John 17:6-19
Easter 7 - Year B
Prayer is interesting as it can reveal our deep-seated fears and can pull us toward our best ideals. Sometimes it does both.
For the moment I would point toward an ideal - praying for protection/community for others (verse 11).
What might this mean in the context of Memorial Day in the United States of America? Might we listen in on the prayers of the dead for the living instead of the other way around? Would those prayers be for the protection afforded by community? Would it make a difference if that sentence were constructed the other way around: for the community within which issues of protection were no longer needed?
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/june2003.html
Happy happy joy joy made complete among ourselves - the character of GOD spread deep and wide.
What is the character of GOD? is very important.
With us in the "world."
Enabling us to express GOD's character for our own sake and the sake of others.
Can we pull this off without becoming deadly serious? What is your quotient of happy happy joy joy in the face of your crashes? Try a Ren and Stimpy break.
One analysis of surfacing the below-surface material of life (being aware as a protection in the world) can be found at Cartoons Aren't Real! Ren and Stimpy in Review.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/june2003.html
What is your name, your character, your nature?
Might it be Protecter?
Might it be Eternal?
Might it be Ent? [giant tree-like creatures who have become like the trees they shepherd and protect]
Might it be Prophet?
To which of these passages are you drawn? What would be your Myers-Briggs assessment of the personality of each name or passage? If you use a different personality descriptor, what attributes would you give to each character or nature in these passages?
As you look at the communities which which you spend the most time, what is their name, character, nature and your place within such? What needs to change within yourself and your community that your name might be more clearly lived and not simply be an appellation.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2006/may2006.html
We get so caught in tradition, particularly new tradition. For whatever reason, Jesus had twelve male disciples/apostles (let's not argue about that).
Imagine them all in bed and someone calls out, "Roll over." And they all roll over and Judas fell out. What to do! What to do!
Obviously roll back the other way and add one more in. The form of twelve is at this point more important than anything.
By the time we get to chapter 12 and James is killed by Herod, there is no repeat of the selection of another twelfth. Are we learning that it is not so much the form that is crucial in G*D stuff as it is function? [although another way of coming at this is that we didn't want Judas to be a martyr and so we simply replaced him, James' death we could use in another way to our benefit and so we remembered him. - play with replaced and remembered for a bit]
- - -
sanctified in truth
protected from whatever
evil "one" approacheshappy in G*D's presence
planted by whatever
stream flows bychosen or not
life is present
minister through it
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_05_01_archive.html
To what and whom are you to reveal what you know of G*D?
By whom and what has G*D been revealed to you?
Both aspects of revelation are important to keep clear. Both will lead to a sense of assurance, protection, if you will.
Creation, once upon a time and still, has revealed G*D. My thanks for this gift is to protect creation.
Imagination, large and small, has revealed G*D. My thanks for this gift is to protect imagination wherever it appears and regardless of the person doing the imagining.
Relationships, intimate and accidental, have revealed G*D. My thanks for this gift is to protect relationships near and far, mine and yours.
You catch the pattern. What would you add that has brought revelation of G*D to you and are you likewise committed to protecting these important sources of life?
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2009_05_01_archive.html
To connect with G*D is to run the risk of privilege. We can circularly assert that those who hear our version of G*D already belonged to G*D as G*D’s slaves and those who are already G*D’s property are the ones who respond.
It is not a far jump to then argue that everything is being done for these special ones and they have an inside track, a protected path, a guarded life, a safe journey and end.
By the time we get to sanctification, holiness of living, it becomes a question of belief, of truth, of doctrine, not a maturation of spirit or a wholeness of vision connected with behavior.
Why would we not pray for those not part of my group? Why would we take responsibility away from believers and put it all on Jesus?
Are we protected for ourselves alone or are we protected in order to be able to risk on behalf of self and others? Are you a Christian for the perk of some imagined salvation or to engage the world and reveal it as beloved creation?
This passage is a most troublesome construct that gets us in more trouble than it resolves.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2012/05/john-176-19.html