There are many things remarkable about Jesus attested to in scripture....his stories that compel newness, his healing of those who are ill or disabled or suffering, his spiritual depth. But among the most remarkable things is the way that he knew himself....or at least that seems something of what John communicates about Jesus. He knew who he was. He knew about his purpose and calling, he knew about his place in the scheme of things. And he knew his relationship with God and how that relationship affected his relationship with others and with the world.
And here, in this passage, in this prayer, that comes through. In the other Gospels we're told that after the meal Jesus goes out to pray. A few words of the prayer are recorded. But John fills a whole chapter with the words of the prayer. And here it's not about himself and his ability to remain faithful. Here the focus of Jesus is on his disciples, that they will be able to find their way in relationship with God and each other even after he's gone.
"I have made my name known to those whom you gave me from the world," says Jesus. And the prayer continues with attestations to Jesus' ministry of reconciliation between us and God...and thereby to each other, until that closing verse, so familiar to us in the UCC: "...so that they may be one, as we are one." It was the scripture chosen by the formers of the UCC to be on our logo, to be our motto - to seek unity.
It could be thought of as the reversal of the first triangle. Some of you know my thoughts about triangles and how they explain some things. But remember the first one? There was God and there was Adam and there was Eve....and there was, you remember, one tree of which Adam and Eve were not to eat. One day God asks Adam, "Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" And you remember the answer: "She gave it to me!" And Adam is the first, but not the last, to use the triangle to shift responsibility by passing the blame.
Reminds me of Flip Wilson. Remember his line: The devil made me do it?
There are lots of forms of self-deception, of course - things that stand in the way of really knowing ourselves. What a gift it would be, wouldn't it, if we could get out of ourselves and take a look at ourselves the way others see us just for a time? But we can't. And that's partly why knowing ourselves truly is such a challenge. We must do it from within ourselves, with all our blind spots and tendencies to shift things away, our denials, as well as our unfair self-criticisms too. Both stand in the way of true self-knowledge.
And true religion is meant to be a resource in this journey. Here's the triangle fulfilled: God, us, and others. And Jesus' prayer us that we are one with each other even as he is one with God. That word "one" seems to have the sense of wholeness, completeness, peace...one.
Still, we know that religion has not always been a helpful resource. It's sometimes created more divisions than it's healed.
A pastor writes, "I was having lunch with a guy who was telling me about a struggle he had been having for awhile. He said he knew he was a sinner and that he was fallen and that he would keep committing this one sin, and he knew he was going to keep committing this one sin because he was a sinner and his nature was evil and there was nothing he could do about it because of what a sinner he was...
"Do I have to go on?" he writes. "I was so depressed I wanted to bang my head on the table....And all that was running through my head during his questions was that his system was perfectly designed to achieve the results he was getting." (Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell, p. 138) A kind of self-perpetuating circle!
What comes through loud and clear for me, in that story, is that the guy had a very clear self-understanding: he was a sinner. And on the surface it would appear that's what the Bible teaches us about ourselves: we're all sinners. So the confusion comes about when we take half a truth and make it the whole truth.
So let me make this as clear as I possibly can. The Bible does not simply say that we are sinners. It says that in Christ we are sinners who are redeemed, forgiven, made new!...a new creation. So all that old Adam and Eve stuff doesn't have to be the way we live now. We don't have to follow old circles, be trapped by old patterns, be locked into the illusion of the way we think we are. Newness is possible.
And that's the Christian message on this last Sunday in the season of Eastertide. We proclaim Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. But that's not just a truth for Christ - out there, something that affirms some kind of distant ontological reality. What it means for you and me is that newness is possible. We don't have to be defined by who we were. We can be reshaped, reclaimed by who we are meant to be.
Just a few of us traveled to the Night Ministry yesterday to pack cookies. The cookies are used to make connections, to build a bridge with the homeless, many - too many of whom are young people. A new video was shown. And it includes the reality of homelessness...a tough reality - children whose parents are drug-addicts, in prison, so on... But it also included some stories of people who made it out of their situations. One worker with the Night Ministry spoke of a guy who returned a year later. He proudly displayed his new ID card at his place of employment, and along with it a smile from ear to ear. Comparatively, for most of us, sure we've had some challenges. But to overcome those odds, you have to believe that newness is possible. You have to be able, vague as it may be under the circumstances, you have to be able to see that you are homeless as a current circumstance in your live, and not that you are and will be a homeless person. You have to be able to believe that your parents don't determine who you are. You have to be able to rise above many messages from others, from the world and dig deeper.
So here's a question that I'd leave with you... Are you fulfilling the person you are meant to be? For of this I'm sure: God has something in mind for you. God even sees beyond the potential. God sees more. God sees all the hope and wonder and goodness that is there, in what God created. Do we marvel at red buds bursting with color, at tulips that came through the winter to display their colors, at dog woods? And how much more, says the psalmist, are we meant to carry the beauty God gave us? (Ps 8)
If we fulfilled this prayer of Jesus for us that's who we'd be. People of peace and joy. We'd be ourselves.
Let us pray,
How can we doubt your love for us? For you came that we might have life and have it abundantly. So help us to put away those thoughts, those doubts that deny our true calling. As we live deeper in relationship with you, so let our truth be more transparent, that we may be full of the joy of faith. Amen.
Children: How good is that tree at being a tree? How good is your pet at being a dog or cat? How good are you at being you?
Quote: Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, p. 347, Poem: Who am I?