Pray Away

John 17:1–11
After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, 2since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. 5So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.
6I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; 8for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. 9I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. 10All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. 11And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.

I have an ordained person in my congregation. She attends my ramble-on-the-text class between services. I have mentioned in that gathering that I don’t really like John. She loves John, and she gets a sort of hurt puppy look as she chimes in with her great love of the Gospel of John. Last Sunday, she walked out of worship and thanked me for the sermon which she really liked. “Now do you like John?” she said.
“No.”
I’m looking at William Loader’s reflections on the text.
I cannot recommend this reflection highly enough.
I’m going to quote extensively from Loader. Perhaps he likes John, and is therefore able to find something here. Perhaps (read certainly) he is also smarter than me, and can give some helpful insights, and maybe even help to cure me of my misJohnogy. . .
He opens by talking about how John is using a convention in summing up Jesus’ teaching in a prayer as part of his farewell words. . . He states this with this well crafted thought:

“It is not that there was such a prayer which Jesus spoke in this distinctively Johannine way of which the rest of the tradition, reflected in the other gospels, had no knowledge. Rather in John’s story of Jesus’ life and importance he has creatively imagined what Jesus might have said and what would have been the issues for him in this final prayer.”

What do you do with this notion, if you don’t like John in the first place? Preach on the Ascension instead? aaaaarrrgggghhh (ok, I'll quit whining now.)
Let me continue with Loader - he points to salvation as relationship. That Jesus has come to bring an “offer of life in relationship” with God the Father.
Really - read Loader - as he works through a pretty nifty read of this High Priestly Prayer - he tosses off some wonderful lines:

Christianity has been plagued with the ‘thinging’ of eternal life and John’s gospel is an excellent antidote.
John helps us avoid the commodification of the gospel and invites to an understanding of being good news by being community in which love is lived out. Jesus had needs. It is not about pretending we do not have them and that the gospel does not address them. Jesus states that he wants the closest relationship with God possible. That is what he is asking for. It is OK to ask for that. But that is not a commodity. It is a hope for communion. John’s gospel is also pointing us to that as our hope. It does have a future - generously Jesus wants nothing less than that we share the same hope which awaits him. It has a future because it has a present in which already here and now we share and delight in the life of God who is always taking initiatives of compassion. The greatest antidote to greed is to want only the reward of being one with the God whose being is self giving love.
John’s gospel has a wonderful way of bringing it all together in focus and within the gospel John 17 does this especially. It can help us recognise what matters. Its distinctive model of christology helps make this possible, but also offers us a way of thinking of Jesus and his significance which works where John’s elaborate model is not assumed, such as in the earlier gospels and in the earliest traditions. Combined with their earthiness you can then see how what John is saying in abstract takes us into being a community of compassion which touches every area of life and challenges all systems and instances where it is absent.

Could it be? that John is gives us a great way to conclude our Easter season.
The resurrection is FOR YOU - and in living this good news, you are called out to a life of relationship - with God the Father, with the crucified and risen one, and with this world in need. . . this is calling, responsibility and promise - made sure and certain in the gift of the Spirit. . .
That dog will hunt.

Advocate now

John 14:15-21.

"If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you. "I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them."

How long, O Lord, must we deal with the Gospel of John?
How long must we suffer so? Have compassion on your servants
Hasten to our side, and deliver us from this ethereal stuff.
May Holy Trinity Sunday come quickly and not tarry!
Oh Matthew, first of the Gospels, how long has it been since last we looked upon your words?

OK. I’m done with that. . .

"I will not leave you orphaned...”
This is a rich and abiding promise of the rich and abiding presence of God in Jesus Christ. I think often of something that Pat Kiefert said - he claimed that a Gallup poll asked Americans if they could be described as an “emotional orphan” - and over half said yes. . .
I wonder at how loneliness is among the pervasive issues of our lives. Two songs come to mind, the Beatles “All the Lonely People” and America “Lonely People”. The Gospel of Jesus Christ comes to lonely people and promises. . . what? Friends? a life of purpose and meaning? presence and calling?

The Advocate - here’s a question - from Stoffregen - “for whom does the Advocate advocate?” Well, I always thought, “for me.” But he suggests that the Advocate advocates for Jesus. And there are probably many directions we could go with that. Stoffregen goes off on a sin/judgment/forgiveness track. That we're convicted of our sin, judged etc. Kinda negative.
But what if the Advocate advocates for Jesus - calling you to forgiveness and love received, and sending you to live forgiveness and love shown toward others. The Advocate - not as the Spirit acquired - not the Spirit making me better, giving me powers, not even as the Spirit sanctifying (which might be kinda positive, but ultimately, I think, fruitless and inspiring to self righteousness) - RATHER the Spirit equipping and sending. That is an interesting way to speak of the advocating that the Spirit does. . .

Now You See Him Now You Don't

Luke 24
Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14 and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 15 While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, 16 but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 17 And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking sad. 18 Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?” 19 He asked them, “What things?” They replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20 and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. 21 But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. 22 Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, 23 and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. 24 Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him.” 25 Then he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! 26 Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” 27 Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures. 28 As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. 29 But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” So he went in to stay with them. 30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. 32 They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” 33 That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. 34 They were saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!” 35 Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

There is a meditation on this text from the Christian Century that has this paragraph

One Sunday I heard a preacher claim that the point of the Emmaus story is that we can recognize Jesus only in the broken bread. I hadn’t become an Episcopalian until I was in my 20s, so my inner Presbyterian child began to mutter, "And what about their hearts burning when they heard the word?" I was certain that I was missing some deep Anglican truth, so I sought out a fellow parishioner with a strong Anglo-Catholic bent, knowing that she would set me straight. I found her in the kitchen opening and slamming the cabinet doors. I ignored her frustration and asked her to explain how we find Jesus only in the Eucharist. She answered me between gritted teeth: "That’s just baloney! It’s all about power. If Jesus is only in the bread, then the priest is the only one who can dole him out, as it were.”

I know that is a bit much, but here is my point in quoting it- - >
Luke says that the knowing is in the “breaking of the bread.” I suspect the priest was a bit off in pointing to worship. The meditation I quote goes off and finds the knowing in “the everyday” in “hospitality”. But Luke says that the opening of the scriptures is to show that the suffering was “necessary” - that the scriptures pointed to Jesus. Luke says

“Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread. . .”

Looking back to Luke 22 we hear. . .

“This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

Susan Briehl used this text to speak of the “heart of the matter” for worship. She spoke of the disciples walking the “sorrow road” with Jesus on the way to Emmaus.
Not only is Jesus made known in the breaking of the bread, the cross, the resurrection, the presence of God in this singular event is made known.
That might preach, but it seems kinda tough.
Easier to just say that you have to go to church and take communion. . .