Friday prior to Easter 7

 

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 John 17:11b-19—The Post-Ascension church confronts the world. In this high priestly prayer, Jesus is aware that He is going to leave the world and His disciples will be left in a fallen world. Think of what the world did to Him! Will not the disciples face the same opposition? Naturally, the disciples would be afraid. Thus, Jesus prays for His followers, not that they should be taken out of the world as He is about to do, but that they should be protected from the Devil and the world. He prays that they may be one as He and the Father are one. They are to be made holy in His Word. As He was sent into the world, He sends them into the world for the same purpose He was sent.

Not out of but into this world. Jesus intends for his followers to be in the world but not of the world. He asks the Father not to take his men out of this world as he is about to leave the world. Rather Jesus sends them into the world. Here is a problem and a challenge. How can we be in the world and not be of the world? James, in his letter, speaks of true religion as keeping oneself unspotted from the world. A Christian is to be like it was said of a Yankee in the South: “For years he lived among us, but was not one of us.” 

The Christian lives in the tension of being in but not being a part of the world. That person cannot identify with the world lest he/she become one with the sin of the world. Yet, a Christian is sent into the world to witness, serve, and save the world.[2]

For blessing on the Word: Lord God, bless Your Word wherever it is proclaimed. Make it a word of power and peace to convert those not yet Your own and to confirm those who have come to saving faith. May Your Word pass from the ear to the heart, from the heart to the lip, and from the lip to the life that, as You have promised, Your Word may achieve the purpose for which You send it; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. -14 May 2021—

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[1] Image of the Ascension of Christ by Salvador Dail, copyright © Google images

[2] Lectionary Preaching Workbook, Series B, John Brokhoff © 1981 CSS Publishing, Lima, OH