Hello, friends -
Today I had the joy and privilege of joining the Urland Lutheran Church community in their worship - got to preach and preside over communion for the second time. I ran into a lot of people who I knew, who knew my family, and who were all extraordinarily kind, genuine, and warm-hearted. It was a fantastic morning! Here's the sermon manuscript, beginning with the Gospel text - John 17:6-19.
"I have revealed you to
those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me
and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me
comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them.
They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent
me. I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have
given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine.
And glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer,
but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect
them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one
as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that
name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so
that Scripture would be fulfilled.
I am coming to you now,
but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the
full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world
has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My
prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them
from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify
them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have
sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be
truly sanctified."
Friends, grace to you and peace from God our Creator and
God’s Son Jesus the Christ. Amen.
Thank
you for having me today. My name is Dean Safe. I’m a Cannon Falls native,
having grown up on a farm just a few miles from here. I’m currently studying at
Luther Seminary to become a pastor in the ELCA. I’ve been a lifelong member of
Spring Garden Lutheran Church, just up the road. I’m thankful to Pastor Yackel
for offering me the opportunity to be here today, and it is my joy to join you
in your worship this morning.
In May of 2012, I was a new college graduate, with my
Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Creative Writing. My parents, when I
was in college, always wanted me to have a plan – “What are you going to do
with your degree?”, they’d ask. Instead of going to find a job that paid a
normal-person’s-living-wage, I decided to go work in the mountains of
Washington State at Holden Village, a small Lutheran retreat center, where I
cooked for a year, for almost no money. I made some smart life choices.
I’ve always been really bad at saying goodbye, and this
journey to Holden Village was no exception. I was facing the facts that I
wouldn’t see my family for months, and I’d be far away from the close-knit community
I had been raised in. I had decided to take the Amtrak Empire Builder out west,
and so here we stood in the train station, my mom, my dad, and I, at 11:00 at
night, saying goodbye, with a “Be safe”, and “We’ll see you later”, and “Have
fun!” It was a whirlwind of emotions – elation, excitement, terror, and deep
sadness – as I turned away from my parents, stepped onboard the train, and
found a seat. I wasn’t sure if I was ready to say goodbye, to leave Cannon
Falls and all that I knew – but I boarded the train anyway.
The next day, I found myself surrounded by some pretty
fascinating people. I ran into a man who had plans for an off-the-grid
homestead in eastern Montana, and he told me how he never cared to marry and
just wanted to raise chickens. There was another guy who was thrown off the
train and arrested in Glasgow, Montana, and a kind elderly woman paid for my
breakfast the second morning aboard. I finally made my way to Holden after 38
hours traversing the western half of our country, and I quickly found myself
wrapped up in all that Holden Village has to offer – work, play, worship, and
friends. I had traded one community; my home of Cannon Falls, for another.
Our Gospel text for today is also concerned with
farewell, in prayer form. In John’s account we encounter Jesus saying goodbye
to his disciples. Jesus is leaving his followers, his work – what he knows, in
order that the disciples may carry on his work and ultimately for Christ to
fulfill his mission – death on the cross for the salvation of the whole world. There
is no turning back from this point, as in the scene after this he is arrested,
beaten, and crucified, in rapid succession. He has been telling his followers that
he must go to his Father, and has eluded plenty to the death that he will die.
His disciples don’t necessarily understand. Jesus knows he has one more chance,
after a succession of farewell speeches, and he knows that he has to get this
one right. Jesus prays a prayer of goodbye and farewell that is deeply
meaningful and intentional towards both the disciples as well as to us today.
Jesus’ relationship with his disciples is intimate –
after all, they have been talking, teaching, and doing God’s work together for
the past three years – for all of Christ’s public ministry. He prays to keep
his disciples in God’s love as he says, “They knew with certainty that I came
from you, and they believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I am not praying
for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.” I think Christ
knows that the road ahead will be hard. He’s tried to teach them, through his
series of farewell discourses, how life will be after he is ascended to the
Father, but I don’t think the disciples yet fully understand just how important
this is. In Jesus’ death, the ministry is handed over to the people, to the
disciples – and that is no small task. They are being charged with speaking
words of peace, doing acts of justice and reconciliation, and telling of God’s
intentions for the whole world.
The disciples won’t always be liked, however, for doing
this. Jesus says later in the prayer, “I have given them your word and the
world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the
world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you
protect them from the evil one.” There will be people who will be against their
words, against their actions, and the road in ministry won’t always be perfect.
When they were working with Jesus, God had protected them, but now Christ must
depart. I can imagine the disciples hearing these words being fearful and
unsure what to expect in the coming days and months. In the end, almost all of
the disciples die defending the faith that Christ instilled. But, no matter
what, Jesus assures them that they belong to God – for they are not of the
world any more than Jesus himself is. They have been together for three years,
and through Christ’s actions they have seen how God works in the world. Their
work together has been full of holy and ordinary moments, and Jesus promises
that it won’t stop once Jesus is taken down from the cross.
We here at Urland Lutheran, at Spring Garden, at St.
Pius, at First Baptist, at St. Ansgars and the Church around the world have the
joy of finding out what God is doing in our lives and in the lives of other
people. This prayer is ultimately about the love of Jesus that is for the
people, and that includes you and your neighbor and me. We are each claimed by
God to use our gifts and talents for the continued ministry of the church. What
we do each day might not seem like much, and it might not seem like it’s
important. We look at what the disciples did, in the era of the early church, and
wonder how we compare. That’s the beauty of how God works, though. We are
called to use our gifts, no matter what they are, or how significant a
contribution they bring – because we are all a part of the Christian community
and all of it advances God’s work here on earth which is full of
reconciliation, justice, and words of hope in our broken, messy world.
My
friends, we are lucky. Because we know that this prayer, the one that Jesus
prayed for his disciples before his death, is not only for them. It is also for
us, today, in Cannon Falls, Minnesota. We still are protected and called by the
love of God, and we are still sanctified in the truth of Christ’s promises as
we continue to carry out ministry together. It is a prayer of farewell to the
disciples but it is also a prayer of invitation, one that we are welcomed into
each and every day. I encourage you this week to notice the ways you see
Christ’s love intersecting with your everyday life, because I promise you – we
are called beloved of God each and every day. For that, I say “Thanks be to
God”. Amen.
God's Peace,
Dean
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