Having connections many times is code language for some type of privilege, e.g., getting traffic tickets fixed or having some charge expunged from your record, just to name a couple of many.  Getting off the hook means that someone is allowed a privilege that someone else is not afforded.  More than that, the reverse is gruesome in its reality – human rights are suppressed and denied, human dignity is removed, and people are killed.  This insidious relationship between privilege and marginalization not only falls across class lines in our world’s society’s but is built into the very structure of our society in this country and appears and hides itself simultaneously as systemic racism.

Real relationship requires the acknowledgement and committed effort to not only transform racist behavior, but even more importantly to expose the roots that have dived deep down into the ground of our world and grown dangerous wood whose dry rot kills.  Once exposed, the chance for addressing the deep woundedness can be engaged in an authentic and collective manner.

In today’s Gospel (JN 16: 23B-28),, although Jesus is not talking specifically about the atrocities that result from privilege, classism, racism, sexism and so many other malignancies in our society, he is focusing in on what must be cultivated in order for New Life to have a chance. He is talking about real relationship.   Real relationship is direct and honest, where real needs and authentic interactions can occur.

Jesus said to his disciples:
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you.
Until now you have not asked anything in my name;
ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete…

On that day you will ask in my name,
and I do not tell you that I will ask the Father for you.
For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me
and have come to believe that I came from God.

Jesus is telling his disciples that He is no ‘middle man.’  Inasmuch as he has talked about how inter-related He is in the Father and how they are one, he has also stressed to them that they are one in that same relationship.  Ultimately, this means that what it is that makes all one, that unity itself, is the very foundation of all relationship.  It is that word that has been so overused that it has lost some of its contextual dynamism.  Love!

Jesus has been on the receiving end of the Divine Love of the person he calls Father, and it is that very Love received from the Father that sent him forth into the world to gather up everyone else in that relationship.  To let everyone else also know that it is not just a possibility, it is a mandate, because there is simply no other way to be human!  To be human is to love divinely.  This is why Jesus is telling them that he does not have to “ask the Father” for them.  Love itself directly connects the disciples with the Father just as it directly connects them to Jesus.  This is the Christ.  This is real relationship, where distinction and uniqueness do not oppose unity and convergence.  Indeed, they thrive there together!  Our Tri-une God is the very pattern of Real Love.

When Love is in full force, there is not a question of privilege, only abundance.  These are not conscriptions to be doled out to the worthy, while those who are considered less worthy, or not worthy at all, end up getting pushed out and destroyed.  Love is direct, authentic, scathingly honest (which is another name for compassion), and absolutely responsible toward what we would call justice.  Love is a field that stretches itself out by inviting others into its perimeter, constantly expanding and becoming stronger in its reality!  This is that joy that becomes complete because it is always becoming fuller, abundantly flowing.

The Acts of the Apostles (ACTS 18: 23-28) describe in almost relay-form how this strength and honesty of love holds all the participants accountable within its sturdy yet humble embrace:

Paul left and traveled in orderly sequence
through the Galatian country and Phrygia,
bringing strength to all the disciples…

A Jew named Apollos…had been instructed in the Way of the Lord and,
with ardent spirit, spoke and taught accurately about Jesus,
He began to speak boldly in the synagogue;
but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him,
they took him aside
and explained to him the Way of God more accurately.
And when he wanted to cross to Achaia,
the brothers encouraged him,
and wrote to the disciples…to welcome him.
After his arrival he gave great assistance…
establishing that the Christ is Jesus.

This is not a description of saccharine actions based on purely individual personalities doing their ‘own thing.’ This is not a privileged community that seeks personal gain and self-aggrandizement at the expense of others.  Connection does not come at the cost of communion.  Love does not appear from a sly side-glance and a wink or a back door open only to a few.  Instead, this Way of God is a picture of real direct relatedness that sustains even as it creatively transforms.  This is a creative community that is strengthened by its members, and is growing through no small dosage of accountability.  Many will be imprisoned and executed on account of this Way!

Very clearly we hear that Paul brought strength to the disciples.  We hear how Apollos, who could speak very well, preached boldly and was ‘taken aside’ by Aquila and his wife Priscilla (tent-makers from the City of Corinth) to be emboldened and encouraged even with recommended refinement (“accuracy”).  From this interaction with Priscilla and Aquila, we hear how Apollos was encouraged and was welcomed when he crossed to Achaia.  This dynamic moving Spirit of Love is the real relationship that establishes Christ directly!

Love alone is the path of creative interaction, which is strong and honest enough to face the destructive results of clinging to the delusion of privilege and worthiness and exclusion.  We often say that God is Loving.  Perhaps it may be better to say Loving is God!  For us, this has to be true.  It’s the only way to get to the Heart of God directly, because it is the only real relationship that we can truthfully live within.  This alone can make our joy complete – in Love’s fullness – the Way of God!