To God be the Glory

Last week we were reading in the fourteenth chapter of John's gospel as we considered Jesus' parting words to his disciples. As he prepares to meet his fate at the hands of those who hate him and wish to dispose of him Jesus offers his friends a promise: "you will never be alone. God is going to send a friend, a comforter, a new manifestation of my presence so that you can have the confidence and strength to do my work after I have left you."

Today we are reading in John's seventeenth chapter, and the scene is still set in the upper room with his disciples.

In previous verses Jesus had been speaking to his disciples. In the passage we shared this morning he now turns toward God. Chapter seventeen, verse one: "after Jesus said this, (meaning his previous conversation and teaching with his friends,) he looked toward heaven and prayed: 'Father, the time has come. Glorify your son, so that your son may glorify you…" the times has come, or is at least drawing closer, when he will have to leave the safety of the upper room to place himself in harm's way. What follows these opening words is a lengthy prayer. Some call it Jesus' priestly prayer because he is expressing concern for those who will take up his work after his is gone.

Briefly stated, at the core of this prayer is Jesus' desire for the unity of the faith community. Because Jesus uses a phrase like "that they may all be one," there are some who read this passage as a call to ecumenical unity, the hope and desire that Baptists and Congregationalists and Methodists and Catholics and all the other Christian communities can find unity in the name of Christ. But, while that is a worthy goal, at heart Jesus' prayer is that those who will come to the faith in the future will share in the same sense of identity and inclusion and unity as those who are already a part of the family of faith. He is praying that they will experience a relationship that mirrors the unity which exists between himself and God.

"I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world…now they know that everything you have given me is from you… Holy Father, protect them by the power of Your name - the name you have given me - so that they may be one, as we are one… Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. and for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they may also be sanctified." (Jn.17:6,7,11,17-18)

One writer and scholar says, "To successive generations of believers, (Jesus') prayer communicates the theological vision that lies at the heart of the life of faith. Jesus hands those whom he loves back to God and (he) holds God to God's promises for this community." As we learned last week, Jesus promised his friends that they would not be left orphaned or alone. Now he calls God into that promise. "You gave them to me, now I’m giving them back into your care."

What does any of this have to do with us? Well, by placing ourselves in God's hands, by seeking unity in the name of Christ, by seeking wholeness in spirit and in faith, we become a living testimony to God's power and presence in the world. We give glory to God by simply letting God's glory shine through us. “Make me an instrument of thy peace," St. Francis of Assisi prayed.

Despite all our desires and intentions to be self-centered and self-sufficient, despite the temptation to pat ourselves on the back for any success we may have, in the end, we have to understand ourselves and our lives for what they are, instruments which have been created to reveal and give glory to God our creator

I conclude with the words of a hymn which I learned as I grew in faith and in the church. Since I grew up in an exuberant Baptist church, we sang this all the time:

"To God be the glory - great things he hath done! so loved he the world that he gave us his son, who yielded his life an atonement for sin, and opened the life-gate that all may go in."

"praise the lord! Praise the Lord! Let the earth hear his voice! Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the people rejoice! O come to the Father throurgh Jesus the son, and give him the glory - great things he hath done!"

Amen.