This Sunday, the lectionary invites us to ponder John 17, which has 26 verses. The English Standard Version supplies the heading, “The High Priestly Prayer.”
Jesus prayed it just before he was arrested. He prayed it at the end of a long speech to the eleven apostles – eleven, because Judas the betrayer had left the room; the room where they had their last meal; the meal which we re-enact as The Lord’s Supper, or the Communion.
No one recorded the words of Jesus as he spoke them. The Gospels were written at least 30 years after Jesus was crucified.[1] There are differences between the gospels. For example, the other Gospels[2] don’t tell us about a “high priestly prayer,” but do tell us Jesus prayed alone, outdoors, before his arrest.
So, we must read the prayer as John’s God-inspired way of delivering to his readers the comfort and direction Jesus gave to the anxious Eleven. As I explained last week, they were anxious because Jesus had just told them terrifying things about what would soon happen to him and to them.
So, what comfort and direction is there for us in the prayer? The answer is, “a lot.” Hundreds of books have been written about John 17. Anthony Burgess, who died in 1663, preached 145 sermons on it.
Every time we read the scriptures, we notice something new. Today, I noticed how frequently the word “world” appears in John 17. It appears 18 times.
The world is the place where people exist, and Jesus says that he existed before the world existed – by which he means that he himself is God.
He says God, the Father, gave some of the people in the world, some of us, to him, so that he might reveal to us that he was sent by God, to complete an assignment, which includes teaching us God’s plans and expectations.
He says others in the world hate us, because after receiving him, we stop doing the things they do.
He says he has sent us into the world, just as God sent him into the world, so that we’ll continue the work he’s begun.
He says that when we do so, we’ll need God’s protection.
You may have heard the term “worldview” before.[3] James Sire says,
“A worldview is a commitment, a fundamental orientation of the heart, that can be expressed as a story or in a set of presuppositions (assumptions which may be true, partially true or entirely false) which we hold (consciously or subconsciously, consistently or inconsistently) about the basic constitution of reality, and that provides the foundations on which we live and move and have our being.”
What comes into your mind when you hear the word “people”? Whose faces do you see? Do you think of individuals? Where are they? In groups? At home? Gatherings? In schools? Offices? Hospitals? On roads? What are they doing? Walking? Cycling? Eating? Drinking? Celebrating? Working? Speaking? Listening? Scolding? Pleading? Teaching?
What are their worldviews, their orientations, commitments, foundations?
Last week, there was a dispute in a WhatsApp group. A member posted something about Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of Defence[4] of the United States, the man with power to issue orders to the air-force, army, and navy, and with power to fire armed forces personnel.
The posting was about the death of schoolchildren and teachers in a school in Iran which was struck by an American missile. The person who posted it, a well-known Muslim, referred to Hegseth as “Hogshit.” He did this to urge us to regard Hegseth like we regard the shit of a pig.
I think every person in the group – a large group of people from many ethnic and religious backgrounds – hates Hegseth for his actions and his statements. But many felt that calling him “hogshit” is going too far. Many felt it was like Israelis calling Palestinians cockroaches. Some objected to the crude labelling, the dehumanization. Others felt the objectors did so because they were unwilling to condemn Hegseth.
Those WhatsApp messages give us glimpses of different worldviews. As I joined the dialogue, I remembered three of my spiritual ancestors: Martin Luther, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
Luther called some of his enemies pigs[5] and told them to go eat shit. Bonhoeffer said we should derail tyrants and joined a plot to assassinate Hitler.[6] Solzhenitsyn said to always remember that the line between good and evil runs through every human heart.
We live in a pluralistic society, in which Christians celebrate Jesus who never violently resisted anyone, and Muslims celebrate a prophet who led armies against his enemies. Clearly Christians and Muslims – and also Atheists and Buddhists and Daoists – have different worldviews.
I think Jesus said so much about the world because he expected that we will be so different from others in our speech and actions that we will suffer pain and suffering. What do you think?
Peace be with you.
[1] The oldest known Gospel fragment was bought in an antiquities market in Egypt in 1920. It’s 3½ inches long and 2½ inches wide. Dated to 125-150 AD, it’s called P52 and is kept in the John Rylands University Library in Manchester, UK. It contains John 18:31-33 on one side, and 18:37-38 on the other side.
[2] “The Gospels according to” Matthew, Mark, and Luke. These are called the synoptic gospels because they used common sources. I find it helpful to think of the synoptics as realist painters, and of John as an abstract painter. Of the four Gospel authors, the early church designated only John as theologian. Over the centuries, many churches and monasteries have been named for “Saint John the Theologian.”
[3] James W Sire, in his 1976 book titled “The Universe Next Door.”
[4] He prefers to be called Secretary of War.
[5] Luther may have been inspired by the words of Jesus in Matthew 7:6 “Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.”
[6] Bonhoeffer also spoke of worldly, or this-world Christianity. By this he meant we have to find God in the midst of life’s struggles. Jesus was a human for others; we should be also: “Becoming a Christian is becoming a human being.” This too is a worldview. To learn more, you can listen to this 16 minute YouTube audio by Professor Lief. It’s titled “The Worldly Spirituality of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.” I especially like how Lief connects Bonhoeffer and Kirkegaard. You can read 16 pages of excerpts from Bonhoeffer’s “Letters and Papers from Prison” by clicking here. It includes gems like this: “It is not with the beyond that we are concerned, but with this world as created and preserved, subjected to laws, reconciled, and restored (page 3).”
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