"We Are Not Haters" (John 17)

In seminary, I had the good fortune to take a class on the subject of church unity, which was taught by Paul Crow.  For 25 years, Paul Crow was president of the Council of Christian Unity, an organization within our Disciples of Christ church focused on the work of uniting all Christians.

From day one, Christian unity has been an important part of our movement.  And for many who are dedicated to this cause – like Professor Crow – no passage of scripture is more dear to their heart than the 17^th chapter of John’s gospel.

The entire chapter is taken up by a prayer that Jesus prayed, the longest prayer of Jesus recorded in scripture.  Many people regard the primary focus of this prayer to be Christian unity: several times in the prayer, Jesus prays that his followers may be one, just as he is one with God.

Now, there are other things that Jesus prays for in this prayer.  Jesus prays that his followers’ joy may be complete.  That’s something we probably don’t talk about enough in the church, that Jesus wants his followers to experience joy.  For too many years the church has been too focused on being boring, or working hard to make people feel bad by heaping on them piles and piles of guilt.  Where’s the joy in that?  We need to recapture this joy, and share it with the world.

After all, isn’t there enough in the world already that tries to sap our joy?  You might be perfectly happy one moment only to turn on the TV and hear about some person you don’t know living in some city you’ve never been to who was treated unfairly by some organization you’ve never heard of, and all of a sudden your joy is gone.  You might be perfectly satisfied and content with life, but then a commercial comes on and tells you that, no, your life is incomplete, because you don’t have the right brand of jeans or you haven’t been to the right vacation destination or you don’t have the latest version of the newest technological device to hit the market.  And suddenly, your joy is no longer complete, even though absolutely nothing about your circumstance has changed, except that you listened to a message that the world sent to you.

But has not Jesus given you his word?  Has he not taught you the way to live a life of wholeness?  Has he not given you his very life, so that his joy may be made complete in you?

The world doesn’t want you to find joy and happiness in Jesus.  In fact, the world hates this teaching, this message, that you can find joy and happiness in the way of Jesus.  Why?  Because joy and happiness add little to the economy.  People who are filled with joy and happiness do not increase consumer spending.

People who are insecure, people who doubt their own worth – they are the ones who seek to compensate for their lack of happiness by going out and spending money they don’t have on things they don’t need.

The world hates the way of Jesus, and it hates those who follow this way.  The wealthy hate the word that says, “blessed are the poor.”  Influential corporations with big government contracts hate the word that says, “blessed are the peacemakers.”  Those in positions of power hate the word that says, “blessed are the meek.”  Those who are in the business of sports (because we all know that pro sports is, first and foremost, a business) hate the word that says, “blessed are the merciful.”  Those who try to build up your appetite for things hate the word that says, “blessed are those who hunger and thirst for what is right and just.”

Jesus prays for his followers, that they may be one, that their joy may be complete; he prays that the world may not divide them or take away their joy.  “I have given them your word,” he prays; “I have given them your teachings.  I have shown them the way to live… and the world has hated them for it, because they do not belong to the world.

“So I ask you to protect them. Protect them from evil…

“…Protect them from the evil of living according to what the world says… Protect them from the evil of living according to the way of the world… Protect them from the evil of living by violence, the evil of living by greed, the evil of living by fear…”

Violence does not bring joy.  You think you can get what you want by force, but you can’t.

Greed does not make your joy complete.  You think that getting everything you’ve ever wanted will bring you happiness, but it won’t.

Fear, obviously, does not fill you with joy, even though so many people do live by fear.  You think that focusing on security, protection, and defense will allow you to be happy, but it won’t.

The word we have received calls us to live differently.  The teachings we have heard tell us to live not by violence, greed, or fear, but by peace, generosity, and love; understanding, hospitality, and compassion.

Which means we are called to act and to react in ways that the world does not expect.  The apostle Paul explained this to the people of Corinth.  He told them: “when we’re reviled, we bless.”  If someone calls us names that are degrading and demeaning, we call them holy and beloved.  If someone puts us down, we lift them up.

Paul said: “When we’re persecuted, we endure.”  If someone bullies us, we don’t turn around and bully them back.  If someone takes from us without asking, we offer them more.

Paul said:  “When slandered, we speak kindly.”  If someone goes around saying bad things about us – lies, even – we only speak the truth, and we do so with love.

Jesus once contrasted the way of the world with the way his followers are called to live.  Jesus said:  “You are familiar with the way of this world.  You have heard, many times, this world’s message:  ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.’  But I say to you:  turn the other cheek.  Walk the extra mile.  Give to anyone who takes from you.”

Jesus said:  “You have heard the world’s message: ‘love your neighbor, hate your enemy.’ But I say to you:  love your enemy.  Bless those who persecute you.

Again, the apostle Paul, this time writing to the Galatians:  “You know the way of the world; it’s obvious what kind of life develops when you live according to the way of the world:  repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community; and so on.”

“But if we live according to the way we have been taught, living by the word of God that is within us, then God brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard – things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity.  We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people.  We find ourselves in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely” [Galatians 5:19-23, The Message].

This is Jesus’ prayer: that his joy may be made complete in his followers, through the word of God that he has given them; and that they may be protected from the way of the world which hates the way they have been taught.

And the reason the world hates the way of Jesus is that it is different.  It is often perceived as soft or wimpy, although in truth it is neither, and requires a tremendous amount of strength. 

And many think that it just won’t work.  If you bless those who revile you, if you patiently endure persecution, if you speak kindly when slandered, well, people are going to walk all over you.  That’s the conventional wisdom: the way of Jesus doesn’t work in the real world.

I don’t believe that.

I believe that there are examples all around us that show that the way of Jesus does, in fact, work in the real world.

The example that revealed itself to me last week in an online article I read about Lincoln High School, an alternative high school filled with “rough kids” in Walla Walla, Washington.  It happened that a student there blew up at a teacher; just started yelling and cussing, at the teacher.  The article pointed out that “the usual approach at Lincoln High school – and, safe to say, at most high schools in the country – is automatic suspension.”

Instead, principal Jim Sporleder tried a new approach.  Instead of responding to anger with anger, instead of responding to yelling with yelling, instead of giving back to the student what the student dished out to the teacher – Sporleder sat the student down and said quietly:

“Wow.  Are you OK?  That doesn’t sound like you.  What’s going on?  You look really stressed.  On a scale of 1-10, where are you with your anger?”

The student – the article said – “was NOT ready for kindness.  The armor-plated defenses melted like ice under a blowtorch and the words poured out: ‘My dad’s an alcoholic.  He’s promised me things my whole life and never keeps those promises.’”  After several minutes of spilling his guts out, the student ends with this sentence:  “I shouldn’t have blown up at the teacher.”

And then, without being told to, he goes back to the teacher and apologizes.

The student still got a consequence, but instead of being sent home to a place where there wasn’t anyone who cared much about him, he was sent to “in-school suspension,” a quiet, comforting room where he could talk about anything with the attending teacher, do homework, or just sit and think about how he could do things differently next time.

This is the new approach at Lincoln High.  Does it work? Yearly suspensions have dropped from 798 to 135; explusions are down from 50 to 30; the number of written referrals has dropped from 600 to 320.

Sporleder is a person of faith.  He said it was his faith that called him to Lincoln High School.  Perhaps it was also his faith that helped him completely change the way he administered a school, and re-learn everything he knew after 25 years as an educator. 

A lot of people wouldn’t have been able to handle the shift; having lived in one world all their lives, it’s too hard for them to start living in a new, alternative world.

In his prayer, Jesus said he has given us God’s word, and the world has hated us for it.  But we are not haters.  We are followers of Jesus.