Eastertide
May 16, 2021
Scripture Reading: John 17:6-19
‘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. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. 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.
I find myself wondering whether what I write is understood the way I mean it. I have learned the hard way that I should never respond to a social media post with a correction of a statement someone had made, even one I considered a neutral issues, that was not the way the authors perceived them. I appreciate someone calling my attention to a typo or a wrong fact. I am learning the hard way that in our society today, truth is flexible. What does Jesus mean when he prays Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
To sanctify means to make holy. That tells me that we must delve deeply into the word of God, asking God’s guidance in understanding. It also means we must take truth seriously and live with mercy in our hearts.
I would be true, for there are those who trust me;
I would be pure, for there are those who care;
I would be strong, for there is much to suffer;
I would be brave, for there is much to dare,
I would be brave, for there is much to dare.
I would be friend of all, the foe, the friendless;
I would be giving, and forget the gift;
I would be humble, for I know my weakness;
I would look up, and laugh and love and lift,
I would look up, and laugh and love and lift.
Prayer: Lord, guide me as I try to communicate what I perceive as truth that others do not. Help all your followers as we dialogue about your word, listen and learn, and share as we try to discern the source of differences on our way to truth. Amen.
Hymn I Would Be True by H. A. Walter see at https://hymnary.org/text/i_would_be_true_for_there_are_those
All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.