Goal-oriented prayer and preaching
Commentary
People have been known to listen to profound preaching of the biblical message and come out of church asking, "So what?" Indeed, our audience Sunday after Sunday might be seeking the same answer to our eloquent rhetoric over the biblical texts. Perhaps the "so what" question can provide appropriate challenges to our preaching.
Yet, just as appropriate might be the consideration of the "so what" question in regard to prayer. Indeed, we might challenge the congregation as a whole to consider what difference the question would make as we daily as individuals or weekly as a worshiping community couch our petitions to God in terms of the goals we have in mind "for God's sake."
Acts 1:6-14
The Book of Acts begins, as does the Gospel according to Luke, with an address to a certain Theophilus. In this case, the Gospel story is summarized briefly in the first paragraph, and our pericope occurs immediately thereafter. The "so what" or purpose of the story here is not simply to report the ascension of Jesus but also to prepare the way for the Pentecost event that follows.
The sayings and events of our lesson are introduced by the question the disciples raised to the Resurrected Lord. "Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?" At one level, the question shocks the reader. One would have expected the disciples to realize at this point following Jesus' resurrection and more than a month of resurrection appearances that the kingdom of God was not about Israel but about a universal reign. That such a question appears in Luke, the Gospel for Gentiles, is particularly striking. It was Luke who began his story of Jesus' ministry with the report of Jesus' sermon in his hometown about God's grace to Gentiles and the subsequent violence against him (Luke 4). Is this one more example of the incomprehensibility of the disciples, a motif especially common in Mark and in John? On another level, many of the sayings of Jesus, especially in Matthew, do indeed indicate that Jesus himself interpreted his mission to Israel. In response to the outcry for help from the Canaanite woman, Jesus said, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matthew 15:24). In one instance Jesus even portrayed the heavenly kingdom as consisting only of the tribes of Israel over whom the apostles would sit as rulers (Matthew 19:28; Luke 22:30). Even Luke reports that on the road to Emmaus the two disciples whom the Risen Lord encountered expressed their dismay about the crucifixion by saying, "But we had hoped he was the one to redeem Israel" (Luke 24:21).
No matter what the background to the question by the disciples, Jesus set the issue in a larger context by (1) removing the predictability of the timing and (2) extending the scope of their missionary activity from "Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" (v. 8). In the corresponding message at Luke 24:47 Jesus uses the words, "to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem."
This worldwide mission will be possible because "you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you" (v. 8). Similarly, at Luke 24:49 the commissioning is followed by the promise, "And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high." So what? The gift of the Spirit will enable the disciples to extend their participation in God's mission far beyond their own immediate understanding.
As for the ascension itself, Jesus rode a cloud into heaven, much as Psalm 68:33 (the assigned psalm for the day) refers to God as the "rider of the clouds." While the imagery derives from ancient poems about Baal, the storm god of Canaan, the cloud that would transport the ascended Son of Man back to earth was part of Jesus' own teaching (see Mark 14:62, for example). The cloud was the vehicle of choice for Jesus' ascension and for his return at the end, thus the words of the two men in white: "This Jesus ... will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven" (v. 11).
1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11
From the very beginning of his letter the author has identified his readers as "exiles" on the basis of their baptism and thus an estranged community in the world. Part of his response to "so what?" -- otherwise known as his purpose -- in that designation is to demonstrate how different they are from the rest of the world, a world that is persecuting them, a world bent on different values and behavior. Now as the author brings his letter toward a conclusion, the issue of their suffering at the hands of others, here the Roman emperor, looms large.
The persecution is presented as a "fiery ordeal" already taking place among them. That's the bad news. The good news is that this suffering is an opportunity to share "in Christ's sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed" (4:13). That Christians persecuted by the world share Christ's sufferings is already apparent in Paul's writings, even to the point of being the condition for the children of God: "and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ -- if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him" (Romans 8:17). The connection of suffering and reward was an important part of the teaching of the early church, as is evidenced by the "sure" saying at 2 Timothy 2:11-12: "If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him."
The author's exhortation to "humble yourselves therefore under the hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time" (5:6) continues that same theme: their present suffering, as horrific as it will surely be, cannot compare to the eternal joy that God will give to those who are faithful. That horrible suffering comes at the hands of the devil, who "like a roaring lion" seeks someone to devour. In light of the circumstances here it is not impossible that the author is alluding to Psalm 22:21 where the persecuted believer pleads for deliverance "from the mouth of the lion." The psalm, obviously connected with Jesus' own suffering on the cross by its opening words of God-
forsakenness, ends with joy and thanksgiving and with the recognition that all generations to the ends of the earth will know of God's salvation and praise God in his kingdom.
This hope is the final message with which the author brings his letter to a conclusion. The exiles will be called home "to his eternal glory in Christ" (5:11). The closing doxology focuses, like Psalm 22, on the kingdom: "To him be the power (or sovereignty) forever and ever. Amen."
John 17:1-11
Continuing his last discourse with the disciples which he began at 13:31 with the words, "Now is the Son of Man glorified, and in him God is glorified," Jesus has explained his relationship to the Father and the relationship of the disciples to himself. At the end of chapter 16 the disciples had confessed their belief that Jesus had come from God, but Jesus prophesied that their belief will turn into desertion. Jesus concluded that portion by announcing he has "overcome the world" (16:33). Now he begins a prayer to which the disciples are allowed to listen, a personal privilege because it is the intimate family conversation between Son and Father.
The prayer itself is goal-oriented. The words "so that" occur thirteen times throughout the 26 verses. Jesus asks that the Father glorify "your Son, so that the Son may glorify you" (v. 1). God gave Jesus authority over all people "so that he might give eternal life to all whom you have given him" (v. 2). Eternal life is given to people "so that they may know" God and Jesus Christ (v. 3). Jesus asks that God protect the disciples "so that they may be one" (v. 11). Judas was lost to the group "so that the scripture might be fulfilled" (v. 12). Jesus speaks God's word in the world "so that they may have my joy made complete" (v. 13). For the sake of the disciples Jesus sanctified himself "so that they also may be sanctified in truth" (v. 19). Jesus prays for all who come to believe in him through the words of the disciples "so that they may all be one" (v. 21). Further, Jesus asks that the whole church be in the Father and the Son "so that the world may believe that you have sent me" (v. 21). Jesus gave the disciples and the church glory "so that they may be one" (v. 22). The Son is in the church and the Father is in the Son "so that they may be completely one, so that the world may know you have sent me and have loved them" (v. 23). The Son makes known the name of the Father "so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them" (v. 26).
If that list appears to look like overkill on the part of this interpreter, consider the possibility that, within the profound words of this utterly magnificent prayer, you might consider developing a sermon about prayer itself. Jesus here, including the eleven verses of our pericope, asks from God much for himself and his disciples. Yet everything he requests has a purpose, and that purpose is not for his own benefit or for the benefit of the disciples.
Imagine what the Prayer of the Church would sound like each Sunday if we added "so that" when we raise our petitions for faithful preaching of the word of God, for peace in the world, for justice and mercy and care for the most vulnerable in the world, for care of individuals sick or grieving. The addition would provide the purpose for everything we ask and might change the complexion of the prayer itself.
Imagine, too, what individual prayers would be like if we added "so that" to our petitions regarding God's will for this or that decision, or God's protection of family, or God's gift of meaningful work, or God's presence in the midst of the trauma of illness or divorce or the death of a loved one. Would it not provide a different perspective, even that of "your will be done on earth as it is in heaven"?
The additions of purpose to our petitions could, of course, be manipulative attempts to get God to do our bidding. If the purpose, however, is similar to that of Jesus' prayer here, then those "so thats" point to the honoring of God and Jesus, the unity of the church, the permeation of love within the Christian community, and the utter joy that the gospel of Jesus Christ brings to our lives. Such purpose might indeed enable the church as community and the individual members of the church to recognize the divine purpose for our life together and of our lives separately as we take our necessary petitions to God for help and guidance to live faithfully in the world.
As for specific content within the prayer, many of the themes are completely consistent with the rest of John's Gospel. In verses 3 and 8 Jesus' words indicate that he has been "sent" by God. The notion of God's sending Jesus resounds almost forty additional times through the Gospel. Indeed, so dramatic is this theme that God sent Jesus and Jesus in turn sends the apostles (the church) that one can correctly speak only of God's mission. "Mission," of course, derives from a Latin term meaning "send," and while it does not appear in the Bible in that form, the word "send" as a major divine action begins with the call of Abraham and Sarah, continues with Moses and the prophets, and then comes to its ultimate realization in the sending of Jesus Christ. Then Jesus sends the church, and the Holy Spirit, acting on his behalf, sends apostles (see Acts 13:4). The use of the verb as the action of God -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit -- forces us to speak of "God's mission" rather than our own, a mission in which the church is "the sent, the participant." That sending is one of the major themes in John's Gospel.
A second theme, struck immediately in our pericope, is the notice about "the hour" (v. 1). Timing throughout John's Gospel is crucial. Jesus had said on several occasions that "the hour is coming" as a way of pointing to the future (4:21, 23; 5:25, 28; 16:2, 5). In order that no one jump the gun, Jesus and the author of the Gospel said on several occasions that his "hour had not yet come" (2:4; 7:30; 8:20). In Jerusalem Jesus announced that his "hour has come" (12:23, 27; 16:32, and here). This "hour" in John's Gospel is the time in which Jesus is to be glorified, and that glorification includes his death and resurrection/ascension (see especially 13:1).
Other themes characteristic of the Gospel as a whole are "eternal life" (described here as having the purpose of knowing the Father and the Son, that is, not only intellectual awareness of their existence but also an intimate relationship between the church and the Godhead for all eternity), the "name" of God and the name of Jesus, even the name of God that has been given to Jesus ("I am"?), and the title for God as "Father" (used more than one hundred times in the Gospel).
What stands out in this prayer, and indeed serves as the punch line of our pericope, is the oneness of the church (v. 11). The words "so that they may be one" reoccur at verses 21, 22, and 23. The oneness of the church is based upon the relationship of Christians to the Father and the Son who are one, upon the abiding presence of the Father in the Son and the Son in the church, and on the glory that Jesus has given the church, indeed the glory the Father had given to the Son. That glory in John's Gospel, we have seen, includes death and resurrection.
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By Elizabeth Achtemeier
Acts 1:6-14
Our reading for this Sunday includes verses 6 to 11, which were part of our stated text for last Sunday. The preacher, therefore, has to remind the congregation of what has happened. The apostles have asked Jesus when he will restore the kingdom to Israel, that is, when the Kingdom of God will come. Jesus has replied that the time of that coming is not for them -- or even him -- to know, thus ending all of the church's speculation about the time of the end. The Lord has promised that the fledgling group will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, which will empower them to become his witnesses throughout the world. And then Christ has been "lifted up" in his ascension, to rule at the right hand of God over all. Two angels therefore bid the apostles to stop gazing up into heaven. It is time to get to work.
It is interesting in our text for the morning that the ascension has taken place on the Mount of Olives, that mountain across the Kidron Valley to the east of Jerusalem that towers up over the height of Mount Zion. Olivet has great significance in both the Old and New Testaments. It is the watchtower from which all attacks against Jerusalem were visible. But it is probably the mountain from which Second Isaiah told the people that they would see God returning to them (Isaiah 40:9-11), and Revelation probably means that it is from Olivet that the faithful will see the descent of the heavenly Jerusalem (Revelation 21:10). Jesus pronounced judgment over Jerusalem from the mount (Mark 13:3). And it is the site of the Garden of Gethsemane (Mark 13:3 and parallels). Most significant as background of this Acts text, however, is the fact that Ezekiel pictured God's glory as departing from the Mount of Olives and then, later in the eschatological time, returning to it, to enter from there into Jerusalem (Ezekiel 11:23; 43:2). The implication is that Jesus' ascension not only takes place from the Mount of Olives, but also that it is there that he will return when he comes again.
Because the angels tell the apostles not to stand gazing into heaven, the apostles descend from Olivet and return to Jerusalem, a hike which Luke says is "a sabbath day's journey away" (v. 12). That would have no significance if it were not for the fact that Jews do not journey on the sabbath! That's against the Jewish law! And so by this little phrase Luke is telling us that we have a new people here, folk who have known the resurrected Christ and whose lives have been changed, to be given a task of going into all the world and preaching the good news about Jesus Christ. The company is named -- the eleven apostles who remain after Judas Iscariot's betrayal (Luke 23:47-48; Luke says nothing about Iscariot's death, but cf. Matthew 27:3-5 and Acts 1:16-19). In the passage that follows in verses 15-26, Iscariot will be replaced by Matthias in the company of the twelve.
This is the tiny band of those who will begin the spread of the gospel throughout the earth. Noteworthy is the fact that they are joined by some women. Luke repeatedly includes women in his stories of Jesus, and these in our text are probably the women who were earlier mentioned in Luke's gospel -- the women whom Jesus healed and who supported his ministry financially (Luke 8:2-3); the women who did not desert their Lord at his crucifixion and burial (Luke 23:49, 55-56); and who were the first witnesses of the resurrection to the disbelieving apostles (Luke 24:1-11). Included also are Mary, the mother of Jesus, and his brothers, of whom we have heard earlier in Luke 1-2 and 8:19-
21. So the little band of apostles is enlarged by others who have known Jesus and who love him.
When we in the church in our day are given a task to do, or appointed to a committee, or singled out for leadership, our tendency is to jump right to it, to get to work. A pastor who has just been called by a church is often heard to say, "I hit the ground running." But this group of apostles and disciples in our Acts text doesn't jump immediately into their task and start running. They're down on their knees praying! They have returned to the upper room in Jerusalem where the apostles have been lodging, and there they all unite together in prayer (vv. 12-14).
For what do they pray? Acts does not tell us, but it is clear from the preceding verses. Their risen Lord has commanded them to return to Jerusalem and to wait for the Holy Spirit to come upon them. So they pray for that Spirit's coming. Only then will they be able to be his witnesses in Jerusalem and throughout Palestine and the known world. They are obeying their Lord's command. From the very first, they are faithful to the word of the risen and ascended Christ. From this time on, their lives have changed, to let Christ rule over them. And so they are faithful to his lordship.
They also are a band pressing forward toward the coming of the kingdom -- toward that time when Christ will return to set up his rule over all the earth (cf. Acts 1:6). They therefore undoubtedly pray for the coming of that kingdom. "Our Father ... thy kingdom come on earth, even as it is in heaven." The apostles and disciples are the messengers of that kingdom, the ones who are to announce to the world, "Behold! the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him" (Isaiah 40:10). Prepare, therefore, for his coming! "The kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe the gospel" (Mark 1:15).
The message that we modern disciples are given to announce to the world is not a great deal different than that. Our Lord Christ is risen and ascended and reigns over all. And he will come again "to judge the quick and the dead." But by faith in Christ's work of reconciliation through his death and resurrection, we can know the forgiveness of all our sins and be counted righteous in the sight of our God and enter into eternal life in his kingdom of love.
To be faithful messengers of that good news, however, we must learn to wait, as the apostles and disciples waited. Not jumping immediately into the task of each day, not running around in the busyness of the church, but first praying -- praying for God's empowering Spirit that can enable us to be obedient and to do his will and to accomplish the purposes for which he has called us. We do not own the Holy Spirit. For each task given us as disciples, we must ask anew for God's guidance and empowerment. And if we ask, in faith and sincerity, the Spirit will be given to us (cf. Luke 11:9-13). So first pray. Then work. God will do the rest.
Yet, just as appropriate might be the consideration of the "so what" question in regard to prayer. Indeed, we might challenge the congregation as a whole to consider what difference the question would make as we daily as individuals or weekly as a worshiping community couch our petitions to God in terms of the goals we have in mind "for God's sake."
Acts 1:6-14
The Book of Acts begins, as does the Gospel according to Luke, with an address to a certain Theophilus. In this case, the Gospel story is summarized briefly in the first paragraph, and our pericope occurs immediately thereafter. The "so what" or purpose of the story here is not simply to report the ascension of Jesus but also to prepare the way for the Pentecost event that follows.
The sayings and events of our lesson are introduced by the question the disciples raised to the Resurrected Lord. "Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?" At one level, the question shocks the reader. One would have expected the disciples to realize at this point following Jesus' resurrection and more than a month of resurrection appearances that the kingdom of God was not about Israel but about a universal reign. That such a question appears in Luke, the Gospel for Gentiles, is particularly striking. It was Luke who began his story of Jesus' ministry with the report of Jesus' sermon in his hometown about God's grace to Gentiles and the subsequent violence against him (Luke 4). Is this one more example of the incomprehensibility of the disciples, a motif especially common in Mark and in John? On another level, many of the sayings of Jesus, especially in Matthew, do indeed indicate that Jesus himself interpreted his mission to Israel. In response to the outcry for help from the Canaanite woman, Jesus said, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matthew 15:24). In one instance Jesus even portrayed the heavenly kingdom as consisting only of the tribes of Israel over whom the apostles would sit as rulers (Matthew 19:28; Luke 22:30). Even Luke reports that on the road to Emmaus the two disciples whom the Risen Lord encountered expressed their dismay about the crucifixion by saying, "But we had hoped he was the one to redeem Israel" (Luke 24:21).
No matter what the background to the question by the disciples, Jesus set the issue in a larger context by (1) removing the predictability of the timing and (2) extending the scope of their missionary activity from "Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" (v. 8). In the corresponding message at Luke 24:47 Jesus uses the words, "to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem."
This worldwide mission will be possible because "you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you" (v. 8). Similarly, at Luke 24:49 the commissioning is followed by the promise, "And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high." So what? The gift of the Spirit will enable the disciples to extend their participation in God's mission far beyond their own immediate understanding.
As for the ascension itself, Jesus rode a cloud into heaven, much as Psalm 68:33 (the assigned psalm for the day) refers to God as the "rider of the clouds." While the imagery derives from ancient poems about Baal, the storm god of Canaan, the cloud that would transport the ascended Son of Man back to earth was part of Jesus' own teaching (see Mark 14:62, for example). The cloud was the vehicle of choice for Jesus' ascension and for his return at the end, thus the words of the two men in white: "This Jesus ... will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven" (v. 11).
1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11
From the very beginning of his letter the author has identified his readers as "exiles" on the basis of their baptism and thus an estranged community in the world. Part of his response to "so what?" -- otherwise known as his purpose -- in that designation is to demonstrate how different they are from the rest of the world, a world that is persecuting them, a world bent on different values and behavior. Now as the author brings his letter toward a conclusion, the issue of their suffering at the hands of others, here the Roman emperor, looms large.
The persecution is presented as a "fiery ordeal" already taking place among them. That's the bad news. The good news is that this suffering is an opportunity to share "in Christ's sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed" (4:13). That Christians persecuted by the world share Christ's sufferings is already apparent in Paul's writings, even to the point of being the condition for the children of God: "and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ -- if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him" (Romans 8:17). The connection of suffering and reward was an important part of the teaching of the early church, as is evidenced by the "sure" saying at 2 Timothy 2:11-12: "If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him."
The author's exhortation to "humble yourselves therefore under the hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time" (5:6) continues that same theme: their present suffering, as horrific as it will surely be, cannot compare to the eternal joy that God will give to those who are faithful. That horrible suffering comes at the hands of the devil, who "like a roaring lion" seeks someone to devour. In light of the circumstances here it is not impossible that the author is alluding to Psalm 22:21 where the persecuted believer pleads for deliverance "from the mouth of the lion." The psalm, obviously connected with Jesus' own suffering on the cross by its opening words of God-
forsakenness, ends with joy and thanksgiving and with the recognition that all generations to the ends of the earth will know of God's salvation and praise God in his kingdom.
This hope is the final message with which the author brings his letter to a conclusion. The exiles will be called home "to his eternal glory in Christ" (5:11). The closing doxology focuses, like Psalm 22, on the kingdom: "To him be the power (or sovereignty) forever and ever. Amen."
John 17:1-11
Continuing his last discourse with the disciples which he began at 13:31 with the words, "Now is the Son of Man glorified, and in him God is glorified," Jesus has explained his relationship to the Father and the relationship of the disciples to himself. At the end of chapter 16 the disciples had confessed their belief that Jesus had come from God, but Jesus prophesied that their belief will turn into desertion. Jesus concluded that portion by announcing he has "overcome the world" (16:33). Now he begins a prayer to which the disciples are allowed to listen, a personal privilege because it is the intimate family conversation between Son and Father.
The prayer itself is goal-oriented. The words "so that" occur thirteen times throughout the 26 verses. Jesus asks that the Father glorify "your Son, so that the Son may glorify you" (v. 1). God gave Jesus authority over all people "so that he might give eternal life to all whom you have given him" (v. 2). Eternal life is given to people "so that they may know" God and Jesus Christ (v. 3). Jesus asks that God protect the disciples "so that they may be one" (v. 11). Judas was lost to the group "so that the scripture might be fulfilled" (v. 12). Jesus speaks God's word in the world "so that they may have my joy made complete" (v. 13). For the sake of the disciples Jesus sanctified himself "so that they also may be sanctified in truth" (v. 19). Jesus prays for all who come to believe in him through the words of the disciples "so that they may all be one" (v. 21). Further, Jesus asks that the whole church be in the Father and the Son "so that the world may believe that you have sent me" (v. 21). Jesus gave the disciples and the church glory "so that they may be one" (v. 22). The Son is in the church and the Father is in the Son "so that they may be completely one, so that the world may know you have sent me and have loved them" (v. 23). The Son makes known the name of the Father "so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them" (v. 26).
If that list appears to look like overkill on the part of this interpreter, consider the possibility that, within the profound words of this utterly magnificent prayer, you might consider developing a sermon about prayer itself. Jesus here, including the eleven verses of our pericope, asks from God much for himself and his disciples. Yet everything he requests has a purpose, and that purpose is not for his own benefit or for the benefit of the disciples.
Imagine what the Prayer of the Church would sound like each Sunday if we added "so that" when we raise our petitions for faithful preaching of the word of God, for peace in the world, for justice and mercy and care for the most vulnerable in the world, for care of individuals sick or grieving. The addition would provide the purpose for everything we ask and might change the complexion of the prayer itself.
Imagine, too, what individual prayers would be like if we added "so that" to our petitions regarding God's will for this or that decision, or God's protection of family, or God's gift of meaningful work, or God's presence in the midst of the trauma of illness or divorce or the death of a loved one. Would it not provide a different perspective, even that of "your will be done on earth as it is in heaven"?
The additions of purpose to our petitions could, of course, be manipulative attempts to get God to do our bidding. If the purpose, however, is similar to that of Jesus' prayer here, then those "so thats" point to the honoring of God and Jesus, the unity of the church, the permeation of love within the Christian community, and the utter joy that the gospel of Jesus Christ brings to our lives. Such purpose might indeed enable the church as community and the individual members of the church to recognize the divine purpose for our life together and of our lives separately as we take our necessary petitions to God for help and guidance to live faithfully in the world.
As for specific content within the prayer, many of the themes are completely consistent with the rest of John's Gospel. In verses 3 and 8 Jesus' words indicate that he has been "sent" by God. The notion of God's sending Jesus resounds almost forty additional times through the Gospel. Indeed, so dramatic is this theme that God sent Jesus and Jesus in turn sends the apostles (the church) that one can correctly speak only of God's mission. "Mission," of course, derives from a Latin term meaning "send," and while it does not appear in the Bible in that form, the word "send" as a major divine action begins with the call of Abraham and Sarah, continues with Moses and the prophets, and then comes to its ultimate realization in the sending of Jesus Christ. Then Jesus sends the church, and the Holy Spirit, acting on his behalf, sends apostles (see Acts 13:4). The use of the verb as the action of God -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit -- forces us to speak of "God's mission" rather than our own, a mission in which the church is "the sent, the participant." That sending is one of the major themes in John's Gospel.
A second theme, struck immediately in our pericope, is the notice about "the hour" (v. 1). Timing throughout John's Gospel is crucial. Jesus had said on several occasions that "the hour is coming" as a way of pointing to the future (4:21, 23; 5:25, 28; 16:2, 5). In order that no one jump the gun, Jesus and the author of the Gospel said on several occasions that his "hour had not yet come" (2:4; 7:30; 8:20). In Jerusalem Jesus announced that his "hour has come" (12:23, 27; 16:32, and here). This "hour" in John's Gospel is the time in which Jesus is to be glorified, and that glorification includes his death and resurrection/ascension (see especially 13:1).
Other themes characteristic of the Gospel as a whole are "eternal life" (described here as having the purpose of knowing the Father and the Son, that is, not only intellectual awareness of their existence but also an intimate relationship between the church and the Godhead for all eternity), the "name" of God and the name of Jesus, even the name of God that has been given to Jesus ("I am"?), and the title for God as "Father" (used more than one hundred times in the Gospel).
What stands out in this prayer, and indeed serves as the punch line of our pericope, is the oneness of the church (v. 11). The words "so that they may be one" reoccur at verses 21, 22, and 23. The oneness of the church is based upon the relationship of Christians to the Father and the Son who are one, upon the abiding presence of the Father in the Son and the Son in the church, and on the glory that Jesus has given the church, indeed the glory the Father had given to the Son. That glory in John's Gospel, we have seen, includes death and resurrection.
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By Elizabeth Achtemeier
Acts 1:6-14
Our reading for this Sunday includes verses 6 to 11, which were part of our stated text for last Sunday. The preacher, therefore, has to remind the congregation of what has happened. The apostles have asked Jesus when he will restore the kingdom to Israel, that is, when the Kingdom of God will come. Jesus has replied that the time of that coming is not for them -- or even him -- to know, thus ending all of the church's speculation about the time of the end. The Lord has promised that the fledgling group will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, which will empower them to become his witnesses throughout the world. And then Christ has been "lifted up" in his ascension, to rule at the right hand of God over all. Two angels therefore bid the apostles to stop gazing up into heaven. It is time to get to work.
It is interesting in our text for the morning that the ascension has taken place on the Mount of Olives, that mountain across the Kidron Valley to the east of Jerusalem that towers up over the height of Mount Zion. Olivet has great significance in both the Old and New Testaments. It is the watchtower from which all attacks against Jerusalem were visible. But it is probably the mountain from which Second Isaiah told the people that they would see God returning to them (Isaiah 40:9-11), and Revelation probably means that it is from Olivet that the faithful will see the descent of the heavenly Jerusalem (Revelation 21:10). Jesus pronounced judgment over Jerusalem from the mount (Mark 13:3). And it is the site of the Garden of Gethsemane (Mark 13:3 and parallels). Most significant as background of this Acts text, however, is the fact that Ezekiel pictured God's glory as departing from the Mount of Olives and then, later in the eschatological time, returning to it, to enter from there into Jerusalem (Ezekiel 11:23; 43:2). The implication is that Jesus' ascension not only takes place from the Mount of Olives, but also that it is there that he will return when he comes again.
Because the angels tell the apostles not to stand gazing into heaven, the apostles descend from Olivet and return to Jerusalem, a hike which Luke says is "a sabbath day's journey away" (v. 12). That would have no significance if it were not for the fact that Jews do not journey on the sabbath! That's against the Jewish law! And so by this little phrase Luke is telling us that we have a new people here, folk who have known the resurrected Christ and whose lives have been changed, to be given a task of going into all the world and preaching the good news about Jesus Christ. The company is named -- the eleven apostles who remain after Judas Iscariot's betrayal (Luke 23:47-48; Luke says nothing about Iscariot's death, but cf. Matthew 27:3-5 and Acts 1:16-19). In the passage that follows in verses 15-26, Iscariot will be replaced by Matthias in the company of the twelve.
This is the tiny band of those who will begin the spread of the gospel throughout the earth. Noteworthy is the fact that they are joined by some women. Luke repeatedly includes women in his stories of Jesus, and these in our text are probably the women who were earlier mentioned in Luke's gospel -- the women whom Jesus healed and who supported his ministry financially (Luke 8:2-3); the women who did not desert their Lord at his crucifixion and burial (Luke 23:49, 55-56); and who were the first witnesses of the resurrection to the disbelieving apostles (Luke 24:1-11). Included also are Mary, the mother of Jesus, and his brothers, of whom we have heard earlier in Luke 1-2 and 8:19-
21. So the little band of apostles is enlarged by others who have known Jesus and who love him.
When we in the church in our day are given a task to do, or appointed to a committee, or singled out for leadership, our tendency is to jump right to it, to get to work. A pastor who has just been called by a church is often heard to say, "I hit the ground running." But this group of apostles and disciples in our Acts text doesn't jump immediately into their task and start running. They're down on their knees praying! They have returned to the upper room in Jerusalem where the apostles have been lodging, and there they all unite together in prayer (vv. 12-14).
For what do they pray? Acts does not tell us, but it is clear from the preceding verses. Their risen Lord has commanded them to return to Jerusalem and to wait for the Holy Spirit to come upon them. So they pray for that Spirit's coming. Only then will they be able to be his witnesses in Jerusalem and throughout Palestine and the known world. They are obeying their Lord's command. From the very first, they are faithful to the word of the risen and ascended Christ. From this time on, their lives have changed, to let Christ rule over them. And so they are faithful to his lordship.
They also are a band pressing forward toward the coming of the kingdom -- toward that time when Christ will return to set up his rule over all the earth (cf. Acts 1:6). They therefore undoubtedly pray for the coming of that kingdom. "Our Father ... thy kingdom come on earth, even as it is in heaven." The apostles and disciples are the messengers of that kingdom, the ones who are to announce to the world, "Behold! the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him" (Isaiah 40:10). Prepare, therefore, for his coming! "The kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe the gospel" (Mark 1:15).
The message that we modern disciples are given to announce to the world is not a great deal different than that. Our Lord Christ is risen and ascended and reigns over all. And he will come again "to judge the quick and the dead." But by faith in Christ's work of reconciliation through his death and resurrection, we can know the forgiveness of all our sins and be counted righteous in the sight of our God and enter into eternal life in his kingdom of love.
To be faithful messengers of that good news, however, we must learn to wait, as the apostles and disciples waited. Not jumping immediately into the task of each day, not running around in the busyness of the church, but first praying -- praying for God's empowering Spirit that can enable us to be obedient and to do his will and to accomplish the purposes for which he has called us. We do not own the Holy Spirit. For each task given us as disciples, we must ask anew for God's guidance and empowerment. And if we ask, in faith and sincerity, the Spirit will be given to us (cf. Luke 11:9-13). So first pray. Then work. God will do the rest.
