Obligation or Love?

Based on 2 Corinthians 8:7-15

How much are you willing to give of yourself and your resources to meet the needs of those you love? I can imagine that if someone in your family or a friend was in a bind and there was some way you could help them out, you would do that. You may not have the capacity to give them everything they need. But whatever you could offer, whether it be money, or some of your time, your skills, or even a hug and a word of encouragement, it’s your love for that person that motivates you to offer what you can to respond to their time of need. Whatever help you offer is a natural expression of your love for that person.

It makes a difference if we are motivated by a sense of obligation or by love. To me, a sense of obligation to help someone feels like a duty, like a “have to.” You do it to check off a box or maybe because that’s what a Christian is supposed to do. People can give out of obligation without their heart being in it. It can be sort of like paying taxes. To respond to the needs of others as an obligation rather than as an act of love seems less authentic to me. Responding out of love rather than obligation seems to be more authentic. It’s more personal, an extension of a relationship with the person you are helping whereas helping as an obligation is almost like the person you are helping is an object of your charity. There doesn’t necessarily have to be a relationship with someone when you are helping out of obligation. But when you respond out of love, of course there is a relationship. To me, responding to the needs of others out of love rather than obligation has more integrity. It seems more genuine.

This is what Paul is getting at when he writes to the Corinthian church about their participation in the collection. The collection was a fundraising campaign Paul took on as part of his ministry to the Gentile Christians. When Paul met with the church elders in Jerusalem to explain his calling to evangelize the Gentiles, the elders agreed to support him in this work. But they asked Paul to let the Gentile Christians know that their Jewish siblings in Jerusalem needed their financial support as they were suffering great poverty. So, Paul set up a procedure to raise funds for the church in Jerusalem. He asked the Gentile churches he had a relationship with to take up a weekly offering of funds. Then, periodically, either he or someone he sent would go to the churches to collect those offerings and deliver them to the church in Jerusalem.

Paul notes in the reading we heard today that the Corinthians started off the previous year with eagerness to participate in this collection. They saw it as a great opportunity to demonstrate solidarity with their Jewish Christian siblings who lived in the city where the Christian movement started. But as the year went by, it seems their interest and engagement with the collection was starting to flag a bit. Maybe they weren’t giving as much. Or they started to collect funds for other purposes. Or they weren’t consistent in having a weekly collection. Or maybe there was some complaining going on about the collection, or some questions about just what Paul or the church in Jerusalem was doing with that money. Whatever it was, Paul didn’t specify, it seemed to him that the Corinthians were not participating with the same level of enthusiasm. Something was off.

So, Paul addressed his concern with the Corinthians, to see if he can get them re-engaged in this opportunity to share with those who were less fortunate with that same eagerness which they started. He uses a few arguments in his effort of encouragement. Let’s take a quick look at them.

First, Paul wants the Corinthians to see their engagement with the collection as a test in comparison to the engagement of other communities, particularly the Macedonians. We learn about the situation with the Macedonians in the previous verses, 8:1-6.

“We want you to know, brothers and sisters, about the grace of God that has been granted to the churches of Macedonia; for during a severe ordeal of affliction, their abundant joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For, as I can testify, they voluntarily gave according to their means, and even beyond their means, begging us earnestly for the privilege of sharing in this ministry to the saints—and this, not merely as we expected; they gave themselves first to the Lord and, by the will of God, to us.”

Wow! These Macedonians set an impressive example. Despite their extreme poverty, they were so filled with joy that they did not let their poverty prevent them from giving to the collection even beyond their means. They begged for the privilege of giving money that would support the church in Jerusalem, their love and zeal for that church was so great. Nothing would stop them from giving what they could. Clearly, they were not acting from a place of obligation but rather from a place of love. And Paul brings up these amazing Macedonians for the Corinthians to compare themselves. He asks them to put themselves to the test. Can they match the generosity of the Macedonians? Paul doesn’t mean can they give the same amount of money. In fact, the Corinthians are not living in poverty at all but are abundant in so many ways. But do they have the same joy? The same love? Can they match their spirit of generosity when it comes to supporting the church in Jerusalem? That would be a test for anyone. It would likely be obvious to the Corinthians that they are lacking in the same zeal.

Just in case this first argument makes it sound like Paul is trying to make this like competition, Paul uses his second argument, bringing the focus on Jesus. Paul likely has in mind an old Christian hymn that he quotes in his letter to the Philippians:

“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross.”

Paul reminds the Corinthians that Jesus, who was rich, became poor for their sakes so that they might become rich. Now, Jesus was not rich in money. Paul is talking about how Jesus emptied himself of his glory as the son of God so that he could take on human form, humble himself and die on the cross so that the Corinthians can receive eternal life. In other words, he is reminding the Corinthians of the great wealth of grace they have received by what Jesus did on their behalf. Now, how should the Corinthians respond to this grace? You could say that they are obligated to respond by giving what they can to support their fellow siblings in Christ. Or they could be filled with so much gratitude, love and joy for what God has done for them through Christ that they are eager to share of their abundance to support their siblings. Obligation or love? That’s their choice. They should not look to the Macedonians as a competitor they need to beat in the game of generous giving. No, they should be inspired by the deep joy and gratitude the Macedonians have toward God because of what God has done for them. If the Corinthians can capture that same level of joy and gratitude, the giving will follow. That’s what Paul is counting on. Motive makes a difference.

Then, Paul moves to his third argument. He wants to make sure the Corinthians know he is not asking them to empty out their bank accounts. It is true that the Macedonians gave beyond their means. But they didn’t have to do this. Look what Paul says in vv. 12-13: “For if the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has—not according to what one does not have. I do not mean that there should be relief for others and pressure on you.” What Paul is saying is that he wants the Corinthians to be eager to share out of their abundance. In practical terms, after they have cared for their own needs and have saved some back to help assure they are well supplied, whatever is left they can give to support those in need. Honestly, if they are filled with eagerness, if they love God and love their siblings in Christ, they should want to give what they can spare to those in need rather than hoard for themselves. They are not being asked to make themselves poor. They are only being asked to give what they have to spare. This is doable and, if they are motivated by love, a no brainer.

Last, Paul finishes off his effort by calling to mind when God gave the Israelites manna during their journey to the promised land. As we read about it in Exodus, every morning as the Israelites came out to collect the manna that had collected on the ground, it didn’t matter how big or small the family, each family had just what they needed for that day. It was the living out of that part of the Lord’s prayer where we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” which could be said another way, “Give us the bread we need for today.” When the Israelites journeyed to the promised land, God assured they had what they needed to sustain themselves for the journey. In the same way, Paul is asking the Corinthians to give of their extra so that those in poverty will have what they need, trusting that in the future if the Corinthians find themselves in poverty, the other churches, maybe even the church in Jerusalem, will give of their excess so that everyone will have enough. Or, as Paul put it, there would be a “fair balance”, no one has too much or too little, but everyone has just what they need. Some have called this principle of fair balance as an aspect of what is called the economy of abundance, the belief that there is enough for everyone. The issue is distribution.

So, what might we learn and apply in the stewardship of our resources? Although our context is different from the Corinthians, we are not participating in a collection that goes to a specific church that is impoverished, there are some principles here that we can apply as we steward our resources.

First, remember that this is not just about money. Paul is focusing on the collection of funds to be sent to the church in Jerusalem. But look back at vs. 7. See all the kinds of resources that the Corinthians excelled in. Paul says they excel in everything. They excel in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in eagerness. They even excel in Paul’s love for them. They are well supported and well-endowed in so many ways other than money. In the same way, we steward more than our cash. We are stewards of our knowledge and training. We are stewards of our faith in God and one another. We steward our commitment to God, to the church, to the larger society. We steward our passion. We steward our time. We have a lot of resources besides money that we steward and that we can potentially offer to help those in need.

Second, we are asked to give out of our abundance. We are not asked to put our own financial situation in jeopardy. We are not asked to voluntarily place ourselves in poverty. We still have the responsibility to sustain our households and be prudent about caring for our future needs. But once we have been prudent and our households are cared for, what to do with the excess? Our love for God and for those whom God loves would prompt us to give what we have to those who are in a rough spot and need some help. We can do this. We can help others without wrecking our own financial situation.

And, again, it’s not only about money. Think about how you steward your time. You only have so many hours of the day. A lot of those hours are already claimed. You have to get a good night’s sleep so you can function during the day. You have hours claimed to take care of personal needs and other household chores. You may have a job that requires a lot of your time. You need to claim some hours during the week to play and have fun with your friends and family. What hours are left? Those are the hours you can use to volunteer your time to help others. We give out of our extra. That’s what Paul is saying to us.

Finally, we are challenged to give with eagerness and love, not obligation or pressure. I have heard stories of churches that can be a bit heavy handed when it comes to stewardship campaigns. This is just hearsay, but I have heard of churches that asked for their members to submit their 1040s so the officers could see how much they were making and take 10% of that as the amount due for their tithe to remain members. I have heard of a church that would lock the doors of the sanctuary and not let anyone leave until a certain amount of money was raised. Just hearsay. I hope none of that is true. But if it is…sounds like a heavy dose of pressure. Paul was bending over backwards to let the Corinthians know he isn’t trying to manipulate them or pressure them to do anything they don’t want to do. When it comes to giving what we have to support others, obligation or pressure is not the motivation that we should be after. It is love for God and one another that is the motivation we need to give what we can to help others and to support the church.

Let everything we do be motivated by love, starting with our love for God. Let our gratitude for all that God has blessed us with, especially this community of faith and the promise of eternal life, be the foundation of our giving in whatever form that giving takes. Whether it be money, time, skill, or passion, let us offer what we can in gratitude for the great abundance of grace God showers on each of us day by day.

Despite Our Fear

Based on Mark 4:35-41

Jesus must have been exhausted. Let’s look back at all he had been doing since he returned to his hometown. Back at his house, people had crammed inside to try to get close to him, to get healed or to hear a word of teaching. There were so many people and so much need that Jesus couldn’t even sit down for a bite to eat. During all that, he had to face down those pesky scribes from Jerusalem and then deal with his mother and brothers who were worried about him. Eventually Jesus and his disciples left the house and went back to the sea, still being followed by a crowd, and then more joined so that it was a great multitude of people, so many that Jesus got on a boat and pushed back from the shore just to free up some space along the beach for the huge crowd. From there he taught the rest of the day. 

Finally, the time seemed right for Jesus and the disciples to head back out across the sea. The sun was setting. Evening was getting on. Still standing in the boat, having finished all the teaching he wanted to give that crowd, he looked at his disciples and said, “Let’s go over to the other side.” So, they pushed off, raised the sail, and off they went. Jesus, for his part, went to the front of the ship, lay down on the mat, and promptly went to sleep. Finally, Jesus could get some rest as they made their way across.

Alas, Jesus did not get as long a rest as he was hoping for. A great windstorm arises, scaring the disciples, even the seasoned fishermen among them who had surely seen their fair share of storms. You know it had to have been bad. Not only was the wind tossing the boat around, but the crashing waves were pummeling the hull and spilling over into the boat filling it with water. And all of this is happening in the darkness of night. They were certainly at risk of sinking. I think we can understand why they were afraid.

When we are afraid, this has a serious impact on us. Think of a time when you were truly frightened. In that swirl of emotion, you may lose things. You can’t find your keys. You can’t find your wallet or your phone. You can’t think straight. You may not know where to go or who to turn to for help in that moment of panic. You may not even know where you are. What we often lose when we are gripped with fear is perspective, faith, and hope.

What the disciples say to Jesus is very revealing. Of all they could have said, they chose to accuse Jesus of not caring. When this story is told in Matthew and Luke the disciples say, “Master, save us! We are perishing!” But in Mark the disciples say, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” They accuse of not caring the same person who has been spending the last several days doing nothing but care for everyone else. One of the main reasons they were on the boat in the first place was so that Jesus could have some down time away from the crowds so that he could get some rest. Yet, they accuse Jesus of not caring. But that’s what fear can do to someone. We lose perspective. We become irrational. We lose sight of what we know to be true about someone and instead get things twisted.

The disciples also lost their faith and hope. Maybe they didn’t yet have their full faith in Jesus at this point. But they trusted him enough to go wherever he wanted to go. They had seen all the healings he had performed. They knew he was no ordinary person but had clearly been filled with divine power. Jesus said to them, “Let us go to the other side.” If they had faith in Jesus, would they not have expected that they would have made it across to the other side no matter what? If Jesus was sleeping through the storm, clearly, he wasn’t concerned. Why could the disciples not have that same level of trust? But that’s what fear does. It can reveal the strength of faith. When confronted with this storm and what clearly looked to be imminent perishing in the storm, the faith the disciples had in Jesus evaporated along with their hope of survival. Gripped with fear they became convinced that they were all going down with the ship and that this same Jesus who had the power to cast out demons and teach with such great authority, who clearly was filled with divine power, was going to die with them that night. Their faith in Jesus and their hope for whatever great future was in store for them evaporated as they were gripped with fear.

Before we get too hard on these disciples, however, let’s acknowledge that there is no shame in being fearful. In fact, it is often perfectly reasonable. Fear is a good thing to have in that it can protect us from doing something dangerous. Fear can be a powerful motivation for doing the right thing and avoid painful consequences. Fear is a natural response to dangerous situations. If we were on a sinking ship in the midst of a storm in the middle of the night, it would make perfect sense to be filled with fear. In the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, we were all afraid. We feared what might happen next. Any little thing was prompting buildings to be evacuated. As part of that distorted perspective, many people of Arab descent or men who practiced the Sikh religion found themselves the targets of fearful people wondering if they were terrorists too. In Mark the gospel writer’s context, he belonged to a church that had its moments of fear. Could persecution be visited upon them, so much that the church like a ship taking on water be destroyed and all of them perish? In those early days, the Christians of Mark’s church could not always be confident that things would work out. Their existence was touch and go. In situations of great danger or when the future is unclear or even uncertain, fear is an understandable response.

But the disciples were overcome with fear. They were controlled by fear. They feared for their lives as the boat took on water and was battered and buffeted by the winds and waves. And then, when Jesus stops the storm and there was a dead calm, the literal Greek text says that the disciples were fearful of a great fear. In other words, they were more afraid after Jesus stopped the storm! Overwhelmed with fear, the disciples just could not get it clear in their heads who Jesus was. Despite all the healings, the teachings, how Jesus had explained everything to the disciples, in this moment of fear they looked at each other and said among themselves, “Who is this?” They did not look at Jesus and ask, “who are you.” It was almost like Jesus had become to them an object of wonder. If their heads were clear, they would not be asking each other who Jesus is. They knew their Bible. They knew that only God has the power to still the winds and the waves. This divine power is talked about in several of the Psalms and even in a few of the prophets, including Isaiah. If Jesus did what only God could do, then they have their answer about who Jesus is. But their fear clogged their brains. They simply could not name what they knew must be true in their hearts. They knew who Jesus was, but their fear blocked them from claiming it. Fear created a barrier between them and Jesus. In that moment, Jesus was not the teacher they were following, the one who had claimed them as his brother. He was an object of awe in which the disciples looked at each other and asked, “Who is this?”

Nevertheless, Jesus sticks with his disciples. In this situation Jesus could have responded in several ways. The disciples did not ask Jesus to do anything when they woke him up from his well-deserved nap. But Jesus rebuked the winds and waves anyway, just to remove that scary situation they found themselves in. Jesus responded out of compassion, giving the disciples what they needed in that moment, an end of the windstorm. Jesus cared about his disciples enough to challenge them by asking, “Have you still no faith?” He wasn’t going to just let this go. He named the situation for these disciples. Their fear revealed their lack of faith in Jesus, and he was going to name that for them in a way that forced them to reflect on just how much they trusted Jesus. He wasn’t going to say to them, “Wow, that was a scary situation, wasn’t it? Sorry you had to endure that.” No. Jesus wanted to push them, challenge them to get real about just how much they were willing to trust him. Jesus could have looked at the disciples and said, “You know what? I’m out. See you guys later.” And Jesus could have stepped out of the boat and walked across the sea to the other side and left the disciples to fend for themselves in that sinking boat. But Jesus didn’t do that. He stayed with them in that sinking boat. Despite them letting fear get the best of them, despite accusing Jesus of not caring about them, Jesus stuck with them in the boat. Whatever fear Jesus may have had in that raging storm did not block Jesus from responding with compassion and loving commitment to his brothers. No matter how frustrated he may have been with his disciples, no matter how tired he may have been, Jesus didn’t abandon ship.

Let this be an encouragement for us when we find ourselves in the middle of a storm and fear is getting the best of us. Sometimes we find ourselves in scary situations. And in those scary times we do lose our perspective. Our thinking gets twisted. We do sometimes have a lapse in faith. We can lose our nerve. We can even feel hopeless about our future in fearful times, amid a storm. We might even accuse God of not caring what happens to us. Nevertheless, God sticks with us. No matter what, God will never abandon us. Throughout any storm, God will never abandon ship. We may not always see it or be able to acknowledge it, but I am here to tell you that in whatever storm we find ourselves, God will be with us as we move through those storms. We can trust and believe that with God we will get to the other side.

Corn Fields and Mustard Bushes

Based on Mark 4:26-34

Things were really clicking for Jesus in his life. Huge crowds followed him around attracted by his healing powers and his ability to cast out demons. He had a group of twelve disciples who he had hand selected. They were there to support him in whatever way he needed and then sat around him in the evenings when he would teach them about the things of God. He had faced down the scribes in a very public way, asserting his authority and undermining their credibility. He made the statement about how every person who did God’s will was like family to him, making room for all the people who were drawn to him to be included, for them to feel like they belonged, not held at arms-length but that they were like a brother or sister. By every indication Jesus was the center of a real movement, perhaps even a messianic movement. It was significant enough to get the attention of the religious leaders, prompting them to start pushing back. They could feel their power and influence slipping. Things were shifting and they were losing power to control it. Jesus had a lot of power and he was not hesitant to use it. Jesus was clearly on a mission and he was clearly making an impact.

Now that Jesus is riding high, established as a movement leader, popular, threatening the status quo, he starts talking about the kingdom of God, that is, the reign of God in their day. It is an important thing to remember, that when Jesus speaks of the kingdom of God, he is not talking about a future reality that we will one day enter when we die and go to heaven. The kingdom of God is among us. It is a present reality. God’s rule and reign is currently established. When Jesus speaks of the kingdom of God, he is telling the people about a kingdom that they can participate in right now. And that’s another thing that the powers that be are not crazy about. See, there is already a kingdom that has been established. It is called the Roman empire and the ruler is Caesar. Jesus is proclaiming to the people that there is another kingdom, a contrasting kingdom, a competing kingdom…the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is not theoretical or ideological. It’s a real thing that demands the allegiance of the people. Rome, and the religious establishment that is supported by Rome, see this as a threat. When Jesus starts talking about the kingdom of God, the stakes start getting a lot higher.

So, if Jesus is going to be talking about the kingdom of God in contrast to the kingdom of the Roman empire, then we can expect Jesus will use images that reflect great power, to make the point that the kingdom of God is much more powerful than the Roman empire. The kingdom of God must be like a mighty mountain or like a forest of tall and strong cypress trees.

Jesus, however, never fails to surprise. He is regularly turning conventional wisdom on its head. What are the images Jesus uses to describe the kingdom of God? The kingdom of God is like a corn field. The kingdom of God is like a field of mustard bushes. OK…Not what we expected.

How is the kingdom of God to be established? There’s going to be a mighty army from heaven, right? A celestial calvary? If Jesus is the messiah, he’s going to lead some military coup to dethrone the Caesar or at least get Rome out of the land of Israel and Judah, set up his throne in Jerusalem and restore the kingdom of David to its rightful place. I mean, that was the messianic expectation in those days. So, that’s how this is going to work, right?

No. Instead, the establishment of the kingdom of God is like a farmer scattering seeds, whether they be corn seeds or even teeny tiny mustard seeds. Then the farmer sleeps and wakes, goes about his life, keeping an eye on things until the harvest comes when he then goes out to gather in the corn. No military invasion. No coup. No armed revolution. It’s more like farming and letting nature do its thing. What kind of kingdom is this? It sure is different from the Roman empire. The contrast between the two kingdoms could not be more stark.

Jesus is describing the kingdom of God in a way that common peasants could relate to. These were people who actually worked the soil. They knew something about planting and harvesting corn. And they knew about mustard which, by the way, is an invasive weed. In fact, if you wanted to prank someone or get back at them for something they did you could sneak over to their field and scatter a bunch of mustard seeds. That’s a good way to mess up an otherwise productive field. The kingdom of God is like an invasive weed? Sure. The main thing is that the kingdom that Jesus is describing is relatable to common people. There is a pattern here. Just as Jesus was letting the people know that he is a brother to them he is also letting them know that the kingdom manifests in the world in ways they can relate to, like farming. The kingdom of God is an extension of how they do life. It’s like cultivating the soil and like cultivating a family. No palaces. No standing armies. No command and control hierarchical structures. It’s like common community life; a community that is an alternative to the oppressive Roman empire.

At another level, Jesus is describing a reality that is hopeful. This is especially good news for the fledging Christian community that Mark the gospel writer was a part of. Mark’s community was small and insignificant in comparison to the society at large. They were scattered about. They were trying to figure out how to keep the movement going now that Jesus was gone. They had to deal with some local hostilities. But the main thing was that society as a whole had moved on. Jesus was dead and gone. Rome was still in charge. Nothing changed. The Jesus followers were struggling. They still deeply believed in Jesus. They were committed to sharing the good news. They were committed to the movement that Jesus started. But they were living in a world that was not interested. It must have been downright depressing to be a Christian in those early days. They were in need of hope. That’s what these parables provide.

Jesus taught that our task is to keep scattering seeds and trust that those seeds will sprout and grow. The seeds are the word of God, the proclamation of the gospel, the telling of our experiences of Jesus, our witness of the impact Jesus has had on our lives. These stories we tell are seeds that are planted into the hearts and minds of people. We tell our stories and then let those stories do their thing. Jesus reminds us that God is involved in this process. The Spirit is at work. Those seeds are going to sprout if the soil is good. We just be patient, let those stories do their work. Our job is to plant the seeds, tell the stories. And when the time is right, when the stories have borne fruit and people have come to a point where they want to be a part of the community, the family, the kingdom of God, we gather them in as one who harvests corn. We plant. We gather. God does the rest. We can trust the process. There is a nugget of hope.

Jesus invites us to think of churches as mustard bushes scattered all across the earth. Weeds sometimes get a bad rap. One thing you can say about weeds, they are resilient. You cannot get rid of them easily. It’s actually a source of hope to contemplate that all these little Christian communities scattered across the world are like weeds. You just can’t get rid of us! That was surely a hopeful message for Mark’s community to claim. It can give us some confidence as well. Churches are like weeds.

Mustard bushes are invasive. They are prolific. They are resilient plants. And they provide a lot of benefits. Mustard obviously can add some flavor to your food. It has medicinal benefits. It also provides safety and shelter for birds. Mustard is a beneficial weed. It offers all kinds of benefits. Just like the church. Being in community together adds flavor to our lives. The church is a community where we can find healing. There is medicine in our life together. The church is a place of safety and shelter for all kinds of birds, I mean people. The kingdom of God manifested in the world as all these churches scattered about the world truly is like a field of mustard bushes, a beneficial weed.

This is what the kingdom of God is like in real time. It is a global family, brothers and sisters who have been drawn to Jesus. And we tell stories. These stories, like seeds, take root and grow in the lives of people, slowly transforming lives until people reach a point where they are ready to be gathered into the community and find their place as a brother or a sister. Each of our communities are like mustard bushes scattered all over the place, offering medicine, offering safety, offering security. This is the kingdom, or maybe a better term is the kin-dom of God.

Good News!

Based on Mark 3:20-35

What a wild scene. Jesus has returned to his hometown of Capernaum again after journeying around the Sea of Galilee. He was as popular as ever because of his teachings and especially his healings and exorcisms. Wherever he went there was a crowd. They have come back to his house but the crowd did not respect Jesus’ privacy. They all crowded in. The crowd kept pressing on Jesus and Jesus kept on teaching and healing. They couldn’t even sit down and get a bite to eat. No time for that. The need was too great, the house so full of people. This has become a trend by the way. The last time Jesus was at his house there was a crowd packed in and the same things were happening. It was so crowded that a group of friends couldn’t get their friend who was paralyzed to Jesus so that he could hopefully heal him so they got up on the roof of Jesus’ house and tore a huge hole in it so they could lower their friend in front of Jesus. The audacity! The people had to have been so desperate that they had no qualms entering into Jesus’ home to get the healing they needed, even if that meant preventing him from sitting down in his kitchen to eat, or even if it meant ripping the roof off the house. All kinds of boundaries were being crossed to get to the healing man. It was an intense scene. That Jesus kept on ministering to these desperate people is a testament to his patience and deep love.

And with all that incredible popularity came the inevitable backlash. Jesus’ family didn’t know what to make of this, as Mark tells the story. It was too much. And not everyone in town were thrilled with what Jesus was doing, the disturbance he was causing with all this throng making a ruckus. Some were saying that Jesus was losing his mind. It was making Jesus’ family really uncomfortable, to see their son and brother causing such a spectacle. So, Jesus’ mother and brothers start walking over to Jesus’ house to see if they can restrain him, to dial it down a bit.

But it wasn’t just Jesus’ family who were moving in to shush Jesus. Some scribes had traveled all the way from Jerusalem to let these people know that Jesus wasn’t who they thought he was. These scribes were really having a hard time with Jesus. Who is this guy? Where does he get off? He hasn’t been trained. He hasn’t been authorized. He’s a nobody. And he’s going around teaching the people and casting out all these demons without being given any authorization to do so. There is no way God could be blessing this. Jesus is out of order. The only explanation must be that he is demon possessed himself, that Beelzebul, the prince of demons, is making these exorcisms happen just to delude everyone into thinking that Jesus is some kind of messiah. It’s just a big con, so the scribes think. So, they came over there right where Jesus was to let that crowd know in his hometown that Jesus is a fraud.

Well, confronted with this criticism, Jesus doesn’t back down. He doesn’t go to his mother and say, “It’s ok mom, don’t worry about me.” And he certainly wasn’t going to waste his energy trying to reason with those scribes who were clearly being irrational. Instead, Jesus faces his critics head on and in the process makes some incredible statements. We are going to focus on three of them.

The first one I want us to focus on is where Jesus speaks of tying up the strong man to plunder the house. Jesus describes his ministry like a thief who is capable of tying up a strong man, meaning Jesus is even stronger, and then ransacking the man’s house while the bound man watches on unable to stop it. Wow! I wonder how many thieves and others of a sketchy persuasion who were drawn to Jesus resonated with what Jesus said right there. It is an edgy image that Jesus is describing. Of course, Jesus doesn’t identify the strong man or the house that Jesus is robbing. We assume that the strong man is Satan whom Jesus is binding. What Jesus is stealing from Satan’s house is all those souls who were demon possessed. But it also makes me think of that early teaching of the church. When Jesus died but before he rose from the dead he went down to Sheol, that underworld place where souls went when people died, so that he could bind up Death and liberate all those souls trapped in Sheol, starting with Adam and Eve. It really is a provocative image: Jesus, the stronger man, coming into Satan’s house to bind him and then while looking on going through Satan’s house to take back all those souls that Satan had imprisoned. Jesus’ saving work is like a heist.

The second statement we need to look at is when Jesus speaks of what will be forgiven and what won’t be forgiven, the so-called unforgivable sin. This statement has generated a lot of comment over the centuries as well as a good bit of anxiety. So many people have wondered to themselves, “Have I committed the unforgivable sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit?” It’s a sin that is kind of ambiguous. When we think of sin we think of concrete actions, lying, adultery, theft, although it’s ironic that Jesus identifies his own ministry as a kind of theft. But what exactly is blaspheming against the Holy Spirit? Thankfully, Mark gives us an example of what blaspheming against the Holy Spirit looks like. When the scribes accused Jesus of being possessed by an unclean spirit, that is an example of blaspheming against the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit within Jesus that is empowering him to cast out all these demons. Yet, the scribes say it is an unclean spirit, even Beelzebul the prince of demons. That is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, and it’s unforgiveable. Jesus is letting those scribes know that the sin they are committing by accusing him of being possessed by a demon is a sin that will never be forgiven. Harsh.

So, what about that anxiety that some feel, worried about committing this unforgiveable sin? I have heard it explained to me that if someone is worried about committing this unforgiveable sin, they can be assured they haven’t. This points back to what Jesus says just before, an amazing statement that we need to hear again: “Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter.” Not some sins, not most sins, all sins. And it doesn’t matter what blasphemies you may have uttered in a weak moment. We all say things we later regret. It’s ok. That will be forgiven as well. Jesus is making it clear that our sins, all of them, will be forgiven. What won’t be forgiven will be rejection of that forgiveness, rejection of the forgiveness that Jesus offers on God’s behalf. It is to treat the gift of forgiveness as a demonic curse that must be rejected, just like what those scribes were doing. Again, if you are ever worried about whether or not you will be forgiven for your sins, be assured that in the name of Jesus Christ you are forgiven.

Here’s the last statement for us to focus on. After Jesus has told off the scribes, he is told that his family is outside and that they want to talk to him. That gives an opportunity for Jesus to redefine family. He looks around at all those people crowded into his house, looking to him for a teaching, a word of wisdom, a healing, and says that these strangers are his mother, brothers and sisters. He isn’t rejecting his biological family. Instead, he is expanding the definition of what counts as family. Jesus doesn’t care where you come from, who is your daddy, what tribe or ethnicity you were born in to, if you are doing God’s will, you are his mother, brother or sister. All borders are removed as far as Jesus is concerned. That means that if you do God’s will, which is to love God and love your neighbor as yourself, then Jesus is your brother, and you are my brother or sister. We are one global family in all of our marvelous diversity.

There is so much good news in this passage. Jesus is like a hero who breaks into Satan’s house, binds him up and then robs his house of all the souls he stole. Jesus offers forgiveness for all we have said and done, no exceptions, unless we choose to reject that offer. And we are all Jesus’ brothers and sisters, kin of a global family. Good news! That’s something worth keeping in mind as we make our way through life. Jesus is stronger than Satan. We are forgiven. We are family.

You Just Know

Based on John 3:1-17

    I wonder what was going on inside Nicodemus? Something must have been stirring in his heart that he was moved to get a message to Jesus so that the two of them could meet privately under the cover of darkness. He knew that meeting with Jesus in a public way might stir up some controversy. People may have started wondering about Nicodemus. Is he becoming a disciple? That could hurt his standing with the rest of the Sanhedrin. But there was something about Jesus that was pulling on his heart. Listening to Jesus from a distance wasn’t enough. Nicodemus was compelled to come closer to Jesus. It was more than mere curiosity. Something was drawing him to Jesus.

Nicodemus says that he and the rest of the Sanhedrin know that Jesus must have come from God because of the signs he has performed. I think Nicodemus said that just to let Jesus know that he is meeting with him from a supportive place. He isn’t meeting Jesus to accuse him or warn him to stop teaching, any of that. He wants Jesus to know that he is potentially willing to stand with him. He just needs to know more, get some assurances, because of the controversy Jesus has been stirring up. In other words, Nicodemus is coming to Jesus in peace, not to fight, but to understand. Jesus could trust him.

However, we already know that for Jesus, those who believe him because of the signs are missing the point.  Just above in 2:23-25 we read:

When Jesus was in Jerusalem during the Passover festival, many believed in his name because they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part would not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to testify about anyone; for he himself knew what was in everyone.

What we learn here is that believing in Jesus because of the signs was not enough. Jesus knows that this kind of belief based on external things like miracles is not permanent. We have all heard the phrase, “What have you done for me lately?” It’s that idea that if you are highly skilled then you have to keep producing impressive work. Once that starts to fade people start to doubt you. This is definitely the case in sports. A baseball player can go on an amazing hitting streak, have a few seasons where he is putting up amazing stats and scoring lots of runs. But then he has a bad year, and then another. All of a sudden people are doubting his skills and there is talk of trading him. Putting trust in people based on externals is inherently unstable. And, in Jesus’ case, will these same people keep believing in him when he is hanging on a cross? Probably not. Jesus knows what is in the heart of everyone. So, when Nicodemus starts off by saying everyone in the Sanhedrin knows that Jesus is from God because of the signs, that does not impress Jesus. He knows better.

Jesus wasn’t going to waste his time talking about those signs that Nicodemus is referring to. Instead, Jesus cuts to the chase. He goes straight to the heart of his message. “No one can enter the kingdom of God without being born again from above.” That word in Greek Jesus ends with is a word that has two meanings: born again and born from above. Jesus means for that word to be understood in its fullness. To enter the kingdom of God requires being born again from above. We can look back to 1:12-13 to understand what Jesus is saying here:

To all who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of humans, but of God.

In other words, to be born again from above means becoming a child of God, which is what happens when someone believes Jesus is who he says he is, not because of the signs, but because of an inner heart knowing that is not dependent on externals. It reminds me of when my sister asked me how I knew that Kim was the right person for me to marry. I was at a loss. I couldn’t give any specific examples or proofs. All I could say was, “I just know.” That’s what this is about. This kind of belief in Jesus is not based on external signs or proofs. You just know in your heart that it’s true. You take that leap of faith.

This is where Nicodemus gets all mixed up. It reveals where he is blocked. He is feeling drawn toward Jesus but he is getting in his own way. He wants Jesus to explain himself by saying, “That’s ridiculous. How is someone supposed to be born again? No one can enter a second time into their mother’s womb.” Does Nicodemus really not get the word Jesus used? Does he miss the double meaning? Maybe he is stumbling over the practicalities of being born a second time. He’s trying to take Jesus in a literal sense and that’s getting him all mixed up.

The bottom line is this. Nicodemus is having this meeting with Jesus because he wants to better understand where Jesus is coming from before he is willing to believe Jesus is who he says he is. He needs to understand before he will believe. He is not going to take that risky step and claim his belief in Jesus until he has a full understanding of what Jesus is about.

But that’s not how this is going to work. There are some things in life that we won’t ever understand but we believe anyway. Jesus gives an example. He points back to that story when the Israelites were being killed by snakes and they pleaded for help. So, God told Moses to make a bronze snake and put it on a pole. Then if anyone was bitten by a snake all they had to do was gaze upon the bronze snake and they would live. They didn’t know how that worked. But they believed what Moses told them to do and it worked. They didn’t have to understand. They just had to believe. In the same way, we don’t understand how it works, that by gazing on Jesus the crucified one that we are healed from the poison of sin. We don’t have to understand how salvation works. We just believe it to be so. We don’t have to understand how the Spirit of God moves about the earth. Like wind the Spirit moves here and there. We sense the presence of the Spirit, but we don’t know where the Spirit comes from or where it is going. We believe in the Spirit anyway. We know the Spirit is real even though we can’t physically see it.

This is what Jesus is getting at. When we come to believe in Jesus as the savior, not based on external signs, not based on understanding how this works, but with an inner knowing and trust, taking it on faith, it is like being born again. We are born again as children of God. No longer only the child of your mom and dad, you also come to realize that you are a child of God. It’s an expanded identity. You present yourself in the world differently. Indeed, you see the world in a new way. For not only are you a child of God, you are surrounded by children of God. You belong to a larger family. Yes, you are living your life within a community comprised of the children of God, what Jesus refers to as the kingdom of God. When you come to that belief in Jesus as your savior, everything changes.

I wouldn’t say I saw signs or miracles, but I did hear the teachings of Jesus in a way that opened my eyes and softened my heart. I was at a youth retreat. During the retreat we watched the movie version of Godspell. In that movie, the gospel and the teachings of Jesus were presented in a way that really spoke to me. I did not know that was what the message of Jesus was about. I was smitten. And then, one evening, we were told of how Jesus died on the cross for our sins so that we could live forever with God, who loves us and has a purpose for our lives. That did it. At that moment I fell in love with Jesus. No miracles. No rational arguments. No explanation of how this salvation thing works. It was an experience of an inner knowing that I was loved by God. I just knew that it was true. And my life changed. I was filled with love. I felt so free inside. It seemed I had an abundance of love that had to be shared with everyone around me. For a good month I was on an emotional high. Of course, as the months went by there were highs and lows. My new found faith had to be tested and seasoned. But I can tell you that on that night when I came to believe that Jesus died for my sins so that I could live forever with God who loves me and has a purpose for my life, I haven’t been the same. It was as if I had been born again from above.

You know, it’s probably a good thing that our job is not to convince anyone about who Jesus is. Working miracles or explaining how it works are not methods we need to use to get people to believe in Jesus. As we learn in the scripture reading today, Jesus was not impressed with people who said they believed in him because of the miracles he performed. Jesus didn’t answer Nicodemus’ “how” questions. Jesus just lived his life, sharing his teachings, loving people well, and fulfilling the purpose God had given him to perform. That’s our roadmap as those who have fallen in love with Jesus and believe he is who he says he is. We just live our lives. We share the teachings of Jesus as we love others well, knowing that the Spirit of God that wooed us into belief is still moving about the world, still drawing people to Jesus, still leading people to belief.

Love in Any Language

Based on Acts 2:1-21

Earlier this week, my youngest son came home from college to live with us during the summer. Everyone is back home. When we gather for family dinner on Sunday evening, Jadon will no longer be joining us via zoom. We will all be gathered around the table. It’s nice to have everyone back. The family feels complete.

It’s that sense of having everyone together again that runs through this passage we hear today from Acts chapter 2, the story of Pentecost. This whole experience is about everyone being together. It starts with verse one, where we read, “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.” According to Acts 1:15 there were about 120 of them, including Mary and Jesus’ brothers. They were all together in a house in Jerusalem. It must have been a rather large house, or they were all on top of each other. But they were all together. This important detail is a key to understanding what the Pentecost story is all about, the action of God through the Spirit to bring everyone together.

Luke struggles to give words to what the Pentecost experience was like. He says there was a sound like rushing wind. There were divided tongues that were like fire. He’s not saying it was wind and fire. That was just the best way he knew to help us get a sense of what was going on. And look how the whole space of the house is impacted by this experience. Luke says the sound like rushing wind filled the whole house, every floor, every room, every nook and cranny. There was nowhere in the house you could be that you did not hear that sound. And then Luke says that these divided tongues that looked like flames of fire settled on each person in the house, like 120 human candles. Every person had a flame resting on their heads. And then Luke says that each person, all 120, including Mary, the mother of Jesus, was filled with the Spirit and began speaking all the languages of the nations, from Syria to Egypt to Rome to Arabia. This experience was fully inclusive. No one was left out. No one was a mere spectator.

The inclusion doesn’t stop there. Jews that lived in every nation in the world were in Jerusalem. Now, obviously when Luke is talking about all the nations of the world, he is not speaking of literally the entire world. It really is confined to the world around the Mediterranean Sea. He’s not thinking of present day Australia, or China, and probably not northern Europe. The main point was that in those days Jews were scattered all across the Mediterranean, and had been for generations, long enough to claim those nations as their home, learning the language and the customs. Still, Jerusalem was the center of their identity as Jewish people. And every year, fifty days after Passover, Jews from all over would come to Jerusalem to celebrate Shavuot, or Pentecost. It was a celebration of the coming wheat harvest. It also marked when God gave Moses the Law. It was a time to feast and celebrate. So, God acted in a powerful way to bring everyone together on an occasion when Jews from all the nations of the world were physically there, in Jerusalem.

What drew their attention to that house where the Spirit came down on the followers of Jesus? Well, it may have been the sound of rushing wind. Or maybe it was the sight of flames of fire on their heads. That would have gotten your attention! But in the hustle and bustle of a crowded city, with all that noise and all the spectacle of the celebration of Shavuot, perhaps what really grabbed the attention of the people was what they heard come from the mouths of the disciples. The crowd heard the disciples speak in the language of their native tongues, the language of their homeland. Not Hebrew, or Latin or Greek, but the language of Phrygia, Elam, and Crete. They didn’t have to try to translate what was being said into their native tongue. They could instantly understand. But there’s something more than just having an easier time to understand what the disciples were saying.

There is something about including people who speak a foreign language by speaking their language. A while back, I was listening to Bishop Palmer preach, and he mentioned that he had taken on a practice of learning how to say “hello” and “thank you” in as many languages as he could. He did that partly because, as a bishop, he gets to travel all around the world on general church business. So, he interacts with lots of people for whom English is not their native language. He wanted to be able to say “hello” and “thank you” in their language to express inclusion, to make non-native English speaking people feel included, even honored.

For those of us who have traveled to foreign countries, isn’t it comforting to run into someone who speaks fluent English? My experience is somewhat limited, having only been to Mexico as a country where English is not the native language. I know a little Spanish, but walking the streets of Monterrey, hearing everyone speaking Spanish and all the signs and restaurant menus in Spanish, it can cause a person to feel a bit out of place, a little confused, really reminded that you are not from here. But to then have someone who is Mexican be able to talk to you in fluent English, that is a relief. There is a feeling of security and comfort, really, in engaging with someone in a foreign land who speaks your native language. I wonder if that feeling of belonging, of comfort and security perhaps, was stirred in all those people who heard the disciples speaking in their own native language. By speaking this way, the disciples were able immediately to make a connection with all those people. There was an immediate sense of being included in whatever it was that was going on.

Now, we aren’t done with this inclusion theme. When Peter begins his sermon, he quotes from Joel 2:28-32 in which the prophet speaks of the time when the Spirit will be poured out on all flesh. And by all flesh is meant all who are Jews. It is a prophecy directed not at the whole world but at Israel. Prior to this event, the Spirit would fall on some people, like David, or one of the judges, or a prophet like Joel. But in this prophecy proclaimed to Israel Joel says that the Spirit will fall on the sons and daughters of Israel. He says to Israel your sons and daughters will prophesy. On the young and the old, and even on slaves, will the Spirit be poured out. All Israelites will receive the Spirit, says Joel. All Jews will be empowered to prophesy, to speak on God’s behalf. It is a prophecy that announces the inclusion of all. All will speak of the works of God. All will speak of the ways God demonstrates God’s love in the world. They will all speak of God’s love.

I am reminded of a song sung by Sandi Patti called “Love in Any Language.” The chorus goes like this:

Love in any language

Straight from the heart

Pulls us all together, never apart

And once we learn to speak it

All the world will hear

Love in any language

Fluently spoken here

This song takes us to a deeper level in understanding what is happening at Pentecost. It is true that the Spirit enabled the disciples to speak in all these languages so that people could hear and understand in their own native language what the disciples were saying about God’s deeds of power. But there is a way that the Spirit of God can communicate with us no matter what language people are speaking. It’s that love in any language that Sandi Patti sings about that touches on how this Pentecost experience continues to happen in our own day.

When I was in college, I belonged to the United Methodist Student Fellowship, which was a United Methodist campus ministry. Every Spring break we would go somewhere in Mexico to work with Methodists there. I still recall one trip to Miguel Aleman, a border town in Mexico across from South Texas, not far from Reynosa and Brownsville. Mesquite grows wild there, which made the mesquite charcoal grilled chicken delicious that some of the youth of the church prepared for us. I watched as some of the women made the best tamales I have ever eaten. But to this day I still have in my mind a worship service we participated in. The singing was full of energy. Most of the tunes were unfamiliar and they were all sung in Spanish. But it didn’t matter. We sensed the presence of the Spirit even though we didn’t understand most of what was being said or sung. We prayed the Lord’s Prayer together in our own languages. We all knew that each of us loved Jesus. The language barrier did not prevent the movement of the Spirit and a powerful expression of worship. Language differences did not prevent from all of us being included in that time of worship. All of us belonged.

Can the Spirit enable us to speak words that bring people together, words that express the works of God in ways that bring people together, in ways that people can relate to? Yes. Notice what the disciples were not talking about when the Spirit opened their mouths. They did not talk about doctrines or theology. They talked about the power of God. They talked about how they had seen for themselves the mighty power of God in their lives. As we read in vs. 11, “in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” They talked about the power of God’s love. They talked about experience of God in the world.

That’s our cue. Always possible but it is not likely the Spirit will enable you or me to speak another language we are not already fluent in to talk about how we have experienced God’s power in our lives. But with the language we know, we can speak of God’s deeds of power. We can tell of our experiences when God was present in our lives, of how God has impacted our lives and our families and communities. We can tell of the experience of being swept away by God’s love, of that time we gathered with others, singing together, and felt the movement of the Spirit, or that time we entered into a small chapel and sat for awhile in silence and felt the presence of God in a real way, or a time when we were feeling alone, feeling low, and heard that voice in our head, the voice of God saying, “I am with you, I love you, I will never forsake you, you are mine.” These are some of the deeds of power that we can talk about with others, of how God saw us through times of struggle and grief and loss, of how we have experienced the presence of God in the silence, in the beauty of nature, with a gathering of dear friends, and in the eyes of a newborn infant.

This passage from Acts ends with verse 21, “then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” How has the Lord saved you? How has God responded when you called out to God in your time of need? Those are the experiences of God’s power that you can share with others, so that they might come to realize that in their times of struggle and in time of joy and peace, that God is with them as well, pouring love into their lives. This is love in any language that brings all of us together.

The Prayer of Jesus

Based on John 17:6-19

The past few weeks, we have been looking at Jesus’ farewell discourse, a long speech Jesus gives his disciples before his arrest. He is giving them the substance of his teaching and his instructions so that the disciples will know where they stand and what they need to do when Jesus leaves. We reflected on the image of Jesus as the vine, the disciples as the branches, and God as the vine grower, and how God, Jesus and the disciples work together to produce fruit that blesses the world. Last week, we reflected on how Jesus chose us to be his friends, how we are in Jesus’ “square squad”, how he loves us as a dear friend, and how we are challenged to love every person we encounter as a friend of Jesus.

In today’s passage, there is a shift from Jesus talking to the disciples to now Jesus is talking to God. All of chapter 17 is a prayer Jesus offers on behalf of his disciples. Jesus is praying for his disciples. But it is a prayer that we get to overhear, a prayer intended not just for the disciples that were with Jesus in the upper room but is also meant for us. Jesus is praying to God on our behalf in this prayer. What is Jesus telling God in this prayer?

As is typical in John’s gospel, there are a lot of threads that are woven together in this prayer which we can’t possibly tease out in one sermon. I think of the gospel of John like a tapestry of themes all woven together into something glorious. The themes all fit together. But it is such an intricate tapestry that we can spend our whole lives trying to follow those themes and see how they are all woven together. With just a few moments together we can only focus on a few threads to do it any kind of justice. So, I have found a few threads for us to follow.

The first can be traced through verse 10 where Jesus says, “I have been glorified in them.” Jesus speaks of being glorified throughout the gospel of John, but this is the one and only place in the gospel where Jesus links his glory with the community of disciples. Jesus is glorified in the community. Why is this important?

The community demonstrates the glory of Jesus. That is a good thing to know as Jesus will soon be leaving them and ascending back to heaven. How will the glory of Jesus continue to be present in the world? Through the community of disciples. In other words, the church continues to glorify Jesus in the world. We present the glory of Jesus in the world.

Every couple of years the world’s attention is drawn to either the summer Olympics or the winter Olympics. Hopefully this year there will be a summer Olympics in Tokyo. The opening ceremonies are always a spectacle, when the host nation has an opportunity to showcase to the world their national myth. One of the highlights is the parade of nations. The athletes from each nation get to march around the track, waving their flag and often wearing uniforms that reflect something about their nation. Each nation gets to represent their glory to the world as they march around the track, whether the delegation is one or two athletes from Mauritania or Palau or one hundred from the United States or China.

Think of the church as a global nation. The community of Jesus followers are not confined to national borders. We are without borders. In 1st Peter we are identified as a holy nation. We are one people, a Christian people, that spans the world, a diversity of hues, of languages and cultures. And as we move about the earth ,we as a global community give glory to Jesus in all of our beautiful diversity.

Let’s trace another thread in vv. 11 and 15. Here we see the thread of Jesus praying for God to protect the disciples. Protect us from what and who?

Jesus prays for God to protect us from disunity. Jesus is asking God to keep the community unified. As Jesus says, “protect them…so that they may be one, as we are one.” It is very important to Jesus that when he leaves the community will remain unified, just as branches abide in the vine. So, how are we doing? How is that unity in the church working out? Uh oh. We are divided in so many ways. I remember visiting an Eastern Orthodox church once. They had this graph posted on the wall that showed the history of the church. There was a thick straight line at the bottom of the graph. At the start of that line was the mark labeled “Jesus and the apostles.” Around the year 1054, another line emerged from that main line at the bottom of the graph. That was labeled as the Great Schism when the Roman Church broke off from the rest of the church in the world. The Roman Catholic Church line continues along until the 15th century, marking the Protestant Reformation. At that point, there are lines breaking off everywhere showing all the denominations in the Protestant church. This graph tries to do a few things. First, it demonstrates how divided up the church is with all these denominations. But it also lets the Eastern Orthodox have the comfort in knowing that they are a part of the church that, according to the graph, has never changed since the days of Jesus and the apostles. Only they are the one, holy, and apostolic church. A little off putting for us Protestants.

But it does beg the question. With so many denominations and independent churches, are we unified or not? Where do we find the unity that Jesus prayed God to protect? Verse 8 may be our saving grace, the place from which we can claim unity in spite of all our divisions. Jesus says, “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.” There it is. This is the basis for our unity as followers of Jesus. All Christians, no matter what denomination or non-denomination we find ourselves, believe that Jesus came from God and was sent by God. In other words, we are unified in our belief that Jesus is who he says he is. That is the most basic form of unity that we can claim, a unity that God protects.

Our unity is protected in our common belief in Jesus. Who are we protected from? Jesus asks God to protect us from the evil one, just like in the Lord’s Prayer, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Who is the evil one? It is the enemy of God. It is the divider, the one who tears relationships apart, the one who lies and distorts the truth, the one who blocks love and strives to obliterate life. It is this evil one that Jesus prays to God to protect us from. We see evidence of the evil one all throughout the world and even among us. How devastating it is when the evil one uses the church as a means to rip apart relationships, perpetuate falsehoods, and block the expression of love. When it comes to protecting us from the evil one, God has God’s hands full.

Perhaps this is the big point. When Jesus left the disciples and returned to heaven, he did not leave the disciples to fend for themselves. They did not have to face the evil one alone. They were not left to struggle to maintain unity all by themselves. Jesus placed his community into the hands of God to be their protector. This applies to us as well. Each of us, individually and collectively, are placed in the hands of God. Yes, the church itself is in God’s hands. I don’t know about you but it is comforting to know that when it comes to unity in the church and protection from the evil one, the church is in God’s hands, not mine or yours. I, for one, am relieved to know this. It is from this stance that we can be confident to proclaim that not even the gates of hell can prevail against us. We are battered and bruised. And often the church is a tool to further the work of evil in the world. But the church will always remain. God will see to that.

One more thread. In vv. 17 and 19 we follow the thread where Jesus prays for God to sanctify us in the truth. What does this mean?

First, to be sanctified in this sense does not mean being morally pure. This is not about being civilized, not cussing, or succumbing to vices. To be sanctified in this context is about being set aside for special use, even for divine service. In the service of holy communion, the bread and wine are sanctified, becoming for us the body and blood of Jesus. At baptism, the pitcher that contains the water and the bowl the water is poured into, along with the water itself, all become sanctified, instruments in the sacred work of baptizing someone. In that moment, it’s not ordinary water or an ordinary pitcher or bowl. Something happens that makes these things set apart for God’s use. That’s what being sanctified means here.

So, to be sanctified in the truth is to be set aside to proclaim the truth about Jesus to the world. We, as Christians, ordinary people, are set aside, sacred instruments for God’s use, for the purpose of proclaiming truth in the world. In other words, we are sanctified mouthpieces, continuing to speak the message that Jesus spoke when he was walking the earth. We extend the witness of Jesus up to this very day. When Jesus ascended to heaven, his message did not leave with him. His disciples were sanctified in order to continue proclaiming that message. And so, we do the same in our day, and generations to come will continue to proclaim that message, that Jesus is the Son of God and that through believing in him we receive eternal life. This is our sanctified purpose, to bear witness to the truth we know of Jesus so that others will come to belief.

Three strands in this prayer tapestry preserved for us by the gospel writer. We can be confident that what Jesus asks of God will be provided, as Jesus and God are of one mind. We can be comforted to know that even now Jesus is praying for you and me, having entrusted each of us into the hands of the one who creates and sustains, the God of love and life. This is where we find our hope and the basis for our joy.