tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7553896531179747942.post-64431214720029212772007-04-30T10:51:00.001-07:002007-05-07T15:08:29.458-07:00The Gospel according to John<br />Chapter 17: 20-26<br /><br /><em>In His last ours with His disciples our Lord prays passionately for their unity. He is also praying for the same unity for all Christians.</em><br /><span id="fullpost"><br />As we read the Gospel according to John we can find ourselves in very deep waters. More than any other Gospel writer, John recalls the reflections of our Lord, most of them from the last hours Jesus spent with his disciples. There are many levels of meaning and we have to probe deeply for them. Here are one or two simple thoughts I think worth sharing.<br /><br />As we begin this passage we are listening to Jesus as he nears the end of his long prayer for the disciples. Jesus knows that there is very little time left before he will be taken. Here, around this table, are the hands that will in the future be his hands to do his work in the world, the tongues that will speak for him. Knowing this, Jesus is also only too well aware of the humanity and limitations of our humanity. All this we hear in the intensity of every thought in this prayer. Above all, Jesus prays that the group will remain united amid all that the future will bring.<br /><br />"I ask...(for) those who will believe in me through their word". Jesus is now praying for the church that will form from the work and witness of those here in the room with him. When we think about that for a moment we realize that Jesus is reaching out across the centuries and praying for us!<br /><br />"That they may be one, as we are one". All through this prayer Jesus is asking that the relationship among his followers may resemble that between himself and the Father. Everything we know of that relationship is that it was one of the deepest intimacy. Therefore we know that our Lord wishes this intimacy and trust to exist within the life of his church. How very much we have to struggle for this in contemporary church life. Congregations, especially large congregations, find both unity and intimacy elusive at best. In a strongly individualistic culture, unity can be elusive because of the wide spectrum of opinions, attitudes, hopes and expectations across its spectrum.<br /><br />Some congregations have found that the development of small groups can help some people to discover intimacy and acceptance. I recently came across an estimate - not a statistic - that surprised me. Robert Wuthnow, the Lutheran sociologist now at Harvard, estimated that of every ten people in the United States - and I think we could assume something similar is true in Canada - four or five were in a support group of some kind, whether it be merely for company in what can be a society of much loneliness - let's say, reading and discussing a book together regularly - or one of the many aspects of Twelve Steps - struggling for recovery from various addictions, or people supporting each other in cancer survival, and so on. Then of course there are the many kinds of groups centred around some religious quest - prayer groups, study groups, healing groups.<br /><br />Even the simple act of exchanging of the peace within worship, though it may still be difficult and seem even intrusive for some, can be a reminder to us that in Jesus Christ we are called to be one. If we have any doubt about this we have only to read our Lord's prayer in entirety.<br /><br />This is the Good News for this week.<br /></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script expr:src='"http://feeds.feedburner.com/~s/OneMansJournal?i=" + data:post.url' type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script></div>Herb O'Driscollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15131608054218451967noreply@blogger.com