...And to Make Him Known

John 17:20-26

It’s been another difficult week.  We lost Andy. A member of our family is gone.  Tomorrow we will celebrate his life. The news of the world is disturbing.  Three young women found to be held captive in a Cleveland basement for 10 years.  A roadside bomb kills several Americans in Afghanistan.  Civil war continues in Syria.  And yet, we as Christians claim that the love of God is always with us.  We lean on Jesus’ promise that where two or three are gathered in his name he is there among us.  But even faithful longtime Christians can feel like God has left them. 

Where is the love of God when you see a loved one suffering?  Where is the love of God when you are unjustly imprisoned, enslaved and tortured while the world goes on just beyond the front door unaware of your presence and your suffering? Where is God in continual death and suffering as ideologies and nationalities clash?

Marjorie and two of my boys.  Different stories.  Same faith. 

The answer is that we carry God with us.  Not like a pocket bible that we pull out when we need it but more like a bright flashing neon light that says “ask me about the good news I have for you.” Because we all have it, even if we don’t think we have enough to share, we all have something that can lift up and encourage and bless another.

Today is the 8^th anniversary of my father’s death.  Two months before he died I had a conversation with him about matters of faith.  He was a Christian. He was baptized on the very same day I was when I was an infant.  He was the one who brought me to church most often as a child. He read the bible.  He believed in Jesus Christ, but when faced with his own death, he looked inside and determined that he wasn’t good enough.  He said, “I’m not a righteous man.”

He made mistakes. He wasn’t perfect. But which one of us is?

That’s when it happened.  There was a shift. He was the father.  He was always the one who did the encouraging.  He was the one who did the protecting.  He was the one who had to be strong.

Now it was obviously my turn.

I reminded him of Jesus’ righteousness.  About how none of us are right with God and it is unity with the perfection of Jesus Christ that we are imparted with righteousness,  That, through Jesus we are given freedom to transcend our past, to rise above it and to live completely for God and to begin our eternal life with Him. The step of becoming the encourager for my father seemed like it was going to be a difficult one but it turned out not to be.  It seemed that was God’s intention for me at that moment.

He thanked me for the reminder.

This is a bracelet for brain cancer
awareness. 

Proverbs 27:17 says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.”

We can know Christ, and we can also be so overwhelmed with pain or sickness that we, in our solitude, can forget the love of God. We in our fear, our social position, and our family position can be reluctant to share our faith and our love of God with those who need it.  But that would be a tragedy, because it is Jesus’ will that we would all be one.

…And to make him known.  That is the second half of our mission here at St. Paul.  The “Him” is of course Jesus.  Jesus the man who’s very essence is the same as God the father and God the Holy Spirit.  Making Christ known.  That’s a challenge isn’t it? 

It’s a challenge because there are very few people who have not been exposed to the name Jesus, or Christ. And so there are a lot of people in the world who think they know all they need to know about Jesus and have decided, either consciously or passively that that Christianity thing isn’t for them. Their minds are already made up.  So how do we make Christ know to those who barely know him and have seemingly already made up their minds? Love them, pray for them, and never stop believing that they will hear, or see something that will soften their hearts to the love of God through Jesus Christ. 

But what about the folks here at church?  We assume that the folks next to us at church know Christ because; why else would they be here? 

I sat for a while on Friday and yesterday as some of you came in to get your pictures taken. Not one of you are at the same place on your spiritual journey (if that is even a possibility). You all have come to the relationship you have with God from different places and through different circumstances, yet we’re a family.  We all need each other.  Each one of us needs the rest.

Every person here needs to be encouraged and reminded of God’s love. Every person needs to hear about how you experienced God in your life this week so that when they are facing next week they have the strength to endure whatever may come. We come to worship and to praise God in this place.  Part of your worship should be to sharpen your friends and to let your friends sharpen you.

This is Jesus plan for us.  Jesus was praying to the Father.  He was praying for his disciples. He was also praying “on behalf of those who will believe in me through their (the disciples) word. Jesus was no longer going to be in with world so he was and is counting on those whom he taught to bring others to belief in him. 

There is a saying that some church folk use, its: “we don’t convert anyone to Christ. The Holy Spirit does.” And that is true but that doesn’t relieve us of the responsibility of passing on what we have experienced and learned about the love of God. We don’t convert any one, but no one will fully know the love of God unless we tell them how we have experienced it.

When you have an experience of the love of God and keep it to yourself, you keep yourself set apart.  This is not God’s will. Jesus was praying on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they might be one.” Just as Jesus and the father are one.  Jesus intention is that we are one with each other and one with him.  That means that we share our victories and our pain.  That means we share experiences and freely offer encouragement.

This is part of what it means to “make him known.” It not just to those outside these walls but it is also for each one that comes to this place to be in God’s presence.