What readings for this Wednesday of the Seventh Week of Easter - Acts 20:28-38 and John 17:11b-19! Words of warning surrounded by words of encouragement. Paul is about to leave the Church at Ephesus and warns them that they will be attacked from without and from within. The attackers will not spare the flock. They will be savage. Jesus, in praying for his followers to the Father in their hearing, reminds them that the world will hate them for the truth that they possess. The Evil One cannot stand the light of that truth.
But Jesus prays the protection of the Father's love upon his followers ... he consecrates them in Truth, and encourages them to hold fast to the relationships that flow from their love for him. Paul prays with the Church in Ephesus and exhorts them to keep watch over the whole flock. He reminds them that while it will not be easy, that it may even cost them their lives, he is commending them to the gracious word of Christ that will build them up and give them a glorious inheritance.
A good friend, Mike, in yesterday's blog pray-lium, spoke of "spiritual stalls", when it seems that everything conspires against the good work that you are trying to do. If I'm on the right side, in the correct camp, doing the Lord's work, why are things sometimes so difficult? Why am I stalled? The answer is in today's readings. We possess a message that is not welcome. We bear a light that cuts through the darkness, a darkness that some love to keep close to their hearts. We have not been promised an easy task ... but we have been promised the glory of God and the security of his love. Jesus prayed that we may be one in the Father and in Jesus and their Spirit.
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