In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
Why are we here in Church? What have we come to see? Is it to meet with friends and to have fellowship with them? Or to here a thought-provoking message? Or are you here out of habit? Or obligation? Or to receive positive answers to prayers, a new job or a good grade? Why are you here in Church?
“Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you.” And we must face the reality of the situation—this is about more than fellowship, as important as that is, and more than “food for thought.” This is not just a “nice way to live,” this is about Truth—either it is a lie and we must run away, or it is true and we must embrace it; Christianity cannot be partially true, or true to some people but not for others, there is no middle option.
You and I have come together to offer glory and worship to the living God. And the Lord tells us what he offers in return, “to give eternal Life to all whom the Father has given the Son.” We have been given to Christ—won by Christ, saved through Christ, joined together in Christ—but not as slaves, traded from one master to another, rather as freed human beings, as bearers of the image of God, as persons. And by Christ, through Christ, in Christ, we receive eternal Life.
And this is eternal Life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
Why are we here in Church? What have we come to see? The Church offers to us, to you and to me, eternal Life. This is greater than any gift the world has to offer, knowledge of God. Not knowledge about God, like reading a magazine articles about celebrities and thinking we know them, but true knowledge of God, union with God, which is to be truly alive.
“Holy Father,” says the Lord,
keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me; I have guarded them, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you; and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
Let us, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, be here in Church to hold on to this joy we have received, joy which has come into the world by the Cross, that by carrying our own crosses, participating together in Christ’s death that we may participate together in his Resurrection, and thereby we stand together united—united by faithfulness, united through faithfulness, united in faithfulness—that united, being one even as the Father and the Son are one, we may be united to God and receive eternal Life.
To our crucified and risen Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who has ascended into the Heavens and brought humanity to the Right Hand of the Father, be all glory, honour and dominion, together with his unoriginate Father and the All-holy, Good and Life-creating Spirit. Amen.
In those days, Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, so that he might not have to spend time in Asia; for he was hastening to be at Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost. And from Miletos he sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church. And when they came to him, he said to them: “Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God which he obtained with the blood of his own Son. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears. And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities, and to those who were with me. In all things I have shown you that by so toiling one must help the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, ‘it is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ” And when he had spoken thus, he knelt down and prayed with them all.
— Acts 20:16–18, 28–36
At that time, Jesus lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him power over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work which you gave me to do; and now, Father, you glorify me in your own presence with the glory which I had with you before the world was made. I have manifested your name to the men whom you gave me out of the world; yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you; for I have given them the words which you gave me, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you did send me. I am praying for them; I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are mine; all mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me; I have guarded them, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you; and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
— John 17:1–13