May 24, 2009 - Easter 7

Set Apart and Sent
John 17:6-19
Easter 7 – May 24, 2009

On this Memorial Day weekend, I was thinking, as it is right to do, of our military men and women who have served and are still serving our country. And an image came to mind – the image of the time when then-President Bush stood on an aircraft carrier in front of a banner that proudly declared, “Mission Accomplished”.

Now he got a lot of flak for that sign, but in one way, that sign was true. The Iraqi government had been overthrown, Sadaam Hussein had been ousted & was on the run, and it seemed like the major battle was done. With an evil dictator out of the way, certainly the rest would follow. The way was open for something new to happen there.

But here we stand, more than 6 years later, and in retrospect, it is easy to see that our mission has not yet been accomplished. Our military is still there, fighting against the insurgency that sprang up, battling the pockets of resistance and rebellion that plague a country that knows no peace.

But I wasn't just thinking of the Iraq war because it is Memorial Day tomorrow. It seems to me a fitting metaphor for the situation Jesus' disciples were facing in the gospel story we heard this morning.

This passage takes place during the last supper, just before Jesus & the disciples will head out to the garden where Jesus will be betrayed and arrested. And if we were to read a few more chapters into the story, we would find Jesus hanging on a cross. And his last words, according to John's gospel, are, “It is finished.”

It is finished! All the work Jesus has been sent to do is done. In his life, he has made God the Father known to those who follow him, and in his death, he has conquered death. He has defeated the powers of sin and evil. It is finished! Mission accomplished!

On the one hand this is very much true, but as we look around us, we see that there is so much work left to do. If Jesus' mission is accomplished, then why do 25,000 people die every day of hunger and hunger-related causes? If the powers of evil and sin have been defeated, how can 1 out of every 4 homeless people in America be a child? How can so many people we know and love struggle with deadly diseases like cancer, or the daily difficulties of depression? Why do war and conflict rage in so many parts of the world? Jesus has dealt death and evil and sin their fatal blow, but the reality is, for now, they are still very much alive and active in the world. They don't want to give up the fight. The world is filled with these pockets of resistance and rebellion. And even though we know the final outcome, it is enough to make us wish that Jesus hadn't left so soon.

I'm sure the disciples were thinking something along those lines that night and during the time that followed. They saw the power of the world in full force, not just in Jesus' death, but even beyond his resurrection and ascension. Already when the author of John wrote this gospel, the early church faced the oppression and hatred of a world opposed to the Word and the ways of God. That's what the world stands for in John – everything that defies God. I am sure there are times when they felt all alone down here. I'm sure there were moments when they wished Jesus had not left them so soon, days when they wished that Jesus would have taken them with him, that he would come and take them out of this world where they faced so much hostility and hurt.

But that's not what Jesus did. That wasn't part of the plan. Because no matter how hard the world fights against God, no matter how much it rejects what God has to offer and rebells against God, this is still the world that God loves so much that God sent the only Son – not to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Jesus had accomplished the heart of his mission, but that was just the beginning. Jesus has initiated God's new reign of peace and love, but it has not yet come to its fulfillment. It's what Lutherans call the already but not yet. Jesus has already done what God sent him to do, but it's not yet complete. We are still seeing it play out around us.

And more than that, we have a part to play in God's plan to redeem the world. Jesus prays for us in this prayer, just as he was praying for the 1st disciples. He says, “And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world... 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... As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world” (vs. 11, 14-15, 18).

We who follow Jesus no longer belong to the systems of this world. We have declared that our allegiance lies with God, not with any worldly powers. It happens in the rite of baptism and every time we affirm our baptismal life together. We stand in the presence of God and each other, and we announce to all who will hear that we renounce the devil and all the forces that defy God; we renounce the powers of this world that rebel against God; we renounce the ways of sin that draw us from God. We renounce them, and then we cling to the love of God that marks us with the cross of Christ and seals us with the Holy Spirit. As we remember and return to our baptism, we realize that we have been sanctified, just as Jesus prayed, for to be sanctified means not that we are holier-than-thou, but that we have been set apart for God's purposes, commissioned to do God's work in the world.

God's vision for the world is of a place where the sick are healed, the hungry are fed, and the outcast is welcomed. It is a place of peace instead of violence, hope instead of despair, love instead of hatred. This is the kingdom Jesus initiated when he came to dwell with us on Earth. It is the kingdom we have been invited to live out in our lives, letting our lights so shine before others that they may see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven.

Clearly we have our work cut out for us. Even though Jesus has won the ultimate victory, the world is still filled with pockets of rebellion and resistance. But it is this world that we are called to live in, this world we are called to work in, this world we are called to love – because the world needs to know that a new king has come, a new kind of king – one who rules with mercy, grace, and love – and Jesus has sent us to share the story.

Amen.