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SERMONS Sean Gilbert Introduction to John 17:20-26 For a start the central metaphor is friendship and directly related to that is one’s own life of spirit and personal responsibility. This is no functional, mechanical, efficacious or ritualistic model of belief. Rather it is highly relational, organic even, mystical to its core, and mystical in the very best sense of the word; that being a union of will, a communion of spirit, a convergence of being: a oneness that results not in mere introspection and withdrawal from the world, but blooms through lives of creativity, originality, fruitfulness, or fecundity, to use an even more bodily term. “I am the vine…” It’s a compelling and hopeful vision, I believe, of the Christian faith experience lived out in community and engaged with the real world. More particularly, it is, in my opinion, in great need of reclaiming (re-living) in a cultural and church environment so dependent upon planned outcomes and sure-fire strategies. For this is a Christianity from below, so to speak, a subversive faith arising through the imagination and openness to Spirit not mediated from on high or orchestrated by so-called leaders, however well intentioned they may be. At its very best, Christianity always throws back the onus of life’s responsibilities to ourselves, and says: “Go, you can live it for you are an embodiment of Christ, no less”. John 17:20-26 I’m sure many of you would recall the DVD clip I showed here recently of the singer songwriter Neil Young; the song “When God made me”, but one highlight among many of that particular concert. The bonus DVD tells the story of how the film was made and of course includes the mandatory interviews with cast members and then with the man himself. Amidst the high praise of his musical peers and the director/producer describing Young as a “genius”, Young says, “You know the older I get, the smaller I feel. When I was younger I felt really big (and grand) but now, as I said to someone the other day, I feel like a tiny leaf floating down a mountain stream.” Now I know little about the man other than his music and that he and his wife of 30 years have brought up a family including 2 sons with severe neurological problems. But this statement about a growing smallness reflects a spiritual and emotional maturity that is, I believe, of the very same sense that John’s Jesus taught and demonstrated. Wherein such a smallness is not about shame or insignificance or inferiority, rather it is a glad recognition of one’s small place within the larger whole; and that in the end, love and unity is but a contributing and not competing place. A love and trust of life’s processes – its givenness – not a contrivance or fear. And lest we think we might then settle for anything or be lazy about outcome, nothing could be further from the truth. The emphasis, though, here being fruitfulness, not a crass life of production. A fruitfulness or richness of being born of relation nurtured by Spirit: a gifting to the world, not simply an exercise of a private self-satisfaction. Well, it has been said that artists like Neil Young are now at the height of their creative powers. I guess in many ways, he has nothing more to prove; but it strikes me that it is far more than that. Ego has given way to authenticity and from that small sacred place love and unity in our wider world always has another chance. Self-respect is mirrored in the deep and enquiring respect of others.
You know just before he went on stage that night, Young turns and says to the camera, “We’ve practised it up as well as we could; it’s now a matter of giving way to the Muse and letting her have her way with us.” In many ways I think that sentiment is a great analogy for a life of faith and the yielding to love that is the vision of Christ for us. Never just a religious vision or a strong religious hope, but the expansion of human life/soul where like the poet we are able to (gladly) say, “I am my brother, I am my sister.” |