Dear congregation,

my great aunt Grete tries to put things in order. She is old, very old. She will be 98 this year. She knows that she will go soon. And she is ready. When I saw her last time - a good year before I left for Houston - , she asked me to have a word with her. It was her birthday, there were many guests. I followed her into another room where we were alone.

She sat down and told me to sit very close to her. I felt strange because the situation was totally unexpected. I had known my great aunt Grete as a lady who would never do anything out of place. She would never have done anything like this: to leave her guests for a private conversation with one. We sat there, she on her knitting chair, I on an old wooden kitchen chair to her side. She was so small in this big armchair. I felt so huge, as if I was throning - towering - over her. But who was really throning?

Then she started. Since I am the pastor in the family she asked me to be ready to do her funeral. She told me exactly how she wanted it. It should contain Psalm 23, because this was her most important bible text for her whole 97 years of life. She had prayed it during the last decades - every day. And she wanted that we sing this one, very famous German hymn ‘Großer Gott, wir loben dich’. Finally she wished that the service would not be so sad. Even though she had had a tough life it was a good life, she said. And she was happy to go home soon.

I listened to her, amazed. I was very impressed. This was my own great aunt who had known me since I was born. As a child I was always afraid of her, because in her presence I had to behave. Especially when we had lunch or dinner I hat to sit straight, not putting my elbows on the table. She was an upright, strict lady. Now this great aunt turned to me with this wish. She put her things in order. As I heard later, she had asked many of our family members to private conversations at other opportunities. Because she needed to sort things out. My part, of course, is being her pastor when she passes away.

Today’s gospel text is part of a speech of Jesus. The text is hard to understand - as at least I thought -, because the section I just read does not contain the beginning. The text starts right in the middle. Listen to Verse one: “After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, ‘Father, the hour has come...’” - It is a prayer. The whole chapter 17 of the Gospel of John is called the ‘High Priestly Prayer’. Jesus speaks to God.

The situation, in which Jesus prays, is the last supper. Jesus and his disciples sit together for their last meal. Directly after Jesus finishes talking, they all go into the garden, where Judas betrays him. The passion starts. Before this, Jesus has to sort his things out. Part of that is the prayer.

I had to think of my great aunt Grete, because Jesus puts things in order. Of course I know that it is hard to compare Jesus to any human being - including my great aunt. But it is a sorting out. The picture came up.

It is unusual for Jesus that here he does not speak to his disciples. We find so many words of him addressing the people around him. Here he speaks to God. Yet, the disciples are present. They hear his words. But they are not addressed. As readers, we are in the same situation. We hear his words. But we are not addressed.

We hear that Jesus fulfills his mission which he had so far. He says: “I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world.” So he says what he has done. It reminds me of the returning of an assignment. Look, I have done what I was to do. ‘Those’ are the people. He does not speak only of his disciples, he speaks of all he was sent to. This is the theme of the text. He has done what he came to do.

Dear congregation, let’s come to us. What does it have to do with us? I see three things. The first is that we learn about the close relationship between the Son and the Father. All the words express this huge closeness. A closeness we do not have to God. Not yet. But this text shows about the future. When we see from face to face, as Paul says in 1st Corinthians, not in a mirror, dimly, like in this life. This text looks at the relationship we will have, once the end of time has come. There will be more closeness to God. Not the one between the Father and the Son. But God will be less far. It is promised to us. By these words of Jesus.

The second thing is that we hear that we are in God’s hand. Jesus says: “All mine are yours, and yours are mine... And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you.” The people were his. But he will be leaving soon, and now he puts them in God’s hand. This is very important: He speaks to God, not to his listeners. But they are witnesses to it. He gives God responsibility for them. He does not what could be more expected: Tell them what to do. I know speeches of people who, for example, retire. At last they tell their staff what to do next. They give them good advise on the way. Jesus doesn’t do this. He lets them hear - as present ones, not as addressees - whose they are from now on.

As he lets them listen, they learn that God is the focus. They - we - can trust that God is in charge. This opens up ethics. What is the criterion of our acting? This offers us that God be this criterion. For all that we do. I do not mean this in an evangelical sense. When I say this I mean that we are of course responsible men and women who live their lives in this world - fully. What I want to say is that we have God as a factor for our decisions. In daily life situations and special moments and life changing decisions.

Finally, the third thing is that Jesus can let go. He can let go of the responsibility of his disciples. He returns all this to him who gave him the assignment. He can let go of everything as he knows that his life is soon over. He does not grieve nor fear what is coming. He puts his things in order.

Like my great aunt Grete. Who knows about her end of life, that will come soon. And who puts her things in order, one step from time to time. I know that she takes much of the power for this from her faith. God is a criterion for her doing. I know that she is expecting to be in close relationship to her creator. She said so. And she is ready to let go. I am happy for her. If only more of us could live to be ready to go after a fulfilled life. In peace.

Amen. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Copyright 2006, The Rev. Peter Stockmann