May 28, 2017
Easter 7A

“After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.
”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.” John 17:1-11

“As always with John, we must allow the circling repetition and non-sequiturs to be like the swirling eddies of a whirl pool. We don’t try to manage them; try to make them line up; make them be sequential and logical. We relax in them; let them swirl around us; we soak in them; we let them become an environment in which we experience the true life that comes from Jesus.

John wants us (to) SEE Jesus, and to see Jesus is to see the one who sent him; is to see the glory of the one who sent him; is to see the honour / majesty / purpose / worth of the one who sent him; and not just sent him; but who is IN him. This is eternal life. To see in Jesus the source of true life; the only true God. This revelation of glory, of the presence of God, is the work of Jesus.(holytextures.com, John 17:1-11, May 28, 2017, by David Ewart)
When I hear the words of Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer, or the 17th chapter of the Gospel of John, I can’t help but think of a song by the Beatles. The song is one of their more identifiable songs, but also one with the oddest lyrics. The song is titled “I Am the Walrus” and the first line of the song goes like this:
I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.
Why do I think of this lyric? Jesus says:
Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.

No matter how you say it, no matter if you are John Lennon, or Paul McCartney or Jesus, these words profess a desire for all people to be one. Of course we all know that music can be powerful, in fact it can be profound. Music, as we know, can soothe the savage beast. It can have a hypnotic effect on people. In 2 Samuel 6, King David danced before the Lord as the Ark of the Covenant was brought back to Jerusalem – he danced, leaping and shouting to the sound of the trumpet. David also played the lyre for Saul to help get rid of his terrible headaches. Often the people of Israel sang and danced to celebrate their victories. Of course, in more modern times, we are familiar with stories like the Pied Piper who used his magic pipe first to lure rats out of town. But when the people of the town would not pay him, he used the same pipe to lure the children out of town. Many of us are also familiar with images from the 60’s and 70’s as young people, many of them referred to as hippies, danced hypnotically to such bands as “The Grateful Dead”, “Jimmy Hendrix”, and “Janice Joplin”.

Singing and music have been a part of worship for thousands of years, most likely because of this effect that music has on the psyche, on our mood, and on our emotions. Even many of the Psalms we have in the bible were pieces written as liturgical songs used to offer up praise to God and to help the people not only celebrate victories, but ease their sadness in defeat.

Now my guess is that few of us deal with adversity exactly the same way – and at times we will use each of these four strategies. But few of us will always be able to face adversity with the will to fight. But I am here to tell you this morning, my friends, that we have a God who is greater than all human adversity. We have Jesus Christ, the same Jesus who suffered the most adversity that any of us could ever imagine: embarrassment, harassment, pain, humiliation, suffering and death. Jesus Christ shared in our suffering, through his own suffering – through such adversity that we will ever know – he endured it and defeated it. This fact, this reality is what sustains us when we face adversity, when we suffer in any way – suffer any adversity – we can shout like David – rejoice and sing and dance from the very depths of our souls. For example, we have the words that the Psalmist writes in Psalm 68:
 
“God rises – springs into action – let his enemies be scattered. Let them vanish like smoke when the wind drives it away…let the wicked perish at the presence of God. Sing to God, sing praises to his name.”
My friends, Jesus prays for us today in John 17, prays for us to be one because he knows that we will face all kinds of adversity. So when we suffer, when adversity assails, let us not curse God, or blame God – but rather remember that when we share in Christ’s sufferings, we see the glory of Christ revealed – the glory of the knowledge that suffering is temporary – and oneness with God through a relationship with Jesus gives us eternal life.

Pastor Dave