"IN" BUT NOT "OF" THE WORLD
TEXT: John 17:13ff

We return this week to the questions and issues you have asked to hear sermons about, and this week takes us to the Gospel of John. I've said before that John is not an easy book. John's writing is deep and philosophical and is written on many levels. In the Gospels, it is most often in John that we find ourselves stopping and saying, "Now just what did he mean by that?"

That is the question that comes to us today courtesy of John 17. Jesus is about to face his arrest, trial, and death, and is in the Garden of Gethsemane praying for the disciples. When we look at Jesus' prayer, here, we find ourselves swimming in prepositions. What exactly does Jesus mean by making the distinction between being in the world and being of the world?

I tried this week to come up with an example of that distinction, and the best I could come up with was what it was like for me to live in Florida. For 12 years I lived IN Florida, but in all that time, I never was OF Florida...that is, I didn't have Florida running in my blood like the natives do. I was IN Florida. I lived by the laws of that state; I bought a home there, did my shopping there, worked there, made dear friends there. When the weather was hot, I got hot right along with it, and if hurricanes threatened, I had to board up like anybody else. I fully lived in the state of Florida.

But in very important ways, I was not OF Florida. I was a Yankee from New England. My soul still cried out for snow and for mountains, for lilacs and stone walls. I still tended to be very direct about my business and would forget that in the South you need to start with some pleasantries first. I lived in Florida for quite a long time, but something in me always knew that Florida was not home, and every now and again my actions, accent, or attitude would give me away as the Yankee I was in my heart.

I think that is something like the way that Jesus lived among us and is how we are to live as followers of Jesus in the world. We live here. We obey the laws here; we work here; what happens here affects us deeply and we come to love the people around us. We are IN the world. We are not hermits that refuse to have anything to do with the society we're in. We are part of the educational systems, the political systems, the religious systems. We participate...we are IN the world.

But in very important ways, we are not OF the world. When we have turned over our lives to the Kingdom of God, this world is not home. We are not OF the world...we are OF the Kingdom...we feel it deep in our bones...we long for our true home, and if someone is watching us, our actions, attitudes, and accents will show where we are truly from.

This was certainly true of Jesus. Jesus lived in Palestine. He wore the clothes of his day, he went to weddings and dined in people's homes. He participated in the festivals and paid his taxes. Yet no one mistook him for an ordinary Jew of his day. The things he said and did betrayed his heritage from another country...the Kingdom of God. His allegiance was pledged first to God...even before it was pledged to his religion. Jesus was at least challenging if not violating Jewish law at seemingly every turn. He lived among them, but they didn't know who he was. He came into the world, but the world knew him not, says John. He was in the world, but he was not of the world, and it didn't always go over well.

The people of Jesus day desperately wanted him to be OF the world. In particular, they were fed up with the Roman occupation of their country and they wanted a military hero to rise up and knock Herod on the head. They wanted a liberator, as Judas Maccabeeus had done some 60 years prior, and when Jesus refused violence, claiming his Kingdom was not of this world, the violence was visited on him instead. If you refuse to be OF the world, the world will neither trust you nor like you much, and as you're being crucified, you may well find that all your friends are in hiding. At least that is what we should expect if we take up our cross to follow Jesus.

To be in the world but not of the world means that this world is the arena where we live our lives, but that God's Kingdom is the place where we find our identity, purpose, and direction. Those who are OF the world, find their identity, purpose, and direction here.. They are fully participating in the rat race...get more stuff, climb the ladder, and look out for #1...be it on an individual or a national scale. In the Kingdom of God, the values are very different. The first shall be last, you have to die in order to live, if you want to lead you have to serve. Those are not platitudes...those are the rules, and they are diametrically opposed to the rules of this world.

Live like Jesus teaches and you will make enemies, because you will threaten the systems of the world. Preach the economic system of the Kingdom of God specifically enough and successfully enough, and the assassin's bullet will find you. Preach peace in any concrete form and the charge of treason will knock on your door...the stories are as old as the faith. Jesus is our model, not only for how we should behave, but for what we should expect as a response to that behavior.

The earliest Christians knew that. They knew that what was expected of them was very different than the types of behavior the world valued. Early Christians refused to work in certain professions because they believed they were unjust and not the types of things Christians ought to be doing. They suffered financial ruin and even death rather than live by the values of the world. Well, then, how did they survive? If the world is going to get so mad at the Christian lifestyle that they will actually try to kill those who truly practice it...what's the point? It doesn't have a chance!

Well, yes and no. From the outside it does look bleak, but there are two distinct advantages that we have at our disposal. The first and most important is the help of God. There is one basic doctrine that, as far as I am aware, is common to all Christian churches everywhere...and that is the belief that it is God who preserves the Church. Insofar as the Church is truly living out its mission, God adds all of God's strength and power to that mission and it succeeds where only human effort would fail. Ultimately, God preserves the Church.

And the second advantage is hidden in that first statement...we have the Church. While I will grant you that with God nothing is impossible; I would say it is darn close to impossible to live out a Christian lifestyle in this world all by yourself. We need a community of people with us, who are trying to do the same thing. It's the old "United we stand, divided we fall" adage, and this is one piece that I think the Amish illustrate very well.

For one person to live the way they do would be very difficult. If there was only one person who insisted on using a horse and buggy rather than a car, that person would have an extremely difficult time on the highway and would probably be banned from a lot of roads. But when a whole community of people decided together that using a horse and buggy instead of a car was critical to who they were, then laws were changed to accommodate them, and a system was worked out so that they could use the roads peacefully. The power of a united community is far greater than the power of an individual. The Amish draw on their community of faith to help all of them live what they believe.

On the flip side, we see what has happened to us when we decided that keeping Sabbath was an individual affair. It's fine in theory...everybody just finds a day that works for them as a Sabbath and they use that as a day of rest. Sounds good...until you try to actually do it. It is next to impossible for an individual to take an individual Sabbath. Suppose you and I are business partners, but I need to take a different day as a Sabbath. Well, now I need to do business with you on your day off and you need to call on me when I am trying to rest. Maybe your work situation is such that you have Thursdays off...but then you agreed to teach a Disciple class at church on Thursdays and end up working just as hard at something else.

We look back on the Blue Laws of the Sabbath as puritanical and unfair and restraining our liberties. And maybe they were. But as long as they were in place...as long as a large group was in agreement that Sunday was a day of rest, most people did actually get a day of rest in a week. Except for emergency workers and those of us in religious professions, we had a common Sabbath...and because it was common, many more people got to have one. Are we better off now that we are free to work whenever we want?

I hear a lot of people say today that they have no need for organized religion...that they are "spiritual" but they have no need for Church. Well I agree that the experience many people have had of Church and of organized religion we would all be better off without. But I am here to tell you that when the Church is being true to its calling, it is the glue that we need to hold together our spiritual lives.

Church is supposed to be the place where we can pull together and find other people who are struggling to live Christian lives. This is the place where we comfort each other when we are being persecuted or suffering, but this is also the place where we can hold each other accountable...where we can push each other to really examine our lives and our faith...where we can come together as a force for change in our communities and our world.

There are times when we are very strong...and it is easy in those moments to think we can go it alone. But Jesus demands that we think not only of ourselves but of others. There are weaker ones who need our strength. If we will not be part of the group, of the Church, we have...in essence...taken our God-given marbles and gone home, refusing to allow others to benefit from our gifts.

And however strong we may be, all of us will come into the desert times sooner or later. And in those times, we will be the ones needing the gifts and strengths of others. When we are down and depressed, it's hard to muster the energy to gather a support group around us. If we have agreed to be part of a Church community, however, the work is already done, the group is already gathered. We need only to call upon it...to be sure our need is known.

To live in this world with a set of values that belong to another world is what it means to be in the world but not of the world...and it is both a hard and a dangerous life, if it is lived truly. But if we are willing to gather together in the Christian community we have come to call the Church, that life becomes not only easier but joyful. We do not have to be alone in our struggles. We can find like-minded people who will rejoice in our victories, however small, and who will help us overcome our sins, however large. And, wonder of wonders, as we gather together...united toward the common task of Christian discipleship...we find that God is in our midst...giving us strength, courage, a joy unspeakable and full of glory. We find that we have life, and we have it abundantly, when we share our faith and our lives with others; and although we live here in this world, it is another world and another country that we call home.

Amen.

© 2002, Anne Robertson

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