John 17:1-11
Easter 7 - Year A
"... guard them as they pursue this life that you have conferred as a gift...."
How is the gift of "pursuing" life different from "receiving" life? How is "life conferred as a gift" different from "by the power of the name"?
As we pay attention to the import, the connotation, of words we find those translations that open us to new life or attempt to repeat some wonderful moment. The progressive movement risks looking at the pursuit of life rather than risking the repeated reception of received revelation. There is risk in both direction - the risk of not enough grounding and community and the risk of too much grounding and community.
While we will probably never outlive this tension and choice of risks, we are called to be honest about the gift of pursuit, the going on to perfection, that has been given to us. It is not the only gift or the highest ranking gift, but it is what God has invested us with and we must honor it by living it as graciously and as directly as we can and to honestly witness to its strengths and weaknesses.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2002/may2002.html
Talk about your works righteousness - "I finished the work I was to do, so reward me!"
And yet the work is not over. "I continue to intercede for the 'protection' of being part of the family." Even if it is rather mafia-like that we take care of family, the work goes on to include folks in.
Might this continue to be part of the work given to us - to include folks in, to protect them based on our commonality?
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/may2005.html
Names reveal character. The names we call others and the names we are called all show something about our growth in grace. Jesus' call to GOD to protect in GOD's name is a call to GOD to remember GOD's character or nature which is to protect.
It seems that GOD sometimes gets distracted and banishments and floods and fire and brimstone result. Jesus calls GOD back to wakefulness with renewed vision.
I recommend Leonard Bernstein's Symphony no. 3 "Kaddish" for insight into this (his commentary is worth reading) [If you have a choice, I prefer the recording with Felicia Montealegre as Narrator.]
A portion of Kaddish goes:
With Amen on my lips, I approach
Your presence, Father. Not with fear,
But with a certain respectful fury.
Do You not recognize my voice?
I am that part of Man You made
To suggest his immortality.
You surely remember, Father?—the part
That refuses death, that insists on You,
Divines Your voice, guesses Your grace.
And always You have heard my voice,
And always You have answered me
With a rainbow, a raven, a plague, something.
But now I see nothing. This time You show me
Nothing at all.
Are You listening, Father? You know who I am:
Your image; that stubborn reflection of You
That Man has shattered, extinguished, banished.
And now he runs free—free to play
With his new-found fire, avid for death,
Voluptuous, complete and final death.
Lord God of Hosts, I call You to account!
You let this happen, Lord of Hosts!
You with Your manna, Your pillar of fire!
You ask for faith, where is Your own?
Why have You taken away Your rainbow,
That pretty bow You tied round Your finger
To remind You never to forget Your promise?
"For lo, I do set my bow in the cloud ...
And I will look upon it, that I
May remember my everlasting covenant ..."
Your covenant! Your bargain with Man!
Tin God! Your bargain is tin!
It crumples in my hand!
And where is faith now—Yours or mine?
. . . .
Rest, my Father. Sleep, dream.
Let me invent Your dream, dream it
With You, as gently as I can.
And perhaps in dreaming, I can help You
Recreate Your image, and love him again.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/may2005.html
In due time exultation. (1 Peter 5:6)
"Is this the time?" (Acts 1:6)
"Glorify me, now!" (John 17:4)
Sing to God. (Psalm 68:32)
Prooftexting is fun. We are always doing it, so it's good that it's fun.
Peter suggests humility now, to later receive exultation. Who wouldn't want to be exulted? So, some humility now may well be worth trying. In fact, if we do it well enough, we may even hurry the exultation.
Of course there is a tension between humility and constantly looking around to see if this is the time of exultation. Now? Now? Now? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?
Indeed, it is time for exultation. We have glorified God, time to get our reward in kind. Have we done enough humility and glorification, yet, God? Surely so.
I guess not. Let's sing another round.
x x x
On the other hand, exultation is always on its way. This also suggests it is always here as well.
Is this the time? When else, pray tell.
Didn't you know you were already glorified.
So let's sing a new song
- - -
sometimes we get the feeling
time is running out on us
it has been almost 40 days
or is that years
almost twice what we need
to begin a new habit
or break an old one
almost midlife crisis
something ought to be happening
'round here somewhere
what do you think?
has it happened
and we missed it again?
about to happen?
eventually, right?
well, let's hang in a bit longer
we haven't hit bottom quite yet
let's try praying once more
perhaps another refrain
what's our discipline say
when lion-sized doubts arise?
protect one another
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_05_01_archive.html
Here we find such a spinning of relationships that the face of G*D, Jesus, and ourselves become indistinguishable. Glory streams from afar and from within. Hours are glorified, as are people. Before creation and this present are as glorified as a future.
It is this blurring of cause and effect, foreground and background, which brings us to a sense of oneness that is protection at its deepest – an identity so deeply grounded and so elevated that there becomes an eternal aspect to each moment.
Assurance ceases to be a word – it is experienced. Assurance - we are not alone. Assurance - we are one, uno, ein, or any other similar understanding.
Everything is given and everything is received. The yins and yangs of life are actively balanced.
= = = = = = =
On this day the voting at General Conference begins in earnest. There has been some excellent work done in the legislative committees. For example, proposing to remove the dreaded words "homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching" from our Book of Discipline. We have come to similar positions in the past only to have them over-ruled in the plenary.
In conversation we can see how interconnected everything is and then we get to debate where code words and political blocks come into play. In losing this spinning interrelationship when "all means all", we divide ourselves into those privileged with grace and those undeserving of it.
As dense as this passage is, it is representative of the poetry of life.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2008_04_01_archive.html
A long operatic or western death scene can go on interminably. There is just that one last word or recapitulation that needs to be gone over. The past and present is never seemingly enough, there needs to be an Aesop’s moral added in.
If Jesus is going to “ask” for us, why must we ask, seek, or knock?
If we cut to the chase we might hear, “Protect them”.
If you were to trust that you are protected/assured, what might you be bold enough to try that so far you have been able to avoid? What trouble would you risk in and for life?
This begins to push at us as it has been weeks since Easter and the images are beginning to fade. Where we had initially begun to catch a picture of Jesus protected from death’s finality, we are feeling our own frailty again.
Instead of putting on armor as protection, how about the invisible cloak of glory within and all about that pulls and pushes us toward a better future. Might “glory” tie us back to the energy of an empty tomb and energize us toward a freedom to engage others “as we are” - one.
Imagine an invisible glory that, instead of allowing us to skulk among others, would better reveal ourself? Danger Will Robinson, you are closing down again, rolling a rock over emptiness rather than reveling in it, remember your cloak that isn't.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2011/06/john-171-11.html
After three-and-one-half chapters of speaking in the presence of the disciples (how much they felt engaged is tricky to know), Jesus finally places his hand next to his face as though using a communication device and begins the Newhart portion of his farewell.
“Father?” [pause to hear, “Yes, my son”]
“the hour has come to glorify your son” [pause to hear, “Jesus! what’s this about glory?”]
“so that the son may glorify you” [pause to hear, “Oh, this is about me?”]
“since you have given him authority over all people” [pause to hear, “Authority, who said anything about authority, I just said your were my beloved.”]
“to give eternal life to all whom you have given him” [pause to hear, “Jesus! Did that go to your head? Who or what isn’t in relationship to you and everything else?]
“And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God” [pause to hear, “Well, yes, if you put it that way.”]
“and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” [pause to hear, “Hey, no son of mine is going to speak in the third person. Have you been turning wine into something stronger?]
“I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do.” [pause to hear, Jesus! No, there was no work to do, there was only being. I carry my own glory and that’s sufficient. Why did you call?]
“So now” [pause to hear silence]
“Father?” [pause to hear, “Oh, yes, I was just reading a note from my Satan.”]
“glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.” [pause to hear, “I’m obviously going to have to have a talk with Sophy if this is all you’ve learned. Take a lesson from those folks who don’t rebaptize; you don’t get rebeloved, which, by the way, is far more satisfying than glorification that can be manufactured and specs tweaked so fewer and fewer miracles are needed.”]
[Voice changes from demanding to whining]
“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; [voice back to demanding again] and they have kept your word.” [pause to hear, “Sigh.”]
“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.” [pause to hear, “That’s like showing me talents you buried just to keep things the same. Where’s your initiative to move beyond what you’ve been given? Well?]
[Another whine] “All mine are yours, and yours are mine; [and another demand] and I have been glorified in them.” [pause to hear, “Alright, Jesus, just slow down and breathe. You are making a big deal out of this glorification thing. Do you think you are still in the wilderness being tempted and now you want to bring that temptation to me? Think again about the response you made then about serving, simply serving for serving’s sake. Isn’t there something other than your glory to be considered here?]
[Pause} [and another] And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, [pause to hear, “Yes, my son?”] protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. [pause to hear, “Close enough.”]