Joy Made Complete John 17: 6-19 – 2024/5/12

May 12, 2024

“Joy Made Complete”
John 17: 6-19

Rev. Dr. Heather W. McColl

John 17: 6-19

“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. While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. 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. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.

 

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Joy Made Complete John 17: 6-19

The Season of Easter is drawing to an end but that does not mean the story of the resurrection is complete. We are simply preparing to transition into another chapter of this amazing story of new life, this amazing story of hope, to this amazing story which reminds us day in and day out that this world does not have the last world. The Season of Easter may be drawing to an end but the promises remain…the promises of  transformation, the promises of love overcoming the pain and hurt, the promises of death not being the end. The Season of Easter may be drawing to a close but the questions and challenges it brought forth for us as people of faith remain…the questions and challenges of figuring out what it means to be the Body of Christ in the here and now. 

It’s funny how a text written two thousand years ago still has a relevant and needed message for the Church today. One would assume that certain things lose their value or importance over time due to changes in society and culture but the ironic thing is-the more things change, the more they stay the same. I say this because the early church who first heard this post Easter story was experiencing a very similar cultural context to what we as postmodern believers are experiencing in our world today. Multicultural, multi-lingual; multi-belief; multi-religion, multi-racial; multi-ethnic; all rolled up into a human community, trying to live together the best way they knew how. 

And what I love is that in the midst of all this complexity what the author of John offers us as people of faith is prayer. And not just any prayer but an intercessory prayer by Jesus on our behalf.

At this point in the Gospel, Jesus has already washed the disciples’ feet. Jesus has already told them to love one another as he has loved them. At this point in the Gospel, Jesus is gathered around the table with his disciples, preparing them for a time when he would no longer be with them. He knows that it will be a scary and confusing time, a time when it would be so easy for them to slip back into the routine and forget all that which they had experienced and knew.

In the midst of all the complexities of their world, in the midst of all their confusion, in the midst of this time for the disciples of wondering what’s next, Jesus offers up this prayer on behalf of his disciples. He prays that they find strength and encouragement from one another, knowing that this world can be difficult. He prays that the disciples’ faith holds strong, to see faith not as an escape from life’s difficulties but rather as a way to walk along beside each other in those difficult times. And finally Jesus prays that his disciples’ joy will be made complete as they live out their calling to care for this world which God loves so much.  

That’s it. In the midst of all the complexities of theirworld, in the midst of all their confusion, in the midst of this time for the disciples of wondering what’s next, these are the three things which Jesus’ holds in prayer on behalf of his disciples.  Notice in this intimate moment there is no list of instructions. There is no list of who is in and who is out. Instead in this intimate moment between teacher and disciples, between friends, between the ones who will help build up God’s Beloved Community here on earth, in this intimate moment, Jesus offers this prayer as a way forward for the disciples, a way forward through the complexities, through the confusion, Jesus offers this prayer as a beginning point for the disciples, for us as modern day disciples, for what’s next for us as we continue to live out this vision of God’s Beloved Community coming to fruition for all of God’s people. In the midst of all the complexities of the world, in the midst of all the confusion, in the midst of wondering what’s next, in this moment of new beginnings, Jesus offers a both/and for his disciples…He lifts up both a prayer and a purpose, for they are one and the same. 

Or let me say it this way… earlier this week, I was working on a grant proposal which asked the question Why is now a pivot moment for your community of faith? And like all challenging questions which beg to be answered, I kept putting it off, using the excuse that I had too much going on to really give time to this question. Until like the miracle of the parting of the Red Sea, activities and meetings were canceled left and right this week, creating space and time for me to walk with and through this challenging question. 

In that space, I remembered a phrase which was shared with me during prayer several weeks ago… “Lean into the Light”. At the time, I wasn’t sure what it meant, or what I was supposed to do with it but I wrote it down. It wasn’t until I embraced the complexities of the grant question that I realized that I had been given both a prayer and a calling purpose for myself and for our community of faith. Like the early disciples, in the midst of the complexities of our world, in the midst of our confusion, in the midst of our wondering what’s next for us as a community of faith, here and now, we are being called to lean into the light…to draw strength and encouragement from one another, knowing that this world can and does often overwhelm us. We are being called to lean into the light…not as an escape from life’s difficulties but rather as a way to walk alongside each other in these difficulties. We are being called to lean into the light so that our joy will be made complete as we live out our calling to care for this world which God loves so much. Not because we will figure everything out but because as people of faith, as a community of faith, we are called to engage in the long faithful work of building up God’s Beloved Community here on Earth, work which challenges us to figure out what racial reconciliation and reparation looks like with Historic Second Christian Church because it is not enough for us to worship with each other one day a year and say we support each other as brothers and sisters in faith, work which sends us out to figure out our connection to the wider Midway community, to answer the question who is my neighbor because our community has had a huge turnover the last few years so much so that we as a community of faith don’t really know our neighborhood anymore, work which hold us accountable as a Green Chalice congregation, work which has us speaking out for justice in light of climate change because as we experienced just this week, we got another glimpse of how climate is changing, how it is becoming more unstable. One expert saying… Tornado alley is expanding now to include the Ohio River Valley. We are called to do the work which transforms us into a more reflective hybrid online and in person community of faith, continually connecting with those who experience Midway Christian Church locally and digitally.

I don’t have all the answers to the challenges facing us as people of faith, nor as a community of faith but I do have a great place to start….prayer, a prayer which invites us, which calls us to lean into the light in the midst of all the complexities this world throws our way, prayer which invites us to lean into the light in the midst of all the confusion which surrounds us, prayer which challenges us to lean into the light as we embrace what’s next for us as a community of faith. Like the early disciples, like the early church, we start with prayer, prayer which will become our mission, prayer which will become our purpose because they are one and the same. We start with prayer to have the strength and courage to lean into the light as we continue to practice resurrection.

As people of faith, it is my hope that as we lean into the light, we will continue find ways to hold onto the promises given to us by our Savior, promises which remind us over and over again that this world does not have the last word, promise which remind us that love will always overcome, promises which will serve as prayer as they continue to strengthen us, to encourage us to become the people of love and grace this world so desperately needs right now. May it be so.

Amen.

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