Sunday 16 May, 2021

Reflection:  "People of Christ"

Psalm 1   

Acts 1:15-17, 21-26

John 17:6-19

1 John 5:9-1

In our Gospel reading today, we can hear that Jesus is praying to his father, God. 
Now this isn't the last prayer of Jesus, but it's the last one that the disciples probably heard. 
The location was in the Upper Room, on the night that Jesus was betrayed.

Later, in the Garden of Gethsemane, when he prayed in agony:
"Let this cup pass from me - yet not my will but your will be done", they had fallen asleep.

And when he cried out on the cross:
"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?", they were in hiding, fearing for their own safety.

Their sorry performance at the time when Jesus needed them most, makes the prayer we’re hearing today, all the more poignant. 
The disciples had always wanted to be in on his prayer-life and they had said, probably more than once,
"Lord, teach us to pray." 
But on that last night together, after supper, Jesus wasn't teaching them to pray.
Instead, he was praying for them – and he was right there, in front of them.

Aware that these are his final hours, Jesus admits to God,
"And now I am no longer in this world, but they are…." 
This must have really confused the disciples and, no doubt, they would have clung to him if they’d understood. 
His words underline a huge problem: 
Jesus is trying to tell them that he’s not going to be with them in the world.
An immense sadness must have hung over the surviving disciples, and also over us, as we probably feel very much on our own, without Jesus here in this world. 
But what we have to realise is that while his physical body may no longer be here, Jesus is very much with us and now we are the body of Christ in the world. 

Or, to put it another way:  We are the people of Christ.

Saint Teresa of Avila said:
"Christ has no body on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours; yours are the eyes through which the compassion of Christ looks out on a hurting world, yours are the feet with which he goes about doing good; yours are the hands with which he is to bless now."

Wow!  
That’s a bit of a tall order!

Maybe Jesus should have left his future presence down here in more capable hands than ours - I mean, we're just not all that special, are we?
We feel no miraculous power coursing through our veins, our brains get blurry, we get tired, we're stressed, we're just so very pedestrian, flat-footed, mortal...we’re…you know, human. 

Had I been in that room with Jesus, I might have been tempted to interrupt his prayer and plead for more explanation, especially when he says to God:
"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..." 
But hang on a minute, do we, or don’t we, belong to the world?

We were born into this world, so we're very much in it, up to our necks in it, as it turns out. 
As best I can tell, we're definitely in the world, but we don’t belong to the world, because we really belong to God.
We are now God’s representatives here on earth, carrying on the work that Jesus started.

I know that Jesus wasn't really praying for just the disciples at that time. 
He was praying for “them” – which includes all of us. 
He was praying for the church, the body of Christ in the world. Jesus prayed one more intriguing phrase:  "Sanctify them in truth." 
Truth is elusive these days, holiness can sometimes feel smug, stuffy, or like some rigid fossil from our religious past. 

Lots of Christians believe that faith should make an impact on the real world and even change us – but, in doing so, we focus almost exclusively on mission work. 
Yes, we'll give a cup of water to the thirsty, we'll serve food at the shelter, send teams to third world countries, contribute to a fund for homeless children, etc.
And these are all very good and worthwhile pursuits - but even atheists do similar things.

Maybe Jesus was praying for the disciples to be more holy - not to just be “do-gooders” - but to be holy in their souls, in the privacy of their minds and in their habits.Most of us would say that we’re not really very holy or worthy, and don’t deserve his concern for us, but Jesus thinks we are and that we should receive God’s protection. 

I know that Christians are in the world and, like Jesus, we’re not here to condemn the world, but to love the world. 

But how do we actually “love the world”? 
Well, we certainly shouldn't go around wagging fingers, or pronouncing judgment on the actions of others. 
Instead, we must show them love – God’s love. 
To love someone is to reveal to them their capacities for life, to uncover the light that’s shining within them.

Jesus prayed and revealed the beauty in his disciples (and also in us).
Not their abilities, strengths, or perfection, but their beauty.
Jesus didn't ask God to protect us from evil, or to protect us from bad things happening. 
I think it's important to think about this issue of God and whether we're protected from bad things happening, or even whether God causes bad things to happen. 

So, let's be clear: 
God doesn't sow cancer cells, or COVID viruses, in people's bodies.
God doesn't crash planes into buildings.
God doesn't prescribe one child to sleep under a bridge, or in a skip bin, while other children are in soft beds. 
God is not a control-freak, or saying it in a better way; God chooses not to be controlling in our lives - because God is love, and love just can't, or won't, control others. 

The Apostle Paul writes, "Love does not insist on its own way." 
God could have made us like puppets, so that he could manipulate and control everything we do, just to suit his will, but God yearns for our love, and so he cut the strings and gave us free-will.  

Understandably, we want everything to go smoothly for us and others, and we associate God with all that is good. 
But God is the Lord of everything, and in the shadows of that very dark room where Jesus prayed by flickering candlelight for his disciples, we realize he was about to suffer, and the ones he prayed for would suffer too.

All of us face difficulties, some are manageable, but some seem overwhelming. 
Jesus prayed so that the disciples would see him pray, and he still prays for us now, right now, from heaven, so that we can be his hands and feet in world in which we live. 

So, whatever we do in our interactions with those who are around us, let us be true representatives of the love that Christ has for all his people, for his family who are in, and of, this world. 

Whether we like it, or not, we are the people of Christ, here in his Kingdom, and we must go out among the people of the world, sanctified in truth, telling them of the love that Christ has for them, too.

​Then they, too, will have the choice to become people of Christ. 

Vaya con Dios (travel, or go, with God)

Pastor Rick