May 24th – Seventh Sunday of Easter
Readings: Psalm 47 and John 17: 1-11
This is a strange Sunday in the Christian calendar. Jesus has ascended but we have a week to go to celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit. The set reading takes us back to Jesus’ teaching the disciples in the Upper Room.
The hour of Jesus’ glorification is the Cross but the Cross – Resurrection- Ascension- Giving of the Spirit. The Ascension is the sign that God has glorified Jesus, in his completion of the work he came to do – which in John is understood as giving eternal life (so John 3:16; 10:10).
Jesus also came to form a new people, those who are his, who confess his name, those who will continue to live in this world, with its problems and dangers. And as in John 10 (the Good Shepherd) we find Jesus looking to keep us safe.
This is a passage in which Jesus is praying to the Father, and we are listening in, as we understand that Jesus is no longer physically with us.
What do you notice from this passage?
