Sunday, June 1, 2014, Ascension (full size gallery)
As with last Sunday a beautiful day with temperatures slightly warmer. The clover was out this week which was enjoyed by the bees. The osprey are still in their river pad at the base of King Street. The babies were squawking with the adults probably shopping for lunch
This service had a theme around the Ascension 40 days this past Thursday and the approaching Pentecost. John’s Gospel is thematic occuring much earlier before the resurrection and is the "priestly prayer". Acts depicts the period surrounding the Ascension and before the Pentecost next week. The sermon was about this period with Catherine using a shovel as a metaphor. The bulletin is here.
Godly Play with 6 children was active with the Good Shepherd. The children came in during communion .
UTO offering was today. Port Royal Tutoring continues on Monday and Wednesday with plans being made for outside activities.
Coffee hour featured a babecue platter made by Becky, chicken salad sandwiches, pineapple upside down cake (with real pineapple from Hawaii courtesy of the Betchys), vegetables, and Trifle. Judy also helped with Coffee Hour.
We had 37 in church plus 6 children and Amy during communion for a total of 44.
The lectionary places Jesus’ prayer concerning glory at the end of the Easter season, but in John’s gospel the prayer occurs at the end of the Last Supper. The prayer–like the rest of John’s gospel–connects glory to the crucifixion itself. However, the text is relevant to the Ascension.
It has also been described as the ‘high priestly prayer’ of Jesus, a designation inspired by the portrait of Jesus in Hebrews and by the imagery of 17:19.
Verses 1-8 constitute the beginning of a prayer in which Jesus reiterates his relationship with, authority received from, and activities for God.
The time appointed by God for his departure (crucifixion, resurrection and ascension) has come.
Jesus has been glorifying the Father on earth, making God’s name known , and passing on God’s words. Glorifying is how God is made known to humans. He had glorified the Father by His earthly life of obedience and submission. During his public ministry Jesus taught what God wanted him to teach, and performed the healings and other works that God wanted him to perform. Such faithfulness honors God (8:49). In another sense, however, Jesus glorified God by revealing God’s power.
According to John’s gospel, Jesus made divine power visible by the miraculous signs he performed. If the signs reveal God’s glory by displaying divine power, the crucifixion reveals God’s glory by conveying divine love. The crucifixion completes Jesus’ work of glorifying God on earth, for by laying down his life he gives himself completely so that the world may know of Jesus’ love for God and God’s love for the world (John 3:16; 14:31).
What he brings is the offer of life in relationship. To do the goal of the commission is variously described as the passing on of eternal life
It begins now in faith, as people come to know the love of the God who made them. And such life has a future through the promise of resurrection. Yet the gospel also recognizes that "No one has ever seen God" (1:18). God’s presence is hidden until God chooses to reveal it. The theme of glory has to do with the way revelation takes place.
The Father is the source of all that the Son has been given; Jesus is from (out of) the Father; and the Father sent him into the world. This revelation of glory, of the presence of God, is the work of Jesus. Jesus gives what he has received from God, and that his followers receive what Jesus has given them.
As the Father’s envoy Jesus not only reports that he has finished the task , but also requests reinstatement to his former status. This heavenly glory is something that the Son of God enjoyed before the world existed. That is, he asks that he may be glorified .. To share in such glory is to share in divine honor, divine majesty, and divine power. It was out of love that the Father gave the Son such glory before the foundation of the world, so that sharing in God’s glory means sharing in God’s love
Jesus’ petition was not to receive glory independently from the Father, but to be glorified to the praise of the Father. This means: being brought back to the glory of the Father’s presence, which is where he started . The ‘hour’ has in mind the events about to be unfolded in Jesus’ betrayal, arrest, trial and crucifixion.
The unity of Jesus with his heavenly Father is affirmed. Father gives glory to the son, the state of ultimate good and love existing outside of time .
Verses 9-19 are prayers on behalf of Jesus’ followers , true believers. These men who were radically different in temperament, personality and political philosophy. It was because of their glaring differences that their unity was so evident
By his resurrection and ascension Jesus returns to the heavenly glory that God prepared for him in love, and Jesus prays that his followers will one day join him in the Father’s presence to share in this glory and love (17:5, 24-26). To the eye of faith, however, the glory of the exalted Lord is already present in the crucified body of Jesus. If glory defines what the crucifixion is, the crucifixion defines what glory is. The crucifixion manifests the scope of divine power by disclosing the depth of divine love.
Verses 9 to 11. "No longer in the world" cannot be understood literally. If unity is not to be found in uniformity, it is to be seen in union. The disciples are now "in" Jesus. They are bonded with him; they abide in him. They are also still "in" the world, but in addition, they are now also embedded in the reality of Jesus. That they also are in the world is the reason for their needing protection
After His ascension He will no longer physically walk among His people, until they are reunited with Him. It is for this reunion that our Lord prayed
John is telling them/us that Jesus is worried about something: disunity and division. He prays that the disciples will be one. It is not about a place or a gift or a certificate of acquittal so much as about a relationship.
Looking forward to the time after his departure, Jesus asks the Father to “protect” (v. 11) the disciples from evil influences in the alien “world”, that they may have a unity modelled on that of the Father and the Son.
And notice that – as with other blessings – there is a larger purpose for being protected. We are protected so that we may be one as Jesus and God are one