Easter 7 B: Called and Sent

Dear Partner in Preaching,

As if often the case, context is everything in biblical interpretation. And the context of this passage – Thursday evening, the eve of Jesus’ crucifixion and departure from his disciples – matters because it helps set the scene for Jesus’ words of promise to his disciples tucked into a prayer he offers to his heavenly Father. There are three parts to this prayer and promise, each of which holds, I believe, import for our hearers today.

1) The world can be a difficult place.
This perhaps doesn’t seem like much of a promise, or at least good news. But it’s the truth, and given how many voices in our culture invite us to imagine that if we just buy the right product or vote for the right candidate life will be honky dory, it’s important that church be a place where we can stop pretending and tell each other the truth. This life is at turns beautiful and difficult, wonderful and painful. Jesus knows that his departure will prove immensely challenging for his disciples, and he does not sugarcoat that but instead tells them the truth. Let us do the same.

2) Christianity does not provide an escape from life’s difficulties, but rather offers support to flourish amid them.
One of the more heart-rending elements of this prayer, I think, comes when Jesus prays, “I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one.” Oh, how much easier it would be, the disciples may have thought, if you would only take us with you. Yet that is not Jesus’ promise. Rather, he asks for God’s support and protection of them against all the evils of the world. I’ve often thought that there are two understandings of the Christian faith. Both recognize that this world can be difficult, painful, and tumultuous. One version believes that when you come to faith, the world stops shaking and everything makes sense. The other believes that faith gives you the ability to keep your footing amid the tremors. This is the promise that Jesus makes his disciples then and now: not that they are exempt from struggle, but that they are not alone in those struggles.

3) We are here for a purpose: to care for this world God loves so much.
There are two terms we should pay attention to in this passage and the larger narrative context of John’s Gospel. The first is “given,” which occurs nine times in this passage, seventeen in this chapter, and seventy-five in John’s larger Gospel. And just what is given? Well, just about everything! Chief among these things is a) the disciples’ identity as those given by God to Jesus as precious, knowledge of God as loving parent, the word of truth about God’s love for the world and, particularly, the realization that they those persons who have been chosen and sent into the world to make a difference. Which leads to the second terms to notice: “world.” While often denoting that entity which is at enmity with God – hence Jesus says the world will hate the disciples as it hated Jesus – this is also the word John uses in 3:16, that God so loved the world… That’s right, this difficult and at times painful world is yet beloved of God. And we are sent precisely this world to bear witness to the truth that God loves the whole world, even when the world runs contrary to God’s design or desire.

Which means, Dear Partner, that this Sunday might be a really good day on which to remind people that God continues to tell us the truth that this life can be difficult, that God has promised to be with us amid the challenges so that we not only survive but actually flourish, and that God intends to use us wherever we are to work for the good of this world God loves so much. And after sharing the promises tucked away in Jesus’ prayer for his disciples then and now, perhaps we can send people out into the world with a sense of purpose, noting that whether we will be at home or school or work or a place of volunteering, and whether the week brings challenges or blessings or some measure of each, God continues to be with us, strengthen us, and use us to care for each other and this world.

Interestingly, the word translated here as “sanctified” – as in “sanctify them in your truth” – is the same word translated in the Lord’s Prayer as “hallowed,” which means that God is actually setting us apart and making us holy in order to serve the world. This in turn invites us to realize that the question for the Christian is never whether God will put to us to work, but rather how.

And this might be a good place to close, asking your people to look to the week ahead and begin imaging how God will use them to make this world God loves a more trustworthy place. Will it be through being a good friend to another, or listening to someone else’s struggle, or standing up for someone who is vulnerable, or doing an exceptional job at work, or volunteering to make a difference, or praying for those in need, or inviting someone to church to hear the truth about God’s abundant love for all of us. Who knows? What we do know is that God is at work in us and through us for the sake of this beloved world, and this week we are again invited to take part in God’s unfolding plans for the future.

As this passage shares a portion of Jesus’ prayer for his disciples, perhaps we might close our sermon in prayer by adapting Jesus’ own words. Dear God, whose love knows no ending, we know this life is beautiful and difficult and sometimes both at the same time. We do not ask that you take us out of this world, but that you support and protect us while we are in it. We pray that you would set us apart in the truth we have heard here, that your love is for everyone, and we ask that you would send us out from this service to bear witness in word and deed to your grace, goodness and love. May we hear your voice calling us at home and at work, at school, our social settings, and the places we gather and volunteer, that we might feel and share your love. We ask this in the name of Jesus, the one set apart and made holy for us. Amen.

You, too, are set part, hallowed, and made holy, Dear Partner, precisely to preach the Word that is truth and life. Thank you for that. And, as always and even more, thank God for you.

Yours in Christ,
David

 

Post image: Jesus saying farewell to his eleven remaining disciples, from the Maesta by Duccio, 1308–1311.