Loved into the World

Transcript

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[0:00] And let's go to our sermon text. It's from John chapter 17, verses 6 through 19. And this is part of what's called the high priestly prayer, where Jesus prays for his disciples. It's not without sort of precedent in the scriptures. If you go back to Deuteronomy 33, there's this beautiful passage where Moses, who knows he cannot really accompany the people of God into the promised land because he had made some mistakes along the way, he blesses all the tribes of Israel in this kind of beautiful, it's similar to the high priestly prayer of Jesus, where he blesses his disciples. So here's just a sampling of it from chapter 33 of Deuteronomy. It says, This is the blessing that Moses, the man of God, pronounced on the Israelites before his death. And this he said about Judah. Hear, O Lord, the cry of Judah. Bring him to his people. With his own hands he defends his God. O be his help against his foes. And? About Benjamin, he said. This is from verse 12. I skipped a few tribes.

[1:02] About Benjamin, he said, Let the beloved of the Lord rest secure in him. For he shields him all day long, and the one the Lord loves rests between his shoulders. You can almost imagine like the shepherd carrying the sheep between his shoulders. So there's a precedent for this in scripture, this prayer of blessing and protection. Moses gives it to the tribes of Israel before he dies. Jesus gives it to his apostles. Before he dies. And this is the last supper on the night when he was betrayed. Maundy Thursday, we think of it. So we call it the high priestly prayer. And it's very long. Like several chapters of John are just Jesus praying for the apostles. And it's praying for the section we're looking at is a prayer of protection. There's other sections of it that talk about other things. But this section is about protecting the disciples and particularly from the world. And we'll get into what that means by the world. But I want you to know. I want you to imagine the scene as we're reading here. Imagine the scene that Jesus is in with the disciples. He's sitting at the table with them. And yes, it's a quiet room. It's the upper room. They've had a meal. But it's been a busy week. It's been a contentious week. Jesus has been in conflict with religious leaders all week long.

[2:15] And there's this underlying spiritual conflict between Jesus and the forces of darkness all around the world that are culminating on this night. So you can imagine that this was not a, Jesus wasn't relaxed. At all. Jesus was acutely aware of what was happening and what would happen. Judas had already left to betray him. Jesus sent him out the door and said, go and do what you need to do. He didn't try to stop him. He knew where everything was going. So Jesus shared this meal with him. And it says, actually, John, if you read John, kind of has a knack for some short sentences, like the really like the shortest verse of the Bible. When Jesus hears about Lazarus dying, it just says, Jesus, where are you? Jesus wept. Right? Just two words. And that one of the second shortest verses, at least in John, is John 1330. When Judas goes out to betray him, John 1330, all it says is, and it was night.

[3:13] And it was night. And this is like all these themes of darkness and light kind of come together in this one verse. It's this sort of pivotal verse where the action changes. Judas goes out to betray Jesus and it's night. Darkness is beginning to prevail. So darkness thinks. It has to wait till Sunday morning for the true light to shine. So it's one of the shortest and most powerful passages in the Bible. And it was night. And that's when darkness rules. Evil deeds are afoot. Right? And there's the suspense of his own death hanging over everything. So Jesus is about to face incredible danger, torture, death. And so he prays for protection, but not for himself. That's the important thing. He prays for protection of the people who are in the room with him. Because he knows that a similar fate may await them too someday. And it actually does in many cases. But he's praying for them to stay strong and be protected in the ministry. Not even sort of, we think about this, that they receive this prayer of protection, but what did they go and do? They desert him. They deny they know him. They run away. Only in time, probably until Pentecost really, does it all start to come together. But he prays for his followers. So I want you to listen for the care and love flowing out of Jesus in a prayer to the Father

[4:33] for the ones that he says, I no longer call you servants, but I call you friends. So he's praying for his friends. So let's go to our reading. It's John 7, 17, verse 6 through 19. Verse 6, I have revealed you, he's speaking to the Father now, I have revealed you to the ones you gave me from this world. They were always yours. You gave them to me and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything I have is a gift from you, for I have passed on to them the message you gave me. They accepted it and know that I came from you and they believe you sent me.

[5:11] My prayer is not for the world, but for those you have given me because they belong to you. All who are mine belong to you and you have given them to me so they bring me glory. Amen. Now I am departing from the world. They are staying in this world, but I am coming to you. Holy Father, you have given me your name. Now protect them by the power of your name so that they will be united just as we are.

[5:40] During my time here, I protected them by the power of the name you gave me. I guarded them so that not one was lost except the one headed for destruction as the scriptures foretold. Now I am coming to you. I told them many things while I was with them in this world so that they would be filled with my joy. I have given them your word and the world hates them because they do not belong to the world just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one. They do not belong to this world any more than I do. Make them holy by your truth. Teach them your word, which is truth. Amen. Just as you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world. And I give myself as a holy sacrifice for them so they can be made holy by your truth.

[6:37] Let's pray. Father thank you for even that bird out there chirping. Father thank you for that. For your care for the sparrow that you protect. Father thank you for your word of protection over the apostles. Thank you for this word that was just read and we ask your blessing on it. In Jesus name. Amen.

[7:00] Well, last time we started with a poem, not last time, a couple of times ago we started with a poem by Omar Khayyam. You guys remember that one? So now I have another famous poem for you. Steve's going to put it up there. Just real classic poem. Beautiful. Let's see.

[7:15] You know this one? Beautiful poem, more of a nursery rhyme. Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater. Had a wife but couldn't keep her. He put her in a pot. Pumpkin shell. And there he kept her very well. That was one of my favorites as a kid. It has that, you know, it just rolls off the tongue. Very easy to remember, right? So okay, not quite as fancy as Omar Khayyam, but this one has an interesting set of meanings. If you try to figure out what does it mean here, well one of the meanings possibly is this kind of adult, you know, so should have been the high schooler should have stayed and the junior high should have left. The non-PG version was that. That she was stepping out on Peter. He couldn't keep her from going to another man. You know, he couldn't keep her out at home on Saturday night. And so he kept her in a pumpkin shell so that he could keep an eye on her. That's one meaning of keep her. Keep her from roaming, right? You know, you could just as easily swap this around, the genders, right?

[8:15] And so the word keep here would mean to keep somebody confined. And she couldn't get away. Sort of trapped, right? Right. Right. And we think possibly that this nursery rhyme, as they do, sometimes has its origins in something dark, not just the darkness of somebody stepping out on their husband, but the darkness of King John of England. Remember King John, he was not a very good king. In fact, not a single king of England has been named John since King John because he was so rotten. There's never been another king. There's never been a King John II of England. King John is said to have walled in a noble woman whom he disagreed with. He walled her in with her son. That was a form of torture. She could barely move. And then she died inside there. It's called immurement. Immurement, right? And that's kind of that Germanic word, muir or maur means brick or wall. So the Middle Ages have given us kind of a lot of interesting words, immurement, torturing somebody by putting a small wall around them. And then the other one is defenestration. It all has to do with building materials. So defenestration is when you throw a wall around a building. You throw somebody out of a window. And you don't really kill them by doing that.

[9:26] You sort of take away their authority. So the defenestration of Prague was the beginning of all sorts of trouble. So anyways, the Middle Ages, you know, they're like, what can we torture people with? Oh, here's some building supplies. Let's, you know, let's do that.

[9:39] Anyways, so we think that King John, maybe this came from King John, immuring this noble woman. And it might be one of the reasons for the revolt against King John. Because that was, he did it sort of by fiat. He said, we're going to just block this woman up. And so the nobleman revolted against King John in 1215, forced him to sign the Magna Carta. And Article 39 of the Magna Carta says that no person should be imprisoned at the king's whim, but had to be tried by their peers. Does that sound familiar? So that English common law has carried down through the centuries, this idea of you cannot, the leader of the country can't just arbitrarily put a wall around a building. You can't put somebody in prison. They have to be, there has to be some due process.

[10:27] And you have to go to jury duty. Yeah, that's why we have jury duty. Exactly, George. Because this lady, because of that nursery rhyme, we have jury duty. See, it's all connected. It's all connected. And you're like, hmm.

[10:39] But we better, I'd rather have jury duty than not jury duty. Because if there were no juries, we'd have a lot of problems. So now, let's go back to the poem. I'm sorry, Steve. You. He got ahead of me there. Because I'm still talking about the poem. Is possible, that's one example of what keep could mean, is to confine. A little bit of a sideshow there with King John, but I thought it was interesting. The other way to think of keeping somebody is to keep them safe.

[11:08] Keep them provided for, right? And so maybe Peter and his wife, they were like, she's out in the world. I can't keep her safe. If I can keep her in this pumpkin shell, this shell can protect her. From all that's outside, right? So he kept her safe inside a pumpkin. So I want you to hang on to the word keep and what that means. We're going to come back to the word keep later. This is not just all random. Okay. So let's look at what Jesus is doing here. And in all the high priestly prayer, which covers several chapters, we see him in the role of mediator. It can go away now. Thanks, Steve. I'm done with the poem.

[11:43] Jesus is the mediator. This is the high priestly prayer. And he's bridging between God the Father and his disciples. Those who are with him, right? So he's in the middle and he has this deep connection with God. He has this deep connection with his friends and he's bridging between everybody, right? And he can do this because of how we understand the incarnation. We understand Jesus to be one person with two natures, a divine nature and a human nature. And because of that, he can be in two worlds almost at once, right? He can speak freely to God and he can say things like, I and the Father are one. This deep identification with the Father, right? But he can speak freely to his friends. He can be in deep relationship with God in one minute and in the same minute. He's eating a meal with his friends because he has a real body that needs food. Do you see? He's like sharing a meal with them is more than just we're together. He's demonstrating by eating that he has a human body and a human nature. And so he's the perfect mediator between God and humanity. So what is he asking for most in this section? He's asking God to keep his disciples. If you go back to our text from the sermon text, he asked God to keep his disciples safe.

[13:01] And the Greek word here is tereo. You don't have to write that down if you don't want to, tereo. But it means actually to keep something in sight, to keep it in sight. And my vision of this is when my children were small and they wanted to walk to school alone. Some of them still want to walk to school alone. We're not quite there yet. But the others do or have. Is you watch them and you keep them in sight as they're walking down the road. So you're keeping them. You're kind of protecting them by keeping an eye on them. But not just keep in sight, but it means to keep, protect, to keep safe.

[13:37] If you're paranoid like me, you watch your kid go down and as soon as they turn a corner, you run up to the corner and you look around and you keep watching them and you want to make sure they don't see it because you want them to feel like they have some agency in the world, which is great. But then you could just, you know, the paranoid part of you is like, I'm going to keep them in sight all the way. And then they make it safely into the door of the school and you're like, okay.

[14:00] And about 20 more times of that and then I'm okay. No, I'm kidding. One time was enough. One time was enough because you're like, ah, they got it now. So that's the sense I think from the, could be the sense from the nursery rhyme is being safe from harm. Okay. And then you have one's needs provided for. So you know, if you keep somebody, you're, if somebody is a kept person, you're providing for their needs too, right? You're keeping, you're keeping them, you're keeping them safe. You're keeping them well fed. You're keeping them provided for. Now why is Jesus asking for this? Right? It's because of the world. And here I would put world with a capital W because it has almost that sense of it's a proper noun in the way that Jesus is using it as a proper noun. We think of the world. I mean, we use the word world in a lot of ways in English. We think of it as our physical planet, or we can think of it as the whole system of human action and history. So we could say things like the world is out to get me today. You know, it's like everything, everything that's not me is the world, right? The whole, the whole system is the world. Guinness book of world records, right? The world records, what are the world? It's all the other people in the world who can contribute something.

[15:16] It's all the other people in the world who can contribute something to this record book, right? So it's the entire collection of humanity. But in John's writing, so both here in the gospel of John and in first, second and third John and later in the, in the new Testament, that word for world, which is cosmos in Greek cosmos, where we get a lot of words from that word, it's more pointed. It's that part of, so for John, the world is that part of the created order that's actively opposed to God. It's God and God's plans for the world. So I'll say that again, cause that's really important. This is the world has a negative element to it. When John, when John talks about the world, it's not neutral. It's not just everything in its mass. It's that part of the created order that's actively opposed to what God is doing in the world, what God wants to do with the world and God's plans for the world. So the world has the sinister feeling to it. It has this willful aspect to it. It can lie in wait. It can take its time. It schemes and it devises plans to get in God's way. That's the world. It's it's so you would put a capital W on that. It's like it has this thing, right? So this is what Jesus is concerned about and what he wants God to protect them from.

[16:30] This is what he says. I am leaving the world, but they are staying in the world. And this is the challenge for Jesus. I'm leaving. I'm going to die. I'm going to be raised again. I'll be with them for a while, but then I have to leave. Right? I have to somehow prepare for them to be in the world without me, to be in this thing that's opposed to them without me. So I'm going to ask the father to protect them while I'm gone because the father can do that. Right? So I'm leaving the world, but they're staying in the world. And then he says, and this is not, I don't think hyperbole. He says the world hates them. It says that. It says that in our passage, right? The world hates them. Right? The world hates them. And he says that's because they don't belong to the world. The world hates them because they don't belong to the world. They belong to the father because Jesus has given them to the father. So the world hates the things of the father. The world hates the things that do not belong to the world. It's an irritant. It's like, you know, it's like a speck of dust in the, in the pearl, right? In the, in the oyster. And it has to, it has to kind of surround it. Right? So this is true of the world. It demands you play by it.

[17:42] It demands you play by its rules. It demands that you salute its flags, that you recite its oaths, that you join it ultimately in opposition to its own creator. That's what the world wants. And if you don't, in the end, it will come after you. That's the world because it can't tolerate you in its midst. Now does this sound a little hysterical? I'm sorry if it does, but I think it's kind of true. The world is in enmity with God. The world won't have, if you don't, if you don't rub the world the wrong way, the world, the world won't have any problems with you. It'll let you be. But if you belong to God, God will call on you to do things that are opposed to the workings of the world. It will call you to stand up to power. It'll call you to stand up to injustice. It'll call you to love unlovable people. It'll call you to welcome the orphan and the stranger and the widow in the land. It'll call you to do all sorts of things the world hates. And eventually if you do enough of those things, the world will come after you. Right? Yeah.

[18:42] Now we could ask ourselves, if the world's not coming after me, how much am I doing? And this is a time, that's a question for another time or a question to take home with me. If the world's getting along just fine with me right now, maybe I'm, maybe I need to do more to annoy it. Right? But the world will come after you in the end because it can't tolerate you in the midst if you belong to the Father. So this is a tough teaching, right? You can either be for the world, at least as John formally said, or you can be for the Father, but you can't be both logically. You can't be both for the Father and for the world because the world is opposed to the Father. Right? You have to choose. And I would say if you're a follower of Jesus Christ, you have chosen. You have chosen. You have given over yourself to the Father. And on some level, you've left the world behind. I'm going to talk about that in just a second. But on some level, you've said the Father, being in the Father's kingdom is more important than being in the world's kingdom, so to speak. And you've, your allegiance has been left behind. It has shifted over. And the outcome of that choice that you made is really clear in passages like this. You're going to suffer the world's hate because of your choice.

[19:53] And the good news, Jesus is interceding on your behalf with the Father to protect you from the world. And I think this is still true. Yes, this prayer may be frozen in time in the pages of this gospel, but I do believe Jesus continues to intercede for the Father to protect his friends. Those who belong to the Father, right? So Jesus is praying for us in heaven right now, potentially, to protect us from the world, to keep us from the world, keep us safe from the world.

[20:25] So what should we do with the world? This is the question of Christianity almost. What should we do with the world? It's complex. We live in the world. You have to eat, don't you? You have to drink water. You have to have a shelter over your head. You have to protect your children. You have to send them to school. All of these things mean you have to interface with the world in some meaningful way, right? You have to participate in the world. You really should. I'm not saying you shouldn't. You really should. Why?

[20:54] So Christians have kind of struggled with this. They're like, ah, the world seems like it's in enmity with God. I need to escape from the world. And a lot of Christians have done this, okay? They've tried to fight the world. Well, let's go back one thing. One thing that Christians have tried to do is said, well, if the world is opposed to God, then we'll fight for God. Okay? So we'll fight for God. They took up actual weapons and started fighting. And the moment they did that, they stopped being in the Father's good graces, I would say, right? They became part of the world once they engaged in violence. So St. Paul says, our battle is not against flesh and blood. Have you heard this before? But against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world. And against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. It's a bit mysterious, but I think the idea is clear there. You are not going to fight the world with actual weapons. There's a spiritual battle at play in the world, but it's not with human weapons. It's with spiritual weapons. Now as I was saying earlier, I got ahead of myself. Other Christians have tried to escape from the world, right? This is interesting. So some Christians are like, we can't live in the world.

[22:07] Let's... Let's get all the people who think like us and let's go into the wilderness or someplace undeveloped and let's build a compound and also live there together and have our own rules and protect all our children from all the bad influences. And some of you are like, this isn't going to end well. Are you thinking that? You're like, this is not going to end well. You're right. It almost never ends well. There's a few that are still doing it and they're doing a good job. Let me give you a few examples. Have you heard of Oneida cutlery?

[22:38] Knife and fork? Okay. Have you heard of Amana? They used to make refrigerators. Okay. So Oneida was actually started not as a cutlery company, but it was started as a Christian commune in upstate New York. Yeah. Interesting. It was the Oneida community.

[22:54] And every... Everything about every Christian community almost is that... And again, I wish the high schoolers were here and said the junior high schoolers, but it's okay, is that they got into some weird territory with sexual ethics almost right away. So the Oneida community, they were like, we don't really believe in marriage. We believe everybody should be able to hook up with anybody else as long as it's consensual.

[23:17] Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So just so you know, this church will never do that. That's not our deal here. That's never going to happen. And of course, so then the family, the family was really the problem. If you separate... If the children were with their mothers for the first year of life, and then after that, they were raised by some other people in the commune. Sounds like a mess. It was a mess. And guess what? Over time, it all fell apart because they were like, this is weird. This is too much. So that's Oneida. Amana on the other side, first they were, I think in Indiana, then they ended up... They had a huge commune still in Iowa, but just the remnants of it, the corporation isn't there anymore. Anyway, so Oneida, and then they started making cutlery just to make money for the commune. And then when the commune dissolved, all that was left was the cutlery company. Anyways, so Amana, the opposite. They're like, let's... Our sexual ethic is that everybody is celibate in this community. There's no marriage and there's no children. And guess what? Over the years, they were like, nobody wants to join and our numbers are dwindling. Why could... Why is that? Why, you know? And it was just weird. And they started making refrigerators to, you know, to sell.

[24:37] And they started making refrigerators to make money. Isn't this interesting? So all this, but it never lasts. Okay, last one is the Shakers. They were also celibate. They didn't last. They're like, why? Okay. So, but my point is this. There are groups that are like, let's leave the world.

[24:52] Let's create our own world. Guess what? The world always follows them in through the gate on the coattails. The world always creeps. And I know of another group, I'm not going to say their name, probably as successful as communally as farming and other... All kinds of manufacturing things, but child abuse and alcoholism are rampant in some of their communes. The world, you cannot leave the world. It comes in there with you. I mean, this is the fake thinking of leaving the world, right?

[25:22] My pet peeve. Can you tell? This is what Jesus himself says. He's praying to the Father. I'm not asking you to take them out of the world. That's what Jesus said. So you wonder if these... If these communal-minded Christians ever read this passage where Jesus says, I'm not asking you to take them out of the world, but they took themselves out of the world, right? I don't know what they thought when they read that passage. You can't leave the world. There's too much work to do. There's not... They're not much good to me. So Jesus would say, if I take them out of the world and they make their own commune, they're no good to me. They're not going to do any of the work that I have for them.

[26:02] So the Christian has to be in the world. Really in the world. And the model, I think, is in Jeremiah 29, 7. We've probably read this before here, where it says to the people who are in exile, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it. And I think that's how we have to think of ourselves is somewhat like we're a bit exiles here. And it's a little bit more nuanced than that, but we're exiles. This is not our true home, at least not yet. Someday I think this will be our true home, but not yet. Not in our lifetimes, perhaps.

[26:41] We're foreigners and we're aliens here. We really shouldn't support immigrants because we should see ourselves as immigrants, not as immigrants to America, but as immigrants to this world. We don't actually belong here. We don't lay claim to any of this. It's not our true home. It's not our true home. We don't have a homeland. We don't have a homeland. That's physical. We have a homeland that's heaven. We have a homeland that's the kingdom of God, which is where the gospel is preached correctly and the sacraments are administered rightly and the love of God dwells in us. That's the kingdom. That's our true home, right? So we're foreigners and we're aliens. And the other thing is we're not just passing through. We're not tourists. We're not saying, oh, look what a mess this place is. I hope they can clean it up. No, we clean it up. We live here long enough to bless this city. We pray for this city and pray for this city so that, I'm not talking about this city, but the city is a metaphor, right? Where we say, no, we pray to God for the peace of this city. We have to bless the place, even if it won't bless us. This is what Jesus looks like. So I want you to write this down. If you're writing things down, I want you to write this down.

[27:54] We have to love the thing that wants to destroy us. This is what Jesus is saying to the disciples. The world hates them. But they are in the world. Don't take them out of the world. They have work to do in the world. That's really the call of the Christian life. And that's the path of discipleship is we have to love the thing that wants to destroy us. Is that a paradox? Yes. It's crazy. This is what we're called to. You know, did you know that being a Christian isn't normal? It's not a normal thing. Sorry. You're not going to be normal. If you're in here, you're not normal. You're exceptional and strange and weird. You're called to love the thing that wants to destroy you. That's what you're called to. That's what Jesus calls the disciples to.

[28:37] So why are we here? Why are we here? We're in this room here. I would look at it this way. You need to live out in the world. I need to live out in the world. You can come here for an hour or two every week to get kind of filled up. And this is an alternate community for a couple hours a week. But the other hundred and some hours of the week, you are out there. You belong out there. You need to be out there. Okay? So if you look at verse 18, we won't bring it up right now. It says, Jesus is sending us into the world just as the Father sent the Son into the world. What are we going into the world to do? What Jesus did in the world. What does Jesus do in the world? He heals. He performs miracles. He brings people to faith. He preaches. Right? He cares for the poor. He cares for the sick. So our job is to keep doing the work that Jesus started until it's done, which I don't know when that will happen, or we die. I think that's more likely first. Or he comes back. Or he tells us to stop. Our job is to keep the work going that Jesus started. When he left, he says, Father, protect them in this world because I'm having them work in the world that you gave me. So we seek the peace and welfare of the world. And the world may think of us as its enemy, right?

[29:47] But we don't think of the world as our enemy. We don't. Think about it this way. What does Jesus say about the world, about the cosmos? John 3.16. Notice. For God so loved the cosmos. Same word. God so loved the part of creation that is diametrically opposed to God. God loves the thing that's trying to destroy God. So God so loved the cosmos that he gave his one and only son for that same cosmos. That whoever believes in the son will have everlasting life, real life, actual life, life with God, life with a purpose. Life, watch. Life.

[30:39] Life. Life. Life. Life. Life. Life. Life. Life. Life. Life. I know some of you own homes, and the Nelsons own homes too, but they're not really ours. Actually, mostly the bank, but you know, they're not ours. This is not ours. The world is not ours.

[31:13] It's not our true home, at least not for now. You are sent into the world to love it in the same way the Father does, up to and including laying down the things most dear to you to show that love. The Father sent his Son into the world to save the world. The Father is sending you into the world to lay down potentially everything you have. It might be to sell everything you have. It might be even more, right? And finally, and this is most important because that's daunting, right?

[31:44] When you are in the world, the Father will keep you. He will keep you. There's that word again, right? The Father will keep you and protect you and provide for you, and he will keep you very well, keep you very well. Let's pray. Let's pray.

[32:01] Father, thank you again for your word. We pray you keep us safe as we go into the world to do your work. In Jesus' name, amen.