and having looked at some of the answers to those difficulties that the early Church rejected, let’s now turn our attention to the motivations that energized the early Church to engage this difficult subject. As part of that analysis, we ought also to consider what consensus they came to. Finally, we would do well to draw some conclusions for our own walk with God, we who benefit from the struggles of the early Church to formulate some answers to the mystery of the Trinity.

What motivated the early Church to more fully understand God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit? One commentator[10] suggest that is was the “Christ event” itself. The “Christ event” you say. What is the “Christ event”? Essentially, it’s theologian-talk for the person, birth, life, teachings, death, resurrection and ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. What the early Church did was to reflect on what Jesus Christ did, and what He said. Some things that we read in the Gospels indicate that the Christ existed before He came to be one of us in His birth in Bethlehem. In this connection, I think of the passage from John 8: 58, where we read, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” And other passages, notably John 10: 30, indicate a unity between the Father and the Son, for Jesus says, “I and the Father are one.” So the Church analyzed Jesus’ words and came to the conclusion that He shared in the Father’s divinity.[11] To share in the Father’s divinity meant that the Christ existed from “the beginning”.[12] The Nicene Creed affirms Jesus Christ’s own divinity by stating that He is “God from God, light from light, true God from true God”.

Essentially, these are the main points that the original version of the Nicene Creed affirmed. But it took another 56 years for the Church to more fully articulate its belief in the nature of the Holy Spirit. At the Council of Constantinople, it fleshed out the third main part of the Creed by affirming that the Holy Spirit is “the Lord and giver of life, who…with the Father and the Son, is worshiped and glorified.”

The Nicene Creed affirms the consensus the Church arrived at. But a century earlier, the Bishop of Lyon, Irenaeus,[13] stated the consensus of the Church this way:

“God the Father uncreated, who is uncontained, invisible, one God, creator of the universe; this is the first article of our faith….and the Word of God, the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ….who, in the fullness of time, in order to gather all things to himself, he became a human being amongst human beings, capable of being seen and touched, to destroy death, bring life, and restore fellowship between God and humanity. And….the Holy Spirit…who, in the fullness of time, was poured out in a new way on our human nature in order to renew humanity throughout the entire world in the sight of God.”[14]

Irenaeus sought to maintain the unity of God, and yet the distinctiveness of the workings of what Tertullian would eventually identify as the three “persons” of the Trinity.

What conclusions might we draw from the biblical witness, from the early Church’s struggles to more fully understand God, and from the ongoing engagement of the Church with the mystery of the Trinity?

Three conclusions come to mind in light of these three strains of Christian thought and reflection:

1. God’s revealed nature is a true reflection of His actual nature: “For God to be God, God has to be consistent with God’s self”. That’s a paraphrase of a key theological tenet of the Christian faith. “God will be true to God’s own nature”, in other words. So, we can trust God’s revelation in Holy Scripture to be a faithful revelation of His nature, revealed and unrevealed.
   
   
2. Each person of the Trinity is present with the other two: Oftentimes, we modern Christians fall into (what seems to me to be) a very mild form of modalism. That is to say, when we consider one person of the Trinity, we forget that the other two persons are also present. For though each person of the Trinity is distinctive, and has unique qualities, all three are unified, without division. So, if we consider the saving work of the Son, for example, we would do well to remember that the creative work of the Father is also present, as is the sustaining work of the Spirit. This second point leads me to the third:
   
   
3. Each person of the Trinity shares qualities with the other two: The unified nature of the Godhead is such that the creative nature of God cannot be separated from the redeeming work of God. Nor can these first two be separated from the third, which is God’s sustaining quality. Put another way, when we encounter God, we encounter the Supreme Being whose nature is to be holy, to be creative, to redeem what has been created, and to sustain the creation. The Genesis account points to the sharing of divine qualities, as it affirms that the Word of God and the Spirit of God were present in the creation of the world.[15]

One final thought: The holiness of God might suggest that He would separate Himself from fallen human beings, who live in rebellion against the purposes and power of God. But the witness of Scripture is quite the opposite: God reveals Himself as the holy God who also seeks to redeem the world and the people He created. Our Eucharistic Prayer recalls this when we pray these words,[16] “From the primal elements you brought forth the human race, and blessed us with memory, reason and skill. You made us the rulers of creation. But we turned against you, and betrayed your trust; and we turned against one another….Again and again, you called us to return. Through the prophets and sages you revealed your righteous Law. And in the fullness of time, you sent your only Son, born of a woman, to fulfill your Law, to open for us the way of freedom and peace.”

That very same God does not leave us without support, counsel and guidance. On the contrary, God sends the Holy Spirit to “lead us into all truth.”[17]

Thanks be to God for the ongoing presence of the Father who creates, the Son who redeems, and the Holy Spirit who sustains., the unity of the substance of God and the distinctiveness of the three persons of God, and the blessings that are bestowed upon us as a result.

AMEN.

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[1] Matthew 28: 19, which forms the basis for our baptismal practices, namely that a person must be baptized with water and in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
[2] Think of the many examples in John’s Gospel account where Jesus says that He has been sent by the Father.
[3] The word “Trinity” was coined by the third century theologian, Tertullian (c. 160 – c.225 AD).
[4] It was also Tertullian who initiated the use of the term “person” to describe the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
[5] The Western Church has tended to generally emphasize the unity of the Trinity, while the Eastern Church has tended to focus more often on the individual persons of the Trinity. For a further discussion of these approaches, see: McGrath, Alister E., Christian Theology, An Introduction, Oxford: Blackwell, 1994, pp. 297 – 298.
[6] McGrath’s term, page 298
[7] Modalism is also known by two other names: Sabellianism (after its founder, Sabellius), and Monarchianism..
[8] Page 302
[9] Notice that the Nicene Creed is Trinitarian in its form, with a portion devoted to each person of the Trinity.
[10] Claude Welch, in his article “Trinity” as is found in A Handbook of Christian Theology, New York & Cleveland: World Publishing Company, 1958, page 367
[11] In support of Jesus’ divinity, John 1: 1 would figure prominently. It reads, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
[12] Again, see John 1: 1.
[13] Irenaeus lived from c.130 – c. 200 AD, and is often most remembered for his defense of Christian orthodoxy in the face of the Gnostic heresy.
[14] Excerpted from Irenaeus’ work, The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching, as McGrath quotes it on page 296.
[15] The Genesis account read today is but one of many instances in which Holy Scripture affirms the sharing of creative, redemptive and sustaining qualities between the persons of the Trinity.
[16] Book of Common Prayer, 1979, page 370 (Eucharistic Prayer C)
[17] John 16: 13

The Feast of Pentecost, Year A

“THE BODY OF CHRIST: PRESERVED, COMFORTED AND FED BY THE SPIRIT”
Acts 2: 1–11; Psalm 104: 25–32; I Corinthians 12: 4–13; John 20: 19–23
A sermon by The Rev. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, IL on May 11th, 2008

In our earthly life, we know that our physical bodies need a number of things to survive and thrive, so as to be able to live and to do the work we have before us.

We need a secure environment to protect and nurture our mental and psychological faculties.

We need the guidance of the wisdom of the past, wise teachings and gifted teachers to enable us to be faithful to the body of knowledge that will prove useful in successfully navigating the challenges of life, many of which are quite similar to the challenges of ages gone by.

We need to be fed, so that the nutrition of good food can strengthen us to do the work at hand.

All of these things are requirements for our physical bodies.

All of these things are also requirements for the body of Christ, of which each of is an individual member, and as we join with other individual members, make up the corporate body of Christ, which is the Church.

Enter the Holy Spirit, who comes to provide all these things: comfort, guidance and wisdom, and the energy that His presence provides by feeding and strengthening us for the work at hand. The Holy Spirit comes to preserve the body of Christ, the Church, and to enable it to do the Lord’s work in the world.

In today’s first reading, and on our Gospel reading, we hear two accounts of the coming of the Holy Spirit: In our first reading, we hear of the coming of the Spirit at the feast of Pentecost, and in John’s Gospel account, we read of the bestowal of the Holy Spirit at our Lord Jesus Christ’s agency.

So, in this sermon, let’s examine each account carefully. Then, we should analyze what each has to say about the nature of the Holy Spirit’s role and work in Our Lord’s body, the Church.

We begin with a careful look at each account:

Acts 2: 1 – 11: Luke, the writer of the Book of Acts, provides the details of the coming of the Holy Spirit at the great feast of Pentecost. Before we look at the details of Luke’s description, we should remind ourselves that Pentecost was one of three major feasts when devout Jews would come to Jerusalem.[1] Pentecost (which is also known as the Feast of Weeks, or Shavuot in Hebrew) derives its name from the timing of its observance, which falls 50 days after Passover.[2]

It appears that the Holy Spirit simply made good use of the fact that “devout Jews from every nation under heaven”[3] were in Jerusalem for the feast, an excellent opportunity to grow the Church, and to make the Gospel known “in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and to Samaria, and to the ends of the earth”.[4]

Now, notice that Luke strains to find language that can capture the drama of the coming of the Holy Spirit….He says, “and suddenly, a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind….and there appeared to them tongues as of fire.”[5]

This would be as good a place as any to remind ourselves of the importance in Holy Scripture to these two symbols: wind and fire.

Wind: In Hebrew, the word for “spirit” is ru’ach, and in Greek it is pneuma. Both words convey a double meaning: wind, or breath. And so it is that Luke uses a word that Jesus also used during His conversation with Nicodemus (in John 3), when He says, “the wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”[6]

Fire: In Scripture, “fire” is often a symbol for divinely inspired speech. It is an image we preserve in our language today, when we say, “the Rector gave a fiery sermon”, or “the preacher was on fire today.”

Returning to our text, we see that Luke describes the power of the coming of the Spirit, when he uses the word “mighty” to describe the Spirit’s arrival, like a “mighty wind”. In describing the divine inspiration that the Holy Spirit provided, he says that “tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each of them.”[7]

John 20: 19 – 23: John describes an event that took place on Easter Sunday evening, when the small band of disciples (and perhaps a few others) were gathered, shuttered behind a locked door. Jesus comes and says to them, “Peace be with you.” Then, after having shown them His hands and His side, He says to them, “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you, and He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit…’”

Notice that Jesus breathed on them. See the connection to the root meaning of the word “spirit” in both Hebrew and Greek?

For a fuller understanding of the Holy Spirit’s role as John recounts it to us, let’s recall some of the things Jesus said about the Holy Spirit’s role and work among the disciples:

Counselor: In John 14: 26, we read, “But when the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”

An extension of Jesus’ words and work: A little later on, in John 16: 7, Jesus says, “It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.. And when He comes, he will convince the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.” Reading on a few verses later (verse 14), Jesus tells them that the Holy Spirit “will glorify me, for He will take what is mine and declare it to you.”

Let’s turn now to the implications of the Holy Spirit’s presence among the members of the body of Christ. Recalling our Acts reading and our Gospel reading, we can draw the following conclusions, I believe:

The Holy Spirit extends Jesus’ teaching: Just as in our earthly life we need guidance and instruction in order to act wisely, so the body of Christ requires the Spirit’s leading us “into all truth”. Moreover, the Spirit’s leading us can be recognized by the consistency with Jesus’ teaching as we read it in Holy Scripture. Jesus’ words and works will be the hallmarks of the Holy Spirit’s ongoing presence, and enable us, 21st century believers, to recognize what beliefs and actions are truly prompted by the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit comforts us with His presence: When we read John’s Gospel account, these important words leap from the page (John 14: 16), “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Counselor, to be with you for ever, even the Spirit of Truth…” By confirming the truthfulness of our belief and our actions (assuming they mirror Christ’s own words and actions), we have the comfort of the Holy Spirit’s endorsement and empowerment to do Christ’s work in the world.

The power to act in God’s name: The importance of the Spirit’s coming in Acts is that the Church is given the power to spread the Good News of God in Christ. Notice that the Spirit enables each one present to speak in a different language than their own native tongue.[8] This bestowal of the Spirit is to enable and energize the Church for mission, for outreach beyond its own members to the world around us.

Finally, let’s summarize what we’ve said to this point. We might make the following applications to our own lives as Christian disciples in our own day and time:

Each member of the body has a role to play: That’s essentially St. Paul’s argument in I Corinthians 12. Each person has special gifts that are given by the Holy Spirit, and the variety of gifts that are given are all important for the working of the body of Christ. In the same vein, it’s no accident that Luke tells us that the tongues of fire divided and rested on each one of them. Notice that the individual’s distinctiveness is not erased as the Holy Spirit enters our hearts and minds, for those who were gifted with the power to speak in unknown languages did not lose their distinctive Galilean accent!

The Holy Spirit guides and preserves the Church: John’s Gospel account seems to emphasize the preservative aspects of the Holy Spirit’s work, as the Church is guided and accompanied in its life and work until the Lord comes again.

The Holy Spirit energizes the Church: Luke’s account of the work of the Holy Spirit[9] makes clear that the Holy Spirit gifts the Church’s members for mission, and then guides and energizes the Church for that mission work.

One final question remains to be considers again, because it is so important: “How can we recognize the presence and work of the Holy Spirit today?” Holy Scripture’s answer is that the Spirit’s work will be consistent with the witness of Scripture. The words and works of Jesus Christ that are recorded on those sacred pages will be the markers of the Spirit’s working today. As surely as the Holy Spirit cannot be controlled by those who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ (notice that the Holy Spirit came on His own time and schedule and place at the feast of Pentecost), we today cannot guarantee that a vote of a majority of persons gathered at a Church convention or meeting will automatically be the work of the Holy Spirit, for Church conventions and councils have often failed to mirror the values and teachings of Jesus Christ,unfortunately.[10]

So, “Come Holy Spirit, come to preserve, comfort and guide the body of Christ, the Church. Come to enable us for ministry and for mission. Come and gift each member of the body of Christ, that your Son Jesus Christ may be known throughout the world.”

AMEN.

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[1] The other two were Passover and the Feast of Booths (which occurred in the fall of the year).
[2] Sometime after Luke’s writing of the Book of Acts, Judaism added to Pentecost’s significance. Originally conceived and celebrated as a harvest festival, eventually it also came to be a celebration of the giving of the Covenant to Israel at Mount Sinai. Biblical scholars today do not believe there is a solid connection between this later observance and the significance (for Luke) of the Holy Spirit’s coming at the feast of Pentecost.
[3] Verse 5
[4] Acts 1: 8
[5] Verses 2 – 3
[6] John 3: 8
[7] Acts 2: 3
[8] This sort of speaking in tongues is different than the ecstatic, spirit-filled speech that glorifies God, such as St. Paul discusses in I Corinthians 12 – 14. This gift of language is for the express purpose of spreading the Gospel.
[9] Sometimes, Biblical scholars give the Book of Acts a nickname, calling it “The Gospel of the Holy Spirit”, since Luke emphasizes the Holy Spirit’s role in enabling the early Church to spread the Good News.
[10] See Article XXI of the 39 Articles, which can be found on page 872 of the Book of Common Prayer, 1979.

7 Easter, Year A

TIME AND SPACE FALL AWAY

Acts 1: 1 – 14; Psalm 47; I Peter 4: 12 – 19; John 17: 1 – 11
A sermon by The Rev. Gene Tucker; given at: Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, IL; Sunday, May 4th, 2008

“What time is it?” “Where is Jesus?” “Where are we?”

These questions naturally arise out of today’s Gospel reading, from John, chapter 17.

Here, today, we hear the words of Jesus’ prayer to the Father. Indeed, scholars have, since the 16th century, applied a title to the entire 17th chapter of John’s Gospel, calling it “Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer”.

Before we look more closely into today’s reading, let’s remind ourselves of its setting:

Jesus has been reclining at table with His inner circle of disciples, the original twelve, at the Last Supper….John’s reporting of the Last Supper is the most extensive of any of the Gospel writers, for he devotes four chapters to it, including lots of Jesus’ teaching[1] along the way.

But now, with the beginning of chapter 17, we mark a shift in Jesus’ focus (which has been between Himself and the disciples until now): Jesus now begins to pray to the Father for the disciples, both those who have been called by God to gather around Jesus, and then He prays for those who will come to believe as a result of the witness of those original believers,[2] a group that includes us today.

Those original twelve are privileged to “listen in” on Jesus’ conversation with the Father, and so are we, by virtue of John’s recording of Jesus’ words.

Now, let’s make some points about key aspects and key words that Jesus uses along the way:

1. The prayer is a summation of all of Jesus’ words and works, from the beginning of John, chapter one, until now. Jesus’ purpose has been to make the Father known, and to show the Father’s love for the world. And so, in this prayer, we hear Jesus say “I have manifested thy name to the men whom thou gavest me out of the world.”[3] At the close of the prayer (in a portion of the prayer we do not read in our lectionary cycle today), at verse 26b, Jesus will conclude, saying, “that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
   
   
2. Key terms that we read again and again in John’s Gospel account appear here as well. In order to more fully understand Jesus’ prayer, we need to remember the meaning of these terms. They are:
   
   
   Glory/glorify: Jesus’ “glory” in John has to do with Jesus’ passion, death, resurrection and ascension into heaven. It is in the passion, death, resurrection and ascension that Jesus is most in command of all of these events. Jesus’ glory, the glory that God the Father gave Him (see verse 3), is most clearly seen in His victory over suffering and death.
   
   Hour: A word we read frequently in John, it is closely related to other key words we see John using, namely “glory/glorify”. Jesus’ “hour” refers to Jesus’ passion, death, resurrection and ascension.

Remember the questions we began with? “What time is it?” “Where is Jesus?” “Where are we?”

These questions arise from the prayer itself. Time and space are brushed aside as we gaze into God’s eternal-ness. Jesus is the window by which we are drawn into God’s eternal nature and love. Notice the following:

1. “And now, I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to thee. ”(verse 11): Jesus uses words that suggest that His departure from the world is already an accomplished fact, even though He continues to say that He “is coming” to the Father. Time (past tense/present tense/future tense) is brushed aside as we see that the temporal setting of Jesus’ prayer (the Last Supper), as well as the disciples’ witnessing of the prayer (and our witnessing of the prayer) all fades into the timeless plan of God. Furthermore, space also collapses, as Jesus seems to indicate that He is already in God’s very presence, even as He also says He “is coming” to the Father.
   
   
2. “Glorify thou me in thy own presence with the glory which I had with thee before the world was made.” (verse 5): Here, we see a glimpse of Jesus Christ’s pre-existent nature. Earlier in John’s Gospel account, we hear Jesus’ words, when He says, “Before Abraham was, I am.”[4] We also catch a glimpse of Jesus Christ, the eternal “Word”, in the glory He had with the Father, “before the world was made.”[5] Here again, time and space collapse as we see Jesus Christ’s true nature, He who is one with the Father,[6] He who makes the Father known.

It is no mistake that Jesus uses the words “eternal life”[7] during the course of this prayer.

Understanding the nature of the prayer, which spans not only the passage of time but also spans the distance between the Father, the Son and those who believe, “eternal life” takes on new meaning and a new dimension.

Eternal life then becomes a matter of unity with the Father, which is made possible through the work of the Son.

This unity:

1. Spans the entire spectrum of time: God’s eternal plan includes us, who were chosen by the Father, who then gives us to the Son (verse 6).
   
   
2. Unifies us with the Father and with the Son: “All mine are thine, and thine are mine,”[8] Jesus prays. He will go on to pray (verse 21) that “they may all be one, even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us…”

Eternal life then becomes a matter of unity with the Father through the Son, a unity with spans time.

Eternal life is not something we will take possession of at some point in the future (either after our deaths or at the Lord’s coming), but it is a reality which is present here and now. The “eternal-ness” of eternal life extends not only forward into the future, but backward into our lives today. Eternal life has no limit as to its timeframe or its endurance.

Since eternal life is to “know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent”,[9] eternal life becomes a matter of knowing the Lord personally and intimately. It becomes a matter of recognizing that we are drawn into the intimate life and love of God the Father for the Son, and the life and love of the Son for the Father. The reciprocity between Father and Son draws us, by the work of the Son, into that free-flowing exchange of love, which gives true life to all who believe, both now in this temporal life, and in the life of the world to come.

So, now we close by repeating those three questions we began with:

“What time is it?”: It’s God’s eternal time, kairos time. For eternity breaks into our “chronos” time, transforming our lives as God breaks into our everyday existence, and we realize we are made a part of God’s eternal purposes for us through the words and work of Jesus Christ.

“Where is Jesus?”: Risen and ascended into heaven,[10] present with us who are gathered together in worship,[11] present with us until the end of time,[12] present with us in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, and present with us in our hearts. Jesus Christ, who is “Lord of Lords and King of Kings”[13] is able to be present in all these ways, even as God the Father is.

“Where are we?”: Caught up into the vast and ageless plan of God! That God the Father would have such love for us as to send His only begotten Son, to the end that all who believe in Him should not perish, but have eternal life,[14] seems beyond human comprehension. But, in Jesus Christ, we have the perfect revelation of God the Father, for “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.”[15]

Thanks be to God!

AMEN.

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[1] Sometimes characterized by biblical scholars as “Jesus’ last will and testament”.
[2] Beginning at verse 20.
[3] Verse 6
[4] John 8: 58
[5] See also the “Prologue” to the Gospel according to John, chapter one, verses 1 – 2.
[6] John 10: 30
[7] Verses 2 - 3
[8] Verse 10
[9] Verse 3
[10] See Luke 24: 49 – 53 and Acts 1: 1 – 11.
[11] See Mathew 18: 20 “where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”
[12] See Matthew 28: 20 “and lo, I am with you always, even unto the close of the age.”
[13] Revelation 19: 16
[14] A paraphrase of John 3: 16
[15] John 1: 14