Acts 1:6-14 Ps. 68
1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11 John 17:1-11
Lectionary Link
The reading of a will is something that is done after a person dies, but the writing of the will happened while the person was still living.
When a person does not write a will then the community through the state will probate an estate to expedite an unknown, namely, what would the deceased have wanted for the dispositions of one's earthly goods.
When we read the Gospels we involve ourselves in a time confusion. How so? Were the Gospels written by and for the people in the specific time of Jesus, or were the Gospels written by and for the people of the Jesus Movement who had already attained significant community identity in last third portion of the first century?
The community which generated the Gospel of John were interested in their own success in continuing to exist as a continuing community. Imagine, in the year 90, this community is still vibrant even though Jesus of Nazareth has been dead for more than fifty five years. What can account for the viability of our community? Why are we so hopeful about the future of the Movement? How is it that we have such a winsome message that it self-generates and perpetuates itself into the future?
The writer of the Gospel of John is writing about the legacy of Jesus Christ to the community. The Gospel is written because the Jesus Movement is already successfully instituting itself within the cities of the Roman Empire. The Gospels are written because the writers themselves are trying to understand and explain something of the ironic mystery of their own success and hope for future promulgation of the values of their Movement.
The chief writings of the church are called the New Testament. The writers of the Gospel did not know they were writing such a testament. They believed that they were expanding the testament, the results of the spiritual inheritance of their lives, namely, the Hebrew Scriptures with the Torah, the prophets and the various writings.
The writer of John's Gospel believed the success of the Jesus Movement was because of a legacy, a will which conveyed the spiritual estate of Jesus into their hands. It was such a rich and vital estate that it provided the sustenance for the continuity of a community into the future.
Might we not read the famous prayer of Jesus in John's Gospel as the writer's understanding of Jesus as transaction between Jesus and his heavenly parent?
How might we re-compose this transaction prayer with some different phrasing?
"My Father, who I can only locate as being heavenly because you encompass the horizon of everything. You gave me the legacy of being your unique child in this time and place, but not just to be a unique child, but to convince human beings of their own unique "made in the image of God" status. And this I have done Father, in such a way as to be able to winsomely persuade my friends of their status as beloved children God. I have shared with them the secret of my relationship with you, so that they too know the oneness of the family of God deriving from the dynamics of this personal familial relationship. I have given them the essence of our relationship, even the Spirit of truth, and I have taught them how to promulgate this holy family tradition to the many of people in this world who need to know the intimacy of the love of God. And as I remove my physical presence, I am leaving them eternal and self-perpetuating spiritual presence. And this spiritual presence will be able to be replicated endlessly into their future."
Yes, I take liberties with what I perceive as the transaction of the last will and testament of Jesus as it was probated in a prayer with his heavenly parent.
I do so to try to impart how the writer of John's Gospel was trying to show to the Gospel community the secret of their own success.
And there are insights for us as well. How has the Jesus Movement survived for so many years in so many manifestations in so many places? What is the secret of our own constitution as a community who believe in the love of Christ as the hope of our lives and as hope for people in the future?
Let us be mystified by the mystery of the success of Christ in our lives and our community. Let us not forget to leave the legacy in our world of the prayer of Jesus to his Father, namely, that each and every person is a beloved child of God who can be one with the Plenitude of God. Let us continue to perpetuate the legacy of Jesus, namely, that God's love is continuous application of health and healing for our world. There is so much in our world which resists health and healing and with us as human beings, being the most willful of all creatures, we need to know the healing of our willful beings so that we can promote general healing to the world at large.
Let us be thankful for the last will and testament of Jesus, whose will has been probated by God the Father and Mother of all. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment