Eastertide
May 12, 2018
Scripture Reading: John 17:6-19
Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth. –John 17:11b-19
Jesus describes his followers as aliens in the world where we live and work. We are challenged to make that world more like the world will be like when the Kingdom of God comes to fruition. I wonder at times if God is waiting for us to accept the fullness of a Kingdom ruled by love until we are mature enough to become comfortable with the changes to our current environment in which we have attained a level of comfort. We go along often to get along. Making waves can be a burden. I find it distressing to see people longing for better lives and searching in all the wrong places to find them. We are perhaps all victims of instant gratification and depend on others to create a more hospitable world rather than take on that challenge ourselves. I fear we want all the enticements of evil and all the rewards of being a follower of Christ. Faith just does not work that way.
I saw a five-year-old on the news recently wearing a superhero cape while delivering sandwiches to the homeless with his dad. The TV exposure had resulted in others getting involved providing sandwiches and now money to start a broader program. That is the way love spreads one sandwich at a time until the whole world has enough and the kingdom on earth is as it is in heaven.
Prayer: Lord, grow our love until evil is no more. Amen.