The Shield of Love

John 17:6-19; 1 John 5:9-13; Acts 1:15-17, 21-26

Do you ever have times when nothing is going right, the whole world seems against you, and all you want to do is jump in a hole and pull it in after you? If there was a theme song for that it would be one which Eddie Arnold, Elvis Presley and Martina McBride have all sung: “Make the world go away, get it off my shoulders....” Even extroverts have their rare and brief moments when they want everything to come to a screeching halt and silence to prevail.

I think that Jesus had times like that. The gospel writers record a number of times when Jesus went off to be by himself. And of course his solitude was interrupted by the disciples, either seeking for him because the crowds were looking for him or because they were afraid or helpless. And there was the time in Gethsemane when the disciples were all asleep and the Temple guards came looking for Jesus.

After his alone times Jesus always returned to the public eye. He and the three disciples couldn’t stay on the mountain of the Transfiguration because he still had work to do. Out of a resting sleep he stilled the roiling storm that riled the disciples. And Mark noted that after one such time by himself Jesus told the disciples, “Let’s head in the other direction, to the nearby villages, so that I can preach there too. That’s why I’ve come” (Mark 2:37).

After lingering on the news of Lazarus’ death, Jesus headed to Bethany. Thomas probably summed up the disciples’ expectation, “Let us go too so that we may die with Jesus” (John 11:16). A while later Jesus went from Bethany down the Mount of Olives and into Jerusalem, into the very heart of the institutional opposition which had been mounting. Four days later the religious authorities grabbed him and turned him over to the military officials for execution.

In those last days, even hours, Jesus spoke to his disciples and tried to prepare them for the time that was coming – a time which would include his absence. Jesus tried to impress upon the disciples that they would need their wits about them, that their very mettle will be tried. They will need their strength, their memory of his teaching, and their faith. In spite of all his work of preparing them, even stating bluntly that he was going to be executed, his death came like a full force blow to their guts.

The disciples holed up in a room somewhere following his death. That was mostly for fear that the authorities would come after them as well. That intensified when the women told them that the tomb was empty and that Jesus had risen. The locked door couldn’t keep the risen Lord out. He wasn’t going to hide in the tomb, nor was he going to hide from the disciples.

In the space of forty days, the risen Jesus managed to change the eleven disciples and other supporters from frightened rabbits into strong, perceptive, fearless leaders. After Jesus departed from them for the final time – his ascension to be with God the Father – the eleven got their act together, believed that they had been called as the New Israel, decided that they needed to be twelve in number, and chose the twelfth apostle, a sort of fourth round draft pick. We never heard of Matthias before or since, but he filled the empty stool at the table. Obviously there were hangers on beyond the twelve that got top billing.

Jesus had told them to wait for the coming of the Spirit, and when it came they were ready. We will celebrate that event next week.

How were they able to accomplish that feat, and then to move out into the world? Why did they choose to go out into the crowd and the world rather than staying inside? It would have been quite easy for them to live to themselves and avoid much of the world around them and the pain and hassle which that involved. The history of Christianity is filled with stories of faith communities which have done just that. They sought to create a space which was unencumbered by the world and in which the faithful could fully realize the peace and grace of a faithful, holy life.

John records Jesus’ thoughts on this in the great prayer which Jesus offered sometime between Palm Sunday and Good Friday. Jesus knows that the disciples and others will want to stay off by themselves. Jesus provides an alternative to that. They don’t have to give in to the pressures of the world. Again and again Jesus reminded hearers that they don’t belong to the world, that is to say that the claims of the world do not shape their essential identity, values, and faith. The faith that Jesus sought to instill in believers was anything but an escape from the world. “I say these things while I’m in the world so that they can share completely in my joy.”  Christ spoke to them in the same world there they live and where they will find joy. “They don’t belong to this world, just as I don’t belong to this world.” They can be a community – one filled with joy – but without abandoning the world.

Jesus then goes on to pray more fervently for the disciples, the hangers on, and even those who will come later.  “I’m not asking that you take them out of this world but that you keep them safe from the evil one. They don’t belong to this world.” The believers are to stay in the world under the protective care of God. They are to live amidst all the thorny complexities of the world without themselves getting entangled and impaled.

Any holiness they thought they might find in seclusion will actually be found in the action of God and in immersion in God’s word. “Make them holy in the truth; your word is truth.” God’s truth will be revealed in the crucible of the world, not the serenity of escapism. “As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.” That is the exact opposite of getting out of the world. Yes, the world has already beaten them down in many ways, not the least of which was the public execution of their teacher, master, lord.

Jesus told them, even before it happened, that the answer will not be to run away, but to go back into the world. They will have to pick themselves up, dust themselves off and start all over again. They can’t do that on their own. But they can do it because Jesus has invoked the shield of his and God’s love to protect them. And he will give them his Spirit which will empower them.

We could call that the original solar power – they will be powered by the Son (with an “o” rather than a “u”). The Spirit for whom they are to wait will guide them and sustain them. God’s love will be a force shield deflecting the evil of the world which would separate them from God. That doesn’t mean they won’t be unscathed, or that they won’t die for the faith. It means that they are securely in God’s care for ever.

The shield of God’s love might not be the same thing as a force field around the Starship Enterprise or Dr. Who’s Tardis, but it is a description of the love which God has shown and will continue to show. We who are the friends – not servants or slaves, but friends – of Jesus have the full attention of God’s care, because we are Jesus’ friends. That eternal love is the sure sense of Christ’s presence which will allow us to live vitally and faithfully in the world. We will not be owned the by world. We will not hide from the world. We will engage the world with all its needs – spiritual, physical, emotional – and its wounds and scars. That engagement will be energized by the truth of God’s word, and by the Word made flesh, who came that we might have life and have it abundantly.

The shield of God’s love is the source of our strength. Thanks be to God.

Unless noted otherwise, all scripture references are from The Common English Bible, © 2011 www.commonenglishbible.com. 
Copyright © 2015 First Presbyterian Church of Waverly, Ohio. Reprinted by permission.