THE SEVENTH SUNDAY of EASTER 2008
May 04, 2008
(Acts 1:6-14; Ps. 68:1-10 & 33-36; I Peter 4:12-14&
5:6-11; John 17:1-11)
the Rev. Ken Kroohs
St. Christopher’s,
MAY
THE WORDS OF MY MOUTH ... AND THE MEDITATIONS OF ALL OUR HEARTS ... BE ALWAYS
ACCEPTABLE TO YOU --- OUR STRENGTH AND OUR REDEEMER AMEN
Have you ever prayed ... prayed fervently, repeatedly,
passionately, desperately prayed for something and it did not happen? And I don’t mean the times you
prayed for a loved one to be cured and instead the death was peaceful. You prayed for a cure and instead got a
healing. Or even when you got a
clear answer of “no”.
I mean a time when despite all your prayers ---- there
was no answer?
Well join the club! .... and the founding president of
the “my prayer was not answered” club is .... Jesus Christ the
Lord.
Isn’t that a shock? Are you thinking: “Ken really went
off the deep end this time!”
Well notice the Gospel lesson. You may want to follow along in the
insert, or even a pew Bible since I will go beyond today’s reading. Also, there is a small, white piece of
paper in your bulletin. Take it out
and I will explain it later.
We are hearing another portion of what is frequently
called Jesus’ high priestly prayer.
This is a long prayer during which Jesus intercedes for us .... Asks God
to do certain things for us.
That’s why it is called a priestly prayer. Jesus is not asking for Himself but for
others, and specifically for us.
Now notice what He asks in this segment of the
prayer. First Jesus asks that He be
glorified as He has glorified God.
This is not a ego thing.
This is clearly so we, human beings, can more fully understand who Jesus
is.
Then, near the end of this passage, Jesus asks God to
protect them — that’s us, Christians, people who believe in and
follow Jesus — protect us, so we may be one, as Jesus and God are one.
If you read on in this prayer, beyond this segment,
Jesus in verse 15 asks again that we be protected from evil, in verse 21 that we all may be one
as Jesus and God are one, and in verse 23 that, again, we may become completely
one.
Just as we may repeat our requests to God, Jesus repeats
the theme of protection and oneness which clearly suggests it is an important
theme. Furthermore, in verse 23 Jesus
explains the reason for this request: “so
the world — everyone else – may know that you have sent me and
loved them even as you have loved me.”
So Jesus prays, fervently, passionately, repeatedly
prays that humans beings be protected from evil, so we will be united in our
love of God and following Jesus, and so all the world will become Christian.
Jesus is the president and founding member of the
“my prayers were not answered club!” If there are two things we can
confidently say about Christians in this world is that we are not united and we have not provided the kind of witness that
would attract all other people. In
the
Furthermore, I would argue that this has happened
because we have not been protected from evil. Evil, acting through humans, has caused
the dissension, disagreement, and disunity.
Jesus’ prayer was not answered and I don’t
understand why not. I understand, I
think I understand, the mechanism
— its called free will. God
will not force unity and obedience on us.
But I don’t understand why after 2,000 years we — human
beings – have made so little progress.
I do believe ego is a large part of the evil causing
this failure. We got so stuck up in
our beliefs that we are unwilling to work together with others who believe
differently.
AND — before our ego gets too large — one of
those beliefs people got stuck on is the belief that other people have a right
to their beliefs and we should keep quiet !!
Let me explain that before the lynch mob arrives .... if
we focus too much on our willingness to allow others to believe what they
believe .... we can easily slip into a position where we refuse to express our
beliefs. That may manifest itself
in the fear that if we try to talk to other people they will talk us down
because they know more, or hold their beliefs more tightly.
Or it can manifest itself in a kind of: “I am more
loving than you because I will allow you to hold those crazy beliefs without
saying a word.”
I do not believe that Jesus meant either we should
attack others who disagree, OR, we should ignore people who disagree.
I do believe this Christian love stuff is a lot harder
than most people know!
And I do believe that when Jesus prayed to God that we
be protected and that all the world learn about Jesus — Jesus was asking
God to give us the strength, wisdom,
and discernment to protect each other and we help each other learn about
God’s love.
And I do believe that the church ---- Christian
communities — were created as the primary mechanism for individuals to
work through to accomplish this protection and help.
And I do believe the church has failed.
I believe people are born with an innate desire to be
with God. People are born with a
desire to be connected with God. People
search ... last week we talked about the verb “grope” in this
context ... reaching blindly for something ... people search or grope for
God. And people do that until those
they believe represent God, do something to convince them it is not
worth the trouble.
The church is God’s representative on earth. As members of the church each of us are
God’s representative’s on earth.
For the past several months we have watched presidential
candidates try to recover from things done or said by their representatives. “This person, who is a McCain -
Clinton - Obama supporter said this and therefore we should blame the
candidate.” Which is followed
by continuing discussion about how close the person is to the candidate and
whether or not the person actually reflected the candidate.
If the church is not close to God .... if the church
does not reflect God ... then why does the church exist?
I am not suggesting perfection on the part of the
church, the people and especially the clergy! Perfection is not possible for humans.
I am suggesting that we need to ask ourselves whether we
as individuals, or we as a church are representing God well. Furthermore, I suggest we look to Jesus
for our model of how to represent, how to glorify God to the people around us.
Jesus seldom was confrontational. Jesus was never cruel. Jesus promised the joy and comfort of
God’s love. Jesus showed -
demonstrated God’s love and then spoke about God’s love. If the Pharisees, or Sadducees or
whomever disagreed He moved on.
I think all the remaining Presidential candidates have
had to disown one or more supporters or friends. ... Would God like to disown
us from that role? Have we
demonstrated and spoken about God’s love? Have we sought to avoid being distracted
by evil? Have we sought to be one
with other Christians?
I don’t mean we always have to agree with each
other. In seminary we read a number
of sermons and articles written in the 1850's and 1860's in support of
slavery. From them I realized that
(1) most the people who felt God supported slavery were not inherently
evil. Misguided yes, but not
inherently evil. They sincerely
read the Bible that way.
The second thing I learned was to be less confident of
my opinions! I gained the
philosophy that God is right all the time – I am not God –
therefore I must be wrong some of the time. So I will tell you my beliefs about
various questions — I will tell you them with great enthusiasm and energy
... but I will always try to remember that only God is right all the time. Even people who know the Bible inside
and out, like many of those slavery supporters, can be wrong in their
interpretation.
Those slips of paper in the bulletin I hope you will
place in your pocket or somewhere they will not get lost. I hope you will consider these questions
this week.
In summary I am saying that all human beings are born
with an innate desire to be closer to God.
Also, that the church, as a community and as each individual, are
God’s representatives intended to make that closeness possible.
So the questions on the sheet are not about what we will
do differently. That comes
later. For this week simply answer
why we have failed. Why have we
failed to grow closer to God as individuals – ourselves closer to God,
and why have we failed in helping others.
Why Jesus’ prayer has not been answered through us. Not been answered for ourselves —
or for others.
Be honest!
“I am too busy at work.” “I do not see the
need.” “Someone else
should be doing it.”
“Its their fault they don’t
go to church.” “Its
boring.”
Write an honest list, set it aside for a few days, and
then read it over — remembering we are talking about our life with God.
I will give you a moment to
begin your reflection.
We
have previous sermons on our website.
To read an earlier recent sermon just enter: www.st-christopher.org/sermon.html.
CLICK HERE TO RESPOND: I would enjoy reading your comments about this sermon. Please feel free to discuss content or presentation. (If you wish to use another email system send your comments to: ken@st-christopher.com)