Easter 7, 2024

         As we wrap up the 7 weeks of Easter, we’ve followed Jesus through to appearances to Thomas and on the road to Emmaus, to his “I am” statements, and now to his rambling prayer just before he goes to the cross.  As we commemorated his ascension this week and Pentecost next week, we are going over his words preparing his disciples to take on his ministry as their own.

            The first reading is about filling council vacancies, I mean disciple vacancies.  How interesting that Peter is explaining about Judas, because Peter played his own part in Jesus death, by not owning up to knowing him when asked it about no less than 3 times.  Having denied Jesus, Peter went on to hide with the other disciples in the locked room, and facing Jesus, received Jesus’ assignment to feed his sheep, along with presumed forgiveness.  Judas has played his part in handing Jesus over, part of God’s plan for the new life and wholeness of all creation.  Since Jesus was so tender and forgiving with Peter, it is hard to imagine he would have been anything other than that with Judas.  But Judas couldn’t live with himself and who knows what else was going on with him and so he took his own life.  The community here is now taking on Jesus’ ministry, and asking themselves who they are, now that one of their brothers is gone and now that Jesus has ascended.  Jesus has forgiven them all and empowered them all to move forward with the ministry, but did some self-doubt remain?  Could they have been a better friend to Judas so that he wouldn’t have felt so isolated?  Are they worthy of Jesus’ forgiveness, since they were too afraid to stand by him?  How can they find self-forgiveness when they didn’t act in accordance with their values of supporting Jesus, showing love, and speaking up against injustice?  They must have thought long and hard about how they would do something different in the future to live into this new assignment from Jesus to love radically and to sacrifice for the sake of the small and forgotten ones.

            The Psalm today contrasts the upright and the wicked.  It’s a good first Psalm because it is at the beginning of Psalms, like a children’s story book in which it is clear who is the good and who is the bad.  But King David wrote many Psalms and many times he thought he knew who was good and who was bad.  Yet, when he was faced with a story about a shepherd who had many fine sheep, yet stole a sheep from another and immediately identified the bad one, he found that he himself was this wicked thief when he took Uriah’s wife Bathsheba and sent Uriah to the front lines to die.  So often we are sure who are the good and who the bad, but remember we are simultaneously saint and sinner.  Jesus has redeemed us and called us beloveds, but we have so many distractions and fears that we are easily led down wicked paths.  We are both saint and sinner at the same time and so is our neighbor.  How do we move forward in our ministry with self-forgiveness but also accountability and a sense that we will do better next time? How can we prepare to do something different in the future to live into this new assignment from Jesus to love radically and to sacrifice for the sake of the small and forgotten ones?

            Now to Jesus’ prayer.  He prays for unity for his disciples, his friends.  Just as Jesus and God are one, he prays for his friends, his beloveds to have unity, in mission, in vision, in action, just like a vine and branches are one.  This unity will mean that they will do what Jesus would do, but also that they will uphold and support one another and forgive each other.  This unity means that they will have the power that Jesus has to heal and bring good news, to approach people on the margins, to go the places he would go, even when it’s risky, and not to give in to the temptation to amass power for themselves. 

Jesus prays for their protection.  Pretty much every one of these disciples is martyred, killed for following Jesus.  Did Jesus’ prayer fail?  Prayer by chaplain Kate Braestrup, who entered seminary after her husband’s unexpected death, and becomes a chaplain to the search and rescue workers of the state of Maine Warden Service.  Preparing to pray for their protection, and realizing that probably wasn’t their top priority, prayed this prayer with them, “May you be granted capable and amusing comrades, observant witnesses, and gentle homecomings.  May you be granted respite from what you must know of human evil, and refuge from what you must know of human pain.  May God defend the goodness of your hearts.  May God defend the sweetness of your souls.”  Probably the disciples were not so concerned with their own protection.  They knew the risk they took because of what happened to Jesus.  Instead this is protection from wickedness from temptation to do something to break up the unity or to do something different from what Jesus would have them do.  Maybe the protection is for the sweetness of our souls or the goodness of our hearts, or maybe it’s protection from being overtaken by the pain and evil we see all around us.

Jesus prays that they would be sanctified, or set apart. He has made it clear that he loves the world, that God loves the world, yet there is this reminder of not belonging in the world and being hated by the world and being sent into the world.  Jesus’ disciples are in the world to love it, but not to be taken over by the world’s priorities and distractions.  The world has a focus on acquiring power and possessions, about silencing people who get in the way.   Jesus’ disciples and friends have a focus on giving their power away and about listening to people who don’t fit in, valuing people who are hurting and in need.  The world is a powerhouse working to keep the rich and strong in power.  The disciples are there with love to elevate everyone toward a community that works for the powerless.  These priorities are at odds, but Jesus asks that the disciples would be set apart for this work, sanctified for this work.

Finally Jesus prays that his friends will have joy. “That they may have my joy made complete in them.”  He prays that his friends would have joy in the same things that give him joy—talking with someone who has been rejected, visiting the imprisoned or homebound, healing someone in pain, spending time with someone lonely, listening to a child, in service to hungry people.  This joy will help motivate them to more of this good work and keep them unified with each other.

            Again Judas is mentioned in the Gospel.  We’re still wrestling with what Judas did, our own temptations, and with that part of us that acts in opposition to our values and to Jesus.  Maybe part of Jesus’ prayer for protection, is that we would forgive each other and forgive ourselves.  It seems Judas did regret what he did, because he went to give the money back.  Would Jesus’ arrest have happened another way?  It seems likely since those in authority were so threatened.  Does Jesus ask protection for us even when we betray and deny him?  How can we be protected from our own self-hatred so that we can be around to receive a second, third, twentieth, seventieth chance?  Is Jesus praying for a kind of protection from the world’s values that is so unforgiving of ourselves and others?

            Jesus’ prayer as he faces the cross covers his disciples then and now.  May that prayer encourage us in service, bring us joy and hope, and lead us to forgiveness and new life.