Seventh Sunday of Easter

Jesus’ high priestly prayer

 

17 After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:

“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4 I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

Jesus Prays for His Disciples

6 “I have revealed you[a] to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11 I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of[b] your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by[c] that name you gave me. None has been lostexcept the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.

13 “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by[d] the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

Jesus Prays for All Believers

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.

24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

25 “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26 I have made you[e] known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

John 17:1-26

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The High Priestly Prayer

BURNAND, Eugene

1900

Stuttgart

Germany

Wikimedia Commons

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eugene_Burnand_-_Das_hohepriesterliche_Gebet.jpg

 

 

Burnand started work on The High Priest’s Prayer when he stayed in Florence in 1900. He subsequently changed the head of Christ several times before its completion in 1918. In 1903, he moved back to Switzerland, where he lived in the country near to Neuchatêl and worked on a series of paintings to illustrate thirty-two parables of Jesus Christ, which was published in several editions in three languages between 1908-48, and his work is still being reproduced from then.

https://eclecticlight.co/2021/02/04/in-memoriam-eugene-burnand-alpine-meadows/

 

 

 

 

 

 

Things which matter most must never 

be at the mercy of things which matter least.

~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

 

 

 

 

 Prayer is less about changing the world 

than it is about changing ourselves.

~ David J. Wolf

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Shari Gulbrandsen, our church website guru, gave us an inservice 

on how to use the new online directory.

 

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Donna, Jan, Jodie

 

 

Resilience 1220

(For people aged 12-20)

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Heather Aberg (one of Ted Ning’s daughters) started this amazing program five years ago and it has continued to blossom in our mountain communities.

 

Resilience1220 provides free counseling services to youth ages 12-20 in the mountain communities west of Denver. Through counseling, support groups, and community outreach, we work to raise awareness of the social, emotional, and mental health issues young adults face, and to provide the necessary life skills to create wellness and resiliency in their lives.

https://www.resilience1220.org/

 

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Tyler Guyton spoke to us about what he and other Evergreen High School students are doing to make students aware of the many kinds of help Resilience 1220 offers.  Suicide, LGBT+ and many other needs can be addressed.

 

They also showed an OUTSTANDING film made here in Evergreen of and by the people left behind following suicide.  Heather is going to send it to me if anyone would like to see it.

Just let me know.

 

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A group of us from Church of the Hills attended.

 

 

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Junna and Eugene Yoshioka with their new baby girl in Tokyo.

 

Also in Tokyo ...

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Robin Alexander Sakamoto's four grandsons.

Where is big sister Tina?

 

In Tuscaloosa, Alabama

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John and Mary Alexander with their two graduates:

Jack III - graduated from the University of Alabama

 William - graduated from Gonzaga College High School in D.C. 

- will be attending Duke University

 

 

 

 

Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise.

Seek what they sought.

~ Matsuo Basho

 

 

 

 

May 12, 2024  Seventh Sunday of Easter Year B

Previous OPQs may be found at: 

Agnus Day, by James Wetzstein

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Agnus Day appears with the permission of www.agnusday.org

 

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LECTIONARY

Acts 1:15–17, 21–26 

Psalm 1 

1 John 5:9–13 

John 17:6–19

 

Summary

On the Sunday after the Feast of the Ascension the table is set for Pentecost. Jesus’ high priestly prayer is appropriately placed here. The prayer is a hinge between Christ’s ascension and the Spirit’s falling at Pentecost. The prayer speaks to the fruitful tension in which believers live their lives.

“They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” (v. 16). A state of constant transition between earth and heaven characterizes the church’s identity and mission. All that she has is from God, her unity is accomplished by the same love that binds the Father and Son together (this is supplied by the Spirit). The feet of the faithful are on the ground, but their eyes and hearts are turned to heaven.

https://www.preachingtoday.com/lectionary/



THE WORD:

In John’s account of the Last Supper, after his final teachings to his disciples before his passion, Jesus addresses his Father in heaven.  Today’s Gospel is from Chapter 17 of John’s Gospel, the “high priestly prayer” of Jesus in which he prays for his disciples, that they may be united in love, persevere despite the world’s “hatred” of them for the Word that they will proclaim, and be “consecrated” in the “truth.”

The empty tomb of Easter speaks to the simple yet profound truth of God's great love for us.  Christ calls us, his Church, to speak the joy of that truth to a world hungry to hear it.

https://connectionsmediaworks.com/sundaygospel.html#may12b



 

First Reading Acts 1:15-17, 21-26



15In those days Peter stood up among the believers (together the crowd numbered about one hundred twenty persons) and said, 16“Friends, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit through David foretold concerning Judas, who became a guide for those who arrested Jesus — 17for he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.”

21So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 22beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us — one of these must become a witness with us to his resurrection.” 23So they proposed two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus, and Matthias. 24Then they prayed and said, “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which one of these two you have chosen 25to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.” 26And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias; and he was added to the eleven apostles.

Psalm 1:1-6

1   Happy are those 
          who do not follow the advice of the wicked, 
     or take the path that sinners tread, 
          or sit in the seat of scoffers; 

2   but their delight is in the law of the LORD, 
          and on his law they meditate day and night. 
3   They are like trees 
          planted by streams of water, 
     which yield their fruit in its season, 
          and their leaves do not wither. 
     In all that they do, they prosper.

4   The wicked are not so, 
          but are like chaff that the wind drives away. 
5   Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, 
          nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; 
6   for the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, 
          but the way of the wicked will perish.

Second Reading 1 John 5:9-13

9If we receive human testimony, the testimony of God is greater; for this is the testimony of God that he has testified to his Son. 10Those who believe in the Son of God have the testimony in their hearts. Those who do not believe in God have made him a liar by not believing in the testimony that God has given concerning his Son. 11And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

13I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.

Gospel John 17:6-19

6“I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; 8for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. 9I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. 10All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. 11And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. 12While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. 13But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. 15I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. 16They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. 17Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.”