John
17:6-19
(Jesus prayed) ‘I have made your name known to
those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to
me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have
given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to
them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and
they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not
asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because
they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been
glorified in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in
the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that
you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. While I was
with them, I protected them in your name that*you have given me. I guarded them,
and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost,* so that the scripture might
be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the
world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. I have
given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong
to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. 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, just as I do not belong to the world. Sanctify
them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world,
so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so
that they also may be sanctified in truth.
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, just as I do not
belong to the world.
·
Back when I
was in the seminary, back when the earth was young, one of our professors, Sr.
Jean Marie, confronted a student on something he said. In answer to a question
in a class, he began “When I was in the world…” using an old-style phrase that
implied that he was no longer subject to the temptations and obligations that
go along with living a human life on Planet Earth. Sr. Jean looked at him
strangely and asked “So where do you think you are now?”
·
To some
Christians, the “World” is a shorthand term for all that might be considered
evil. It includes war, oppression, robbery, prejudice, famine, hatred, and any
number of other negative things. The world is “bad” and it and the body are
things to be mastered and eventually left behind in an escape to a pure
spiritual existence. Now not all Christians think this way but there are some
that do.
·
In this
same vein, the world is sometimes perceived as something to be avoided since it
is thoroughly corrupt and it’s influence can be a corrupting one.
·
What is
easily forgotten in all this talk of a corrupt and sinful world is the simple
statement from the Gospel of John, a quote that some call the ‘Gospel in
Miniature’ For
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes
in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed,
God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that
the world might be saved through him. (John 3:16-17)
·
If the
Creator – who created everything AND found it to be “good” – set up the
entirety of creation as a test for the faithful or as a trap for the weak, why
would the Son be sent into the world to save it? Something there would not be
right. Something there would not make sense from a biblical point of view.
·
Now, there
is no sense to kidding ourselves about the nature of the world’s reality; there
are problems, even with the natural world. There are floods in New Brunswick.
There is a volcano erupting in Hawaii. Weather changes in Madagascar have
caused the price of vanilla to sky-rocket, making vanilla ice cream unavailable
in some places. All is not right with the world. Creation is broken in any
number of ways.
·
And God
loves it still.
·
In this
discourse that takes place during the Last Supper, before Jesus is arrested and
crucified, Jesus asks the Father to protect the disciples while they remain in
the world. He does not ask that they be taken out of the world. Still he
emphasizes that they are not to “belong” to the world either. They – we – live
in the world almost as if we were some sort of aliens; part of what is going on
but not absorbed into it.
·
In so many
ways, it is a matter of values. No matter where Jesus’ disciples live, no
matter what they do for a livelihood, they – we – are called to live out the
values of the Gospel in all things. As strange as it might sound, we are to let
the Good News of Jesus Christ touch each and every thing we do, what we say,
how we treat people, and even – what might be the hardest thing – how we treat
ourselves.
·
We have all
heard of the the three great temptations: the world, the flesh, and the devil.
Well, temptation they may be. Still, God so loved the world that he sent his
only Son and that Son, the Word, became flesh and lived among us. As for the
devil, no power can match the power of God. While we live this life, we will
have to content with these temptations. And while we live we are sent into the
world to continue the mission of Jesus. We are sent by Jesus as Jesus was sent.
We are to tell the people of the world of the love God has for them and for all
that God has created.
·
A tough
mission, without a doubt. And next week is Pentecost; that’s when we’ll talk
about how this mission is to be fulfilled.
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, just as I do not
belong to the world.
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