Jesus praying for us his followers: John 17:6-19

“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.

John 17:6-19; NRSVue

Jesus praying for us. At the right hand of God, ever making intercession for us (Romans 8). What more could we ask for? His prayers most certainly are always answered being in full accord with God’s will. Or maybe that intercession simply means the heart of God in counsel and full triunity for all believers. Jesus’s prayer in John 17, certainly applying to us now, to all who are of him. Wonderful to know, to help us continue forward together in the way.

over all: Psalm 93

The LORD is king; he is robed in majesty;
the LORD is robed; he is girded with strength.
He has established the world; it shall never be moved;
your throne is established from of old;
you are from everlasting.

The floods have lifted up, O LORD,
the floods have lifted up their voice;
the floods lift up their roaring.
More majestic than the thunders of mighty waters,
more majestic than the waves of the sea,
majestic on high is the Lord!

Your decrees are very sure;
holiness befits your house,
O LORD, forevermore.

Psalm 93; NRSVue

God reigns in Christ. The Spirit is poured out from the throne. It is the reign in and by which we as followers of Jesus live.

It is now in the way of the cross, the way of both death and resurrection, the way of Jesus. Above and beyond all that is in opposition and imagine otherwise.

running the Jesus race

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.

Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary in your souls or lose heart.

Hebrews 12:1-3; NRSVue

Jesus began something new which did not disregard or throw away the old, but was a fulfilment of it. Jesus as the pioneer and perfecter of faith is the one we’re to follow, indeed look to (“fix our eyes on”- CEB) so that metaphorically, we can liken this way of faith to a unique race since Jesus ran it, and in the same way and kind of faith, we too are to run it. It’s evident that part of the Spirit’s work is to help us continue on in the way of Jesus. And an important part of that is to consider Jesus as portrayed to us in the gospel accounts: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

We are to have the faith of Jesus, the same kind of faith he had. It’s important for us to be focused on Jesus in that way. God invites us to enter into the same way of faith, to run this race like Jesus did. But it’s up to us to run it. When we run it in this way of faith, we can be certain that just as Jesus had the help of the Spirit, so will we.

In the great mystery, Jesus was just as human as we are, yet God, as well. Enter into that mystery, the Trinity, so that Jesus receives help from the Spirit, even his Spirit. So even though fully human like us, which too is quite important, Jesus is distinct. So when we enter into this race with our focus on him, we too are enabled by the Spirit of Jesus to lay aside every weight and in our case the sin which clings so closely to us, and persevere to the very end come what may, not growing weary or losing heart.

I think the text suggests that it’s a race we’re in not competitively, but supportively together, but that each of us has to run it, as well. It is the Jesus race no less, with the faith that he had, the culmination of faith pointed to in the great cloud of witnesses in Hebrews 11, perhaps watching us now as we witness each other’s faith. The faith that was made new and fulfilled, pioneered and perfected by Jesus.

for a deeper prayer life: Jesus’s ascension and the Spirit’s coming

Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, but if you do not, then believe because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.

John 14:1-14; NRSVue

We have to start somewhere, and in a certain sense we’re all beginners in this. But if I had one word to tell myself and anyone else, it would be pray.  Just pray. The last thing you need is religious words. There’s nothing wrong with formality and eloquence in themselves, unless it’s a distraction from being real, just being yourself in what you say to God, prayer essentially talking to God. And you just keep doing that, day after day, week after week, month after month. But when you look both in Scripture and in Christian tradition you start to think if you’re me, there’s got to be more to this than I know, more than I experience. Have I experienced a depth and love in prayer? Probably everyone has at certain times and spaces. And is dryness in prayer necessarily a bad thing? While the experience itself is not compelling or encouraging, it is neither necessarily bad in itself, nor something we should reject. Some other time Psalm 63 might be a good passage to focus some on that.

Jesus in what’s known as the Upper Room Discourse (John 13-17) on the eve of his crucifixion teaches his disciples a number of things, his last words to them before he would be glorified on the cross and through his death, though he would have more to say to them between his resurrection and ascension. Here Jesus is telling them that the unity that he has, one might say enjoys with the Father, with God, means that Jesus himself will answer prayer to God in his name. It’s as simple and profound as that. The reason being: he would be going to God, to the Father in the ascension, an important aspect of all of this spelled out later in this discourse: the coming of the Spirit. So you have the Trinity: the Father (or you could say, Mother), the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

There’s a power in the simplicity of this. Yes, it’s certainly beyond our understanding, yet it’s not beyond experiencing something of it, in fact the Trinity is what experience is meant to be and in a true sense, actually is. And we can experience something of this in prayer. Jesus encourages his disciples and by extension, us, that our prayers are powerful in that they will be answered, because he will do what we ask the Father to do in Jesus’s name. Of course not all of our prayers will be answered in just the way we ask. I know that for some that will cause some eye rolling, but we’re referring both to God’s working and God’s wisdom. To be answered, it may take some time. And we may not know what we’re asking for or what we should ask for. Paul tells us elsewhere that the Spirit takes our prayers while joining in our groaning and prays for us in accordance with God’s will, which means they will be surely answered (Romans 8:26-27). And what more should we want than the good will of the God who is love?

Just some thoughts on the deepening of our prayer life, Scripture and tradition having much more.

what’s the point of it all?

An expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.”

But wanting to vindicate himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and took off, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while traveling came upon him, and when he saw him he was moved with compassion. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, treating them with oil and wine. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him, and when I come back I will repay you whatever more you spend.’ Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

Luke 10:25-37; NRSVue

Why are we here? What are we created for? Catechisms drawn from John’s gospel and other scripture passages emphasize the enjoyment of communion with God, humans being taken into the trinitarian fellowship of love and participating in that. And there’s plenty of truth in that. But just how do we love God? Jesus along with the prophets and the rest of Scripture tie love of God to love of neighbor. We’re told in the first letter of John that we don’t love God if we don’t love our sister, brother, sibling, and when we consider all of Scripture, certainly our neighbor is included.

Jesus’s telling of the parable of the good Samaritan is a wonderful case in point. An expert in the law asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. Eternal life in that tradition was thought to be something like the life God intended for humanity, for creation in the love and communion and freedom of God. The flourishing of all is at the apex or is the point of it. God is glorified in that. But now we live in a world broken where human flourishing along with that of life on earth is on shaky ground due to the acts and failure of humanity. And that’s borne out in the story Jesus tells.

A Jew is victimized on a dangerous road by robbers and left for dead. Two of God’s religious leaders pass by, one a priest and the other a Levite, and perhaps in part because of concern of ceremonial purity, they both pass him by. But a Samaritan of all people, probably the most despised people of that day stops and has compassion on the man. Does the best first aid he can, then takes him to a place where he will be cared for, covering all of his expenses until he can get back up on his feet.

Jesus then puts it in an interesting way. He doesn’t really answer the law expert’s question but turns it around. Instead of wondering if so and so, whoever they may be is a neighbor one is to love, one is to be a neighbor in love to whomever is in need. That doesn’t answer things directly and neatly in the way we under the influence of modernism would like, but it makes the needed point in helping us understand just what the point of life is for us now.

Yes, we should long for close communion with God both in a personal as well as communal space. But that is for naught and is diminished or means nothing if we’re not a neighbor to those in need. We have our limitations; we can’t serve everyone in need. But together we can make the effort to do so. The earth is smaller and smaller as time goes on, and through the news and journalism and having our eyes and ears open to what is going on in our local spaces, we can indeed in love for God be a neighbor in acts of love to those in need, even as the Samaritan was.

the necessity of the s/Spirit

then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

Genesis 2:7; NRSVue

The spirit of God has made me,
and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

Job 33:4; NRSVue

I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken and will act, says the LORD.”

Ezekiel 37:14; NRSVue

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him because he abides with you, and he will be in you.

John 14:15-17; NRSVue

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors were locked where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

John 20:19-23; NRSVue

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

Acts 2:1-4; NRSVue

I’m not sure I should have included all of these passages in a post on the Spirit. On the other hand, I think at least two main points from these Scripture passages hold: That it is God’s breath that gives all creatures life, in this case humans made in God’s image, and that God’s breath is for a formation of a people, in the end for all people.

It seems to me that there is a dryness, an emptiness, an inward faltering that takes over and settles in for a reason. Just as we need breath to live physically, so we need breath to live spiritually. And there needs to be a sense of need, even a longing, at least a sense that something is missing. That needed breath in both cases comes from God.

It is mediated to us in Christ. Yes, the Spirit is a person, one with the Triune God: Father/Mother, Son/Child and Holy Spirit. But it is also breath, life and power. The s/Spirit makes all the difference in the world. All living humans have the life breath of God. And all in Christ have the Spirit of Christ, of God in them individually and in community.

I have to keep going day after day the best I can with others, regardless of whether or not I sense the Spirit’s presence. Ordinarily, to be truthful at this point, I mainly sense nothing, more like the Spirit’s absence. But when that presence is made known, it makes a world of difference, like an existence that seems will last forever, the nearness of God. But as humans our experience goes in a lot of different directions. We see that in Scripture, look at the psalms, as well as in life. We’re most often in a struggle of some sort or another. Well, I speak for myself.

But even then, in the dark hard places, it is the Spirit which/who makes the difference. We need to accept that, and I’m speaking to myself. We want the heavenly experiences, but whatever human, earthly experience we’re going through, it is the Spirit who can help us through in a way that is helpful to ourselves and others.

And on a certain level, the only reason we keep going, yes both physically and spiritually.

Trinity Sunday: Genesis 1:1-2:4a; Psalm 8; 2 Corinthians 13:11-13; Matthew 28:16-20

When God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was complete chaos, and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

And God said, “Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome. And it was so. God called the dome Sky. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

And God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.” And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.

And God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.” So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind.” And it was so. God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind and the cattle of every kind and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good.

Then God said, “Let us make humans in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over the cattle and over all the wild animals of the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”

So God created humans in his image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.

God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the air and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all their multitude. On the sixth day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.

These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created.

Genesis 1:1-2:4a; NRSVue

O LORD, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory above the heavens.
Out of the mouths of babes and infants
you have founded a bulwark because of your foes,
to silence the enemy and the avenger.

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you have established;
what are humans that you are mindful of them,
mortals that you care for them?

Yet you have made them a little lower than God
and crowned them with glory and honor.
You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under their feet,
all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

O LORD, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Psalm 8; NRSVue

Finally, brothers and sisters, farewell. Be restored; listen to my appeal; agree with one another; live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.

2 Corinthians 13:11-13; NRSVue

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him, but they doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Matthew 28:16-20; NRSVue

Revised Common Lectionary

fellowship

what we have seen and heard we also declare to you so that you also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.

1 John 1:3

Central to and part of the core of the Christian faith is fellowship, or what some might prefer to call communion. Just as God in God’s triunity is in communion with God’s self, of course something we can’t parse out and understand, so we humans are created to live in such a relationship in harmony with God and each other. Fellowship or communion is at the heart of who God is, the nature of God. And so if God is a reality, or in Christian or Jewish terms maybe we could say the overriding reality, then any fellowship with God automatically takes us into this space with God and with each other.

Of course as the biblical story tells us, and as we see all too clearly in life, such harmony is rarely present, and indeed our fellowship and communion is indeed broken, or at least strained and cracked. This is not where we live or at least not what characterizes our existence. We are off on another quest, far removed from that so that we’re actually removed from life itself.

But Christ, what is called the cosmic Christ, but not divorced from the Jesus of the gospels, in fact united with that, is really the reality that gives humanity the hope which brings humanity together toward a harmonious whole. In this time and present existence there will always be the principalities and powers, both human and spiritual, which are ever resistant and downright opposed to this, infiltrating everywhere. We need to know that the answer is present in Christ, but that the struggle in the present will continue. Not that there can’t be progress, but it seems that this side of the end will always include opposition and struggle.

The fellowship here is not only a sense of blissful intercourse, but also a love which is concerned for all in the love for our neighbor as ourselves. It is a fellowship not at rest until what is true in Christ becomes something true of the world itself, of all things, certainly to be finished when Christ returns, but something we are to be committed to here and now. As we more and more live and experience with each other the reality in God and in Christ by the Spirit.

a Christ-centered faith

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.

Colossians 1:15-20

…in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them…

2 Corinthians 5:19a

Yes, the Trinity and the Incarnation all enshrouded in mystery as God is. But what God has revealed is the point. And the center of that revelation is Christ himself. Apart from Christ there is ultimately no revelation from God, at least not in any saving way. And it is a salvation inclusive of all humankind, yet standing in judgment of all humankind as well. Judgment is needed before salvation, indeed shows the need for salvation. Collectively as well as individually we have failed to love God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind, and we have failed to love our neighbor as ourselves. Thus the judgment rendered, and God’s salvation from that judgment in Christ.

Christ might not always be invoked or explicit in our thinking. But if faith is according to the gospel, then Christ is always the light, life and power in creation to bring about the new creation, in this brokenness to bring about the needed reconciliation of all things.

This is the truth and reality on which we as Christ followers and Christ’s church stand. From which we live as witnesses.

Trinity Sunday: Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31; Psalm 8; Romans 5:1-5; John 16:12-15

Does not wisdom call
and understanding raise her voice?
On the heights, beside the way,
at the crossroads she takes her stand;
beside the gates in front of the town,
at the entrance of the portals she cries out:
“To you, O people, I call,
and my cry is to all who live.

“The LORD created me at the beginning of his work,
the first of his acts of long ago.
Ages ago I was set up,
at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
When there were no depths I was brought forth,
when there were no springs abounding with water.
Before the mountains had been shaped,
before the hills, I was brought forth,
when he had not yet made earth and fields
or the world’s first bits of soil.
When he established the heavens, I was there;
when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
when he made firm the skies above,
when he established the fountains of the deep,
when he assigned to the sea its limit,
so that the waters might not transgress his command,
when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
then I was beside him, like a master worker,
and I was daily his delight,
playing before him always,
playing in his inhabited world
and delighting in the human race.”

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31

To the leader: according to The Gittith. A Psalm of David.

O LORD, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory above the heavens.
Out of the mouths of babes and infants
you have founded a bulwark because of your foes,
to silence the enemy and the avenger.

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you have established;
what are humans that you are mindful of them,
mortals that you care for them?

Yet you have made them a little lower than God
and crowned them with glory and honor.
You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under their feet,
all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

O LORD, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Psalm 8

Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

Romans 5:1-5

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”

John 16:12-15

Revised Common Lectionary