" That They May Be One, As We Are One." - Jesus John 17:6-19

“What we call the beginning is often the endAnd to make and end is to make a beginning.The end is where we start from.”  T S Eliot

Good morning, and happy Mothers’ Day.  Somehow, it seems like last week’s readings about love would have been better suited for today – but our Lectionary and the secular calendar often don’t work together as we might hope.  Instead, today we find ourselves at the end.

This Sunday, we have arrived at the conclusion of the Easter season. On all the Sundays since Easter we’ve heard familiar stories recounting the resurrection and ascension of Jesus (well - we missed hearing about the Ascension because it always falls on a Thursday), and we learned how the apostles, disciples, and followers of Jesus adjusted to the idea of Scripture fulfilled. 

As they needed time, we have been given time, through the Bible stories we’ve heard this Eastertide, time to understand how this journey and especially how the resurrection helps us to be what we have been called to be, how to do what Jesus commands us to do, and how to live as He calls us to live.  The church has set this time apart to be a period of spiritual discernment, as we redefine what Easter means and how it changes us and our lives.

Today the Easter lessons stop, because this morning’s Gospel takes our journey to the next level. This is the point where we ask ourselves how God is calling us, personally, and what God is calling us to be and to do.  Jesus is preparing to go home to His Father.  Who will we be, now that we have come to an ending?

Jesus prayed for his disciples, “I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world…

The Gospel we heard this morning is a portion of what is called the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus.  It is after supper “in the night in which He was betrayed.”  Jesus is praying for His disciples, and for us.  He prays for our unity, for our joy, and for our safety and protection.  Jesus says that we are not of the world, but that we should nonetheless remain in the world – for our ministry is to be in the world, and for the world.

And, when Jesus says “world” here, He is not talking about the created order: rocks and trees and rabbits and things like that.  He is talking about human society organized as it sees best for its own purposes.  He is talking about business as usual; about the government, the culture, the various human institutions, with all their mess and violence, as well as kindness; the world in that sense, doing what it usually does. 

And we know our world, because we have lived as part of it – we’ve wanted to be part of it.  Think of your childhood goals.  We all had dreams to be perhaps a firefighter, or a doctor, a performer, a family person.  The world has been our goal, our hope, and we’ve worked hard to belong to it.  But now, Jesus says of His followers, “They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.”  

That’s pretty heavy stuff, but as we listen to the Bible readings every Sunday, that’s something we often hear.  We are not called to be part of the world, but rather to be in it but not of it.  Considering how hard we’ve all worked to be a part of the world, to achieve our worldly goals and worldly security, and some of us are still working hard at it, that’s pretty unsettling news.  But Jesus’ expects it of us.  We are called to grow in the Spirit, grow into holiness, to become spiritual adults.

Part of growing into holiness is finding a way to maintain what we have established in the world, so that others do not suffer.  This can be difficult, and much prayer is needed to help us keep a balance.  We cannot suddenly drop the ball in the world, but we are called to drop our personal attachment to things that once meant everything to us – and to set our sights on a different goal.  Worldly security and riches are no longer our chief concern. Rather - we are called to be holy.  Yes, this can be done, but it means we have to work as hard at our spiritual growth as we do at maintaining our place in but not of the world.

And then Jesus tells us, 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. 

Jesus says of His disciples that the world has hated them because they are not of the world.  This hatred is to be the fate, indeed it is to be a real, distinguishing mark, of all who follow Jesus. They are to stand out because they don’t really fit in.  ouch

So - we have to ask ourselves, when was the last time the world hated us because we belong to Jesus and not to the world?  When was the last time our faith so set us apart from business as usual that we were met with anger, ridicule, or hatred?  Perhaps a little bit of contempt?  Mild dislike?  Maybe a tiny bit of irritation?

Jesus asks us to fly in the face of our all too human worldly concerns.  As we discern Jesus’ will for us and struggle to fulfill our calling, we may discover we have become so totally caught in our culture, become so totally of the world, that we have to work hard to discover if we are different, and how we are different, and what it looks like for us to be different, and whether it is worth it to be different.  We have to discover how we upset the world.

In many ways this was easier for the early church.  As an occasionally persecuted minority in a pagan culture, a lot of things were clear.  For example, Christians couldn’t attend the public games, they couldn’t hold several types of jobs, they couldn’t join the army, and so on.  The world often ridiculed or hated them – and both sides pretty much knew why.

It’s not so easy these days.  Modern attempts to come up with lists of popular things Christians can’t do have usually been rather silly, i.e. you can’t dance or wear make-up or go to movies.  These restrictions seem foolish, because we know dancing doesn’t upset anyone, doesn’t set us against the world.  Not only that, it is a list of “thou shalt nots”, and lists like these don’t offer any guidance for what we can and must do for Jesus.  The truth is, Jesus commanded us to love one another as He loves us, but the commandment doesn’t lend itself to a list or an explanation of how that is done. 

What we do know, and must never forget, is that the way we treat each other, and the way we treat our bodies, and our time, and our money, and the things we call “mine” - our Lord has something to say about all of them, because they all belong to Him. 

We also know that all the good works, reforms, and changes we make, as important as they are, will not make us holy people, because we tend to cling to the familiar, the comfortable, the world.  But we need to remember that the world as Jesus spoke of it, of business as usual, this will always, in one way or another, be the alternative to faithfulness, and not the means to it.

Jesus tells us to be in the world, but not of it – and that the world should hate us. And so, we need to keep an eye on what we do and say, make sure that loving as we are commanded to do, and not worldly goals, is our chief aim. 

T S Eliot, put is simply.  We are striving for: “A condition of complete simplicity (Costing not less than everything).”

It is Mothers’ Day – a fine day to think about loving and being loved.  And that’s the answer to how we keep on the right path, the way of love.  We manage to keep loving, because, as we struggle to love, we are loved, by the One who issued the command in the first place.  Ours is a loving God, who calls us to die into life, to be reborn in the Spirit.

"And all shall be well and

All manner of thing shall be well

When the tongues of flames are in-folded

Into the crowned knot of fire

And the fire and the rose are one."   T S Eliot

Let us pray:

Heavenly Father, teach us to do the thing that pleases You, for You are our God. Let Your loving Spirit lead us forth unto the land of righteousness.  In Jesus Name, Amen.