Notes on John 15: 18 – 27

After our usual read through we all agreed that the message in this passage was fairly straightforward - there would be persecution for followers of Jesus. This led us to a very interesting discussion on why that should be, and about the tensions involved in living as a Christian in the modern world. Looking back over chapter 15 we thought that, while we were linked to Jesus as branches of the true vine, we could not avoid persecution.

Using the present troubles at St Paul’s Cathedral as an example, we discussed how difficult it is not to conform to the world’s standards, and how Christians can hold diametrically opposed viewpoints on any given situation, which can cause dissention between Christians as well as those who are not Christians. Two prominent members of the clergy at St Paul’s have resigned because they hold opposing viewpoints and feel that they cannot maintain their personal integrity and their position in church hierarchy.

We wondered what our churches would have decided given similar circumstances. Would it be right to allow a protest to take place on church premises which would prevent all the usual groups using our buildings to meet? Where should our priorities be: to our congregants, to our users, or to the protestors? But St Paul’s story is not even as simple as this scenario.

We are all affected by the world around us, whatever we do. We cannot help this; it occurs in all our relationships. We are at best tribal creatures and it is hard for us to be separate. We discussed the identity the ancient Israelites forged as a separate nation. Because God was holy they had to be holy, therefore they had to be separate from the other nations. This separateness still causes problems today in Israel/Palestine. As Christians however, we have to be part of the world to bring to it the love of Christ, but we still need to remain holy!!! We thought of other situations where people remained separate – the Raj in India, Brits in Spain! These are examples where separateness causes more problems, as the separate ones become stereotypes of their national identity with all the unpleasantness this can cause.

Verse 22 caused some difficulty for us as it could be interpreted that Jesus’ incarnation made people sinful. However, Jesus sets a new standard or reinvents the old standards by his incarnation. Jesus is saying that those who know about him and his ministry have to take more responsibility for their actions than those who have never heard of him. This means that our decision-making process has to be the best we can make it.

Verse 26 gives some comfort for all our dilemmas, as the Spirit will help us with all the above difficulties of Christian living. We remembered something our District Chair had said at a Circuit meeting in August. If we pray about a situation and decisions we have to make, but still make a wrong decision, God will take our best endeavours and use them for good despite our deficiencies. We have to live with the tensions caused by making moral and ethical decisions, and sometimes we will make a mess of things. God sent Jesus into a messy world. In his ministry Jesus did not heal everyone, did not feed everyone. Had he tried to do so his teaching would have suffered as a result and the disciples would not have been prepared to carry on the work.

Jesus temptations show us that he faced the same dilemmas we face. Jesus was offered power, power which could be a way of influencing events for good but could also be dangerous. Sometimes we only see the danger after the event. Some years ago when the world sent food to Africa, African farmers could not sell their own produce and went out of business, all as a consequence of our trying to do good!

As God’s people in the world, we are faced everyday by moral and ethical decisions. We have to recognise that things are not black and white, that there are all shades of grey in between. By regular discussion with other Christians we try to hold together different viewpoints and be open to other ways of thinking. This is an important aspect of House groups and other like meetings.