John 17:1-11

Easter 7 - Year A

John 17:1-11

A long operatic or western death scene can go on interminably. There is just that one last word or recapitulation that needs to be gone over. The past and present is never seemingly enough, there needs to be an Aesop’s moral added in.

If Jesus is going to “ask” for us, why must we ask, seek, or knock?

If we cut to the chase we might hear, “Protect them”.

If you were to trust that you are protected/assured, what might you be bold enough to try that so far you have been able to avoid? What trouble would you risk in and for life?

This begins to push at us as it has been weeks since Easter and the images are beginning to fade. Where we had initially begun to catch a picture of Jesus protected from death’s finality, we are feeling our own frailty again.

Instead of putting on armor as protection, how about the invisible cloak of glory within and all about that pulls and pushes us toward a better future. Might “glory” tie us back to the energy of an empty tomb and energize us toward a freedom to engage others “as we are” - one.

Imagine an invisible glory that, instead of allowing us to skulk among others, would better reveal ourself? Danger Will Robinson, you are closing down again, rolling a rock over emptiness rather than reveling in it, remember your cloak that isn't.