(John 17:6-18)

Jesus is talking to his disciples about how he is not going to remain in the world much longer. He prays for his disciple’s safety in a world that is going to turn against them. They are words of farewell. Imagine the disciples thinking about all that had happened after Jesus had been crucified. Would they have wondered whether any of it was their fault? Was there something they did not do that they should have done? Would things have turned out differently if they had listened harder, argued less and understood more?

If something does go wrong it is a natural instinct to wonder whether some of it might have been our fault. We internalise the process feeling that it is somehow us that is to blame. If something goes wrong then it is natural to assume that it may be because of something that we have done. We assume that it is all about us.

There is not always an easy way through these types of feelings. It is not as simple as apologising because we are looking for reassurance as well as forgiveness. Even forgiveness is not immediately understood in what is described as a ‘shame’ generation rather than a ‘guilt’ generation.

The intensity of emphasis on self has created an often crippling phenomenon, typically labelled shame. Shame is a failure to live up to an ideal we have of ourselves… Due to continuous change and mobility all the individual has to hang on to is her own sense of self as she changes place, jobs and intimate relationships throughout her life (Pattison) (Mann 1995:5)

There are two basic answers to processing feelings when we feel that we have done something wrong. The first is to recognise that a situation that seems to be out of control might actually have nothing to do with us. The reason that someone has not rung us back is not because they are angry with us. It is simply that they have been busy. The child inside us likes to be the centre of attention and we want a story to be about us. We write ourselves into the narrative of what is going on. Throughout His ministry this one thing Jesus very pointedly did not do. He always set out something as his Father’s glory, not His own. Even though the Lord Jesus Christ was co-equal with the Father (Jn 10:30: I and my Father are one) he would consistently refuse to take the glory for any of the miracles he performed.

The second answer is to take our security and base our sense of identity on a new life in Christ rather than on what we can achieve for ourselves. It is what we decide to be the most important that will shape the person we become – where our treasure is there will our hearts be also (Mt 6:21). The invitation is to build our identity on the name of God. This is both an intimate and a powerful thing to do.

It is an intimate thing because of the intimacy in a name. I can remember the moment as a teenager when I decided that I wanted to be 'Bob' rather than 'Robert'.  I went round all my friends and asked them if they would stop calling me 'Robert'.  It was a leaving home, independence seeking, and adult forming action. Chelsea, the daughter visiting her parents in the film On Golden Pond says ‘whatever I get up to away from home when I go back to see my parents I simply feel fat and horrid’. A part of the process of relationship growing is people making up their own name for you.  If they have their own nickname for you it is an indication of you belonging to that group of people in a way that you do not belong to anyone else. At school I was known as 'bouncing blubber', at a rugby club where I played for a couple of seasons I was rather unoriginally known as the 'Bishop'; in Bermondsey I was know as the 'mad vicar'. 

It is a powerful thing to do. Jesus will protect his disciples and keep them safe by the name given to him by God Jn 17:12). There is power in a name. In the Old Testament the name of God is kept hidden. God appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, by the name of God Almighty; but by the name Jehovah he was not known to them (Ex 6:3). When Moses is confronted by God and told to go to the Egyptians to bring God's people the Israelites out of Egypt what he wants to know of God is - 'What is your name?'

Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'the God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?" God said to Moses, "I am who I am.  This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I am has sent me to you.'" (Exodus 3.13 +14).

Put your trust in God and he will restore you. If this does not come immediately to you then don’t worry. Believing is different to knowing. The disciples knew with certainty that Jesus came from God and they believed that God sent him. The first part of this verse uses the verb ‘know’. The second half of the ‘verse uses ‘ believe’. This suggests that nothing which relates to God can be known other than by faith, but that in faith there is such certainty that it is can be called knowledge.

Remember it is all in a name.

Mann, A. (1995) Atonement for a Sinless Society, Carlisle, Pater Noster