Minster Abbey Talk on John 17:1-11

“The time has come,” the Walrus said, “to talk of many things:…”
Lewis Carroll

And if we were having a conversation over some coffee and cake (hint hint) that is precisely what would happen. We would have a conversation; maybe about the weather, the coronation, a television drama, … all sorts.

Some of us find it easy to converse, some of us find it more difficult and communicate in other ways. Some of us are good at listening and for some of us it “goes in one ear and out the other”.

But, how do we pray?

There are many different ways we can pray, but ultimately, if we think about it, prayer is just the same as that conversation over coffee … isn’t it?

If not why not?

We have the opportunity to talk to God about anything and everything; and not just when we’re worried or in need or when things aren’t going as we’d like but also when we’re thankful, joyful and when things are going well.

We can do a lot of talking to God but we need to remember to listen as well. If we are honest none of us listen as much as we should.

Prayer is vitally important in our lives. An oft repeated quote “seven days without prayer makes one week (weak!)”.

Today’s Gospel reading is part of one of Jesus’s longest prayers.

In short it summarises Jesus’s relationship with the Father and the relationship He wanted His disciples to have with Himself and the Father.

Like the Holy Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) this prayer is in three sections.

Jesus prays for Himself
Jesus prays for His disciples
Jesus prays for all believers past, present and future

Despite us having celebrated Jesus’s Ascension on Thursday, this prayer passage takes place before His arrest. But it is significant because it becomes Jesus’s evaluation of the purpose of His life, death, resurrection and ascension.

God’s glory and Jesus’s glory are one and the same. Through the death of Jesus God is glorified and all believers receive eternal life.

Eternal life is knowing the one true God; being in a living fellowship with God. And this life we receive when we accept Jesus into our hearts and lives. Jesus’s purpose, His mission, is salvation.

Jesus prays with great concern for His disciples. He was not concerned about Himself – He knew God’s plan, He knew He had to suffer and die to be victorious. Jesus’s victory was unquestionable. The disciples were just like us. They were not infallible. Jesus had predicted the disciples would desert Him. And so He prayed for them, that they would be kept safe and protected by the Father’s power and that they would fulfil their future ministry. The disciples were about to be tested and Jesus prayed that this would not separate them from Himself or from each other.

Again, like the Three-in-one, Jesus mentions three things about His disciples:

They had accepted His teaching
They had accepted the knowledge that Jesus is the Son of God
They believed

Jesus prayed that the world would stop being opposed to God.

“All I have is Yours and all You have is Mine.” Jesus has equality with the Father.

He prays that, as He and God are one, the disciples and believers will remain as one.

In unity.

Not divided.

Division is the result of the failures of Christians.

God is awe-inspiring and loving. Jesus’s prayer is an outpouring of love and concern.

Jesus was shortly returning to the Father and to the glory He has before the world began. He had completed His mission. The Holy Spirit had been promised. With the help of the Holy Spirit it is now our turn.

Our mission, if we choose to accept it, is to bring glory to God through all we do in His name.

Are we ready?

Do we accept this mission?

Be Born Again

(John 3:1-17)

Nicodemus was a pharisee well educated and well versed in the scriptures. He recognised and acknowledged that Jesus was from God and that God was with him. Yet he came to see Jesus at night, being at the beginning of his belief in Jesus, not wanting his fellow pharisees to know that he had sought out Jesus.

Later, once Nicodemus’s faith and believe had grown he defended Jesus in front of the council and annointed Jesus’s body after the crucifixion.

Jesus responded to Nicodemus’s greeting by starting to teach him how the Kingdom of Heaven can be reached. As is a common factor in conversations today, we are given the impression that Nicodemus has taken Jesus’s answer literally. Nicodemus is an intelligent man and some question whether he was merely stalling for time. However, whether he took Jesus’s answer literally or whether he was questioning it to allow him time to think, it is beneficial to us because this questioning opened up a further response from Jesus and the conversation that followed.

What does lend credence to the idea that Nicodemus was stalling for thinking time is that the Jews were not unfamiliar with the idea of rebirth and considered those converted to Judaism to have been reborn – just as we take those who have turned to Christ to have been reborn in Christ. As usual, like with the parables, Jesus was using metaphors and terminology the Jews were very familiar with.

So, being born again does not, thankfully, mean that Mothers are giving birth to the same person twice. In fact the actual rebirth is not even done by us but by God. What we must do is believe, believe and be baptised in water and in the Holy Spirit. We must receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and, with Jesus as our root, let it be fruitful so that we live with love, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.

Aptly, this reading this year fell on Trinity Sunday when we celebrate that God is Three in One – the Father (Presence of God), the Son (Voice of God) and the Holy Spirit (Breath of God). As we who believe are born of man, water and the Spirit. Three in One and One in Three.

Trinity

Three in One and One in Three,
Just as you did say you’d be.
Father, Son and Holy Ghost,
And yet it doth confuse us most.

But it shouldn’t! As believers we know and accept that God is One and Three at the same time. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. This is an element of faith, an element of belief. One of the wonderful mysteries of God.

As humans, however, we do like to both complicate and explain everything. We have a need to break down and solve such mysteries- indeed all mysteries.

I believe God has a huge sense of humour and enjoys our uncomfortableness of Trinity Sunday immensely as He watches and listens to us trying to explain Him in a language that can never give the wonder and miraculous nature of God its full credit. God loves our stories.

It happens to be one of my favourite Sundays. I love coming up with different ways of explaining The Trinity and I am under no allusion that I also fall short in this as my feeble metaphors and analogies are nothing when compared to God Himself. I love listening to others giving sermons on this subject and increasing in faith and understanding. Indeed, one of my favourite and most remembered sermons as a child listening to the church service was on Trinity Sunday. It involves a rope.

Trinity Sunday is celebrated by the Church of England after Pentecost. I have heard different theories as to why this is but the one I like best is, simply put, because we had to wait until after the Spirit was sent to us to stay to fully experience the full aspect of God the Three in One. And, of course, it is Pentecost at which this occurred, where the promises and prophecies of Jesus (and the Old Testament) that the Holy Spirit would be sent after His Ascension became fulfilled. And, therefore, it is a logical progression (to me) that we celebrate Ascension, Pentecost and then Trinity Sunday.

So why a rope?

Take one thread. It is strong, it will hold weight, but pull it with a little pressure and it will snap. It is only one part of a whole and without the other parts it cannot fulfill it’s whole potential. I have faith in this thread – I sew buttons on with it. But I would not use it to save my life if I were falling off a mountain!

Take two threads and bind them together. Now they are even stronger and will withstand more weight and pressure. Yet pull them hard enough and they will still snap. Still they are incomplete and whilst they are indeed strong enough to be functional and useful, I still would not use it if I was falling off that mountain!

But, take three and bind them together. Now you have a rope which I can trust with my life (see picture)! The strongest ropes are not made of one strand and they are one rope.

Three in One and One in Three.
You my God are Destiny.
Word and Voice and Breath of God
Just as in the prophecy.

Father, Son and Spirit: Infinite, eternal, unchangeable, full of wisdom, power, holiness, goodness, strength, truth and love!