Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share Falling On Our Swords, Sermon 29 May 2022
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
Falling On Our Swords, Sermon 29 May 2022
Seventh Sunday of Easter May 29, 2022
Rev. Menke
John
17:21 that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may
believe that you have sent me.
The problem isn’t that we are divided. We really aren’t that divided. The problem is that we are decimated and atomized. We make far too much out of individualism. The result is that we really don’t know how to work together or to have solidarity. Instead it is every man for himself.
I take my kids to school in the morning. What do you think I say to them most mornings? I say to them “I love you.” It is important to say that. That’s good. Do you know else I say most of the time? “Have a good day!” “Have a good day!” It’s not a bad thing to say. Well I said this to my son Paxton down at Badly View Elementary where he goes to Spanish Kindergarten. As I am walking back to my car, there is another day saying goodbye to his children. He says, “Take care of each other. Look out for one another, and take care of your friends.” They nodded and said, “Yes father.” And I thought to myself, “I’ve got to step up my saying goodby game!” That was some solid fatherly advice. And it was focused on the togetherness that we must do, if we want to survive.
Jesus says, “That they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” John 17:21.
Imagine you were standing there by Jesus, and you asked, “Is the Father in me, and am I in the Father?” What would Jesus say? “Nope. Sorry. Not you, you’re not worthy.” Have you ever stopped to think about the incarnation implying that each of us, togher, will be one? This gets back to last week when Jesus cautions the disciples against making big religious spectacles for their love and faith in him. Rather, he said, just do what I asked you to do. To love one another. So now here Jesus, rather than demand dramatic adoration, encourages whoever would hear him, to consider that they are just as close to God as was Jesus himself.
We are not as divided as we think. There are people who share most of your same concerns close at hand. What we’ve got to do is have faith. Faith is believing that we are one, even when that seems very difficult to accomplish. Faith is taking peaceful action for that unity to occur. So what can we do to achieve this unity? We can study Paul as an example.
Acts 16:16-34
16:16 One day, as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling.
The slave girl was enslaved twice: first by a demon, and then by the “owners.” Slavery is wrong, and their wealth wasn’t legitimate
16:17 While she followed Paul and us, she would cry out, “These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.”
Her divination is correct: Paul and the others were slaves of God Most High, and he did come to proclaim a way of salvation. It is ironic that the slave girl calls out Paul to be a slave. And the title that she uses is auspicious, “Most High God,” was the same name for God that Melchizadek used in Genesis where Abram gives a tithe. Paul will not only proclaim a way of salvation to those listening, but also to the slave-girl herself.
16:18 She kept doing this for many days. But Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour.
This is funny. Paul doesn’t heal her because he is empathetic, but because he is annoyed. This is an example of how pastors and Christians aren’t perfect. Paul should have healed this young woman already, if he had that ability. This is similar to the
View all episodes
By Rev. Wesley MenkeSeventh Sunday of Easter May 29, 2022
Rev. Menke
John
17:21 that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may
believe that you have sent me.
The problem isn’t that we are divided. We really aren’t that divided. The problem is that we are decimated and atomized. We make far too much out of individualism. The result is that we really don’t know how to work together or to have solidarity. Instead it is every man for himself.
I take my kids to school in the morning. What do you think I say to them most mornings? I say to them “I love you.” It is important to say that. That’s good. Do you know else I say most of the time? “Have a good day!” “Have a good day!” It’s not a bad thing to say. Well I said this to my son Paxton down at Badly View Elementary where he goes to Spanish Kindergarten. As I am walking back to my car, there is another day saying goodbye to his children. He says, “Take care of each other. Look out for one another, and take care of your friends.” They nodded and said, “Yes father.” And I thought to myself, “I’ve got to step up my saying goodby game!” That was some solid fatherly advice. And it was focused on the togetherness that we must do, if we want to survive.
Jesus says, “That they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” John 17:21.
Imagine you were standing there by Jesus, and you asked, “Is the Father in me, and am I in the Father?” What would Jesus say? “Nope. Sorry. Not you, you’re not worthy.” Have you ever stopped to think about the incarnation implying that each of us, togher, will be one? This gets back to last week when Jesus cautions the disciples against making big religious spectacles for their love and faith in him. Rather, he said, just do what I asked you to do. To love one another. So now here Jesus, rather than demand dramatic adoration, encourages whoever would hear him, to consider that they are just as close to God as was Jesus himself.
We are not as divided as we think. There are people who share most of your same concerns close at hand. What we’ve got to do is have faith. Faith is believing that we are one, even when that seems very difficult to accomplish. Faith is taking peaceful action for that unity to occur. So what can we do to achieve this unity? We can study Paul as an example.
Acts 16:16-34
16:16 One day, as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling.
The slave girl was enslaved twice: first by a demon, and then by the “owners.” Slavery is wrong, and their wealth wasn’t legitimate
16:17 While she followed Paul and us, she would cry out, “These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.”
Her divination is correct: Paul and the others were slaves of God Most High, and he did come to proclaim a way of salvation. It is ironic that the slave girl calls out Paul to be a slave. And the title that she uses is auspicious, “Most High God,” was the same name for God that Melchizadek used in Genesis where Abram gives a tithe. Paul will not only proclaim a way of salvation to those listening, but also to the slave-girl herself.
16:18 She kept doing this for many days. But Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour.
This is funny. Paul doesn’t heal her because he is empathetic, but because he is annoyed. This is an example of how pastors and Christians aren’t perfect. Paul should have healed this young woman already, if he had that ability. This is similar to the