bridges, underpasses and the Glory of a Father's love reflected .......

When I left Newcastle in 1987 I moved to Birmingham.

As I thought at the time from a City of bridges to a City of underpasses.

Whenever I drove back to Birmingham I had to drive through the Queensway tunnel from North to South.

In those days I drove an Alfa Giulietta and I always opened the window to hear the music of the exhaust echoing on 'the subway walls'.

Later, following a change of job I had to move into a new office, I had a basement parking space and so on my first morning I parked and went to the basement lift, my office was on the top floor, as the lift doors opened I stood back in amazement and shock to see my father staring back at me.

The lift had floor to ceiling mirrors on three sides and of course what I was seeing was my own reflection.

This image of seeing your father in your own reflection is exactly what Jesus is telling his disciples in todays Gospel.

'4 I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. 5 So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed'. 

In the Gospel Jesus is sharing with his disciples the truth of his own death.

That he is going to the Father. if they have seen him Jesus then they have seen the Father, for the two are one.

Just as it is possible to be confronted by an image of your own father in a reflection in a mirror so the disciples having seen Jesus have also seen the Father.

Throughout the story, as we read it some 2000 years later, caught as we are in the midst of a pandemic, we can see how Jesus is offering His disciples a measure of comfort.

He is dying but as His earthly body is raised to the shameful fate of His Crucifixion he will return in Glory finally vindicated by the God He has glorified in His life and in His death.

In the Gospel we are forced to wrestle with what it means to live in a conflicted world.

There is a process here which is reflected in the overarching story of the Bible as we saw in the Bar and Bible session. 

The world is the creation of God and the object of God's love and work, but it is also hostile, rejecting God's love, as we can see and feel right now, our abuse of the world has been remedied simply by parking cars and aeroplanes.

The sky is lighter, the panorama is sharper and clearer, the air is more breathable. We have yet to remedy the injustices, the treatment of the poor, the rejection of jubilee, but as we are recognising, the 'new normal' must avoid simply returning to the old ways, here we have and opportunity to change for the better, in our christian vocabulary, to honour the world as created and ordered by God out of his love for his creation and so that we, may join in the love Jesus shares with His Father.

In the gospel for today we are called to a sympathetic, solidarity with the disciples whose successors in the Gospel story we are.

As Jesus prays:

11 And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.  

After the empty Tomb and the resurrection appearances, after witnessing Jesus' ascension, the disciples return to Jerusalem, it seems that they simply did not know how to continue Jesus' mission after His death and departure.

Liturgically we follow this pattern as we walk through the church year, next week, we will hear of the strengthening and renewal that comes as the Spirit is gifted at Pentecost and the weak and dispirited disciples begin to preach the Gospel that they have received.

Again there is a parallel in these strange times. 

We look for Jesus presence in this world of pandemic and viral infection, our situation might seem hopeless but the hope, our hope, comes in the second half of our final verse:

“I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world” (John 17:11).

Like my opening story about recognising my father in my own reflection, in the film The Lion King. Rafiki tells the adult Simba, who is grieving the death of his father, Mufasa, that he knows where his father is. He takes Simba to a pool of water, and tells him to look down. Simba complains, “That’s not my father, that’s just my reflection.”

“No, look harder,” Rafiki says. As he looks, Simba begins to recognize his father in his own reflection.

“You see?” Rafiki hums, “He lives in you.”

For anyone of us who have lost someone they love the aimless, directionless dismay of the disciples is easily recognisable, but we, along with those we have lost remain connected to God.

As God lived in them so he lives in us and so for them and for ourselves we are called to live out God's love for the world and it is that oneness with God that echoes and re-echoes in the prayer that Jesus taught us:

Our Father who art in heaven
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come;
thy will be done;
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation;
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power and the glory,
for ever and ever.


When we feel lost, aimless in our mission, that somehow we are being pulled in different directions, caught in the fears engendered by Covis 19, when we forget who we are, it is essential for us to remember that we are connected to God.

So if we choose to read the Gospel in this way then Jesus' prayer is Good News for us now in the midst of our local, national and global struggle with Corona Virus because if we ask the question, 'where is God in all this?' the answer must be that He is here, with us, each face carries His reflection. 

He is not so distant that He cannot be seen or felt, if we are sensing that there is a missing connection with God, because for example we are having to endure a forced Eucharistic fast, or our Church is locked, or because we cannot easily visit our friends, or we are worrying about the potential loss of loved ones, then we are helped to know and understand that God is here, right now, in the middle of this mess, with us, transforming and restoring the world to the Glory of creation.










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