Easter 7/Mother’s Day                              John17:1-11                                        5/8/05

                                                                  “Eavesdropping”  

It’s funny what you remember from all the years of parenting your children.  I have no idea why one of my favorite memories as a mother involves an incident in which my then teenage son was talking on the phone to a friend.  The whole event lasted no more than a minute, but it is permanently etched in my mind.  

I was sitting in the living room, either reading or watching TV and he was across the room talking on the phone.  I know that I was very focused on what I was doing until I suddenly heard my son say, “My mom’s listening, better not talk about that.”  Rob has never believed that, until he said “mom” I was totally unaware of his phone conversation.  Of course, after he said it, I just had to eavesdrop.  

I wonder, does Jesus purposely use a prayer format – a kind of phone conversation with His Father - as the means of teaching His disciples?  Since what He says in Ch. 17 is part of what we call “The Farewell Discourse,” it can be assumed that our Gospel is intended to be a teaching rather than a real prayer.  Perhaps, Jesus knew that the disciples would eavesdrop.  Perhaps, Jesus knew that latter-day disciples would be more impressed with this teaching if they could eavesdrop than in just as a nice little speech.  

So, let us eavesdrop on Jesus’ conversation with His Father.   

The first thing Jesus seems to want us to hear and get clear on is that God is a giver.  Some form of the word, “give” is used seventeen times in the discourse, eleven just in these eleven verses.  God gives people, glory, authority, special work, the word, God’s name and everything to Jesus.  Jesus, in turn, gives to people eternal life, the word and glory.  

God just loves to give and His giving is generous, undeserved and never ending.  Just think about it!  God gave His Son to save humans, but that act would be sterile and purely objective if Jesus had just died in some professionally distant sort of way, like jumping off the pinnacle of the temple, leaving a note that He had done it to save humanity from sin.  

The act of giving Himself over to death for us had meaning because God gave people to Jesus.  He took the sins of every single human being onto the cross with Him and carried the weight of each of our sins as personally as if He had our baptismal certificates nailed with His hand to the crossbar.   His saving act was personal.  He died for those who belong to Him.  He died for each of us.  

Salvation is not just a doctrine we teach to children, confirmation students and converts.  It’s not a piece of dry theology that if we believe, will get us to heaven someday.  Not at all.  God loves each and every one of us so personally and so intensely that He was willing to take all our guilt and shame on Himself.  He wants to be in an intimate relationship with us so badly that He was willing to die for it.  He was literally willing to go through hell to claim us as His own.  

That means we belong to Him.  Jesus paid the price so that we could be His.  But, this “belong” isn’t like the belonging of our sinful state.  In sin we belonged to the devil and thus were slaves to the law and to sin.  “The devil made me do it,” was not just a joke or cop-out, and the devil could then beat us down further with the guilt we carried for our sins. In misery we could labor, trying to obey the law and overcome our sin, but never able to make any headway.  

By saving us, Jesus frees us from both the law and sin so that we can belong as a member of the family.  It may be that we can only really appreciate this if we have at some point in life experienced “not belonging”.  Imagine though for a moment being someone who, no matter how hard they tried, has never fit in.  Imagine a lifetime of being rejected, looked down on, excluded...and having no hope of that changing.  Then, when you have given up all hope, you find yourself invited into a group...and not just invited as a formality, but made to feel totally wanted and loved.  This is what being saved so that we can belong is like.  Jesus died so that we could be a beloved part of God’s family.  

This makes our discipleship that much more meaningful.  We didn’t just become disciples because that’s the thing to do, like joining a political party and voting.  We didn’t become disciples because the Church seemed like a worthwhile organization for us to give some time to, like we might do with the Masons or Gam Sac Mah or the garden club.  NO, we are disciples because God gave us to Jesus, just as He did those first twelve.  We are a part of God’s plan and essential to it.  We are put under Jesus’ authority, to hear God’s word and carry on the work God gave Jesus, that is to glorify Him by doing God’s will on earth.  

But, we are not slaves or puppets of God.  We participate in God’s plan of salvation because God in Christ has already given us the greatest gift of all – unity with Him.  As we eavesdrop on Jesus talk with His Father we learn a few verses later that Jesus is also asking that the Father might make it possible for us to be in Jesus as Jesus is in the Father.  

This indicates that we have available to us an intimacy that we know only through the experience of being in our mother’s womb.  It’s as though we have been absorbed into God and exist in the warmth and comfort of divine amniotic fluid.  There God holds us safe and nurtures us.  There we can have direct communication with God and His life flows into us.  

Of course, we can’t fully experience or appreciate the glory of this union until we enter eternity, which is the other part of God’s gift of unity with Him.  If this life was all there is, having the experience of unity with God would be very limited.  We are still sinners and our sinful nature limits how much we can know of God in this intimate way.  And in truth, that limitation is also protective, because as weak human beings we could not survive the full glory of God or the joy we will find in His extraordinary love.  

But this is also part of the Good News, eternal life which begins now will culminate on the day Jesus returns.  Then, totally cleansed of sin we will be able to know God without any limits.  Then we will finally have complete intimacy with God, just as Jesus does.  Then we won’t need to eavesdrop on Jesus’ prayer anymore; we will know God as we are known by God.  

Until that glorious day, we are left to practice our being in unity with God by keeping, knowing and receiving from God.  We are to keep God’s word.  That means that we are to treat it as important.  God’s word is the word of Scripture, filled with information about Him and the promises He gives us. These are God’s love notes to us.  

Just as we might treasure keepsakes from our earthly mothers, taking them out regularly, studying them, holding them dear, so we treasure God’s word, knowing that it keeps us connected to Jesus.  

We are also to regularly bring back to mind what we know about Jesus, so that our faith can be refreshed and renewed.  This is like my remembering a funny incident like the one I related about my son.  As we reinforce what we know about Jesus and our belief that we in fact, thus know Jesus, our faith is strengthened and our connection to Him is more firmly implanted.  

Through this connection then, we are enabled to receive Jesus.  As we learn more and more about Him and as we open ourselves to experiencing Him, Jesus is able to come into our hearts.  There, He whispers quietly to us of His love for us and for all people, including those who do not yet know Him.  

So, don’t wait for Jesus to say something you can’t miss.  Eavesdrop on His prayer today and enjoy the wonder of a more intimate relationship with Him.  Amen