Re: Iterate

Peter Neilson May 21, 2021 0 1

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John 17: 6-19 (NIVUK)

6 ‘I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11 I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.

13 ‘I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

Those of us who have been given the privilege of leading God’s people in some shape or form will do well to listen in on Jesus’ prayer. Church leadership can be frustrating, and cynicism lurks ready to poison the soul. People can be difficult or fickle, and disappointment is never easy to shrug off.

What if we saw each other as a gift from God – as Jesus saw his disciples with all their foibles? What if we affirmed each other’s faltering attempts to obey his word – as Jesus recognised in his dull-minded followers? What if we were open to letting God reveal something of Godself to us through each other – as Jesus seemed to see God’s glory revealed in his unreliable team (verse 10).

Yes, even the grumpy ones and the awkward ones, not just the ones that are clearly on side. Maybe we need more grace to see them with Jesus’ eyes, so they become the means of our conversion and transformation. “Sanctification” is the old word for that process and is active as well as passive.

Jesus actively offers himself up to the Father for their sake – “For them, I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.” (19)

That’s our role model for leading the people who will carry on God’s work when we are gone.

PRAYER:

Father, this congregation are your people.

Thank you for each one,

The ones that come easily to mind

So willing and caring, so prayerful and positive;

And the ones we miss too easily,

So quiet and unassuming, on the edge, out of view;

And the ones we find it hard to thank You for

Objecting to all things new, locked into yesterday,

Easily offended, surrounded by egg-shells.

Father,

Each one, your gift.

Each one, a faltering follower.

Each one, a means of grace and glory,

However costly.

“For them, I sanctify myself,

that they too may be truly sanctified”. AMEN