Jesus Claims, Gathers, and Sends Us
Easter 7 + Confirmation – May 20, 2012
This winter, my husband Andy finally did something he's been wanting to do for a l-o-n-g time: he got a tattoo. It's a tattoo of a cross, done on his left forearm – a permanent reminder, he says, of who and whose he is, and after he got it, he posted a picture of it on Facebook, with these words to describe it: “Marked with the Cross of Christ forever, I am claimed, gathered & sent for the sake of the world.” Powerful stuff.
He didn't come up with those words, though. They're the individualized version of the mission statement of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the national denomination St. John's belongs to. They also now form the mission statement of the Metropolitan New York Synod, which is the regional expression of our church.
“Marked with the cross of Christ forever, we are claimed, gathered, and sent for the sake of the world.”
These words remind us who we are. They remind us whose we are. They speak of our identity as Lutheran Christians, although they apply equally well to Christians of all stripes. As the mission statement for our synod, they give us focus to the key strategies we will be working on as a wider church body and as individual congregations over the next several years. But more than being a mission statement developed by the 21st century church, we can see the roots of this statement in Jesus' own words recorded in John's gospel this morning.
Once again, we join Jesus and his disciples on Holy Thursday, during the last Supper. Over the past month or so, we've eavesdropped as Jesus has shared his final words with those gathered for this meal, but today the words we hear are not directed at the disciples; they are spoken directly to God. In these last moments before he goes to the garden where he will be betrayed, Jesus prays, not for himself, but for his followers. And it's not only us who listen in – the disciples hear Christ's prayer for them too. And in these words, they get a powerful reminder of who and whose they are.
They are claimed. “I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me...” Jesus says. “You gave them to me.” The disciples no longer belong to themselves, but instead know that they belong to Jesus – all that they have, all that they are, all that they hope to be – tied to the one who claims them forever as his own.
They are gathered. The disciples have been gathered by Jesus as he has gone throughout Galilee, teaching and preaching and calling them to follow. They have been gathered together for this final meal with him. But Jesus prays that this gathering will not break apart. He prays for God the Father to protect them so that they may be one, even as Jesus and the Father are one. It is a prayer not just for Christian unity between denominations, although it's certainly that. But I think in this context, Jesus is asking God to keep this band of believers together, that they might find strength and encouragement and support in one another, that they'll lift each other up and help each other to carry on in the face of the challenges that are to come, because not only are they claimed, not only are they gathered, but...
They are sent. This claiming and gathering business has a purpose. It has a point. They are claimed as Christ's own, gathered into a community, and then they are sent. “As you have sent me into the world,” Jesus says, “so I have sent them into the world.” And this is where it gets tricky, because we see so clearly all through this gospel what it was Jesus was sent into the world to do. He was sent to reveal God's love to a sinful, rebellious world. He was sent to reveal God's light to a world that too often prefers darkness. He was sent to proclaim God's forgiveness and redemption and mercy – and in return, the world rejected him. It hated him. It killed him. But Jesus did not turn his back on the world. He embraced it, with all its brokenness and pain. He died for this world and rose again. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:16-17).
It's this rebellious, hate-filled, treacherous world that Jesus is sending the disciples into – and he sends them with the same mission he was given, to share and show and to live the love of God, even when it's hard, even when the world doesn't want to hear it, even when the world rejects and hates them – because the world, then as now, needs to know how deep God's love for them goes.
The words Jesus prayed for his disciples on that long-ago night were a prayer for us too. Just as those first followers were marked with the cross of Christ forever, and claimed, gathered, and sent for the sake of the world, so too are we. We can trace its beginnings in our own lives to the moment of our baptism. As the water is poured over us, we are claimed forever as God's beloved daughters and sons, given the name “Child of God.” As the cross is traced on our forehead with oil, we hear these words, “You have been sealed by the Holy Spirit, and marked with the cross of Christ forever. Amen.” But it doesn't stop there. We are gathered into Christian community, to hear the word of God, to be nourished by Christ's holy meal, to be formed in the faith and to grow in the relationship that God begins with each of us. We return each week to be strengthened to do God's work in the world, to be filled up, so that we can be poured out as we are sent for the sake of the world.
We will be reminded of this sent-ness this morning as we celebrate with our confirmation students as they affirm the promises made at their baptism. This is their mission, and ours too – we have chosen to accept it when we agreed “to continue in the covenant God made with us in holy baptism: to live among God's faithful people, to hear the word of God and share in the Lord's supper, to proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word and deed, to serve all people, following the example of Christ, and to strive for justice and peace in all the earth.” This is what we are sent to do. God in Christ has claimed us and gathers us, and now we are sent to share and show and to live the good news of God's saving, boundless, endless love – for the sake of the world God loves so much. May we go with boldness and joy, strengthened by Christ's prayers for each of us.
Amen.
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