A sermon based on John 17. 20-26. Thursday was the Feast of the Ascension where, after 40 days of showing himself to his disciples and many others, Christ returns bodily to heaven to take his seat at the right hand of the Father. So what is he doing now? Is he having time off? Having a break after all the activity on earth? No. He is praying for his people, interceding for us to his Father. And whilst we don’t know exactly what he is praying, John 17, of which we heard a portion in our Gospel reading, gives us some insight. It’s a chapter known as the High Priestly prayer because it gives us that insight into how Jesus prays for us and all his people. So let us take a look at the portion we have this morning. At the point we join his focus shifts from praying solely for the disciples there with him to praying for all who will believe in him through their word, through their testimony. In other words, 2000 years ago when Jesus prayed this prayer in the presence of his disciples, he also prayed for us, just as he continues to pray for us now, but there, on the eve of his crucifixion he was praying for us. And what is his prayer? That we may be one. Now this passage gets quoted endlessly in conversations about unity, about ecumenical work, whenever there is disagreement or division in the church. We can make it seem as though, as Jesus’ prayer before his death, we need to honour that, and that it can be achieved through a form of superficial unity where we all pretend our differences don’t matter. But that’s not what Jesus is praying for. He’s praying that we become one, just as he and the Father, to whom he is praying, are one. And that’s not an outward unity, a perceived unity. Nor is it merely a union of substance as we declare in the creed. The way the Father and the Son are united is in will, in desire, in purpose, in holiness and in love. That’s how the Father and the Son are united. And that’s how he therefore prays we be united. In will, in desire, in purpose, in holiness and in love (that’s not an exhaustive list by the way). There’s nothing superficial about it. Well we had best get to it then hadn’t we, we need to make more effort, try harder to honour Jesus’ final wish. No. Jesus isn’t praying this so that we overhear and get on with it. Jesus is praying this because it is the Father, through the Spirit, who makes this a reality. Jesus is asking the Father, not us, because he alone can bring such a change, such a transformation. Our world is broken isn’t it. And we’re broken, we’re far from perfect. I’m sure each of us can identify with Paul when he says that he longs to do good, and yet he ends up doing what he hates. So to try harder to be better misses the point. Through the Spirit we have been brought into the church, made one with Christ in his death and resurrection. That’s the Spirit’s work, making us one with Jesus. And the Spirit doesn’t just unite each of us individually to Jesus, he also unites us to one another. Through the Spirit the old divisions of sin pass away as we are made one in Jesus. This isn’t a manufactured unity, acting like our differences don’t matter, not a forced unity by saying the truth doesn’t matter and we can all agree to disagree. It’s found in the Spirit. Who day by day conforms us to Jesus. Which brings us onto his words in v22 about his glory that he now gives to us. Irenaeus, the second century bishop in what is now southern France, is most famed for his words ‘the glory of God is man (or woman) fully alive’. What’s Jesus’ glory? He’s not referring to his divinity, he hasn’t given that to the apostles, he’s referring to the glory of the Father, and his perfect humanity. His glory is his perfect humanity. Only 3 people can claim to have ever been perfectly made in the image of God, Adam, Eve and Jesus. And only one can claim to have lived in that reality without faltering. Each of us is also made in the image of God but we have marred that image, we have disfigured it, like going into the Louvre and flinging paint over the Mona Lisa because we think it could do with a little more colour. And yet Jesus says that he has given us his glory. Through the cross our sin and shame is destroyed, and through the ongoing work of the Spirit in us we are being changed from glory to glory, through the work on the Spirit the image of God in us is both restored and formed anew. The glory of God is man fully alive, Jesus is the very image, the very definition of man fully alive, and each of us, by the work of the Spirit share in that glory, each of us day by day being restored and reformed into that image, daily becoming more fully alive in him. Whilst by sin and division we were kept from God, through the cross and the ongoing work of the Spirit we now have access to him, being united with him more fully day by day in will, in desire, in purpose, in holiness and in love. Likewise we were once kept from one another by sin and division, now in Christ, through the work of the Spirit we are being drawn into deeper unity day by day in will, in desire, in purpose, in holiness and in love. We are saved both as individuals and as a people. As we draw closer to God, we also draw closer to one another. And it is through this, Jesus prays, that the world will know that the Father sent Jesus, and that therefore what he says about God is trustworthy and true, and that the world will know that the Father loves us, just as he loves the Son. Unity with God and with one another aren’t optional extra’s, they are our very witness to the world. But only that true deep unity will achieve that, only the unity that the Father alone can bring. Which isn’t to say that we all end up exactly the same, uniqueness stripped away as we become a homogenous mass, no, the Father and the Son are distinct persons. Rather all our differences, when brought into the truth of Jesus and his Gospel, when grounded in the reality of God, are stripped of any sinfulness, any divisiveness, and are united into the rich tapestry that humanity was always meant to be. So let us pray for that unity in these days, and let us also work for that unity in these days. Just as sanctification by the Spirit to make us more like Jesus, requires both the work of the Spirit and effort on our part, so to our unity requires the work of the Spirit and effort on our part. Finally, before he concludes Jesus prays that we may be where he is, so that we can see his glory. He prays that, as he is now seated at the Father’s side in the heavenly realms, so too we may come to be there with him, that we can at last see him face to face. In this life we see his glory, we have already seen it, it’s why we are Christians, we beheld his glory. Yet in this life we see him in a mirror dimly, we’re like a people in a dark room, who have only known the dark, if Christ were to pull open the doors, draw back the curtains so that the light would flood in, it would blind us, it would overwhelm us. Instead in this world we see like chinks of light coming round the edges of the door, creeping round the curtains, we see it as a dawn, rays of hope, warmth and life. That’s how we see in this world, but, when Jesus, through the Father brings us into the next, we shall see him as he is, in his full glory and majesty, then our eyes will be able to handle that vision. Our hope is not for this life alone, instead we see just enough to kindle our hope, enough to give us the assurance that he will bring us to the fulness of that hope. And then, we shall see in full. The one who sits at the right hand of the Father, bringing all things to their completion is a human man. Jesus has not shed his humanity, but raised it, glorified it, and borne it up into the heavenly realms. But whilst he is now in heaven and not with us in body, we are not alone, not only has he sent the Spirit to us, he also is our advocate in the heavenly courts, our witness in the heavenly realms. Having revealed God to us, he now presents us to God. Interceding for us, that the Father, through the Spirit may perfect in us the image of his glory, that he may make us one, just as he and the Father are one, that where he is, we also shall be. Christ is risen, ascended and glorified, we have been raised with him and are being changed from glory into glory until at the last we too shall be lifted with him to the heavenly places, until at the last our glory is complete, and we see him face to face. Amen.
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AuthorAn Anglican Curate in my 20's I was raised in an Anglican Church, went to a Youth Club run by an Evangelical Church, attended a Baptist Church while at Uni and was a member of a New Monastic Community after graduating. As such my faith has been influenced by these experiences and traditions into what I hope is a more rounded viewpoint. Archives
September 2022
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