The Fairy Tale World

~~~ Acts of the Apostles 20:17-27 ~~~ Psalm 68 ~~~  John 17:1-11A ~~~

Now this is eternal life,
that they should know you, the only true God...

Jesus goes on with his prayer to the Father...
I glorified you on earth
by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do.

The message here is for us to also glorify God
 in the work that we do while on earth.

We too have a role given to us by God for our time here.
There may be more than one path to glorify God,
but each must be for this same purpose.
If what you are doing with your life
does not glorify God do something different.

All that we do must be for the glory of God.

Imagine for a minute what a different world this would be
 if each person acted in a manner to glorify the Lord.
Of course this is a fairy tale world from a Disney movie.
But you can join others who have made the choice
to make their life about glorifying God.

I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me,
because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours
and everything of yours is mine,
and I have been glorified in them.

Jesus singles us out of the world in his prayers.
While we pray for the world Jesus is praying for us.
This is how we can believe that it is possible
 to glorify God while we are here on earth.

We do not have to wait until we get to heaven to give God glory.
It must be with every beat of our heart the God is glorified.

Jesus taught us how to glorify the Father...
he gave us all that the Father had given to him.
We have within all that we need;
if only more people would bump
 it to the top of their consciousness.

Glorify God with your whole being
and you will be abundantly blessed.

It is His peace we seek.
Let us give glory to God on the highest.

The All Inclusive Prayer

~~~ Acts of the Apostles 22:30; 23:6-11 ~~~ Psalm 16 ~~~ John 17:20-26 ~~~

 

The glorious Easter season is coming to a close.

But rather than an ending it is the beginning of our life in the Spirit.

God will never leave us alone.

 

In the Gospel today Jesus continues his prayer for us.

He can feel the breath of the one who will betray him

 yet he prays for you and me.

He could have spent his last hours isolated calming his fears

anticipating his own painful death,

but instead he chooses to pray for us.

 

He models for us the power of prayer in all circumstances of our life.

 

 This prayer for is so long that the church breaks it into two Gospel readings.

This prayer is so profound that we must take at least two days to reflect on the words.

Perhaps we will not ever truly appreciate the meaning of this prayer.

 

Jesus was on earth and was subject to the restraints of time,

but he is also of heaven where there is no time.

Since he is one with the Father he exists in both dimensions simultaneously.

 

His prayer is for us just as real and timely as if we were

present in that upper room.

We are given the privilege of hearing Jesus

intercede to his Father on our behalf.

 

 Long before our actual existence

Jesus prayed that we could actually be with him.

He almost longs for all of mankind to appear at once as one with him.

 

 Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed saying:
“I pray not only for these,
but also for those who will believe in me through their word,
so that they may all be one...

 

It is both humbling and comforting to reflect on these words of Jesus.

His conversation with the Father raises us up...

gives us his glory.

He longs for us to be united with him for all eternity.

 

I envision Jesus reaching out into the future during this prayer,

 drawing all of us to him;

binding us with himself to the Father.

He wants us to share their intimacy of oneness.

A great surge of humanity being absorbed into this person of Jesus,

because he chose us to be his own.

He wants us to share in the richness of the friendship he has with the Father.

He gives us access to our eternal inheritance...

the unconditional love of the Father.

 

Today we have available all inclusive resort vacations;

through Jesus we have something much more.

Jesus prays the all inclusive prayer,

that we will one day partake in his glory. 

 

He prays that we may be brought to perfection...wholeness.

A perfect wholeness that can only come through uniting ourselves with him.

 

 

Father, they are your gift to me.

 

How can we possibly be a gift to Jesus?

There is nothing that we have to give him

except our frail human existence.

 

This is what he seems content in having;

us just as we are.

God the Father gives us to Jesus and Jesus sees us as gift.

What more could we ask for than to have Jesus intercede on our behalf to the Father?

I can think of nothing else.

So I ask myself, 'how have I packaged myself as gift for Jesus'?

Am I more focused on the ribbons and wrapping paper or the content of my heart?

More for future honest truthful reflection.

Won't you join me in cherishing

each word of this prayer from the lips of Jesus.

You just might no longer feel the need

 to wrap yourself up for Jesus.

That We May Be One

~~~ Acts 22: 30, 23: 6-11 ~~~ Psalm 16 ~~~John 17: 20-26 ~~~

Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed saying:

"I pray not only for these, but also for those who will believe

 in me through their word..."

This prayer for us is so profound that the church divides it into two readings.

So if you missed the message from yesterday you get another chance today.

I cannot help but think of the lyrics from We are One Body...

we are one body one body in Christ. This is exactly what Jesus is praying for;

for us all to be one.

To be one in the Spirit. Of course years later we are still struggling with what this concept of unity should look like.

Is it a unity in words? Is it a unity of thoughts?

It is a unity of practices or rituals?

It is a unity as we stand together at the table of the Lord?

What does this unity imply?

Does this unity mean that everyone must be of the same thought?

Is it possible to have unity within our diversity?

Does unity mean we are preaching the good news to others?

How do we keep our unique identity within this unity?

Does unity mean we get lost in the crowd?

Does unity mean we are merely an anonymous number?

How does this prayer for unity effect us today?

How can we not be in unity? We have been brought to God the Father through the intercessory prayers of Jesus, the Son.

Jesus and the Father have the same substance...

the same DNA in lay terminology.

Jesus became one of us and gathered us to himself

so that we might become one with him in our mind, body, and soul.

He sent down the Holy Spirit that we might have the power of God

to strengthen our resolve to remain in unity.

To remain in unity in love for one another.

It is this love of God that sustains our desire to have this unity

that Jesus so fervently prayed for us.

If this unity were not important then I do not believe that Jesus

would have lifted his eyes to the Father with such a prayer.

This unity of course does not trump our free will.

We can always reject this prayer of unity.

We can take another path leading away from the love of Jesus.

If you are reading this you too most likely desire a greater unity with God.

This desire gives us the incentive to pray for those who do not hear

this prayer of Jesus for us. It gives more purpose for our prayer life.

This prayer gives us cause to thank Jesus for praying on our behalf. 

On the other hand we only have our own interpretation of this unity for which Jesus is praying, and there could be a much broader unity in play here.

For as we know God's ways are often so unlike our ways.

Our ways are always biased to some extent.

If we believe God too is biased; his bias is always through the lens of LOVE.

Jesus became human through pure love.

It is only possible to have true unity through pure love...

This pure love will forever be the greatest commandment.

We cannot experience this pure love until we have been united in death with Christ in the hope of being raised with him to share in the beatific vision.