Seventh Sunday after Easter – Year A
MAY 17, 2026
Gospel Lectionary Text
John 17:1-11
17:1 After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you,
17:2 since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.
17:3 And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
17:4 I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do.
17:5 So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.
17:6 I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
17:7 Now they know that everything you have given me is from you;
17:8 for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.
17:9 I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours.
17:10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them.
17:11 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."
Context
Welcome to the Seventh Sunday after Easter. In the church calendar, we’re in that strange in-between space after the Ascension (which was celebrated on Thursday) and before Pentecost. Our Gospel takes us to another moment of waiting, this time before the crucifixion, where we’re given a glimpse of Jesus at prayer.
At first, the language feels dense and repetitive. “Glory” shows up again and again. But not the kind of glory we usually imagine, like bright lights or heavenly spectacle. In John’s Gospel, glory is much simpler, and much more intimate.
Glory is reputation. It’s what someone sees when they look at you and really see you for who you are. It’s about being known. So when Jesus says, “Father, glorify your Son,” he’s not asking for status. He’s asking that, in what’s about to happen — even his death — the truth about who God is might be seen. In seeing the crucified one being lynched and murdered, returning violence with forgiveness, we come to see the true image of God, the Father’s true nature: mercy.
Because there is no gap between them. Jesus isn’t pointing toward God. He is the revelation of God. Which makes his proclamation that, “I have been glorified in them,” all the more dumbfounding.
In me? In us? Yes! We become bearers of that same glory, people in whom God’s life becomes visible. Not because we’ve got it all together, but because we’ve been drawn into a relationship in which being loved and forgiven is what God is all about. No one lies outside this miracle. We are all one. God stakes God’s entire reputation on it.
Next week, at Pentecost, God’s reputation becomes visible to all flesh, which is being caught up in one giant, mutual act of creation. This is God’s glory.
Question
The Greek word for glory is doxa, as in doxology. It might suggest that God is the ultimate narcissist who needs constant praise. But doxa has to do with reputation. As the reputation of God, what does Jesus reveal about the Father when he allows himself to be numbered among the transgressors — the cursed, the shamed, the crucified. How is that God’s glory?
Reflections
Becoming Human Together
By Rev. Sarah Wiles |
I love church. I love singing. I love praying with others. I love when we weep with each other and when we whoop and holler in celebration. I love how the church feeds the hungry, cares for the sick, welcomes the stranger. Really, the only problem with church is all those other Christians. The ones...
Reconciling
By Joel Aguilar |
Shame has a distinct ability to turn us inward, manifesting in unhealthy ways that often result in us turning outward in unhealthy ways. When we experience personal dis-integration, it often leads to communal dis-integration.
Oneing
By Kris Rocke |
In our Lenten journey we are nearing the cross, the place where Jesus will make visible that to which we are blind and change the way we see forever. We will see the excluded one give birth to a new kind of community that is scapegoat free.
Praying Eucharistically - Weekly Homily by James Alison:
Understanding the Bible anew through the Mimetic Theory of René Girard.
Poetry
The Fire of Separation
an excerpt from "Longing for the Beloved"
by Mirabai Starr
There are those, like you, who have felt the Divine move like an ocean inside them, and, incapable of sustaining an unbroken relationship with that vastness, feel they have been banished to the desert when the wave recedes. There is a tribe of holy lovers, who have tasted the glorious sweetness that lies on the other side of yearning, when the boundaries of the separate self momentarily melt into the One, before the cold wind of ordinary consciousness blows through again, and restores your individuality. You would risk everything to rekindle that annihilating fire. You would leave your shoes at the door and run after the cosmic flute player, if only you could hear that music one more time.
Prayer
God of all creation, in you, all things are one. There is nothing that is outside your love, nothing that is not related. In the words of Martin Luther King Jr., "We are tied together in the single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality…" And so Holy Spirit, we yield to the One that is one-ing all of creation, in Christ.
We pray this in the name of the Father who is for us, the Son who is with us, and the Spirit who unites us all in the never-ending dance of Love.
Amen.