Year B

John 17:6-19

The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn

Testifying To The Truth

We have finally reached the last Sunday of the Easter Season. Next week, we celebrate Pentecost, the birthday of the church, with the coming of the Holy Spirit to guide and empower the followers of Jesus, then and now. But Pentecost, which comes 50 days after Easter, could not happen until Jesus returned to God after the resurrection. This past Thursday, 40 days after Easter, we celebrated Jesus’ return to God on the Feast of the Ascension. Ascension signals the beginning of the reign of Christ with God. Jesus is not “out of sight, out of mind,” he is now present with us through his Spirit living in us until the end of the age. Yet, the aftermath of the ascension for the disciples leaves the question, “Now what? Where to?

The texts today are words by and about Jesus in order to emphasize the importance that the Ascension has for God’s people. The Acts reading offers us a piece of significant discipleship history; John’s words in the Epistle come in a form to clarify and testify to the good news that Christ is alive in the world. John’s gospel offers a part of the prayer by Jesus at the last supper for the disciples. All the texts today in one way or another speak to unity, to preserving a community that both proclaims God’s words and flourishes because the word lives within its members. This is not a unity to continue the way things have been but a unity that looks to the future based upon God’s promises. Unity among the followers of Christ then and now is not easy and it does seem it comes at a cost. 

Jesus, on the night before his death, knowing what was to come and that eventually he would no longer be physically present with them, knew his disciples would need protection and divine help. We hear Jesus today in the gospel text ask God in prayer to be present with his followers as they are faced with the reality of living in a world when he is no longer with them. He sees in them great potential for his mission to continue but it will be difficult.  It would be easy for the disciples to want to separate themselves from the world; but this is not what Jesus prays for them. He asks that they may be one and that they be made holy by the truth they have received from him, so that they can bear witness to this truth. 

The key to keeping themselves from falling away from the faith is to stay close to the word of God. He prays to God “I have given them your word.” The church soon learned as they moved beyond Pentecost, that they would need to hear the stories from the life of Christ over and over again. It also became important to write down those accounts so the generations that had not been eyewitnesses would have a source to keep them from falling away. The gospel text today is appropriate on this Sunday as we are about to cross into the season of Pentecost when the disciples will be filled with God’s Spirit and charged with the call to bring the word of Christ’s sacrificial love to the world.

Apart from their witness, there would be little hope for the church to continue, and great things are about to happen for the disciples. But while they are waiting for the coming of the Holy Spirit to empower them for their mission, Peter directs them through what he feels is an important task-replacing Judas. So, two candidates are selected with the right requirements, Barsabbas also known as Justin, and Matthias. After prayer, they cast lots, and Matthias wins. We don’t hear anything more about Matthias the apostle. Later tradition said he was beheaded in Georgia, in the Middle East not Georgia in the USA, after which his body was shipped to Rome to be buried.

This tradition of keeping to twelve disciples disappeared with the original twelve mainly because after Pentecost, we read about the need to bring on more disciples or deacons to help as the number of followers grew. Paul made his claim to be an apostle and named others as well to be apostles. The entire community believed that God was at work in the process and that this call was a divine call to serve the gospel. God ensures the continuity of disciples through the ages that will witness to the resurrection by providing continued leadership. In the first letter of John today, he writes to those leaders of the community who have not been eyewitnesses to the life of Christ.

He stresses that this community is based upon belief in Jesus as the Son of God. He reminded them and now us that we, as Christians, adhere to the presence of the Son of God as our path to life and to faith. We experience and encounter God through the birth, life, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. This is the good news which God puts within the hearts of God’s people in such a way that testifying to the resurrection intertwines our testimony with that of God. In other words, the faith of the church depends upon God’s own testimony concerning the Son which the church proclaims as central to its mission.

The epistle text today ends with John emphasizing that it is in this testimony from God, and in the community’s faithfulness to it, that the church finds its life. John’s simple and profound truth shows that this is a life and death matter. Jesus as Savior and Lord means eternal life and he urges his readers to choose life through the truth of his words, his testimony to us. Only through acceptance of God’s works in Jesus will unity with God come. Unity makes a difference for the church. However, we live in a time where there isn’t much unity. Too many times, when Christians should be united, we are fighting against each other.

The late preacher Charles Spurgeon once said, “Satan always hates Christian fellowship; it is his policy to keep Christians apart. According to a 2023 CBS poll, almost 80% of Americans believe in God or a “higher power,” and around 70% believe in angels, heaven, or the power of prayer. However, 88% said they had little or no confidence in religious leaders or organized religion. No wonder Jesus knew he needed to pray for his community. The best advice Jesus gave then, and us today, is that we stay close to the Word of God. He wants his believers, whom he loves from the depths of his soul, to remain steadfast in their relationship with God through him or they will fall away.

The resurrected Jesus encourages those whom he loves to seek God! For forty days he was with the community of disciples, teaching and unfolding the mysteries of his mission; watching over them just as he had done all during his earthly ministry.  As he prayed for his disciples then, he prays for us now that we will be made holy, set apart and stay as one in him-so that we may bring the good news of the gospel to the world; the good news that just as he belonged to God, we belong to God. As we live in the truth of God’s love and word this helps us move from the world toward God. This is the church of Jesus Christ. So as the season of Easter ends, with the disciples we await the arrival of the Holy Spirit to help us testify to the truth, as Jesus promised.