I'm not going to lie. This week's gospel reading is tough for me to look into. It is Jesus's prayer for his disciples and is found in John 17:6-19. Go ahead and read it.
At first glance it is pretty straight forward and simple -- Jesus praying for the protection of his disciples as they carry on in the world that he is now leaving. I think the next verse has to be tied to this if we are to understand what it means for us that continue to follow the teachings of Jesus-- 20 "I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father. are in me, and I in you, that they may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me."
What makes this tough for me is that I have pretty much come to the place where I have given up on the idea of needing to share my faith with others -- at least for the purpose of converting them to my way of thinking. In this text, Jesus seems to make a bit more of the teaching what he taught kind of discipleship.
I get that. I'm just not convinced that I'm the guy for that anymore.
I've written about perspective before. Perhaps the perspective that I've had in the past needs to change where this text is concerned. So much of my previous preaching and teaching had to do with convincing people to accept that Jesus died for them so that they could go to heaven when they die. That's actually a pretty good reason for wanting others to believe what you believe if you also believe that everyone that doesn't believe that is doomed to eternity in some kind of everlasting lake of fire.
But what happens when your eternal perspective changes?
When heaven and hell no longer hang in the balance?
Does one also lose the motivation to teach the message of the teacher?
It doesn't appear that Jesus is giving me that option. Apparently, living a life that follows his teachings is its own reward -- a kind of heaven on earth deal.
Damn!
I've got to say that this new perspective stuff isn't all it's cracked up to be. I don't think I particularly like what I'm getting out of this today.
I'm going to have to do a bit more pondering.
Also that needing protection thing is disturbing...
John
Thursday, May 09, 2024
Thursday Theology
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3 comments:
So what is your eternal perspective now. I assume you still believe in heaven and if there is a heaven doesn’t there have to be a hell. Would like to hear your new perspective.
Perhaps I'll cover that someday.
Btw, although I do allow anonymous comments, knowing who is asking questions is nice.
John, with the blogger comment section screwed up like it is some people can only leave anon comment. They should say who they are in the comment, but many don't. I've found that I have to use Chrome to leave a comment on some blogs these days. Something about third party cookies.
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