We Are to Be In The World but Not Of It

 

Easter 6 In the World but Not of It

“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 17:15-19

 

Jesus prays for us. He prays to God the Father to protect us from “the evil one.” How often do we read his prayer? He wants us to be in the world but not of it. How much time do we spend being of this world vs not of it?

 

Half of Americans get their news from social media. The other half watch CNN, FOX, MSNBC, NEWSMAX, or, some other news and opinion outlet. A few of us dinosaurs still read the morning newspaper, or perhaps a weekly news journal. But by far the majority of us sit passively watching a screen, or scrolling until we find something that already affirms our world view, our own opinions.

 

Opinions. Facts seem to be a thing of the distant past. It has been publicly pronounced that there is such a thing as “alternative facts.” And we have publicly announced, by word or action, that those who assert alternative facts and even untruths will be rewarded, while those who speak the truth are dismissed. Is this what Jesus has in mind when he prays, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.”?

 

So, what does Jesus pray for? Not that we should leave this world, but rather that we are to remain in the world but not of it. Which means, at the very least, to live in the word of truth. Jesus is the “word made flesh.” The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Just before leaving, he prayed for us.

 

Just how does one to be in the world but not of it? We can do this because we have alternative News - what a small band of folks in the first century called Good News - evangellion in the Greek. Literally “good angel”. Angels are messengers who bring God’s word of truth to us so that we might be sanctified in the truth through the Good News of Jesus Christ: which is that God forgives us and God loves us no matter what.

 

Since the Pandemic, people literally from around the world and I have spent about 45 minutes Monday through Friday listening to the Good News at Noonday Prayer. It is not always comforting. It is frequently challenging. Such as the simple idea offered by Richard Rohr, a priest and monk, who suggests that “Your image of God creates you.” How often do we consider our image of God? Throughout what we Christians call the Old Testament, from beginning to end, the image of God is described like this: “…you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing.” [Jonah 4:2]

 

And John, who tells us that on the night before he died Jesus prays for us, also tells us that Jesus is the Word, the Logos, that was with God in the beginning, and in fact is God through whom all things are created and have their being. Jesus, it turns out, was not out to start a “new” religion. Nor was he trying to reform an “old” religion. He was simply reminding people of what the image of God in Holy Scripture can tell us about ourselves: God, my Father, forgives you, and loves you no matter what. He is a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing.

 

Following the reflections of L. William Countryman in his little book, Good News of Jesus, we learn two fundamental things that God has tried to tell us for well over three millenia: You are Forgiven, and I Love you no matter what. The corollary, repeated over and over, is that you are to love yourself and your neighbors equally. Most challenging of all, we are also to love our enemies and pray for them. This constitutes the world view of what we call The Bible and the Good News of Jesus Christ. This is the truth that sanctifies us. This is not “alternative facts,” nor is it opinion, but rather this is alternative News – Good News, which, if we accept it will transform us into the image of God. Which is, as it turns out, what God intended in creating us – female and male God created us in God’s own image. Our image of God creates us.

 

Reminding ourselves of this day after day, Monday through Friday, for well over a year now, sharing it and wrestling with it with others has been transformative. And when I say transformative, it is like raising a child. I remember keeping notes on a legal pad, hour by hour, minute by minute, day after day for each of our children from the moment they come home from the hospital until … well until I would come to the realization that whenever they would hit a developmental marker, just as I thought this was how things would be, Boom! They would change, and just as suddenly it was a whole new ball game! Wrestling with God, as Jacob had tried one night down by the River Jabbok, is like that. God does not stand still. God is not static, any more than we are. Yet, we tend to allow our world view and opinions to calcify making it next to impossible to respond to the next great adventure and developmental change on planet earth and among its wonderfully diverse population of earthlings, creatures and all other living things like oceans, plants, rivers, bushes, trees and flowers. Flowers. Flowers produce minute quantities of pollen which bees can carry from plant to plant to make more flowers, and carry back in the hive, our name for a bee’s community, to transform it into food for the Queen and the entire community to live on and share with one another. It is mysterious really. The more we think we know about things like bees and plants and pollen, the more there is to discover.

 

Like an alcoholic or a drug addicted person who may need to attend a Twelve Step Meeting once a day, I find I need time each day to remember how to be in the world but not of it. After all, that is what Jesus prays for all of us. He knows that we need to step out and beyond this world to be able to better navigate our lives in this world. So that we might be sanctified by the truth that God forgives us and loves us no matter what. That we are created to be God’s image, God’ icons, in this world. Being created in God’s image means that we need to allow ourselves to become gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing.

 

It is really quite simple. We can remain addicted to being of the world and look at it through a single source of opinions and “alternative facts.” Or, we can choose not to be “of this world,” and allow ourselves to be challenged by the alternative News, the Good News, which like my high school motto is “Ever changing, yet the same!” Our image of God creates us. Really it does.

Amen. It is truth. It is so.