May 24, 2009 Message

John 17:6-19
“Set Apart For What?”

In today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus is praying to God, the Father. It is part of Jesus' prayer that concludes his last meal with his followers before his arrest. In a way, these words are his last will and testament. He starts out by saying he has told his followers (the ones the Father has provided him) everything about the Father. He thanks the Father for them and testifies they have done what the Father wanted, they know “the truth” about the Son and the Father, and they believe. Then he asks, on their behalf, that the Father look after them so “they may be one as we are one.”

John seems to stress everything is from God: Jesus himself, his followers, and his words. In particular, the emphasis of this first part of his prayer, in speaking to the Father, is that "everything ... is from you." For John relationship - bonding, trusting, being loyal – is important and is to be honored.

Jesus is concerned for “his friends” because of what they have become and what might become of them. They have followed him and have turned their backs on the world and because of that, the world will seek to destroy them. So Jesus asks God to protect his followers from the evil and the hatred of the world.

His request is simple and to the point: “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth” (sanctify them in me). And yet its implication is huge. The mission or purpose that Jesus had, of dedicating himself wholly for God's purpose of loving the world, is ours. And with it, we are sent into the world (because God so loves the world ...) (see John 3:16)

Wikipedia says to sanctify is literally “to set apart for special use or purpose,” figuratively “to make holy or sacred.” Jesus is asking that his followers be sanctified. He is not asking that they be hidden away somewhere, he is asking the Father to set them apart. Neither is he asking they be made special, but rather that the Father make them holy.

May I suggest then that the point of today’s lesson lies in how we answer the question: “Set apart for what?” What have you been set apart for? What have I? In her book, Unbinding the Gospel, Martha Grace Reese asks the question: What fills your pitcher and causes it to overflow? She says, “If you believe that hell or heaven is the consequence of a decision to become a Christian, that may fill your pitcher almost to the top! If you don’t believe that, you have to have your pitcher filled with many other reasons to get it to the top… What is filling your pitcher? Is it overflowing?”

If Wikipedia is correct, Jesus is asking that his followers be saved so God can use them in a special way and for a specific purpose. God then, by sanctifying Jesus’ followers, will use them to accomplish God’s purpose; and in doing so, will make them holy and blessed.

David Ewart, in his blog Holy Textures, writes: “Whenever we are offered a blessing in the Bible, we might be tempted to run and hide - because a blessing never comes without a God-sized mission. And God-sized missions never come without a cost.”

Jesus said, “As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them...” (19) I believe we have all been sent, me no more so than you. There is a reason for our being set apart, a reason for our sanctification. Just like the saints we recognize in our memorial service today, we too have a God-sized mission we are called to. These saints, who we remember today, were set apart for a purpose. Maybe some fulfilled that purpose more so than others, yet if we could have looked close enough we would have seen the Spirit working in each one of them to make them holy, just as the Spirit is working in us.

Let’s take time today to remember those whose mission and purpose during their lifetime in some way touched our lives. I remember…

Who do you remember?

I pray that the Spirit continue to work in me, and in you, that we might be truly sanctified in Christ. May we be set apart for God’s work to bring love to this world. May we know Christ and seek to do his will. And, may we always live in God’s truth.