John 17: 6-19 - "Investing Into The Future" - May 20, 2012

      Don Bouldin tells about a study he did of people who were 95 and older! He asked the question, “If you had life to do over again, what would you do differently?” First, reflect more. Second, take more risks. Third, do more things that will last forever. Invest in
eternity.
     Jesus has taken a risk with these disciples. He has invested all of eternity into these followers with the hope of creating the world largest spiritual social network. His message is about to go public after he gives an offering of his share of God’s grace and mercy.
        When Facebook went public this week and offered shares to be purchased, people invested into them! Investors raced to get shares, Facebook raised $16 billion that valued the company at $104 billion. It was the third-largest public offering in the history of the USA, behind General Motors and Visa. Mark Zuckerberg is only 28 years old and he has
prayed on the great need for a stronger social network fabric in our ever disconnected world. In just 8 years, Facebook went from a scrappy college service in a dormitory to the world’s largest social network, with 901 million monthly users worldwide, and roughly 200 million in the USA, or 2/3 of population.
     It’s all about the return on investment. The hour approaches for his offering. He is not quite sure how this investment will go. What does the start up director of one of the worlds now largest spiritual networks decides to do? Jesus decides to engage in prayer! But Jesus doesn’t pray for himself – all of Chapter 17 is a prayer! Jesus will soon pray for
himself in chapter 18 - in the garden! But now he is praying on behalf of those to whom the Father has authorized him to "give eternal life." He loving & longingly is concerned about the forces that pull at us. Priestly prayer of Jesus
     This lengthy prayer in John 17 shows Jesus concerned for his disciples. He is trying to encourage them in the face of his imminent departure. Jesus had invested three years into the disciples. He has invested into them, though a high risk & high yield! For some it may have looked as if it were not going to pay off! Yet of the twelve disciples, he will get almost a 91% return on investment with 11 of them panning out. After Jesus is death and
resurrection, they appoint another disciple to take on a twelfth of the responsibility placed upon them.
     One pastor suggested that this is a preview of Nicene Creed where it says, that we all be “one, holy, catholic and apostolic”. We believe that Jesus wanted unity, that he was set apart (holy) so that they are set apart (holy); that there is just one church and that it’s a message that will go everywhere so he is sending the disciples.
     Jesus is talking about unity in the body of Christ, oneness. In the midst of difficulty, there is a tendency to get pulled apart. The pressures of life tend to pull people apart – create denominations. How many churches are there in Rockford? One! Jesus wants them to "close out" any old "accounts" they invested into. Unity with the father and son and Holy Spirit is discovered when we live in community around the word, the meal and
fellowship.
     The other part of chapter seventeen is about being catholic, small “c”. Catholic means universal church that exists throughout the world. Jesus wanted all to believe through their message and be one in the message. We think of the new Rockford Bishop Malloy who held a non-communing Vespers prayer service Sunday evening demonstrating openness to be in prayer with other Christians in our community.

     Jesus also is focused on setting these disciples apart for a purpose. As Jesus was set apart for a mission, we reme5mber that the word “holy” means “set apart”. We are the “holy” catholic, church “set apart” (holy) to share the good news. His final action will make us holy because he pays for our sins on the cross, a huge investment risk. He makes them
and us holy. The “word made flesh” will lead them into the truth about themselves, others and God. For then they are sent!
     When Jesus said that he was sent by the Father, so now he is sending them out to the world. He prays that they would be guarded once sent. The word “apostolic” means “sent” and so the disciples (students following the way of Christ) and now “apostles” or senders. Jesus is about to his the “send” button and causes them to share the message throughout the world. His last word in this section is not about reflection but about going

out to invest into eternal things.
      Starting next week, we will train a disciple of Christ so that she might be sent into the world as an ELCA pastor of Word and Sacrament. This congregation has invested time, talents and resources into a kid who grew up here. Chrissy Salser will be our Summer Pastoral Intern. You will see the pay off when seminarian Chrissy Salser will come back here to serve a Summer Pastoral Internship for ten weeks. She isn’t just that little kid

anymore. She has been blessed and is responding to the good news. She is here because of 2000 years of return on investment, empowered by the Holy Spirit, and is paying off. Others have built up her faith as they have committed their hearts, sweat and bones, calluses and money. Other invested into Chrissy and each of us long before we even were born. Others have provided us this community because we are the “one holy catholic,
apostolic church.
      There is a great “return on investment” because Jesus is concerned about the world. The investment into those twelve disciples has paid off, we are the “prophets” (sic)who are sent into the world to service. What is more important is that we have the greatest investor. Long before we invested into God, God reached into an unlimited pocketbook and sent the great broker to invest into our portfolio, breaking the bank for
us!
     Let us pray…
 

1 David Versen, May 28, 2006; John 17: 11b-19; www.predigten.uni-goettingen.de/archiv-8/060528-7-e.html

Mark 1:9-14 - "The Lamb and the Beasts"

I had the chance to go and see the movie Red Tails on Friday evening. The movie screening included members of the Chicago Chapter of the Tuskegee Airmen, the African American Air force unit the movie was inspired by. The event was sponsored by the Veterans Memorial Hall for Black History Month. After the movie, I had the chance to meet two the veterans, Tuskegee Airmen Virgil Pool and Julius Jackson. When I shook their hands, I say what I say to every veteran which is “thank you for your service”; which Jackson said oh you don’t have to do that. Then I said to them both “thank you for your endurance”.

They have gone through the American wilderness of human inequality, with some experiencing that wilderness more like a desert than others, where there are more beasts than angels. We stand on this side of civil rights and we give God praise for the movement toward a world of human dignity and peace, knowing that we stand on this side of the desert. God has provided a way through the wilderness of American civil injustice.

In today’s reading from Mark, chapter 1, we see that the wilderness is surrounded by a baptism and the first preaching of good news. The journey begins with identity and baptism. Still wet from his baptism, Jesus hears, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” The commissioning means a conflict[1] for Jesus. Identity is so important when facing struggles. This identity doesn’t mean there will not be challenges! There are beasts out to devour Jesus in the wilderness!

The one who has declared who Jesus will now test him! Jesus will go beyond the comfort of warm water and be moved through the green grass lands of the river Jordan into the desert. He will move out toward the dark night of the soul. When Jesus entered the 40days, he didn’t know how long it would last! It will be the right amount of time. The reality is we don’t know how long the desert will be. We recall Moses didn’t know he was going to be 40 days on the mountain. Noah didn’t know the rain would last 40 days upon the Ark. How many animals did Moses bring on the ark? None! Noah did and Moses didn’t. Elijah didn’t plan to run and hide 40 days in his struggles. So we too enter the wilderness seasons and wonder how long will this dreadful period when we feel paralyzed by grief, fear or doubt! Perhaps because we know it will be 40 days, we may run away and hide and avoid such a wilderness!

So it is the Holy Spirit that in mark throws Jesus into the desert. We don’t want to enter the wilderness of testing and we don’t go willingly into struggles. Why? Because we know we will fail on our own as we are tempted to do it on our own. But this temptation is not toward a particular activity of sin! We are tempted not by what we cannot do but what we can do with the power of the Holy Spirit. The heart of the deception is an offer not to fall but to rise. We avoid the wilderness because we don’t want to recognize our complete dependence upon God! The tempter in the garden did not ask, "Do you wish to be as the devil?" but "Do you wish to be as God?" No self-respecting Satan would approach a person with offers of personal, social and professional ruin! We are tempted to think we are doing this on your own. Why then can’t they just pull themselves up by their bootstraps? They don’t have any boots? We believe that a rising tide will raise all boats unless you don’t have boat in the first place; then you die.

The thing we know about the wilderness is that Jesus encountered the wild beasts. There are two possibilities: Jesus encounters the wild beasts and masters them; gives them a noogy. Or we reflects upon Isaiah 11:6-9 – “The lion & the lamb shall lie down together” and we see that Jesus is with the wild beasts, and they do not harm him. It’s not because he puts them in a head lock but because both can exist together. Jesus is with the wild beasts because this is the beginning of the time that is fulfilled. The reign of God has come near. Something new, entirely new, has dawned.

It is in this place of the wilderness that we wrestle with the wild beasts that lie within each one of us; that dwells within our very culture and country. We see that all the beasts that we have wrestled with are still with us; taunting us to try and master them again. We can’t master them without the presence of the holy with us. Then we know because we are the beloved children of God, we can let them lay there with gentle lamb and experience God’s reign living within us; in our homes; community and world. The reign of God is ushered in when we know we can be together with the beasts all around us.

It is then that we see that God will send angels to serve us; to “Diakonia” us and provide for us all that we need. God provides for us in our testing by sending us messengers who are like angels who will serve us and care for us. In the midst of battles with the beasts of the world, we are promised that others will surround us and serve and care for us.

The greatest temptation is to run from the calling we have to celebrate that we are a mosaic community, sharing the grace of Christ with all. We shall night run away from that calling, with all the wild beasts that are within us. We know that at the end of Lent the desert of lonely abandonment will culminate in Jesus' cry on the cross and it is then that the reign of God will be ushered in, where creation and humanity will live in peace; where men and women of all races and creeds will live in harmony. Something new has begun and Jesus is announcing it as good news. The time is right! We are invited to repent and turn around this very day and see God is here. The time is here…

Let us pray:

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[1] Interpretation: Mark, Lamar Williamson, Jr. (Louisville: John Knox Press, 1983), pg 36-40