May 16, 2010 Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17 John 17:20-26 “Different from

the World”
Dr. Ted H. Sandberg

The Hindu story is told of a certain holy man who lived in isolation on a
mountain for forty years. He meditated, fasted, and detached his soul from
every vice. Finally, he was persuaded to come down from the mountain to
teach his way of salvation to the people. When the Lord Krishna heard this, he
transformed himself into a hulking brute and waited at the city gate. When the
holy man passed through the gate, this hulking brute bumped and jostled him.
The holy man raised his walking stick in anger. The brute cringed and spoke, “It
is easy to be a holy man on the mountain.”
As part of my D.Min studies, I took a class with Dr. William Clemmons of NBTS
on Spiritual formation. In the class we studied about the classical monastic
tradition. We heard of the early church fathers and mothers who went off into
the desert to be alone with God. We studied some of the monastic orders
where men and women have isolated themselves away from the world in
silence so that they can better understand their inner selves. We even went off
to a Presbyterian Camp outside of Kansas City for a mini spiritual retreat of our
own.
As I walked the stations of the cross through the wooded hills of the camp, I
confess there was a part of me that could understand why some individuals
choose a monastic life style. Especially because I’m an introvert, the quiet, the
solitude, the silence, is special for me. I rediscovered in the class, how
important it is for me to be refreshed through solitude with God, whether it’s on
a retreat, in a class experience or in some other kind of experience that allows
me to withdraw from the world. I need those kinds of experiences in my life,
and I suspect you may as well.
We need the experiences of renewal or revitalization, because the world can be,
and usually is, a very draining, very wearing place. [Before we look further at
this idea, let’s be sure we all understand what John’s Gospel means by talking
about the world. John does not mean God’s creation. The world is not
creation, because creation is good. Over and over again in Genesis 1, God says
that what God has created is good. God created the earth and the sea, and
“God saw that it was good.” God created the vegetation, and the earth brought
forth vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind, and trees bearing fruit and
“God saw that it was good.” God created the stars and the sun and the moon
and “God saw that it was good.” God created the fish of the sea and the birds
of the air, and the great sea monsters and every living thing that moves, and
“God saw that it was good.” Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our
image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of
the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild

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animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the
earth.” So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he
created them; male and female he created them.” “God saw everything that he
had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was
morning, the sixth day.” God’s created order is good. When creation is not
good, it’s because it’s been infected by the sin that we humans have brought
into creation. So remember, when we talk this morning about the world, we’re
not talking about God’s creation, because God’s creation is good.]
What John means when he talks about the world is basically human society.
The world is sinful humanity. The world is that which has been corrupted by the
forces of darkness, the forces of the Evil One, the forces of Satan. The world is
represented by a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon I saw once in the Kansas City Star.
Calvin and Hobbes are walking together and young Calvin says to his stuffed
tiger pal, Hobbes, “Getting is better than having. When you get something, it’s
new and exciting. When you have something, you take it for granted and it’s
boring.” The tiger responds, “But everything you get turns into something you
have.” Calvin says, “That’s why you always need to get new things.” Hobbes
responds, “I feel like I’m in some stockholders dream.” As the two walk away,
Calvin concludes, “Waste and want. That’s my motto.”1
That’s the world’s motto as well. Sin, in many ways, can be defined as waste
and want, in other words, greed. We live in a throw away world. We use it and
throw it, from razors to cans and bottles, from VCR’s and television sets to
husbands and wives. We want it, but once we’ve gotten it, the want is gone,
the allure wears off, and we throw it out, especially when we find that what
we’ve wanted takes work and energy and sacrifice on our part to make it work
right.
This is the world from which we as Christians would like to escape, a world of
which we’re no longer a part. Jesus says in verse 16 of this chapter, “They do
not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.” There is a strong
temptation to take these words from Jesus and use them as an excuse to avoid
becoming involved in today’s sinful world any more than we must. It would be
nice to withdraw into our own Christian existence, as Christians often have
sought to do throughout the history of Christianity. Many Christians have not
run for government office, or paid much attention to politics, or been very
concerned with the world around them because they’ve lived by the words of
the song, “This world is not my home, I’m just a passing through.” If the world’s
not our home, because the world is evil, sinful, if I know I’m just passing through
the world on my way to my heavenly place, then I’m not going to pay much
attention to what’s going on. I can, in clear conscience, withdraw and seek only
to worship God.

1 1. Watterson, Bill, “Calvin and Hobbes,” May 27, 1995, from Kansas City Star.

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Unfortunately, while Jesus says we as God’s followers don’t belong to the world,
he doesn’t say that we can withdraw from the world as the hermit, or others
have done down through the years. Jesus says in verse 23 in this prayer for His
disciples in the upper room, “I in them and you in me, that they may become
completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have
loved them even as you have loved me.” As followers of Jesus Christ, we’re
called to tell the world about the love of Christ Jesus. As followers of Jesus
Christ, we’re called to witness to the world what it means to be loved by God.
As followers of Jesus Christ, we’re called to introduce the world to God, our
heavenly Father, to make God’s name known to sinful humanity.
As God’s people, we do this here at First Baptist, though maybe not as much as
we could. We’re letting the world know what it means to be filled with God’s
love. Many of us are involved ministering in Chico. From volunteering all over
the city with many different organizations, to being here in worship, we
proclaim that we’re followers of Jesus Christ. We proclaim, even as we give
thanks to God, that we’re not of the world, but rather are of God.
I do believe, however, we could be more vocal in letting the world know why
we’re here this morning. We could perhaps do a little more sharing with those
around us about what it means to follow Jesus. Maybe we could invite a few
more people to find out about what we know in our own lives – that Jesus Christ
brings love and forgiveness into our hearts and makes us one with God. But
much of the time we do a good job of sharing with the sinful world what it
means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. We can celebrate our ministries, even as
we strive to share the love of God in new and different ways with friends and
neighbors and even strangers.
There is a danger in doing this though, and that is that the world will wear us
down. There’s a danger that in doing battle with the world day in and day out,
that in facing the power of darkness both within our own hearts and within the
hearts of the people we daily contact, there’s a danger that we’ll burnout, wear
out, or become worn-down.
We’ve all seen this happen from time to time in the church. Maybe we’ve even
experienced it ourselves. The excitement of serving Jesus Christ is missing.
The joy in proclaiming the good news isn’t what it used to be. The energy
necessary to prepare the SS lesson, or the sermon, or the devotion for ABWM,
or the energy to go another committee meeting, or take on another project, or
even to worship just isn’t there. It’s not that we don’t believe. It’s not that our
faith has diminished, although that happens sometimes as well. It’s just that
doing battle with the world has worn us down. We get too wrapped up in other
things, things for ourselves, and our service to God suffers.
This is where our monastic brothers and sisters can be of great value to us
Baptists. We Baptists tend to focus on the doing. We share the Good News.

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We proclaim the Gospel. We want to feed the hungry. We want to do. But in
order to do, we also must “be.” We must “be” with God. The Psalmist wrote,
“Be still and know, that I am God. Though the mountains shake and tumble to
the sea,” God will remain God. Sometimes we become so busy in our lives, so
busy with the doing, that we fail to stop to be still and know God in prayer. As
Elijah found, God is often in the still, small voice and too often we’re hurrying
here and there, worrying about this and that, fixing and doing and rushing
about so much that we can’t hear God’s voice in our hearts. To keep from
being worn-down by the world, it’s so very important that we spend time just
being with God in prayer.
Jesus’ prayer with his disciples concludes, “I made your name known to them,
and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be
in them, and I in them.” Unless we draw close to God in prayer, it’s easy to
miss God’s love for us in our lives. Unless we are silent with God, it’s easy to
fail to experience God in us, and God’s Spirit in us, sustaining us through the
dark night of our souls.
The world is a difficult place in which to live. We’ve all probably been tempted
to move as far from the world as we can get, to move to the mountains of
Wyoming, the deserts of Arizona, even the quiet of a backyard, or sitting room.
But God has called us to be in the world, and has promised that the Holy Spirit
will be with us as we face the world. To fight the world, however, you and I
need to continually find our strength in the Lord. May it be our prayer to be
with God, even as we seek to do. Amen.