Reflection: "God's People"In this congregation, we generally follow the liturgical calendar, and this week brings us the seventh Sunday of Easter. During these last fifty days, we've been celebrating the time when the risen Lord took the light of Christ to the world and extended his kingdom through resurrected hope. In our Gospel reading, we hear Jesus talking to his Father, God, about his followers on earth and it includes the words: “….because they are yours.” He was letting us know that we are God’s people, and the events of Easter tell us that we are saved by his death and subsequent resurrection. But, I wonder, is it enough for us to just know all that and then just sit back smugly, trusting that Christ has reserved a place for us in God’s Kingdom? Earlier in John’s gospel, Ch. 13, Jesus gives his disciples a new commandment, when he tells them to: “Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you should love one another. By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” But will that be enough? Can we just love others and that’s it? I don’t think so. If we’re to be the people Jesus wants us to be – to be like him – then we have to tell them WHY we’re loving them. Telling them about the love that God has for all of us, his children, and offering them the same gift that he’s given us. In other words, we have to be God’s disciples, as well as his children. So, why are we hearing this particular message from John's Gospel today, so long after Easter? It seems out of order, and we hear Jesus is praying what’s generally known as the High Priestly Prayer. But we know that it must have occurred before his crucifixion. There's not a single reference to the resurrection in this passage. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that this week is remembered as “the Ascension of Jesus”, when Jesus ascended to Heaven, after his resurrection. But I see the main point of this out-of-order Gospel is that Jesus was serious when he called you and me. We know that the concept of a “call” is paramount to discipleship. After all, we fill our churches with all kinds of programs and curricula to help us identify, understand, and respond to God's call. But, these days, statistics show that fewer and fewer people have any affiliation with a community of faith, and mainline denominations are shrinking at a rate that calls the future of these churches into question, all of them accounting for less than 20% of the population. Worse still, these gurus indicate that no one is getting it right. Evangelicals are bringing people through their doors in record numbers, only to watch them also leaving in record numbers. In fact, faster than their mainline Christian counterparts. These statistics are hard to hear and the picture they paint is not affirming. But what these studies actually tell us is less about the death of the church and more about its future. I'm sure that when the disciples heard the High Priestly Prayer all those thousands of years ago, they would have turned to one another thinking this is not what we signed up for, this is not why I left my nets upon the shore, this is not why I have left my family. Hearing Jesus' words, accepting that the difficult hour had come, those were not words of comfort but words of change, accompanied by the fearful unknown. The beauty of this out-of-order Gospel proclaiming the cross during our season of the resurrection, comes raging right back into our lives, right back into our calls when we hear Christ's words once again. If we had heard this prayer before Good Friday, we might have mistakenly heard it for that day alone, for that appointed time. But on this side of the prayer, on this after-Easter day, when we go back and listen once again, we hear the whole prayer and realize that what starts as Christ's obedience to change, ushers in our obedience to change. The point of Jesus' plea today is not only his obedience to the past; the point is his hope for our future. This is not merely a prayer that Jesus throws up into the heavens so that his work on the cross might be fulfilled. No, this prayer, heard on this side of Easter, is a prayer for you and me, for the Church, that we might realize the faith Christ has in us, the faith Christ has in our call. We may have faltered. We may have made every conceivable mistake. We may have so messed up that indeed the world begins to see us only as a hierarchical assembly of dressed up, religiously educated and out-of-touch people. We may indeed be just as the modern media describe us or in this moment, seemingly out of order liturgically, we might hear the studies and census stats out there, for what they really say about us, and in that moment also hear Christ's praying for us. “Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.” The disciples probably had no idea what was happening when Jesus prayed this prayer the first time. But, brothers and sisters, we do. We know the whole the story, and we get to hear Christ's hope, Christ's call, Christ's obedience to us on this side of the cross and the empty tomb. Thanks be to God for this out-of-order prayer. Thanks be to God that Jesus is still praying for us. And thanks be to God for those who hold us accountable. May we hear all their voices, and once again, accept our call. My prayer for today is taken from 1 Peter 5:6-11. “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you. Discipline yourselves; keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour. Resist him, steadfast in your faith, for you know that your brothers and sisters in all the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering. And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the power forever and ever. Amen” Pastor Rick
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