Time Has No Distance

 

 

Time Has No Distance

 

John 17:20-23

20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

 

One of the most powerful prayers of Jesus is found in John 17. Right before he gets arrested, he looks up to the heavens and says Father; the hour has come. It’s about to happen, he is about to give his life to death for the world. Yet he says, I am not praying for the world, I pray for those you have given me, my followers, my disciples. He says, I pray that they will be one, just as you and I are one.

 

It’s quite perplexing to see why he prays for this when we stare in the eyes of our present time. How can such an ancient prayer transcend time and still be considered a powerful prayer that is needed for the 21^st century? And if it is quite evident that Jesus desired more than anything else to see his body in perfect unity as the Father is one with him, then what divides us? I mean, our society is divided by many things, age, race, time, socioeconomic status, but what divides us? Those whom belong to him. What is it that keeps us classified? Have we even taken the time to reflect on his prayer in John 17? Or have we superficially read it without doing an internal inventory of our being. When you read about the primitive church you can see through the words of the scripture this beautiful koinonia (communion) yet through time we see a continuous dispersion. 

 

The primitive church still had a close glimpse of Jesus and can still hear the echo of his voice from a distance that was only a century. What is it in time that has caused us to grow further apart from each other? Could it be the length of the distance in time? The early church was in such communion that it took persecution to make them spread out from each other. Maybe we eager so much for that same experience of communion and passion that our frustration has turned into desperation making us embrace anything that can help us feel what the early church felt. The early church created amazing moments through the Holy Spirit but continued their original purpose. We so desperately want those moments that when they do come we embrace the moments more than our purpose. This has caused us to make mo-vements out of mo-ments. We continue to break apart from each other instead of breaking bread together. In the Celtic world time is viewed in circular motion as opposed to us in America who view it as a linear timeline. To the Celts the past, present and future will always co-exist with one another because time will always run in a circular pattern. To us the past grows further away from the present and future creating disconnection through the length of distance. Jesus left us a remarkable moment for us to not only remember but also continue to practice so that we may co-exist with him and the Church and that is the Eucharist. Some of us call it The Lord’s Supper, Holy Communion, and even the Holy Supper but however you refer it to please remember, you are in fact consuming His body and His blood, that is the only remarkable moment that allows us to have communion with one another regardless of our differences. Let’s break bread together instead of breaking apart from each other!

 

Prayer:

Lord Jesus Christ, at your Last Supper you prayed to the Father that all should be one. Send your Holy Spirit upon all who bear your name and seek to serve you. Strengthen our faith in you, and lead us to love one another in humility. May we who have been reborn in one baptism be united in one faith under one Shepherd. Amen.

 

Rev. David Nunez +