C, Easter 7 - John 17:20-26 "Perfectly One"

John 17:20–26 (ESV) Jesus prays, “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,  that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.  The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one,  I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.  Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.  O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me.  I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

In the fictional movie, Gladiator, released in 2000, two Roman Senators, Gracchus and Falco, discuss Emperor Commodus’ attempts to win the hearts of his people by staging games that are bloodthirsty and barbaric for our times.

Gracchus comments, “Fear and wonder, a powerful combination!” To which Falco responds, “You really think people are going to be seduced by that?”  Gracchus suspecting what Commodus is up to continues, “I think he knows what Rome is. Rome is the mob. Conjure magic for them and they'll be distracted. Take away their freedom and still they'll roar. The beating heart of Rome is not the marble of the senate, it's the sand of the Colosseum. He'll bring them death - and they will love him for it.”

Although Gladiator is far from a correct portrayal of Roman history, Gracchus’ monologue, we’ve just heard, pretty much sums up the hearts of humanity then and now.  The seduction of the human heart through fear and wonder, is as real today as it was back then when people gathered at the Colosseum.  Rather, today the mob is wowed and wooed at coliseums like the MCG (the Melbourne Cricket Ground), the State of Origin at Lang Park, the Olympics, a theatre of some kind, perhaps even a large church gathering.  Wherever the mob masses, there will be someone there, to capitalise from the gathered crowd.

It seems sound, that as the masses gather around a central belief, they are one.  Their oneness draws others in.  The popularity of the gathering brings out desires in others, individuals want to join the group, to be a part of an ideology, to feel a part of something, to fill the hole of loneliness in the heart, to be accepted by others, to be one.

Others see the masses gathering and use the opportunity to ingratiate themselves to them.  So, having become popular with the mob, the mob makes them masters of the mob.    In Roman society the two senators realise democracy, the rule of the people, can be manipulated by the pleasures of the Colosseum, albeit bloodthirsty and brutal.  Democracy, the rule of the people, can easily be “corruption of the people, by the people”.

If a crowd is corrupt, those who want to adhere to it, cannot continue uncorrupted if they want unity with it.  To remain unspoiled and untouched by the ideology of the masses means sticking out in the crowd as one being at odds with the crowd.  Those who stood their ground against the mob, usually became the deadly entertainment for the Colosseum crowd. Life is defined by the mob, and death is delivered by the mob.  Or, is the mob delivering itself over to death through its own desire?

Our society, today, doesn’t have a coliseum, that hands over those at odds with the mob, to death!  Or, does it?  Perhaps the advancement of our society over the Romans, is that, at the moment, we have many more subtle ways of assassinating those who stand at odds with the mob.  Hidden coliseums where the sports of gossip, slander, half-truths, and the good of the whole are carried out!

This oneness is far from the perfect oneness to which Jesus calls you and me.  Unfortunately, our sinful human nature tries to incorporate democracy, the rule of the people, with the perfect oneness of God, the rule of God.  

However, the oneness of God does not grow out of the mob, or popularity. It starts with one and it ends with one.  Jesus is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end!  When Jesus prays to our Father in heaven, he prays as one man.  He did not ingratiate himself to the mob.  In fact, he didn’t suck up to the mob that welcomed him into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.  Rather, the mob wanted to make him the leader he was never meant to be.  Once the mob realised this, the unbelieving Jews used popularity to turn the mob on him, to crucify him.

Knowing all this was about to happen to him Jesus prayed for those who were given to him.  Not only was this prayer for the apostles and disciples!  It was for the many who would not see but would still believe the apostolic witness, throughout time.  It was for those for whom Jesus prays, who died in many ways, at the hands of the mob, defending the perfect oneness of Jesus and his holy body.  It’s for those today whose witness of Jesus Christ puts them at odds with the common defilement of the masses.  And to be clear, the biblical Greek word for “witness” is “martyr”. 

“But we don’t martyr witnesses of Jesus Christ, in our society today”, you might say!  But the words of the Roman Senator in the fictitious Gladiator movie reveals the truth of our society just as much now, as it did, then!  As magic is conjured we’re distracted. Take away the freedoms given by God and still we roar! Bring us death - and the mob will love their leaders for it.

The only problem is the death we’re brought to is our own. Our fear and wonder, for the mob, distracts us from fearing and loving God.  Jesus did not fear the mob, your opinion nor mine, but out of fear and love for God, he loved the masses, you and me, by becoming the spectacle of death for which we, the mob, so desperately thirst.

Starting from one, Jesus was raised by our Father and the Holy Spirit from death and calls you and me out of the mob that has brought death on itself.  The mob is dying.  The ideals of the mob are dying.  Jesus is coming soon!  But until he comes the Holy Spirit and the “one true church” says, “come”!

In Jesus’ day the mob were the Jews, God’s very own people.  Those who followed Jesus, were called from the mob.  Many were martyred, for their departure from the mob, and for their witness of Jesus’ perfect oneness, with our Father and the Holy Spirit. But they were united in Jesus’ perfect oneness, together with the Triune God, in one accord, as his body, his bride, his church.

At the Reformation, Luther and the reformers were accused of departing the one catholic church which had gone the way of the Jewish mob.  Instead of being catholic, gathered as one in the oneness of Jesus Christ, the church prided itself in being Roman Catholic and became the mob from which the Lutheran Church left.

Many of our forefathers and mothers, came to this country and other countries when oneness was forced upon them in Germany.  A oneness that had nothing to do with the oneness of Jesus Christ, rather a political oneness from a German mob. 

Powerful fear and wonder to generate the mob, persists today in a seemingly new world order, distracting people in so many different ways, to a worldly oneness, away from the oneness of Jesus Christ.  Fear is created by those who want to control the mob, and great wonder is attributed to institutions that emphasise this unity.

But the unity of the cross begins with one and calls us to be one with our Lord.  Each day this unity calls for the death of self, institutions, ideologies, and mob rule.  Anything that takes the place of the perfect oneness that Jesus won for us in his death and resurrection by the will of our Father, and the work of the Holy Spirit, needs to daily die.

We are known by God and made known to those whom God leads us, as we die to self, and become known witnesses or martyrs to the masses—witnesses of God’s glory in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord.   Like Jesus, and many before us, the Holy Spirit seeks to lead you from the mob, to witness to the mob, the perfect holy oneness of God in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. 

In God’s way, the mob will then know that we’re being made perfectly one, in, by, and with Jesus, so that the world might know that God sent Jesus to them, the masses, in the same way that the Father loves Jesus Christ his Son, our Lord.  Amen.

Dear Heavenly Father, the world does not know us, but we are known by you.  Send your Holy Spirit into our hearts so we can make Jesus Christ known to our mob, here in Australia, surrounding our congregation gathered in the oneness of our Lord, Jesus Christ.  Amen.

C, Post-Pentecost 2 Proper 7 - Luke 8:38-39 "Legions of God's Love"

Luke 8:38–39 (ESV) The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying,  “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.

The power of God’s word causes belief or unbelief.  It does not cause one to be half hearted or apathetic.  This is because God’s word has power over the desires of the flesh.

When Jesus sailed across Lake Galilee, he calmed the storm causing fear amongst the disciples.  They were learning what kind of master Jesus was, as they saw and heard him rebuke the wind and the waves.  And they saw the immediate response of the wind and waves become calm, just like a child who’s shushed by its parent.  The word of God is such, even the wind and the waves believe in the power of God’s word.

They arrive at the Gerasenes, a place on the eastern side of Lake Galilee.  This is a place of Gentiles, also known as the Decapolis, or the ten cities.  Having arrived, Jesus walks into another storm.  However, this storm was a wild and woolly man tormented by demons.  Not only was he a Gentile, but controlled by the demons, he was the most unclean and depraved of Gentiles.

But we hear something most remarkable as Jesus approaches this naked, vile man, a man who lives as though he was dead amongst the tombs.

We hear, “When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, ‘What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me.’” (Luke 8:28 ESV)

How is it that the most unclean knows the Most High God?  Out on the lake the disciples didn’t know, and Jesus said to them, “‘Where is your faith?’ And they were afraid, and they marvelled, saying to one another, ‘Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?’” (Luke 8:25 ESV)

Jesus does not torment the demons but allows them to leave the man and enter pigs.  Mark’s gospel records some two thousand swine.  But tormented by the demons these unclean animals race down the hill and are stilled by a drowning death in the sea, Jesus had just commanded and calmed.

Remarkably the man, Legion, in whom many demons had controlled and tormented, who could not be contained by chains and shackles.  But broke free and roamed in deserted places.  Where it was thought evil lived and God was not present, amongst the uncleanness of death and decay of graves.  The word of God controls him, and the convulsing demons beg Jesus not to torment them.

Demons recognise Jesus immediately, but the disciples don’t, such is the reality of humanity who have been blinded by the knowledge of what they perceive to be good and evil, whereas the demons know there is only one source of Good and that is God, their All-Mighty enemy.

But the All-Mighty enemy does not torment them, such is the God of love.  He grants them their wish and they leave the man.  The legion of demons enters the pigs, unclean animals, where God surely would not be present to further torment them.  But the unclean pigs would rather die than to have this evil wallow within and they rush into Lake Galilee and die.

On the bank of the lake, the demon possessed man is healed, he sits calmly with Jesus.  He wants to be a disciple of Jesus; he wants to come with him.  Just as the demons begged to go into uncleanness, the man free of demons, begs to remain in the restoration of his rescuer.

It might appear that Jesus rejects his request, that he sends him away and does not allow him to come with Jesus.  But quite the opposite occurs!  He is sent in the same way as the disciples are later sent, as Apostles, as a sent one!  He is sent as one set apart and freed to confess how God had set him free, to no longer be a slave of death, binding himself no longer to the flesh, and the demons that control the flesh, but to the powerful word of God, in the flesh of Jesus Christ, who gave permission for the demons to enter pigs, and Legion to take Goodnews to the Gentiles.

Who do you associate with in this narrative?  The disciples, Legion, the pigs or perhaps the people who ask Jesus to leave?  What is your fear?  Are you afraid of getting to know Jesus as the Most High God, who exposes the depraved piggishness of your most low desires and deeds? What does Jesus wish for you to take away from his word here today?

Paul’s letter to the Galatians helps open up what is happening here in Jesus’ interaction with Legion as he does with us all who daily drown the piggish demons of our sinful selves in the waters of baptism.

Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.  So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.  But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian,  for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.  For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.   (Galatians 3:23–29 ESV)

Like Legion, we have been made one with Jesus Christ.  Legion’s oneness, however, was not made complete here in this narrative as Jesus sends him off to proclaim what God had done for him.  Rather, Legion, along with all whom Jesus healed in his ministry, and all who today are healed by the work of the Holy Spirit, are healed by the death of Jesus on the cross.

This is the completion of Legion!  This is the completion of you and me!  This is the completion of creation which waits on God for the restoration as did the wind and the waves who heard the word and were stilled, and the pigs who could not carry the sin and torment of even one man, but rather chose the stillness of death in the sea.

We no longer are captives of sin or death.  We are captivated by faith!  You are Abraham’s offspring.  What does that mean?

We wait for Jesus.  We are Sons of God.  Male or female, slave or free, Jew, or Gentile or Greek.  When God sees you, he sees Abraham’s offspring.  He sees Jesus.

When you see Jesus, what do you see?  When Jesus the Most High God reveals himself to you, what do you see?  Do you see the swine within and send them to their death in the waters of Baptism?  Do you let the Holy Spirit deliver death to the demons of the Old Adam or Eve within?  Or are you resisting the Holy Spirit and feeding his pearls to the pigs?  Are you wasting the wealth of God, the word of God, and feeding on the desires and deeds that lead to death?  Do you fear God, or do you fear family, friends, what others think, fortunes, lack of fortunes, more?

Let the Holy Spirit return you to Jesus!  If Jesus can control the wind and the waves, if he can deliver the man from a legion of demons, he can deliver you from the legion of temptations you face every day.  Like the complete number of pigs, one herd of pigs, let us rush as one in Christ, to the stilled waters of baptism, time and time again, so we might have the demons of sin drowned within.

Let us be sent out like Legion, as a legion of Christ’s love, as reflections of forgiveness, confessing to others what God has forgiven in us.  Fear God, not humanity!

Let us have the power of humility to boldly proclaim how Jesus has found us debased and rebased us as Sons of God, taking our depraved and piggish deeds and desires on himself, and replacing them with the Holy Spirit.  So, we have faith through this life, hope in death, and love for our neighbour so we might serve them with Jesus’ gifts of confession and forgiveness.

Sons of God, be encouraged by the voice of the Almighty Son of God in Psalm 66, “Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for my soul.  I cried to him with my mouth, and high praise was on my tongue.  If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.  But truly God has listened; he has attended to the voice of my prayer.  Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer or removed his steadfast love from me!” (Psalm 66:16–20 ESV)

Because God has not rejected Jesus’ prayer or removed his steadfast love from him, believe he does not reject your prayer or remove his steadfast love from you, who remain in him!  Amen.