Tuesday 18 May

Today is  Tuesday the 18 May, in the seventh week of Easter.  

One Hope Project sings, ‘Good work in me’.  

Today’s reading is from the Gospel of John.

John 17:1-10  

After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.  And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.  I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do.   So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.  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.  Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for 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.  I 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.  All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them.”   

Jesus says he has glorified his Father by finishing the work God gave him to do.   What do I see as the work God has given me to do?  

Jesus’ work included training his apostles.  Do I see my life’s work as part of a bigger scene?   Who do I help, in the bigger scene?   Who are the ones that help me?  

Listen again to the reading.   This was at the Last Supper, when to our way of thinking Jesus’s work was in a mess, by no means “finished”.  Yet he says it glorifies his Father.   What did Jesus see as "success"?  

Have a word with Jesus about your own life’s work.   Today, perhaps, you are in the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing.   But next year may offer other things you might be doing.   Ask Jesus, is he content that you carry on as you are?   He may be.  Or is there a better alternative, something deep down you yearn to do?   Ask Jesus, is that a red herring or a good dream?  

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.