ENGAGING THE WORLD

John 17:6-19

May 24, 2009 – Rev. Jerry Duggins

A few years ago, when I was a child, there was a game show whose name I forget, but it went something like this. Three people would pretend to be the same person. One of them was in fact the person, the other two were imposters. A panel, I believe they were celebrities, would try to figure out who was the real one by asking questions. After they had all made their guesses, the host would say, “And now would the real … please stand up?” Sometimes, when I’m reading out of different gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) I feel like I’m playing this game and I want to say, “Will the real Jesus play stand up?” Almost never would I pick the Jesus spoken of in the Gospel of John.

When you read the other gospels, you get the image of a Jesus who uses just a few words to say something profound. Sometimes it’s a bit mysterious, but not usually. You might not like the point he’s making (Love your enemies) but you understand it. In John, Jesus is very wordy (this probably the Presbyterian Jesus), often repeating phrases that you get lost in. He sounds like a bit of a mystic.

The reading from Matthew seems quite clear. Jesus is going away and he wants his disciples to carry his teaching to other people. The reading from John, well… we understand that Jesus is praying, but the words are quite convoluted. It’s easy enough to get the sense that he’s planning to go away and he wants God to protect the disciples from “the world.” But what he means by world and why his disciples would need protection isn’t exactly clear. It’s a sad case of too many prepositions.

Fortunately I have a lot of experience with the Bible, and am quite familiar with this passage in particular. I don’t even bother anymore with all the twists and turns of Jesus’ words. I just tell myself, “Oh, he’s talking about being in the world, but not of the world… in but not of.” The challenge for us is how to keep following Jesus without getting sucked into the values of the surrounding culture. If I wanted to preach a sermon about the counter-cultural nature of the church, this would be the text to read. Or so I thought until I came across some comments by Thomas Troeger, one of my favorite preachers.

You see, I had laid all the emphasis on being “not of the world” and understood the task for Christians as one of differentiating oneself from the world, of being different from everyone else. How do we live our life and yet separate ourselves from the world?

Earlier this year, Janet and I subscribed to a new commentary series on the lectionary texts assigned for preaching through the year. One of the things we like so much is that it provides four perspectives on every text. So, I read the theological, the pastoral and the exegetical perspectives and I thought, “ho, hum, more of this ‘in but not of’ stuff”. And then I came to Troeger’s comments, the homiletical perspective, and his opening words were: “There is something very tempting about escaping from the world.” (p.545)

As I read more I realized that I had the emphasis all wrong. John’s community wasn’t wrestling with how to be different from the world. They wanted to get away altogether. Not belonging to the world was the given, their problem was continuing to be “in the world.” The issue isn’t as the epistle of James puts it, “to keep oneself unstained by the world”, but how to engage the world. This little section of Jesus’ prayer ends with, “As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.”

We call this place a sanctuary, a place of safety from the trials and hardships, the dangers and threats of life “out there.” We sometimes feel like we are escaping for a brief time, a much needed rest from the struggle. We worship here but this is not the most important place that we practice faith. It has always been tempting for the church to practice its faith away from the world. We find our sense of community, of a faith community in the church, and yet Jesus prays for us to hold that community in the world. Not to separate ourselves out; but using the bonds of love that exist between us to engage the world.

We are learning to give up our sense of Westminster as the “best kept secret in Kalamazoo.” There is value in being located out of the way. We can be a kind of retreat place for people; but these walls must be permeable. There are others who need rest, spiritual nurture, a place to worship and grow; others “in the world.” And we must engage them.

Jesus was never about being a pass code into heaven. The only heaven Jesus ever talked about would take place here, “in the world.” When Jesus began his ministry, he told people that the kingdom of God was in their midst. It had arrived in him. And now in this prayer, he says it is in us. We carry the kingdom in us and the world can know it, if we will engage it. This is the purpose of faith.

Is it hard out there in the proverbial rat race? Do we find it difficult to focus our thoughts on Christ while others are stepping all over us on their way to success? Does ignorance, prejudice, greed and selfishness wear us down? Absolutely; but Jesus sends us into the world and we must engage it.

Why? Because it’s God’s world and God is in it and we will miss God if we set a barrier between ourselves and the world. We will miss God in the stranger, in the hungry, in the oppressed; because God is in all those places. We are sent to befriend the stranger, to feed the hungry, to set free the oppressed. No, in one sense we don’t belong to that world, but we still must engage it. That’s our challenge, and rest for the sake of meeting that challenge? Entirely appropriate. But escape, this is not a word that should belong in the Christian’s vocabulary.

When we come here Sunday morning, we are not free from the politics of the world. We are not free from oppressive economies. We are not free from private and corporate greed. We are not free from the environmentally destructive tendencies of humanity. In Christ, we are no longer possessed by them, but we are not free to leave them alone. There are no utopias apart from the one we carve out in the world. There is rest but not escape from engaging the destructive forces of society.

We have a mission. We are sent. We can’t do it all, but we must discern our part. Too often church is a crutch that holds us back from engagement. Too often church is escape instead of nurture. Too often it is a place that excuses us.

This is a sanctuary. If you’re tired from your week, I pray that you find refreshment here. If you’ve suffered some grief, there is comfort in this place, with these people, as we pray to our God. If you’re not well or you have friends who are not well, we will pray for them, and I hope that you will find encouragement in that. We do need to get away. And I think God knows that. That’s why we gather every week. But when this service is over, you will receive a benediction, and you will be sent out… into the world.

It’s a hard world sometimes, but it’s God’s world and God is to be found there as well as here. I cannot say how each of you will engage your world this week; but I hope that you will. It is Jesus’ prayer for you. You will find it challenging; but you and others will find blessing in it. In some sense we do not belong to this world, but let us engage it as we are able, as God gives us strength. Amen.

Resources: Feasting on the Word, Year B, vol. 2. WJKP, 2009.