John 17.6-19: Language and Rhythm

Jesus is praying for the disciples in John 17:6-19 (Easter 7B). In this passage, yours and mine and I and you and they weave together, each one occasionally popping up like dolphins in an ocean pod surface in turn as they move through the water.

Or like the over-and-under of a Celtic knot. Now mine. Now yours. Now them. Now me. Now I. Now you. Now they. Jesus' words flow in sentences that move over and under and back around again as he prays for the disciples and to God.

Be sure to read the text out loud and hear the rhythm of it.

John 17:6-19
I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.
I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours.
All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them.
And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.
While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled.
But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves.
I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.
I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one.
They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.
Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.
And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.

For thoughts on the call of Matthias, click here.

Acts 10.44-48: Even the Gentiles

The Acts reading for Easter 6B is a little out of order, liturgically. The 10th chapter of Acts is after  Pentecost, but the Revised Common Lectionary places the reading during Eastertide. The disciples have received the Holy Spirit...and so have other people. And that's the problem. The Holy Spirit has been poured out...even on the Gentiles. Some members of the community of faith aren't sure what to do with that.

On the other hand, some are exactly sure what to do. Nothing. Do not give any credence to the idea that the Holy Spirit would ever come to "them." But Peter disagrees. He argues that the Holy Spirit can, indeed, be poured out even on Gentiles. The wording of his characterization of the anti-Gentile faction in verse 46 is different in different translations: Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, (KJV) Surely no one can stand in the way of their being baptized with water. (NIV) Do I hear any objections to baptizing these friends with water? (MSG). The NRSV offers this: Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people... 

Any objections sounds benign enough. Stand in the way may be a little more disruptive. Forbid water and withhold water are definitely combative. In engineering terms, the community of faith might be seen as building a dam. That's the subject matter of William Gropper's mural for the Department of the Interior. Created for the Works Progress Administration, the mural shows the massive amount of work undertaken to build projects like the Grand Coulee Dam and the Davis Dam. Human workers are frozen in heroic poses as they exert physical effort. Industrial machines like cranes lift and place segments of the dam that have been constructed elsewhere. Time, energy, labor and money are being invested in the creation of this dam.

 William Gropper. Construction of a Dam. 1939. Department of the Interior, Washington, DC.

There are good reasons for building a dam. Holding water hostage - water for crops, people or baptism - is not one of them. 

For thoughts on John 15:9-17, click here.
For thoughts on the Ascension on the Art & Faith Matters blog, click here. For the Ascension on Facebook, click here or here.

John 15.15: I Have Called You Friends

It is a big moment when hierarchical relationships become egalitarian. While I don't know the master-servant model, I do know the teacher-student model as both teacher and student. It was a big moment when my favorite teachers (of art and Latin) became Patsy and Frances. I still haven't convinced any of my former students to call me by my given name. But I hope it will come. Jesus had that moment. "I do not call you servants any longer...but I have called you friends." (John 15:15, Easter 6B)

He said this as part of his farewell discourse in John's gospel. How do you say good-bye to friends?

One way is with a friendship quilt. In the 19th century, members of a community created a quilt to present to friends who were moving away. Each block might be made by a different person or might feature a piece of fabric signed by the friends being left. In the useful form of a quilt, the love (and names) of friends could literally enfold the travelers on their journey and in their new home.

One of the best documented friendship/signature quilts is that made for Philena Cooper Hambleton as she and her family - her husband and two daughters - left Ohio bound for Iowa in 1853. This particular quilt is a friendship quilt twice over as the Hambleton family were Quakers. Though popularly known as Quakers, this community of faith is more properly known as The Religious Society of Friends, a name chosen based on Jesus' words in John 15:15, "I have called you friends."

The quilt was passed down through the Hambleton family until it was sold as part of an estate auction and ended up in a California antique shop. Lynda Salter Chenoweth purchased the quilt and spent years researching the recipient and all the friends who signed the quilt. She published her research in two books: Philena's Friendship Quilt: A Quaker Farewell to Ohio and Neighbors and Friends: Quakers in Community. These two books help explain what it means to be friends and to be Friends. Philena's Friendship Quilt is published by Ohio University Press here: http://www.ohioswallow.com/book/Philena%E2%80%99s+Friendship+Quilt. Neighbors and Friends is here: http://bookstore.xlibris.com/Products/SKU-0053161049/Neighbors-And-Friends-Quakers-in-Community.aspx .