SEVENTH SUNDAY OF EASTER June 1, 2025

Prayer of the Day: O God, form the minds of your faithful people into your one will. Make us love what you command and desire what you promise, that, amid all the changes of this world, our hearts may be fixed where true joy is found, your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Gospel: John 17:20-26[Jesus prayed:] 20 “I ask not only on behalf of these but also on behalf of those who believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24 Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 “Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them and I in them.”

Commentary: The flow of thought and the words of Jesus’ prayer seem repetitive and convoluted and far from linear! That appears to be the intention. Experiencing John’s Gospel reminds me of walking prayer labyrinths. The path repeatedly turns on itself so you’re experiencing foresight and hindsight at the same time—labyrinths aren’t designed to be sprinted through as if we’re lab rats running through mazes. The deliberate pace and revisiting and looking ahead all at the same time means the journey matters as much as the ‘destination’.

Historic and Linguistic background: It’s easy to forget the people to whom John’s Gospel was first presented—a people marginalized by both the empire and their own faith group. Disagreements over teaching and religious practices were only compounded by the divisions among people. This marginalized group inherited the disciples’ ‘job’ of being Jesus’ physical presence in the world. Remembering Jesus’ plea to the Father for unity might give such a faltering community some stability. The language used throughout John’s Gospel is intentionally multilayered. The reason is two-fold. Like slang that young people use, ‘coded language’ builds solidarity among those who use the words. At the same time, the ‘code’ is obscure enough to leave older folk scratching their heads—or in the case of the Gospel, code language (or argot) is employed to evade the Empire’s prying eyes and ears. What forms does this ‘code language’ take on?

Some words take on new meaning. For example, the word “glory” is used in association with Christ’s death. Considering the brutality involved, glory isn’t the first word many of us would use to describe the event. Besides the ‘subverting’ of the word, the entire trajectory of Jesus’ death and resurrection subverts a world order that uses death as its leverage to pry compliance and allegiance from the populace. Other words take on multiple meanings and all of them were meant to be pondered. You might recall last week’s commentary about the word “advocate” having a range of connotations. The hearer and reader is invited not to chose among the various meanings, but to accept the mystery of all of them together! John’s Gospel (and I would claim that much of scripture) is not designed to be easily understood. Unlike an instruction booklet from IKEA, the scripture invites us into a life containing mystery, paradox, ambiguity and by necessity that means a community ‘fusses’ with all of that as community. Hence….Jesus prays for us!

Immediate and canonical context: The appointed Gospel represents the last part of “The Long Goodbye” from John chapters 14-17. The previous chapter includes Jesus’ telling his followers they will most likely be expelled from their synagogue (in John 14 Jesus tells them they won’t be ‘orphaned’, however). Jesus devotes lengthy conversation and now prayer to prepare his followers for their life on earth without Jesus being physically present with them. The promised ‘comforter’ or Spirit of God coupled with Jesus’ pledge that there will always be a place for them in God’s realm; both in this life and beyond. Imagine being one displaced from your community and hearing that God has a place for us!

Scholars have divided the prayer into three parts: Jesus’ return to glory (verses 1-5), Jesus’ prayer for his disciples (verses 6-19) and Jesus’ prayer “for all who believe through the word of the disciples” (verses 20-26). [Preaching Through the Christian Year, eds. Fred B. Craddock, John H. Hayes,Carl R. Holladay, and Gene M. Tucker (1994) Trinity Press page 270-271].

For this week: The readings we’ll read and hear come from the prayer’s third segment in which Jesus intercedes for those who come to believe (trust) through the word of the disciples. Jesus prays that we all would be “one” in the same way that Jesus and God are one. If you think you’ve experienced delays in God answering your personal prayers, get a load of this!

That petition for one-ness could spin us into discussions about God’s nature or doctrines around the Trinity—and those discussions ironically begin to divide us. These deliberations have already divided the community of ‘those who believe in Jesus through the word of the disciples”. This year is the 1,700 year anniversary of the Church Council of Nicaea, where the creed that we have been reciting this Easter season was formulated. Historians tell us this gathering required about three months’ worth of collaboration and debate. Sadly, the ‘whole church’ was split in two. Today we speak of the “Eastern Church” (Orthodox, Coptic, and related churches) and the “Western Church (the Roman Church, which we know has split into a myriad of factions). At issue, and please pardon the gross oversimplification here, was one phrase relating to the Holy Spirit “proceeding from the Father and the Son”. Those who feared we were beginning to “rank order” the Trinity took exception to the words “and the Son” (the Filioque). Gross oversimplification aside, God’s response to the prayer that “all may be one” remains a work that is in progress—evidently very painfully slow progress.

Dr. Karoline Lewis’ remarkable work appears in her commentary on John’s Gospel. She takes up Jesus’ words about “the love with which you love me may be in them” (verse 26). Dr. Lewis leaves us with a question that is profound and profoundly haunting: “Exploring how God loved Jesus will prevent nondescript sermons about love in this verse. How might we answer this question when the next chapter (John 18) moves us into the events of the passion? How has God loved Jesus up to this point? Answering these questions truthfully with the whole of the Gospel in mind will perhaps be one’s own experience of ‘grace upon grace’” [Karoline M.Lewis(Fortress Press2014): Fortress Biblical Preaching Commentaries—John, page 214].

Any call for unity is not a call for uniformity or conformity. Imagine the difference between a potluck picnic where we enjoy a rich variety of foods and a shared meal where all the potluck foods are pureed and each of us is given a big glass of “potluck smoothie”.

The Religious News Service reports that the podcaster and former comedian-pro wrestling commentator Joe Rogan has joined a prominent church in Texas has some heralding “a spiritual re-awakening.” The sad truth is that the church Mr. Rogan joined is committed to building a “masculine church” that dismisses the Beatitudes as irrelevant and “woke”. No question the movement is popular and drawing crowds and it’s making headlines. I shudder to think that we’re being asked or called to be part of such an agenda in the interest of Christian unity.

Creation is astonishing in its diversity and marvellous in its interconnections. Likewise glimpses into our own churches in the ELCIC, Eastern synod, and ministry areas taken together creates a sense of belonging to ‘something bigger’.

Canadian Lutheran World Relief is embarking on the biggest project in its history—a mitigation and reversal effort of climate damage in Chad and Cameroon. At a cost of 50 dollars per acre, local farmers and experts will develop their resources to heal their land.

The synod’s outreach to LGBTQ people and a desire to listen to their stories imitates Jesus’ way of engaging people. Besides the visible presence at Pride Parades, the committee wants to visit congregations and individuals—especially those who have felt hurt and shunned by the church.

Luther Seminary has received a generous grant from the U.S. based Lilly Foundation to develop resources to empower church members to lead their congregations in ministry.

The Eastern synod office is working with both folk interested in pursuing ordination as pastors and deacons and with congregations seeking rostered leaders to work with them. The synod office is also engaging the help of an attorney specializing in immigration to respond to the regular inquiries from pastors (many of whom have doctoral degrees and experience teaching in seminaries and universities) in the U.S. who want to move to Canada.

One congregation in New Brunswick (the only Lutheran church in the province) has a membership of fewer than ten. The congregation redeveloped and their building was converted to supportive housing and offers a space for worship. This little congregation offers a food sharing program for those living in the building complex so people don’t have to eat alone. Congregations learning to work together and sometimes to amalgamate for the sake of being a presence in the community illustrates God’s own overture when “the Word became flesh and lived among us”(John1:14).

In ways direct and indirect, seen and unseen, our congregations are “part of all of that”. And the “all of that” is but a slice of what the whole church around the world (that one holy, catholic and apostolic church) is about. Amazingly, we all are somehow “one” with that as well. Yet….these are but the first traces of light before God’s promises fully dawn upon the world, upon humanity, and upon all creation that God so loves.