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It’s graduation season, a wonderful
time to stop and celebrate a momentous achievement. I looked back, and I’ve celebrated five
graduations – 8th grade, high school, college, and then two master’s
degrees. I’d really like to figure out
what I’m supposed to be doing with my life so I can stop. While graduation is fun, all of the tuition
beforehand isn’t nearly as enjoyable. My
kids will likely have more graduations – not necessarily because they’ll be in
school for as long, but rather because they now have graduations for
everything. I’ve been to preschool
graduations and kindergarten graduations already. I won’t be that surprised when I get an invitation
to graduation from 2nd grade.
My kids may hit five ceremonies by the time they turn 10.
What’s great about graduation is
that it’s something no one can take away from you. You have a piece of paper that validates your
experience – you knew exactly what you needed to do to succeed, you did it, and
it’s a permanent validation of your achievement. Even if you lose your actual diploma, you can
call the school and they’ll likely have a record they can produce of your
graduation. No one can go back and
un-graduate me from 8th grade, even if I were to ever forget that
lofty achievement.
If you’re like me, you’re looking
for a similar scorecard or marker when it comes to faith. I think all of us, in some way, shape or
form, want to find a marker that validates our life in faith. We want, deep inside of us, to know that our
salvation is secure. We want to know
that we’re doing enough, that we’re doing it right. We want something that affirms our security
in Christ, that speaks to the anxiety we often live with at three in the
morning when we wonder if the love and grace of God that often seems to
transform others is really at work in our lives. We want a graduation, but instead it can feel
like we’re still in the admission office, working on the application, wondering
if we’re good enough.
And the world around us leads us to
ask other questions about God’s presence or absence in our lives. On Friday, there was yet another shooting,
and I was horrified to see that this was the largest American workplace
shooting since only February, when someone else took their anger out in
violence on their coworkers, wrecking lives and breaking hearts. We know that Virginia Beach and all those who
live there will never be the same due to this horrific act. As soon as we read of these awful events, our
hearts break not only for those affected but also because we know this is not
how the world is supposed to be.
It feels wrong because this is not how we were
designed. The feeling that things are
wrong can only be there if there is a sense of what it means for things to be
right, and that can only be true if the universe was designed on purpose, with
a purpose. Right and wrong have to come
from somewhere, and we believe that God has planted them in the human
heart. Even when humans first chose sin
in the Garden of Eden, God has been sending prophets and kings to remind us of
what right is, what it looks like, and how to restore the relationship with God
that was broken by sin. When those
messages fell on deaf ears, God sent his own Son, Jesus Christ, to show us the
fullness of love and restore, once and forever, the relationship between humans
and their God.
And so here, standing at the
intersection of these two huge questions, what about the world and what about
me, is where we dive into the two texts.
In the Gospel reading from the 17th chapter of John, we’re
going to focus on God, and then we’ll use that to turn our attention to how God
is at work.
John 17 is Jesus’ priestly
prayer. It delves into God’s
relationship with Jesus, relating to what gifts are given from God to Jesus and
how Jesus then passes these gifts on to believers. Starting in verse 20, Jesus transitions from
prayer for himself and the disciples into praying for those who will believe in
Jesus. That’s right – two thousand years
ago, Jesus was praying for you, and he was praying for you to be united with
all the saints and believers throughout the ages. While you have been individually knit
together in your mother’s womb, you are also part of a collective whole – Jesus
is praying for the unity of the church.
The entire purpose of salvation is displayed in this passage. In verse 24, Jesus prays that the church will
be with Jesus, and he prays that they will see his glory, glory that was given
to Jesus before the foundations of the world were laid.
What Jesus is telling us is that
the co-eternal relationship that Jesus has with God was formed before the world
existed. Before the sun hung in the sky,
there was a relationship, and it was based on love, it was based on God sharing
his glory with Jesus Christ. They are
co-eternal, and the world was created based on that. Now, if what existed before the universe was
a mutual sharing of glory, then we can surmise that the universe was created
out of that love and a desire that the glory of God be shared – that those who
were created would share in that future glory.
Now, we know that humans brought
sin into the picture and messed everything up, but Jesus knows about the
problem of sin and is still praying that
the world may believe in God and be united with him forever. Jesus is praying in verse 26 that the love of
God may be in the church, and he is praying that the glory of God will be made
known through Jesus Christ. While Jesus
certainly displayed it in his life, he did so even more fully in his death and
resurrection, which is historically supported.
So we know that this is true and can trust that God’s will is to bring
the church, as one body, into an eternal relationship with Jesus.
So that’s true about God’s will for
the broken world, that joy and hope and peace will overcome sin and brokenness. So what about us as individuals?
This, I believe, is what makes
Romans 8 so powerful. To get a full
understanding of the context of this, we’d have to start at Romans 1, but in
the interest of time, let’s focus on what Paul is saying here.
Starting in verse 26, we acknowledge
our weakness. Immediately, I feel
better. I can come to God as I am, not
as I want to be, and God knows that. We
don’t have to pretend – God is prepared to help us in our weakness. The Holy Spirit is ready to intercede at a
level I cannot describe. And then who is
weaving things for good? It is God who
is at work, calling and conforming and justifying and glorifying. Notice who is acting here – it is God who is
at active and at work.
In verse 31, Paul puts it
powerfully – the reason we cannot be defeated is not because we are brilliant
or cunning, but because God is for us.
It is God who defeated death and evil – not us. We cannot kill them on a global scale, and we
cannot defeat them in our own lives – only the name and power of God can make
them scamper. It is God who justifies
and it is God who intercedes for us and it is God who ensures that nothing can
separate us from God’s love.
While we are conquerors, it is not
because of how adept we are with the sword or how accurate with the bow, it is
because we are loved by God. You,
friend, are beloved, and it is not because of what you have done, but it is
because of whom has made you, crafted you, placed you here and called you by
name. It is Jesus Christ who knocks, and
it is Christ who enters and breaks bread with us. You are treasured and held forever because of
the love of the Father, and it is the Father’s will that you will be gathered,
individually and as one body, into the eternal arms that are secure and strong
and gentle and loving.
Grace upon grace
is yours to receive not to earn, and our diploma is not something we earn to
secure ourselves, but rather it is a hill, 2000 years ago, where we point to
see the fullness of God’s love and the glory that the empty tomb that
demonstrated the glory of God, that helped us understand that the promises of
Jesus were trustworthy and true. When
Jesus promised to gather us together, we know that we can rely upon those promises
because we have seen him break the bonds of death. Our fate is in his trustworthy hands because
Jesus has chosen and come to us. You
cannot earn this the way you earn your way to graduation – so fret not, my
friends, over your qualifications. This
is not yours by effort, but yours by gift, and we are welcomed into eternity by
a King whose will it is to share his glory.
That is what we celebrate around this table.
