Living In-Between (John 17:11b-19)

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The Seventh Sunday of Easter falls between Ascension and Pentecost. It’s a kind of isolated, awkward Sunday – caught between the promises of what was and what will yet come to be. Similarly, we live in an ”in-between” time, this time between Christ’s ascension and His return. We live squarely between the promises of what was and what will yet come to be. We can feel isolated, alone, and out of place living as Christ’s people who are ”in the world” but not ”of it.” We live out of sync with those around us who do not remember the promises of God given when Jesus came 2000 years ago. We live at odds with those who do not look forward to the promises of God to be fulfilled in the return of our Lord. We may be caught in-between, but we are not alone. Today our Lord prays for us and prepares us to live in the world during this ”in-between” time.

(14) I have given them thy word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Friends, we live in a hostile world. I cannot state it any more plainly. The world hated Jesus’ disciples. We see examples of this in the New Testament and the history of the early church. Each of the apostles Jesus was here praying for was persecuted. All but John died a martyr’s death. Sometimes we like to think that things have changed – that our world is more Christian now – but really it hasn’t.

The world still hates Christians today. We see examples all around us, in the news of the day. Persecution is intensifying. As Dr. Paul Maier writes in his book The Da Vinci Code: Fact or Fiction “A vast double standard overhangs Western society today that is totally deplorable – namely, you dare not attack any of the religious systems of the world … except for Christianity. To criticize the polytheism and caste system in Hinduism or to fault Gautama Buddha for leaving his wife and son to meditate in the forest provokes charges of intolerance and bigotry. To question aspects of the prophet Mohammad’s life is not politically correct in a pluralistic society – and it can even be dangerous (as witness think back to the incident with Salmon Rushte or the cartoon furor of this past year!) To identify any Jewish role whatever in the Good Friday trial of Jesus raises instant charges of anti-semitism. But to skewer Christianity? Caricature Christ and present falsehoods about the church he founded? No Problem! Join the crowd! It’s the in thing – politically very correct and high fashion to boot!”

Why does this frustrating double standard exist? Why is Christianity the only one to be so shamefully mistreated in the name of tolerance and inclusiveness? Why is it that people are cheered on if they are “spiritual” (read anti-church) but vilified if they are religious (read church-going folk)? Jesus has already given us the reason. I have given them thy word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. The world hates Christians because the world hates the Bible. To put it another way, the world hates Christians for claiming to have the only truth, the only way to God.

And so we must face repeated specials on TV claiming to find what “really” happened in the days of the Bible. We must contend with regular Easter appearances of new gospels that the church supposedly tried to stifle (the implication being they were more true than the word we have). We must forever try to defend ourselves in the face of wild conspiracy theories, but without ever making a big deal about it. And then there are the just plain belligerent notions like “the church only wants your money and they will make you feel guilty until they get it” Is it any wonder that we can feel alone and unprotected. We lose heart and give up – or worse yet, give in. If you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em. Either we walk in the world’s ways or we walk in danger all the way. And it’s a long walk from the promises in Baptism to the day we go to be with God in Heaven. It is a walk that cannot be made alone. The voices of the world are just too loud and incessant.

But it is a path that we do not walk alone. Jesus has been praying for His church! (11) And now I am no more in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to thee. Holy Father, keep them in thy name, which thou hast given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. Our text here in John 17 is part of our Lord’s ”High Priestly Prayer. Before He returns to His Father, Jesus prays for His disciples. This small group of men sandwiched awkwardly between the promises of the Lord’s Supper and the agony of the cross. These blessed saints who will one day take the message of the God’s Word out into the whole world, but now are huddled together in fear and anxiety in the face of that same world’s opposition.

(15) I do not pray that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil one. Jesus prays that they (and we) would be protected – not taken out of the world, but protected from the evil one. The danger is not so much that we should endure sufferings – but that we would lose our faith. Sufferings befall the pagan as well as the Christian. It is only faith that makes a difference in the end.

Further Jesus prays (17) Sanctify them in the truth; thy word is truth. He prays that they would be ‘’sanctified,” set apart for God’s service, by the truth of God’s Word. He prays that the one thing that this world doesn’t want to hear, would be the source of life and salvation and perseverance for his disciples in this world. By God’s word our faith is strengthened. By God’s Word our sins are forgiven. By God’s Word our religion is defended. By God’s word our resolve is hardened. By God’s Word, God’s people are sanctified. Jesus prays this even as He sanctifies Himself for us.

(18-19) As thou didst send me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be consecrated in truth. Jesus prays all these things in that upper room on that Maundy Thursday evening just as he is about to go out and be arrested, tried, crucified, killed, and buried. This is the night in which He was betrayed. This is the central message of the Bible. Jesus Christ and Him crucified, risen, and ascended. This is what the whole of Scriptures looks forward to or points back upon. Jesus set Himself apart (sanctified himself) to complete the service for which the Father had sent Him into the world … To go to the cross for us!

And because he walked that in-between time of Gethsemane and Golgotha alone, no one is ever left to walk the road of life alone ever again. Let the world rage on against us as it did against our Lord. In the end it will always lose. Jesus is more powerful than all who would seek to crucify him, then or now. The Father glorified Jesus by raising Him from the dead! Christ has won the victory! Christ has given us that same victory through His Word of the Gospel.

The Father has heard Jesus’ prayer. The result? We have joy! The joy of sins forgiven! The joy of eternal life! Easter joy! We are protected by the power of God’s name. We are sanctified by the truth of God’s Word – sent into the world to live as those not of it. Jesus prays for His church, and this strengthens us to live as His people, in the midst of a hostile world, during this ”in-between” time.

AMEN.

 

What A Friend! (John 15:9-17)

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What kinds of qualities do you look for in a friend? What makes someone a GOOD friend? Perhaps you would answer that question with some of the following … “A real friend is the guy who walks in when everybody else walks out.” (Anonymous) A friend is someone you can share your deepest feelings with. A friend is someone you can trust with your life. A friend is someone who will always be there for you when you need them. “Your best friend is he who brings out the best that is within you.” (Henry Ford)

What kinds of qualities do you look for in a friend? How many of you would choose to look for the following traits in a friend instead? A friend is someone who doesn’t really like you, but feels obligated to you. A friend will be with you in the good times, but can’t really be expected to hang in there through the rough times (after all they’ve got enough problems of their own to deal with). A friend is someone who only wants to be around you for all that you can do for them.

The difference is like day and night. The first is a friend indeed, while the second seems little better than a servant. One loves you no matter what, the other loves only what you can give them. One loves you above even themselves, the other loves only themselves. Which kind of friend would you want to have in your life? Do we really need to answer that? Which kind of friend would you be? The answer may not be as black and white as you may wish.

In our Gospel we read: (John15:10,12-13,17) If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love … “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends …This I command you, to love one another.”

If love for the other is the essence of true friendship, how many of us live up to bar that Jesus has here placed before us? Who among us can truly say that we have loved our friends in the same way that God has first loved us? Who among us can claim to have been willing to lay down our life for a friend? Perhaps there were indeed rare moments of such sentiment, but is that truly what motivates your EVERY action toward one another? Especially in all those little day-to-day circumstances?

How many times, instead, have we found our friendships governed by the very things that would define us as a servant instead? Being available to your friend only until it was a nuisance. Giving to others in the hopes of getting something even better down the road. Using (or even abusing) someone else’s trust for your own ends. How many of your previous friendships have soured because of these same bitter fruits between you.

Worse yet, how often do these very attitudes shape the way in which we relate to our God and His Church? Coming to the Lord’s house only when convenient, or when something else wasn’t more pressing … rarely going to Bible Study for the very same reasons? Worse yet, devoting what little time we do to God so that He can pay us back later when we need Him. When we are troubled or grieved, when someone we love has been hurt or is dead. How many times have you happily drawn out of your relationship with God, never once considering what you should be putting back in to it? Taking what God owes you, being that He’s the guy in charge and all. We’ve all done it.

The reason churches struggle, the reason people have doubts and anxieties, the reason money becomes an issue again and again in the life of congregations is simply this: too many of God’s beloved children see themselves as nothing more than servants. Being a servant of God is not in itself a bad thing. Just ask St. Peter or St. Paul. They were happy to proclaim that they were servants of their lord. But the reason they were happy living as servants was because they knew that in God’s eyes they were so much more!

The problem with playing the role of a servant comes when there is nothing more to the relationship behind it. Those Christians who see themselves as nothing more than God’s servants, have a very different attitude toward God and His Church. They see themselves only as people who are obligated to be here. People who are expected to perform. People who are required to give. But just like a servant in someone’s employ, every bit of those obligations, expectations, and requirements can be done without once truly loving the one they are being done for. It gets done because it is a job and that’s what you’ve got to do if you want to get paid. It gets done only well enough to keep us out of trouble. It gets done only to the point it becomes an inconvenience, or until it becomes apparent that we’re not going to get out of it what we hoped for.

Where is the love God is looking for in that kind of attitude? (15) “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing;” How many congregations follow God without truly understanding what He means, without knowing what He desires, without understanding what He feels? How many people live out their lives under God seeking not to displease Him, but not yet ready to go the extra mile and actually show that they love Him?

If we were to be honest, we would have to say that once we too were like that. Indeed, sometimes even now we are tempted to be and act just like a servant again. Doing only what’s in our best interest. But did you hear that crucial piece of Gospel Jesus stated in verse 15? It makes all the difference in the world. “No longer do I call you servants,” We are no longer God’s servants … we are something more! (15) “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.”

As Martin Luther once paraphrased these verses: “You do not belong to the same class [as those], who serve Me for the sake of personal gain and not from sincere love. But you are My friends; for to you I have revealed and transmitted all that I received from My Father.” There you hear whom Christ calls His friends and also why He does so, namely, because they receive benefits from Him. For that is His definition of the word “friend.” … It is our custom to reverse this order and call him “friend” who bestows good on others. But here Christ is speaking about the manner in which we come to be called friends in the sight of God, namely, by being recipients of His benefits. For we gave Him nothing previously, nor did we merit His friendship. Immediately after this Christ adds: “You did not choose Me.” He initiated this friendship by accepting and transforming us from enemies into friends. And now it behooves us to thank Him for this and to confess that we owe our friendship solely to His grace and goodness. (Vol. 24: Luther’s works, Sermons on the Gospel of St. John: Chapters 14-16)

And is this not, after all, exactly what Jesus came to do? (13) Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. The cross of Christ is the ultimate expression of FRIENDSHIP! God’s all-encompassing, overwhelming Friendship toward us lowly sinners! It goes way beyond a simple act of service. It goes to the very heart of what God feels toward you in Christ. You are His beloved Friend! For Jesus it is never simply about doing enough, about getting anything in return, about a sense of duty or obligation. Jesus did, (and does) everything for you because you are His best friend!

When everyone else is walking out of your life He is the one walking in. He is the one you can share your deepest feelings with. He will never laugh, never judge, never look down on you for them. All that was taken care of on the cross. Jesus is that someone you can trust with your very life. And not just here in this world, but also in heaven forever! Jesus is that someone who will always be there for you when you need Him. And it probably comes as no surprise then, that Jesus also brings out the best that is within each and every one of us. Not out of obligation or duty, but out of love and friendship.

It all becomes so much more poignant when you consider that these few short words were spoken on the night of the Passover, just hours before Jesus would die on the cross. Jesus had been the master of these men for three years. He had taught, corrected, rebuked and led them toward this final fulfillment of all God’s promises. He was about to lay down His life for them. They were not students, not servants, not followers. They were His FRIENDS.

(14-16) You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide; so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

Beloved Friends of our Lord Jesus, you too have been privy to all that God the Father thinks. You understand what He desires, you know what He feels, you can guess what He is thinking. You have come to see and to know all this in Jesus Himself. You are chosen by God. Hand picked to be His Best Friend. You are loved and cared for, you are protected and provided for. You have been appointed to bear rich and lasting fruit for God; fruit that will last. You have been called to love one another, to love your church, to love complete strangers, because in doing so you are showing love to your Best Friend, Jesus.

AMEN