"Word of Life Mural” – Millard Sheets (1964)
This past Thursday, we celebrated the fact that Jesus has finally made it home to his father after a long and arduous journey on this earth. In the Nicene Creed, we say about this great homecoming of Jesus that “He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.”
And we disciples are left to wait for the Holy Spirit.
While we’re waiting, we have some time to give thanks for the gifts that Jesus gave us while he was here with us as one of us.
This year I’ve seen signs all over our neighborhood that simply say “Thank you, Jesus.”
And those signs point to the truth that Jesus, during his time with us, left us some gifts that no one can ever take away from us.
First, Jesus has brought God near to us.
The Jewish people had such reverence for God that they would not speak God’s name. Scripture said that no one could look on God’s face and live. God resided in the holiest of sanctuaries in the temple, and only priests chosen by lot could enter this space and approach the divine presence, bringing an offering of incense and offering up to God the prayers of the people.
So imagine how radical the words were the first time Jesus spoke them to the disciples, that when they, ordinary people, prayed to God, that they should call this transcendent, distant and holy God their Daddy—the Aramaic word that Jesus used to address God is just that intimate. Our daddy, our papa, our beloved parent. One caveat here, if you have or had a conflicted relationship with your father and/or your mother and your relationship with them is broken or distant, then think of the person who has been there for you, to care for you as a good parent might have—maybe a brother or sister, or spouse, or a dear friend.
Jesus wanted us to know that God loves us and listens to us in the closest and most intimate way. God is the one who leans down as a parent bends tenderly over a child to hear that little one’s prayers and to kiss that child goodnight, and that child knows that the one who loves her so much will come whenever she calls out in the darkness.
Second, Jesus gave us the gift of God’s protection.
Jesus did not mean that his disciples would not suffer during their lifetimes, or that they would be spared death. Part of being human beings is that we all suffer in some form or fashion, and we all end up dying.
God did not seem to protect the estimated 10 to 17 million people who were sent to their deaths in gas chambers during World War II.
So many terrified prayers, unanswered prayers, swirling into oblivion.
So how does God protect us when we for all intents and purposes are unprotected and at the mercy of evil or disease, when we are forsaken?
Jesus asks God to protect us in today’s gospel and then adds this reason for his request. Protect them, so that they may be one, as we are one.
This statement sums up God’s protection for us in all times and in all places, even when we have trouble recognizing that God is protecting us.
As disciples of Jesus, we believe that Jesus abides in us, and that we abide in Jesus, and that means that God abides in us, and that we abide in God. So we know that in the worst of trials, in the greatest abandonment we could imagine; and even in death, which each one of us has to go through alone, that God’s presence, whether or not we can feel it, is already enfolding us and holding us, and will bring us out of death into resurrection life. We are never, ever out of God’s loving arms.
We can cry out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” and feel unheard, and yet, we are heard and held and protected in ways we cannot fathom because Jesus, by his presence with us, has already made us one with God. Suffering and death cannot change or even alter this fact. We are already one with God, here and now, in this life, no matter how bad things get.
The other part of that request that Jesus made to God in today’s gospel—“Father, protect them so that they may be one as we are one,” is also a statement about how God provides a visible layer of protection for us when we are united in God’s love. When Christians unite and do God’s work in the world, we work to protect the unprotected. We Christians have the privilege of providing a layer of protection for the unprotected that they would not otherwise have. Working for the end to racism and addressing the causes of violence in our nation, feeding the hungry, providing shelter for those with nowhere to go are a few examples of providing protection for those in need in our world.
And we protect one another. Although we can’t protect one another as completely as Jesus did, because we aren’t Jesus– still—we can come before God on behalf of one another in prayer. We can be there for one another in our bad times, in our trials, in our sorrows and in our suffering by simply being together. We can protect one another from hopelessness and loneliness when we see ourselves as one, as Jesus and God are one. This being in community is a privilege and a way that Jesus gives us the gift of God’s protection through our love for one another because we are one. Yes, we will even lay down our lives for one another.
Jesus also gave us the gift of joy. Earlier in the gospel according to John, Jesus says to the disciples, “As the Father has loved me, so I love you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.”
Jesus wanted the disciples to know that if they lived as Jesus lived, completely in tune with his father’s will, they would live in peace, harmony, and happiness, regardless of the outward circumstances of their lives. In today’s gospel, Jesus says that his joy will be made complete in us. We can feel the joy of Jesus when we are abiding in God through Jesus, and when are at one with one another, loving one another, God’s greatest commandment to us.
Every time we love one another, we are adding to the completeness of God’s joy. This is an audacious and challenging idea. But it’s also an encouraging idea, because if I’m tempted not to love someone with God’s love, I only have to remember that I’d rather contribute to the joy of Jesus rather than to add to the sorrows he must bear when he observes the less than loving things that go on among human beings all the time, so God, help me to do the loving thing even when I’m tempted to do otherwise.
Last of all, Jesus said that we are holy, that is we get to be sanctified in truth.
To be sanctified is to be made holy, to become more and more like our Lord and Savior every day, and we do that through knowing the truth, the truth being Jesus himself. The truth of who Jesus is sets us free to love! And to love one another with God’s love is to grow into an ever more mature holiness.
The more we love one another with God’s love, the more we know that we are abiding in God. The more we abide in God, the more we want to love one another. The more we love one another, the holier and happier we become. And the holier and the happier we become, the closer we are to God. And the closer we are to God, the more we will want to be One with one another.
We’ve got a week between now and next Sunday, the Day of Pentecost, when we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit.
So this week, think on these gifts that Jesus has given to us for all time.
Jesus has brought God near to us.
Jesus have given us the eternal protection of God.
Jesus has given us the gift of joy.
And Jesus has made us holy by abiding in us, so that we have the freedom to love God and to love one another as God has loved us.
For all these gifts that Jesus has given to us, we give our thanks and praise.
Amen.