Acts 1 : 15 17, John 17 : Sermon

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Noreen Robinson
6 years ago
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1 Acts 1 : 15 17, John 17 : 6 19 Sermon Many of you will have seen the movie Home Alone. That's the story in which an 8-year-old American boy gets left behind when his family goes on holiday to France, and he has to find some rather creative ways to defend his home against some rather idiotic burglars. Of course we can say that the plot is ridiculous. What parents could possibly leave a child they care for to fend for itself? Incredibly though, and sadly, such things do happen. Newspapers around the world frequently carry stories of parents facing charges because they have their young children to look after themselves. We know that even the most caring and careful of parents have to leave their children from time to time, and that children probably need that experience if they are to develop healthily and be able to cope in the world. But even our imperfect human instincts tell us that we should leave them in the care of someone we know, someone we can trust to keep them happy and safe. If you have ever done any babysitting you will probably have received a long list of detailed instructions on what to do and when to do it and what not to do and why not to do it. And although those instructions may be forgotten as soon as the parents shut the door, we know they are a sign of care and concern; proof that the parents want to make sure their children will be well looked after in their absence. There is a sense in which that is what we are listening to in the text from John s gospel this morning. The context is that Jesus knows what lies in store for him and that he will not be around for much longer. The disciples don t know or understand that at this point in the story, but Jesus does. As he looks round at them, this disparate group of human beings, he is aware of all of their very human weaknesses. He is aware that they are going to have to face some very difficult times, and aware that they are going to have to face them without him. He knows what the world is going to do to him and that it is not going to be any easier for them. He knows that the

2 world hates what he stands for and that if they stand for the same things it will hate them too. We should be clear that when we read of the world in John s gospel the word does not mean the planet, it is not the physical place where we are located. It is used here to describe the values which are opposed to the values of heaven, the ways of living which are the opposite of what God designed us for and desires for us. It is used as shorthand for greed and corruption, for loving money and trusting in force, for so many of the attitudes and assumptions that come to seem normal to us but which are not right for us, not good for us, not best for us. Jesus has offered a different way and he seems confident that the disciples will follow it. He is sure that they have learned enough of the message he gave them the message which he passed on as coming first hand from God, that they are not going to settle for a lesser way of living. Their eyes have been opened to something greater and therefore their lives are going to be different from those around them, and so they are going to be at risk. Those who are guided by a higher calling are never going to be entirely at home among people whose lives are built on material greed and arrogant pride. So John s gospel tells us that Jesus looks at his small band of followers; that he knows them and loves them and sees what is ahead of them and he knows that he is going to have to leave them. But he has no thought that he is going to leave them alone. He is entrusting the disciples to the care of the father he has also known and loved throughout his life, the father who he knows will love and care for each one of these confused human beings - just as much as he has. They are going to need protection and they are going to need guidance. They are going to need strength if they are not to be drawn back into living as those around them live, a way which is always going to seem easier, but which will not lead to glory or make his joy complete. Jesus has provided them with protection and guidance, as in the frequently used image of a shepherd protecting and providing for his flock. Jesus has been their strength, keeping them going through all the storms and trials they have faced. But Jesus is not going to be there any more, so he prays that his father would do all of these things for them, and in the following verses, he makes it explicit that his prayer

3 includes all who will follow in the future because of the message they have passed on. This, of course, is where we come in. For we are among the very many people who are called to live in faithfulness to Jesus, but who have to do that without ever seeing him or hearing his voice. We are among those who face all the confusion and temptations of living in a world in which his values are not the dominant ones and who have to do so without ever seeing him or hearing his voice. We are among those who need protection and guidance and strength, and who have to find it without ever seeing him or hearing his voice. So we are among those for whom Jesus prayed, those whom he carefully entrusted into the care of his father. It is surely worth noting that his priority as he prepared to leave us to the task, was not to give us information or instructions, but to give us the assurance that we are loved and cared for in a way that can never end and never fail. Perhaps he understood that this is the one thing above all else that we are going to need. Not information or instructions, but the assurance that we are loved and cared for. To help us to hear that and to know that, here is Jesus prayer translated into our perspective: And now Jesus is no longer in the world, but we are in the world, and he has gone to the father. Holy Father, protect us in the name that you have given him, so that we may be one, as you and he are one. While he was with us, he protected us in your name. He guarded us but now he has gone to you. While he was with us he taught us so that we may have his joy made complete in us. He gave us your word and the world has hated us because we do not belong in its ways of living any more than he did. So please do not remove us from here, but protect us from evil as we seek to serve you here. It is a wonderful prayer when you hear it as our prayer, more powerful still to know that it is the prayer which Jesus offers for us. So we may be left without the clarity we might want, or the answers we might seek, or the certainty we might crave, but we are never left alone,

4 never without guidance and protection and strength. When the story of the New Testament continues after Jesus departure, we are introduced right away to what this new reality is going to be like. The remaining disciples have to make a decision for themselves, they have to select a new leader for their small and fragile community, someone to replace Judas. Jesus had chosen them personally, and has said they were in fact given to him by God. But Jesus isn t there now, so what are they to do? We read of them going through the process of selecting suitable candidates, and praying, and trusting that God would be at work in their human actions to guide them to the best person and keep them right. In a sense that is a model for what we always have to do, seeking to follow Jesus when we cannot see him or hear his voice. We have no way of knowing now if we are getting things right in our lives, no way to be sure that the decisions we make are the correct ones, no way of being certain about the best way forward. But we can use our intelligence and we can pray for wisdom, and we can trust that as we try to do the right thing, the prayer of Jesus will be answered and somehow God will lead us to what is his will, to what will glorify him, to what will make his joy complete. It seems to me that Christian people have often struggled to maintain that perspective on what we are doing. Our desire to know that we are in the right leads us to sanctify our own opinions, to imagine that they come directly from God, to condemn anyone who feels that another way might be better. Which in the end is the ultimate denial of Jesus prayer that we might be one, united to one another in the same way that he was united to his father. Because Jesus has left us we are always going to struggle to know what to do. Because he does not give us all the answers we would want we are always going to know the frustration of not knowing. But because he has not left us alone, because he did not just disappear without a word, because he explicitly prayed that his father would look after us, we can have faith in something far greater than anything we could ever know. Protection and guidance and strength are given to us, even when we don t see them, even when we don t feel them. Protection and guidance and

5 strength are given to us perhaps because the master understands that in the end this is all we really need.

John 17:1-5 Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may

John 17 John 17:1-5 Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, 2 even as You gave Him authority over