John 18-19 - Bearing Witness to Truth

We are finishing up the Gospel of John in the next two weeks and will cover most of John 18-21 during this time. For this week, read John 18-19 and pay attention to the contrast given between Jesus’s Kingdom and the nations of the world, represented by Caesar. Pay attention to the contrast of how power is used: 

Where does Pilate’s power come from? 

Where does Jesus’s power come from?

Whose power is greater? 

What does success look like in the power struggle between Rome and God’s Kingdom? 

Jesus entered Jerusalem in John 12, celebrated as the coming King in the week leading up to the Passover. Pilate, who lived in Caesarea, also came to Jerusalem for the Passover. Pilate didn’t come because of his sins or because he wanted to participate in the festivities. Pilate came to Jerusalem to squelch any disorder that might arise. For a major festival like Passover, Jerusalem would more than double or tipple in population. Pilate would enter the city to remind the gathering masses who was in charge and to deter them from any kind of uprising. With this context in mind reflect on the contrast between Jesus and Pilate:

How is Jesus depicted as he entered Jerusalem? 

What is he riding? 

What does this say about the kind of King he is?

Imagine, by contrast, how Pilate would have entered Jerusalem.

What image would Pilate project with his entrance? 

What does this say about the kind of ruler he is?

There are a lot of different things to focus on through these chapters, but I want to narrow in on the conversation with Pilate in John 18:28-40. The conversation focuses on Jesus’s kingship, where his kingdom is from, the nature of his kingdom, and what “truth” is. Jesus “bears witness to the truth” (v37). To which Pilate responds, “What is truth?” This question is not merely a discussion of “facts” in the sense of something being “true or false.” This is pointing to something deeper. It is pointing to Truth, with a capital T. This Truth pre-exists creation. Truth is the basis of everything, not just things I choose to believe, which our world has made subjective. Sometimes we fall into the temptation of saying “truth” is my particular way of reading a passage of scripture and then dismissing someone else’s reading of scripture as “they stand against biblical truth,” when they just don’t read it the same way you do. What is Jesus really talking about when he says he came into the world “to bear witness to the truth”? 

What is the Gospel of John pointing to? Think back over our lessons.

What does it look like for Jesus to reveal God to the world and make him known?

When he gives us the commission to make God known to the world, how are we to go about doing that? 

Think about the phrase, “That’s the way the world works.” What does the Truth Jesus bears witness to say to that phrase? 

What does Jesus’s Truth say to power in this world? 

Take a moment to reflect on your life:

Where do you depend on power in this world rather than the Truth of God’s love?

Where do you place hope in power that is temporary rather than fully trust in the Truth God promises us in his Kingdom?

In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus prays, “Your Kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” What does it look like for you to live in the reality of the Kingdom of God here and now?

John 17 - Guided Meditation on Unity

Jesus prays for the unity of the church to show the world who God is. To help us focus on what Jesus is calling us to in his great prayer in John 17, I want to introduce you to a prayer practice called “Contemplative Prayer.” The practice invites you to use your imagination in prayer to join God in what he is doing in the world. 

Prepare:

Take a moment to get comfortable so you can focus. Close your eyes if you’d like. Remove whatever distractions you might have. This time of prayer opens by asking God to help us know, love, and follow Jesus. Imagine you are sitting with God as Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Sitting with God, you will look out on the world moments before the Word is sent in the flesh as Jesus. Pay attention to what you feel as you read these words as you sit with the Triune God and look out over the world. After this time of sitting and listening with God, read the selection from John 1. Then you will join Jesus in the days leading up to the cross when he prays for all believers. Use the prompts to reflect on the select reading from John 17. Use the questions listed to guide your time of prayer and reflection.

Get comfortable and recognize the presence of God around you

Prayer: Father, help us to know Jesus more intimately, help us to love him more intensely, and therefore to follow him more closely as he desires us to walk with him.

Let’s sit with God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – looking down on the world before Jesus enters it:

You sit with God in the perfect community of love shown in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is love. In him is light, peace, and joy. This light is life. Sit with God, in this perfect love, and look out across humanity in the moments before the light enters into the world:

Looking out over creation – Humanity continues to congregate into cities and civilization is spreading. Those in power do everything they can to keep their power while those surviving do everything they can to survive. Some people flourish while others are oppressed. Men and women are being born and being laid to rest. Some people are getting married and others getting divorced. There are old and young, rich and poor, happy and sad. There are so many people who are aimless, despairing, hateful. There is so much death, killing, disrespect for the sanctity of life. The young and infirmed are discarded as drains on society. So many are undernourished, sick, and dying. So many struggle with life and are blind to any meaning. They do not know their left hand from their right. Sitting here with God in perfect love, I can hear some people laughing and some crying, some shouting and screaming, some praying, others cursing. It is at this moment the Word is sent into the world.

Read Slowly – John 1:1-5; 9-14 – 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Reflect and meditate on the text

Lord, help me to pay attention to my emotions about the state of the world. Sit with those feelings.

God of love, help me to turn any anger I have over to you to be redeemed in love so that I might properly love others.

Have I fully received the light of life into my life?

God, reveal in me where there is still darkness so that light may enter in so that I can become more like Christ.

Join Jesus’s followers – Take a moment to place yourself in the presence of Jesus before he goes to the cross. Days earlier he washed your feet and called you to take on the same humility in your love for others. He gives you the command to love one another so that the world will know God. He asks you to demonstrate your love for him by holding close to his teaching and demonstrating his love for the world through how you live. He promises to place the Holy Spirit inside of you to guide you into the depths of love for this broken world. He says that things will get difficult in this world but encourages you to draw close to him, know the love he has for you, and to allow the Father to remove the brokenness from your life. He invites you to remain in his love so that you will have peace while in the chaos of this world. He is sending you into the world.

While you are with Jesus, he begins to pray. You join him in prayer as he prepares to go to the cross for the salvation of the world. In his prayer, you realize he is praying for you specifically:

Read Slowly – John 17:15-26 – 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by[m] the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. 

20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you 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. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

25 “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26 I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

Reflect and meditate on the text

Lord, reveal in me the ways that I add to disunity within your church. Where am I suspicious and judgmental of others? Forgive me. 

Reveal in me how I can help NoDa Church become more unified so that we will be a light in this YMCA and neighborhood. 

Help me see where I need to move beyond my differences with others so that we can unite in our common identity in Christ.

Prayer: Christ Jesus, help us to embody your love so that we will be unified as a Church. Breathe life into us and fan the flame of light into us that we will be the people you need us to be in this place. Forgive us when we fall short of your calling to unity. Give us the courage to build relationships where the world calls for division. Amen. 

John 17 - A Prayer for Unity

This last week I pointed out that Mary’s actions in anointing the feet of Jesus for his burial ran parallel with Jesus washing the feet of the disciples (including Judas). If we want to truly worship Jesus in the way that Mary did as an example of a true disciple, we need to learn to wash the feet of others as though they are the feet of Jesus. I had not made this connection between Mary and Jesus till Sunday morning around 6:30. 

When I think about Jesus’ final days with his followers, I am taken back by how he chose to spend those days. He begins with washing their feet, giving them the command to love each other, and calling them to follow is example of love, service, and self-sacrifice not only for those they are in relationship with but also with those who hate them and wish them harm. He washes the feet of the men who will abandon him in his time of need. He washes the feet of the one who betrays him and hands him over to be killed. With love and compassion in his eyes he looks at you and bends down to wash your feet. I don’t have any real feeling for what this would be like, but it is a dirty job that is below the dignity of anyone but a house servant. Yet here we are with our feet in the hands of God in the flesh.

When Jesus wants to sum up all his teaching, he doesn’t give them a theological paradigm to wrestle with. He gives them a meal and an action. The meal is what we call the Lord’s Supper. This is not a time of mere inward reflection on what Jesus did for you to save you of your sins. This is a time of inward conviction calling you to repent of the ways that you hold yourself higher and better than others and fail to pick up your cross for the sake of others. The action Jesus gives us is washing feet. “If you want to be great, become a servant to all.” He humiliates himself and washes the feet of everyone, including the one who is about to get him killed. It is almost as if he is showing that these actions are what embody the Lord’s Supper. You have been set free so become a servant to others. 

The way you love those around you will be my witness in the world. They will know you are my followers because of the love you show them. But what if they have different political leanings than me? What if they interpret the Bible differently than I do? What if they have sin in their life that is grotesque? Didn’t Jesus call a religious extremist, fisherman, tax collector, and revolutionary to follow him? Jesus meant what he said about the love they are supposed to have for one another. The thing that unifies them is greater than anything that divides. If you’re holding onto the things that divide you are flirting with idolatry. 

We move with Jesus from the foot washing, through his teachings about love, the Holy Spirit, abiding in him, and discipline from God. We then arrive in chapter 17 in what is called the High Priestly Prayer. Read this prayer. After reading it, remember that this is the prayer of God in the flesh who is about to go to the cross and die to redeem your brokenness and make you whole through the Holy Spirit’s work in you. Then, read it again recognizing that He is praying for you. The part I want to focus on this Sunday is 17:20-26. Jesus prays that the church will be unified. In this unity, as the Father and the Son are unified, the world will come to know who God is.

What needs to be done to bring the church to unity? This is an overwhelmingly hard questions when put on a global level of unity. So, let’s bring it home. 

What needs to be done to bring NoDa Church to unity?

John 12 - Mary Anoints Jesus's Feet

Less than a week before his death, Jesus sits down to a meal with his closest friends. This should be a peaceful meal. One where love and joy is shared around the table. Jesus has pointed to his death all along and the time for his exaltation is at hand. The weight of the world is on him. The religious and political leaders are looking for him to execute him. His closest companions have seen him do extraordinary things. I mean…Lazarus is sitting right there with them! There’s an unnamed company of people with them but we can likely assume the disciples were there along with those who are named: Mary, Martha, Lazarus, and Judas Iscariot. Jesus is sharing a meal with his friends and things get tense. 

This is the kind of story where you get invited into the narrative to see where you sit. There are two disciples who have a different interpretation of Jesus’ ministry. The first disciple, Mary, anoints Jesus’s feet with a precious perfume. Why his feet? This is not a royal anointing, which happens on the head. Nor is it a common practice for anointing a special guest. The answer for the kind of anointing comes in verse 7, this is in preparation for his burial. Mary seems to be one of the few who really understands Jesus. He’s heading to Jerusalem to die. This reality is not lost on Mary who abandons her dignity to prepare Jesus for his glorification. By abandon her dignity, I am talking about letting her hair down. This is the modern equivalent of a woman hiking her skirt up mid thigh in public. 

The other disciple is Judas. His interpretation is of Jesus’s ministry is that they should be taking care of the poor. After all, much of Jesus’s teachings focus on this deep concern. Judas, in so many ways, isn’t wrong in his assessment of how money should be used. There are two factors against Judas’s interpretation of this event. The first is mentioned directly in the narrative. He’s a hypocrite and doesn’t actually care about the poor. The second factor is in Jesus himself. Mary recognizes Jesus as the Word of God come in the flesh and gives honor and respect for the death he is about to endure. Judas does not know Jesus the way that Mary knows Jesus. All of this time with him, in his presence, and he still does not know Jesus intimately.

Mary continually shows up in stories as the example of a true disciple. She recognizes the presence of God at the table and brings her offering to pay respect and give honor. She worships Jesus with everything she has. I am amazed by Mary’s uncontrolled worship of Jesus. I want to know what it is like to forget about everyone else in the room, the anger of the sister who is doing all the serving, the disdain of the men for letting my hair down, or the contempt of the treasurer for being wasteful. One of my first apprehensions, when sitting with Mary here, is what Jesus might think of what I am doing. The reality is, Mary understands the love of Jesus better than anyone else in the room. She worships out of the reality of knowing that she is deeply loved.

What holds you back from worshipping Jesus?

Where do you get held up in judging how others worship?

What does it mean to be a true disciple of Jesus?

John 8 - The Woman Caught in Adultery

John 7:53-8:11 is a well-known story which often gets misused. It is a stand alone story that Biblical scholars haven’t quite known what to do with. It wasn’t in the original writings in John’s gospel and the writing style in Greek doesn’t fit the style of John. Some scholars have tried to attribute it to Luke and others have attributed it to a later scribe who was copying John’s gospel and felt the need to add this story to make a point to a community where he was sending a manuscript. As the letters and gospels were circulated, comments and commentary were sometimes added by scribes. This makes biblical interpretation difficult at times, especially in the letters. I don’t have any reason to doubt that this story about the woman caught in adultery actually happened. I share all of this because I keep pointing out the writing style of John and his work actually flows better if this story is left out. The scribe (or whoever added the story in at this location) might be adding it here to bring this section theme into view that the accusers are ever so willing to pick up their stones while Jesus stands at the side of hurting and broken people (they are holding stones again at the end of the chapter). 

This story is one about how we view sin. There are a lot of different takeaways and I’ve found that this is often the story in which people come to make Jesus say what they want him to say. Usually, it is either “Jesus says we can’t point out sin if we have sin ourselves so leave people’s sins alone” or “Jesus told the woman to quit sinning.” You can make both of these points, but they often need to be held in tension with one another. When I read this passage, a few stories came to mind about sin.

The first one that came to mind was about two high school boys I was in conversation with years ago. The first guy had messed around a lot with his one girlfriend while the second guy had kissed a lot of different girls. The first guy justified that his actions were purer because they were only with one girl though he pushed the line as far as it could go. The other guy had not done nearly as much but had done just a little with a lot of different girls. His lines of purity were more strict but he explored those lines a lot. You’ve got to love the measurements of the purity culture in these conversations, but I digress. Which one had the more grievous sin?

The next story happened in a bar used to frequent in Oklahoma City as part of my ministry to meet people where they are (I was very hesitant to write that sentence). We had a long-standing Bible study there and I was often asked for counseling in different life situations of the staff and other regulars. One interesting conversation that stood out to me was with a guy I met who apparently used to go to the church where I was a minister. When I say “used to go” I mean that he hadn’t been there in so long that he didn’t know the name of the church had changed nearly 30 years prior. He hasn’t been part of a church since then. He was heavily intoxicated but had no problem arguing the finer points of why different denominational churches were wrong because of their worship styles and inclusion of women visible roles. It struck me funny at how readily he was able to point out the perceived flaws of other churches when he hadn’t darkened the door of a church in nearly three decades. 

I have a few other stories that come to mind but the point I want to illustrate is something very interesting about sin. What is the most grotesque sin you can think of? What sins should each of us be concerned with the most? This story where a woman caught in adultery is brought before Jesus tells us a lot about how we should approach sin. It is in the presence of Christ where sins are confronted, forgiven, and restored. When those holding the stones are confronted with their sins, they chose to drop their stones and walk away from Jesus rather than towards him. My two major takeaways from this story are that first, I need to draw close to the presence of Christ to confront the sins in my own life and second, I need to draw others close to the presence of Christ and allow the Spirit to do the work that the Spirit does. Both take time and relationship. You cannot bring about change in someone else’s life by throwing stones from a distance. You have to first walk with Christ yourself and then invite others to walk with him as well. 

• What are your stones? 

• Who are your “adulterous women”? 

• Are you spending time with Jesus in a way that reveals the answer to both of these questions? 

John 4 - The Woman at the Well

Dedicate a small amount of time every day this week to reading John 4:1-42. After reading this story, sit in silence allow your imagination to draw you into the story. Stand off to the side and observe the conversation between Jesus and the woman at the well. Stand in the woman’s place and have the conversation with Jesus. Receive his words. Put yourself in the place of the disciples who come back to find them talking. What would it be like to be one of the townspeople who see the woman coming back into town? You hear her message and want to go meet this potential “Messiah.” Each time you read the story just sit with your imagination and see where it takes you. God gave you an imagination so use it and allow it to guide you into prayer. You aren’t looking for new insights into the story. You are allowing your imagination to take you into the story to hear what God needs to tell you. 

There are a lot of takeaways from this story that need to be highlighted and I’m working to narrow it down to just a few major points for Sunday for what we as a congregation need to hear. Here are some quick points for your own devotional reflection: 

The woman is an outcast in her own society. She is a woman and a Samaritan. Jesus crosses multiple barriers to share the Gospel with her. Who do you struggle the most with approaching because of who they are, what they have done, where they come from, etc? 

There are debates, and even fights, between the Jews and the Samaritans over the proper location for worshipping God. Jesus says a time is coming when God, who is spirit, will be worshipped in Spirit and truth. When have you seen Christians (or yourself) fight over proper location, proper name on the sign, proper “truth/doctrine,” etc.? What does it mean to worship God in the Spirit?

The Samaritan woman is the first evangelist to the Samaritans. This is a point that is often missed but must be highlighted. We often make “evangelism” into a series of conversations that lead people through scripture to bring them to a question of conversion. “Evangelists” feel the need to unpack the mysteries of the text for people to understand. Here we have a woman, who is an outcast in her own society, who takes on the task of being the first evangelist to her people. What is her message? What is her approach to sharing the Gospel?

In verse 35, Jesus quotes a proverb that basically means there is a time of waiting between sowing and reaping. Jesus tells them “Open your eyes and look to the fields! They are ripe for harvest.” He calls them into action to go and reap what someone else has sown. He points them to a hated people they have been told their whole life that they were less than dogs. This woman has planted a seed as an evangelist, and they want to know more. We are surrounded by people who are seeking something deeper on a spiritual level, but they are looking everywhere but the church. Why do we keep waiting for the harvest to come to us? Where do you see the harvest and what does it look like for the church to head out into the fields? 

There are ten other questions we can wrestle with from this passage but I’m going to leave it with these. The place I keep coming back to with this passage is that the first evangelist to the Samaritans was an outcast woman with no “evangelism” training. I’ve dedicated my adult life to being trained. We’ve set up the church in a way that we assume the “trained professionals” are going to do the work. The simple message I keep coming back to is this: The woman at the well had a very real encounter with Jesus that revealed her deepest hurts and brought hope and healing. She then felt compelled to tell people about what Jesus was doing in her life. You’ve been given the ability to meet with Jesus and allow him to work in your life. Are you? Do you have something to share with others as an evangelist of the work Jesus is doing in your life?

Holy Spirit - Following Jesus' Example

If the Holy Spirit is the wind that fills the sail to move us on this Christian journey, spiritual disciplines help us develop the keel which keeps us from flipping over. The keel of the ship is the part that juts down below the water which no one can see but it is essential to staying upright. Spiritual disciplines are the part of your life that no one can see but they see the results of them. When the waves begin to rise, you stay upright. When the storms swirl, you are steady. The disciplines you develop in your spiritual formation are what will keep you upright and steady when the trials of life come. Go read Ephesians 4 where Paul calls the church to maturity (and unity) in Christ. He offers the same image of the keel of the ship:

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. - Ephesians 4:14-16

We are called to maturity in Christ as a church. The other image Paul offers here is an infant’s body with the head of an adult. The immature church is filled with people who seek their own interests rather than the interest of others. The immature church is filled with people who seek power over others rather than ways of serving others. The mature church seeks to encourage others to become more like Christ in their spiritual walk. Each of us are called to mature into the likeness of Christ but this does not mean the spiritual journey is individualistic. In his book “After You Believe,” NT Wright points to “love” as the primary virtue the Christian strives to develop. When this virtue matures in us, the other virtues begin to form as well. He then goes on to say, "If love is the primary virtue, community is the primary context." I would say that this is the point Paul is making in 1 Corinthians 13, which he puts right in the middle of his discussion of the Christian gathering of believers. 

You engage in the spiritual disciplines for your own maturity into the likeness of Christ to then unify in the Spirit with others and become the body of Christ together. Developing habits of spiritual formation is essential to your maturity in Christ as well as the building up of the body of Christ to maturity. I’ve found it helpful to view these disciplines not as work that I do to make myself better but rather creating space to be in the presence of God to submit to the Spirit’s work of transformation in my life. This is Christ’s work in us, not our work on ourselves though we do have a part to play. 

The working definition I want to use for spiritual formation has four parts: A journey of being transformed into the image of Christ for the sake of others.

(1) A journey

(2) of being transformed 

(3) into the image of Christ 

(4) for the sake of others

This Sunday, we will continue to talk about how the Spirit works to transform us into Christ’s likeness through the spiritual disciplines. We will look at the life of Jesus and the importance spiritual formation played in his life. It is odd for us to think about Jesus needing to be formed spiritually but we must recognize that his submission to the guidance of the Father through the Holy Spirit guides his whole life and ministry. Jesus became like us in every way (Hebrews 2:17) so that we can be like him (1 John 3:2). So, if Jesus needs spiritual disciplines in his life, how much more do we need them?

Take some time to read and reflect on Matthew 3:13-4:11:

What does Jesus have to strengthen the keel of his ship to keep him upright in this storm of temptation? 

What gives Jesus strength during these temptations? 

What is Jesus being tempted with?

How are you doing with forming habits of spiritual formation? 

Holy Spirit - Developing Disciplines for Guidance

We have been talking about the Spirit for a few weeks now. To be moved by the Spirit, we must ask for the Spirit, be ready to raise our sails to receive and be moved by the Spirit, and we must be willing to be led where the Spirit will take us. If the Spirit does not move, we do not go. The Spirit equips us with gifts to build up the church. The Spirit is the source of unity within the church. The Spirit transforms us into the image of God for the world. We carry the presence of God with us into the world. Finally, the Spirit is the unity between the Father and the Son that is the foundation of love we share between us as Christians. This unity in the Spirit supersedes any unity we might try to fabricate through “right” doctrine, political ideologies, racial and cultural differences, or socio-economic divisions.

We’ve spent most of our time focusing on the need to be open to the Spirit, raise our anchor, and lift our sails. Being open to the Spirit the first major step in the spiritual walk. This first step brings concerns of whether we are actually following the Spirit, another spirit, our own desires, etc. These are valid concerns and should be kept in the forefront of what we do when seeking the Spirit. Just because you feel strongly about something does not mean the Spirit is leading you. It seems as though the Spirit leads us into paths of greater faith, relinquishment of our own wants and desires, discomfort, and service of others.

John, in 1 John 4:1-6, warns us not to believe every spirit, but to test the spirits to see whether they are from God. There are a lot of teachings from the world that are presented as teachings from the spirit, and we must recognize them for what they are. They are anti-Christ. There are teachings of the world that have divided the church because Christians have failed to keep close to the Spirit’s teachings. We have too readily cheapened the Gospel to what we gain from it and have disconnected it from the kind of life it calls us to. We want baptism without repentance, communion without confession, and salvation with discipline. These are the hallmarks of what Dietrich Bonhoeffer calls “cheap grace” in “The Cost of Discipleship.” We are called to discipleship, following the way of Jesus, and that is an active response on our part. It costs us everything because we have found the one thing that truly matters: the Presence of God. 

To be led by the Spirit to follow the way of Jesus, we must develop disciplines that call us to deeper discipleship. This is not works based salvation. Salvation is a free gift given by Christ. But we are called to more. Jesus calls us to follow him. To walk as he walked. When we look at the life of Jesus, we see rhythms of prayer, solitude, quiet, and focus. He knew the heart of scripture and not just what it says. His whole ministry was guided by the Spirit, but this also took work on his part. Being guided by the Spirit takes discipline not to fall into the temptations of the world. 

When Jesus began his ministry, after receiving the Spirit in his baptism, he went off to the wilderness to fast and pray. This communion with the Father through the Spirit is the model for the Christian life. When the tempter came and presented Jesus with easy access to power in the world (a summation of the temptations in Matt 4), Jesus drew close to the heart of scripture, which was written on his own heart. He had also been preparing for these temptations through the disciplines of fasting and prayer. He also had the Spirit to guide him. These are the same things we have to combat the temptations of the world. 

The temptations did not end with Jesus’ time in the wilderness. They were present all throughout his ministry. After feeding the five thousand in John 6, Jesus “withdrew again to a mountain by himself” (6:15) because he knew they intended to make him their king by force. Why didn’t Jesus seize the opportunity to become their king and lead the nation back into greatness? Because he knew that his purpose was bigger than the worldly power they were willing to grant him. The Spirit’s guidance, knowing the heart of scripture, prayer, and the discipline of solitude and silence kept Jesus in line with the mission God had for him. 

The spirit of this world tells us to strive for power so we can be in positions to bring the change we want to see in the world. The Spirit which guided Jesus led him to a greater power expressed through radical love for both enemy and friend alike so that the world would become the good world that God created it to be. Worldly power does not bring about this goodness. Only the love of Christ expressed on the cross can do that. He has called us to go and do likewise.

For your reflection:

• Where do you see the spirit of the world leading the church in the ways of the world?

• Where do you see the spirit of the world pressuring you in ways that do not look like Jesus? 

• Have you established a rhythm of disciplines in your life to draw close to the presence of God in prayer, fasting, the heart of scripture, solitude, silence, etc.? 

• What is keeping you from forming those disciplines? 

Holy Spirit - Poured Out for Unity

John 13-17 is the end of Jesus’ ministry with the disciples. John begins this “Farewell Address” with the washing of the disciples’ feel, calls them to radical levels of love for one another, warns them of the hatred coming to them from the world, and encourages them with the promise of the Holy Spirit. Throughout chapters 14-16, John continues to highlight Jesus’ promise of the Spirit. The Spirit that brings unity between Jesus and the Father in a perfect community of love. Submission to the Spirit takes relinquishing our rights, positions of power over others, our wishes, etc. to then embrace the freedom that life in the Spirit provides us. The more we submit to the Spirit, the freer we are to love those who are different than us because we are no longer suspicious of them, fearful of what they might take from us, and we are able to meet them where they are with love and compassion. 

At the end of the “Farewell Address” in John, Jesus ends his time with the disciples with what is called the “High Priestly Prayer” in John 17. The part of this prayer that we will focus on this week is 17:20-26 when Jesus prays for us. The emphasis of the prayer is on the unity that we should share with fellow Sisters and Brothers in Christ. What is this unity supposed to look like? The unity we share should look like the unity between Jesus and the Father. The unity that the Father and Jesus shares is a relationship in the Spirit. All are God and all are in (and have always been) in a divine community together. The Spirit makes their relationship possible and their love complete. One of the best expressions of Trinitarian beliefs is that the Godhead (Father, Son, and Spirit) exist together in a community of love. 

Part of the gospel is that Jesus descended to where we are, to be like us in every way, so that we could then ascend into the divine community of God and be like him. This community of love is not something we wait for to come when Jesus returns. This community of love begins in the sharing of the Spirit to bring us to unity, as Jesus and the Father are one. 

• What are some of the major roadblocks to Christians being unified? 

• What steps are needed to bring unity to Christians everywhere? 

It is easy to fall into the trap of articulating what others need to do to bring about unity, how the church as a whole needs to change, and point out the downfalls in organization and history. More importantly, this discussion must move from the outward focus to an inward reflection. 

• What habits are you forming in your life to invite the Spirit in to help you grow in: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control? 

• In what ways can you bridge the divides in the church through building spiritual relationships with others who are different from you?

• What are you doing to develop humility in your approach to differences between you and other disciples of Christ?