Thursday, May 10, 2018

Life Happens


[Jesus prayed…] “I 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.”  --John 17:6

Every morning, I spend fifteen minutes or so laying out my plan for the day.  I put together my “to do” list, jot down those I need to call, and decide which projects need my attention.   I like having a plan.  It gives me the illusion of control.  But, most days, by eleven o’clock, the plan is completely shot.  The phone rings.  Interruptions come.  Things happen.  The winds change.  But, that’s life, isn’t it?   Life is humming along, seemingly going well, and then, suddenly…  everything is different.  

I think Jesus’ disciples must have been feeling a little of that disequilibrium as Jesus spoke with them in the Upper Room on the night before he died.   They certainly felt it in a big way shortly after their conversation as Jesus was arrested, tried and nailed to a cross.  Jesus’ prayer for the disciples in John 17 hangs in the hold-your-breath moment between the orderliness of things going as planned and the chaos of plans gone completely awry.  In that moment, Jesus prays that the disciples might find an anchor in the storm that is about to break around them.  He prays that they would find their unity in the gifts of his word and their relationship with Jesus and his Father.  

In the Gospel of John, the “Word” is God’s plan for the cosmos made flesh and blood in Jesus the Christ.  Jesus’ Word is a message of light and life for all people; an abundant life that is available to us now and extends into eternity.  Jesus’ Word is about a life lived in the Spirit; the Advocate who guides us and teaches us and protects us and connects us to the Father and to one another.  Jesus’ Word is about what is True; not just in an empirical, fact-based sort of sense, but in the sense of affirming God as the wholeness, completeness, and fullness who lies at the heart of all that is.  Jesus’ prayer is that this life-giving, Spirit-filled Truth will carry the disciples through the chaos that lay immediately ahead of them, and would hold them together in the challenging days they would meet as they went out into the world to proclaim Jesus’ message and continue Jesus’ work.

When our plans go awry…  When life happens…   (which it always does)  Jesus’ prayer for his disciples today is the same as his prayer for his disciples then.  Jesus’ resurrection is the promise that Life is stronger than death.  Not only in the case of the ultimate deaths which we will all face one day, but in the thousands of  “little deaths” which confront us daily (and some of those aren’t so little, are they?!)  Jesus’ Spirit is still with us guiding us through the Word, through the community of people who surround us, and in many intangible ways that are difficult to wrap words around.  The Truth that is the Creator of all continues to ground us in a world filled with ever shifting sands and constant uncertainties.  Can we trust that?  Can we believe that?  Can we live that?  Jesus’ promise is that even our ability to trust, believe and live in him is a gift. A gift given to all those who belong to him.  Including you and me.

Peace,
Bishop Mike

Thanks for reading.  

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