For Sunday, May 24, 2009
John 17:6-19 (Psalm 1) (Sermon to Myself)
The writer of the Gospel according to John, thought to be John the disciple who loved and was loved deeply by Jesus, the mystic writer shares this long, beautiful prayer of Jesus. Chapter 17 begins with a prayer of Jesus in relationship with God whom he called “Abba”, and his readiness to be “glorified”. We can speculate on that meaning another time. In verses 6-19, the prayer of Jesus is a prayer of intercession on behalf of his closest disciples, the ones he calls “friends”, who are no longer slaves, but the ones called to abide in God, abide in him, abide in love (John 15).
Protection is the word that leaps out in my lectio for this reading this time. Jesus’ prayer is that God will continue to protect his followers just as Jesus has protected them, guarded them. Like a mother hen gathers her chicks, like a parent who sends their children off onto the school bus for the first time, or into adulthood on their own, or sending a spouse off on a trip alone into time and space away, there is the longing for their safety and a prayer for protection from all that may harm them in this world.
Jesus asks Abba God to protect these dear, close friends; to guard them while they are in the world, the cosmos, which is not their true home. They ultimately belong to God, to a home beyond the limitations of this world, but who for a time are IN the world with all its limiting and assailing factors. While they remain in this cosmos, their friend and teacher Jesus, is departing, and he so prays for protection for them in defense against evil, or the evil one. The protection prayed for anticipates 3 results:
“so that they may be one, as we are one” (.11)
“so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves” (13)
“so that they may be sanctified in truth” (vs 17 & 19)
It would seem that protection from evil allows unity, joy, and holy truth to thrive among them. So what is the evil that preys upon unity, joy, and sacred truth?
The followers who have become dear friends, who have become a community of a new kind of faith and life were a motley crew. Some educated, some not. Some scoundrels or zealots. Some having means, some quite poor. Some simple and some power-seekers. Some tempestuous, betrayers, and at times prone to denial. Some kin by blood and others kin only by grace. Jesus had become “the glue” that held them together in a fragile community. As Jesus’ departure was becoming clear to him, he knew the evils that would work to diminish the unity, the joy, and the holy truth that had come to live among them. It would seem that the world apart from the holy presence of God-with-us, might be a place that would divide and separate, categorize and compartmentalize people; that would suck the joy and hope from life in the midst of struggle, persecution, and injustices; seek an ownership of ultimate truth and knowledge that might be used over and against another in superiority and power. A good image of this sort of evil might be “the Dementors” in Harry Potter stories, who are wispy spirit-like wraiths who literally suck the joy out of their prey. The only defense against them is the light of the presence of the Patronus, patron, father, Abba. The Light of the presence of God protects from evil in, among, and around us.
Perhaps Jesus had knowledge of the impending persecutions and wanted Abba to protect them from hurt and pain. But hurt and pain are part of this world. I don’t think Jesus’ prayer for protection was for a bubble to be placed around his friends. “ta`ra`son”, the Greek word whose root is “ta`rew”, means ‘to keep, to observe, to pay attention to, to keep under guard’. The protection prayer was not to keep them from the struggles of life, nor the pain, nor the reality of disappointment or death – all realities in this world, but to protect them from, to pay attention to, the ways in which “evil” could tear apart lives committed to unity, joy and hope, and the holy truth within them, to send light into darkness.
The evil, or the evil one, that assails, like a Dementor, slips alongside us subtly, quietly, often without our observation, bringing a shadow that can go unnoticed for some time. It is the flippant, judgmental remark about another, the irritation with the other that grows into anger, getting sucked into rumors or gossip that divide and destroy relationships with lying tongues. It is the jealousies, disregard, and ingratitude toward other’s gifts. It is the unwillingness to set self aside in love for another because of fear that we might not be noticed or appreciated. It is listening to that deceptive voice that says we have nothing to offer and so we withhold ourselves from risking joy and life and giving whatever we have, small or great. It is grasping a new insight of God’s holy truth and turning it into “The Truth” refusing to acknowledge the truths God may reveal in other ways to other people. It is a closed truth rather than an open, wondering truth of God’s holy, mystery that ever surprises. It is all that “stuff” that a young new faith community struggles with in becoming the Body of Christ.
I can’t keep my loved ones from the struggles, the accidents, mistakes, nor the disappointments of life. Those may be in my wishful prayers of intercession for them, but deeper is the prayer for protection of their hearts and minds for loving unity in community when relationships can be difficult, for joy and hope and grace even in the midst of hardship, for eyes to see God’s truth everywhere and not in one’s private assumptions or “possession” of “The Truth.” I can pray for God’s loving protection to guard attitudes and relationships, and responses to life’s ups and downs. I can pray that I might have “God-eyes” that pay attention when I am tempted to go down the road of individualism and isolation, despair or negativity, or arrogance in knowledge. I can pray for that same God-awareness, protection, for the loved ones of my community of faith and life.
Jesus knew well the infesting ways of this world of status, power, and business-as-usual that would assail his friends, and assail us. Jesus wanted to protect them from destroying themselves as a community of one love, one joy and hope, one sacred, pure truth of God’s grace among them. If they were protected from the evils of disunity, despair, and blinders in holy truth, then they would be able to withstand all the other realities of human existence.
While in this world, we are bound to experience the forces that “break in” to our security systems (even 7 times in 2 months) and create dis-ease and a sense of vulnerability. We cannot be impervious to those break-ins, disrupting and causing chaos within. However, we can be protected in God’s loving care in how we respond together, when we refuse to turn inward or upon each other in blame or throw our hands up, giving up and walking away. We can stick together and support one another and still find joy in life together even in the midst of hardships, pain, or struggles, because we know our sure hope. We can be protected by living in the pure, sanctified truth of God’s grace that is sufficient for all circumstances. If as families of faith, communities of faith, God’s light, that is God’s presence protects us, from the evils that would divide us from one another, from that which causes us to lose sight of joy and love and gratitude, from that which keeps blinding us to Godly truths, then all is truly well, and all will be well, and Jesus’ prayer for protection is answered.
The Psalmist writes:
Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked,
or take the path of that sinners tread,
or sit in the seat of scoffers;
but their delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on God’s law they meditate day and night.
They are like trees, planted by streams of water,
which yield their fruit in its season,
and their leaves do not wither.
In all they do, they prosper. (Psalm 1:1-3)
Happy are they who don’t get sucked into the standards of this world,
who don’t go down the road where Self is God,
who don’t lolly-gag with constant critics.
Happy are they who follow the law of love, of grace,
who look for love in all things at all times.
In them is life, vitality, goodness, for they produce
love, joy, peace, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self control every day.
And for them, life is complete. Life is protected through prayer.
Protector God, Abba, Amma God,
who loves with a love that will never let us go alone,
protect each one of us from the dementors in this world
that would suggest seeking self preservation first and at all costs,
that would teach us that we are separate from one another,
that would suck your joy and hope in life from us,
that would lure us down paths that destroy life,
that would instill negative, hurtful attitudes and responses.
Protector God,
bear us up on eagle’s wings to soar in gracious living with you,
where there is unity in you and with one another,
where fullness of joy abounds,
and where your holy truths are revealed day by day with love.
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